Next Stop - Singapore

Whilst we are now blogging about 15 days behind reality, this is the next instalment 

We flew into Singapore from Bali on Jetstar, a quick 2 hour flight.  Cases bulging with local purchases, we had to buy more weight on the flight partly because I'm carrying my UK lined raincoat back to Blighty after 22 years of non-use in Australia!

We had planned to spend these five days in Singapore catching up with friends made back in the 80's when we lived there. In fact, Tom and Robin were both born here in Singapore. 

Bianca and Jane in Singapore

We were staying with Bianca P who now runs just the best B&B in Singapore for anyone contemplating a visit.  However the first day we were there was actually spent over the border in the new Pinewood studios near Johor Bahru, where Jo C-B was working on the Marco Polo TV series.  Jo had been to stay with us in Bali a few weeks ago, as mentioned in a previous blog.

Our day out at the studio was quite a trip.  We set off early with 5 of us in Bianca's car going west over the new Tuas connection between Singapore and Malaysia.  The other 3 were Aussie tourists staying with Bianca who came along for the ride to the new area called Iskandar that the studio and film lots were in.

The Iskandar is really a new town development that includes the studios as well as government offices, tourism venues (Legoland!)  and hotels and many thousands of residential houses and apartments.  It will be huge when completed and is only about 1 hours from central Singapore.  Not including the queues at the immigration control points that is.  With them it took us nearly 3 hours to get there, including a 30 minute diversion to top up the petrol tank in Singapore as there is a $500 fine if you leave with less than a 3/4 tank - petrol is half price in Malaysia!

There were no photos allowed on the film sets, so not much to show you all from our day out - but the sets were wonderful recreations of Mongol and Chinese palaces in the 13th Century in timber and glass fibre!

Jane and Jo outside Studio 1.

And the outdoor sets of the Yurts and peasant villages were very realistic, all dirt and squalor.   All very authentic looking.

They are shooting the whole thing in HD Digital format so Jo explained that they release smoke on to the indoor sets to give everything a mysterious haze. Unfortunatly it also makes everyone cough and wheeze! So sorry you will have to wait for the series on TV later this year to see what we saw!

We were entertained royally by old friends.  We enjoyed a wonderful dim sum "Sunday lunch" with Avril and her family one day and another lunch with John S at the old Goodwood Park hotel, which was still there in Scotts Road, virtually unchanged after 30 years to my eye.  As ever the food in Singapore is great, and the waistlines are expanding as there is little time for exercising in these few days, beyond walking around the latest shopping centres, Icon was the new one this time.

Awesome mobile art installation at the Airport.  (video wouldn't work-boo hoo)

And that is the thing about Singapore, it changes every time you go there, more buildings in the CBD and everywhere else.  New or refurbished airport terminals. new highways, and ever expanding MRT system.  We were told they are now building a whole new Port further west on reclaimed land so they can relocate the current container port at Jurong out and redevelop that waterfront land for residential and commercial use, as it is so close to the CBD.   

Marina on Sentosa

Giving the bride a lift and some fatherly advice.

Avril also took us on a tour of Sentosa Island, just on the south side of Singapore, a stones throw from the new CBD area one morning, via a new 6 lane road tunnel under the harbour and a bridge to the island.  I remember Sentosa as a lazy semi-tourist island with a few WW2 and historical sites and lots of old buildings.

I also was briefly involved here back in the days I was GM of a company designing and building big aquariums for tourist, as there is one on Sentosa, but I have not been here for years.

 It has been transformed in the last 20 years into a tourist resort paradise and with a number of very expensive canal waterfront homes and a boating marina full of flashy looking boats.

At one hotel on Sentosa we stumbled on the wedding party taking photos, so we got into the act!

A new highlight for us were the Gardens on the Bay.  This huge new installation near the massive Marina Bay Sands Casino building (the one with the boat on the roof! - see post of 3 Dec 2011 for pictures!) is a garden that includes two huge domes in it. Inside each dome is a controlled environment, one is Mediterranean, one is "in the clouds".

Inside the Mediterranean dome.

This was really well executed.  Jane and I spent hours wandering around inside them.  Much better climate inside than outside in the real tropical Singapore!

A green wall in cloud lands.

Yes, Singapore never ceases to amaze and bemuse.  The culture of the place is underpinned by the Chinese but it is a great mixture of Malay and Indian and European too.  Pragmatic about their history and practical about their future,  I love the way they just get on and do what is necessary to improve the city and infrastructure.

Unfortunately Jane did have a bit of a cold the entire time we were in Singapore. It started in Bali and would not go away, and the humidity probably made it linger longer. The dry desert dust of Dubai eventually dried it up , but that is the next post...........