My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
This morning after breakfast at the big buffet we walked across the Helix bridge to the Marina Bay Sands.
Part of the breakfast buffetThe Helix bridge
We checked out the ArtScience Museum museum and walked through the Marina Sands Mall. Then we visited the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest and Jurassic World Experience.they are each gigantic air conditioned lush greenhouses. The Flower Dome had a show called Lilytopia. The colors, the smell and the abundance of the flowers was wonderful. The Jurassic Park show in the cloud forest was really cool too.
The Art Science museumAlong the Promenade at Marina BayInside the flower domeInside the Cloud Forest and Jurassic Park Dome the T-Rex was roaring and moving.
Walking back to the hotel it was raining. We didn’t get too wet and the rained cleared the air and cooled things off a bit..
Our package at the Pan Pacific Singapore, where we are staying, includes breakfast. We can eat at the buffet on the third floor, that’s where we ate yesterday, or we can eat breakfast in the lounge on the 38th floor. This morning we ate in the lounge. Breakfast was wonderful again.
Enjoying our breakfast with a view!
Then we walked to the Asian Civilisation Museum. We were very lucky to get there just a few minutes before the English language tour began. The tour was excellent. The whole museum was really interesting but my favorite part was the exhibit about the Tang shipwreck.
The shipwreck is a ship that sank about 830 AD. It is a trading ship that was discovered in 1998 south of Singapore. The ship was carrying 25 tons of cargo including 55,000 Chinese tea bowls. The ship was built in the Middle East. its planks were sewn together using a thin rope made of coconut fibers. There are no metal nails or fasteners. The level of civilization and sophistication is fascinating to me.
Some of the tea bowls from the shipwreck. A model of the shipThis shows how the bowls were packed for shipping.This gold cup was found in the wreck. Our guide pointed out how the detailed figures of men on the cup teach researchers so much about the trading.Our guide explains the Silk Road and the sea trading routes
When we got back to the hotel we had lunch and tea in the lounge. It rained a lot this afternoon so we didn’t go out any more.
Breakfast is included here at the Pan Pacific Hotel where we are staying in Singapore. The breakfast buffet was amazing. They had breakfast food from China, India, Malayasia, Japan, Singapore, Europe and the Americas. We each had a little bit of everything.
Part of the breakfast buffet
We discussed what we wanted to do today with the concierge. I asked him if he thought it would rain and whether he thought we would need our rain coats. He said nobody wears a raincoat in Singapore because you would get very wet from sweat in a raincoat He loaned us an umbrella.
Duke with his umbrella.
We went out for a walk along the Singapore River where some of the old immigrant architecture still remains. It was all absolutely fascinating. But oh my gosh was it hot. 88 degrees and 71% humidity.
Old housing along the river walk.
The Singapore Grand Prix will be Sunday, October 11. Much of where we were walking was along the course. They were busy setting up the course, bleachers and barriers.
The Grand Prix Course
The heat, humidity and sun were oppressive. We stopped at a restaurant along the river walk to rehydrate. Duke had a cold Tiger beer and I had a Lychee beer slushie
Our beer break
The river walk was lined with restaurants. We saw several Mexican – Indian Restatants
The restaurant advertised authentic North Indian & Mexican Cuisine
On the way back to the hotel we saw a Red Junglefowl. According to the bird identification App Merlin, it is the “original chicken”.
The Red Junglefowl.
About 5:30 we set out to find the jazz club where Duke had bought tickets. Singapore has lots of malls, pedestrian bridges and walkways. Using them you can theoretically get to places while mainly staying indoors. It didn’t work for us. We kept getting turned around. The walk should have taken us 19 minutes instead it took 45 minutes!
The concert was fantastic. The sax player, Ashley Hunt is from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
Today was a travel day. We left our hotel in Auckland about 7 am. Our flight left Auckland at 10:30. We flew on Air New Zealand. It was a ten hour flight. We had absolutely wonderful food and service. In fact it might well have been the best flight I have ever had.
Our Air New Zealand Plane
There is a four hour time change between Auckland and Singapore so it’s midnight in Auckland now and only 8 P.M here in Singapore. We are trying to stay up for hopefully a couple more hours
Here we are over Queensland.
It’s very hazy here in Singapore but it looks like a beautiful city.
Today is our last full day in New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly to Singapore. It rained almost all night last night, but we woke up to clearing skies this morning. After a great breakfast at the Grand Mercure Puka Park Resort we checked out and drove to the Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Center. We walked through the bird sanctuary and saw thousands of of fascinating birds. Some of the migrating birds here migrate all the way from Siberia and Alaska.
We saw thousands of birdsIt was a beautiful day and a nice place to walkWhat we call a blind they call a hide. Here’s Duke checking out the birds from the hide.
Tonight we are in Auckland. We plan to leave for the airport about 7 tomorrow morning.
Our hotel in Auckland is very near the water so we went out for a walk.
