Australia to Singapore

We just had one quick overnight in Sydney. The flight we had to go to Singapore was at 3.45pm, so just one morning really. We walked to the Opera House – one of the icons that never fails to catch my attention. I can walk around this building time and time again. I wanted to get a guided walking tour around the Rocks area – something I didn’t manage to fit in last time in I was here – but the timing just didn’t work out. Instead, we bought a little guide book that gave us a self guided walk and we did about three quarters of it. It is a very historical part of Sydney, and I am sorry that we couldn’t get guide to elaborate on the areas with stories and facts that would have brought it more to life. But it was good in the short time we had anyway. As usual, we bought our presents at the airport – and Paul bought a new hat!




We flew to Singapore with Lenny Henry, sort of. If I had been Annette I would have had him telling me his life story, but being just me I just smiled when I went past. I am sure he gets loads of random people annoying him. But he did annoy Paul. He say behind him, and kept kicking his seat – even in first class you can feel people kicking your seat. He had a friend in business class that came and chatted for a couple of hours, and Paul could hear them over his ear phones. He is rather tall though – he didn’t have to go on tip toes to get his hand luggage out of the overhead locker. He had apparently been on a sell out tour of Australia – I googled it! This flight didn’t quite come up to the standard we had got used to – none of the entertainment systems worked in the whole aircraft, so they had to put a few films on a loop. No movies on demand! This was the only long flight we had that wasn’t a night flight – typical!



We had a transfer arranged with the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, so had a little man waiting for us to take us the twenty odd minutes from the airport to the hotel. It was 11pm when we got there, 1pm on our body clocks. We had a delightful lady waiting for us at the Valley Wing entrance, who immediately took us to our room and completed the check in there. Perfect! We were given a beautiful orchid that will hopefully make it all the way back to the UK. The room is stunning – there is even a TV in the bath room! The curtains are opened and closed with the push of a button – Paul was not in a good mood but there wasn’t a button to close him down! The flight had been a bit bumpy as well as getting his seat kicked, and the transfer man played the radio too loud – and it wasn’t his type of music!



The morning came, and so did the clouds. We had a beautiful, serene, fantastic breakfast in the Summit Room – the staff here really do go the extra mile. It started to drizzle, and then rain, and then pour. By the time we got back to our room it was monsoon weather. Bearing in mind that I hadn’t got any waterproofs, it was a bit difficult to decide what to do. There is a complimentary shuttle bus that takes you to the MRT station on Orchard Road once an hour, and from there we could find the hop on hop off bus that we thought would be a good idea. It was still coming down in buckets as we left. The bus dropped us off virtually in the middle of Orchard Road. I know this place is known for its shopping, but I really didn’t expect what we found. All the shopping was in malls, and all was under cover. Which was the order of the day for that moment. Paul went to take a picture of the torrents of water coming off the roofs but his camera card said it was full, so we decided to do some shopping and get a new one,



We went into the first mall that we came to, and passed shop upon shop of designer clothes. At the end was a department store that sold electronics. We had to go in through handbags – I had never seen as many handbags in one place. He went up to the fifth floor to get a camera card, and I just wandered round the handbag department. My purse broke a few months ago, and I spent ages looking for a new one, as the selection at home was pretty poor. There were racks upon racks of purses here. I could have spent the whole day here – Paul came back and said that the electronics department is as good as the handbag department.



It was still raining really hard. He had found out that the Lucky Plaza Mall was good for cameras – each of the malls seem to have a theme, although I think you can probably get a little of something in all of them. This was just across the road from where we were – pedestrians crossed via an underpass so we didn’t even have to get wet crossing the road. I had been looking for a new lens for my camera before we came out, but the zoom that I wanted was too heavy to carry so stuck with what I already had. We came across a small booth type shop that stocked Nikon lenses, so went in. This is where we met Joe – the salesman – who knew everything there is to know about Nikon lenses (I hope!). He showed us a small 55-300 lens – at the moment my lens goes up to 200 – that was only as big as the one I had on the camera now. But, I really wanted more zoom than an extra 100, so he pulled out a lens that triples the zoom – ie 900. Paul had not heard of it – and they both pontificated about things that were going over my head. We took some photos, put them on his computer to see the quality, but as it was raining it was hard to tell.



We hummed and harred for probably over an hour, taking photos, looking at them on the computer, googling reviews on the lens etc etc. I was not sure, so left it up to Paul, who wasn’t sure either. He could probably see the sale walking out the door, so did us a really good price – including filters, a new bag and a converter so it can fit on Harriet’s camera as well. Done! The rain was then beginning to stop – Joe said that it wouldn’t rain anymore today. “In Singapore it only rains once a day, and for an hour. Today was a bit longer, but that is unusual”. I wondered if he was right. I decided that if he was right about that, he would be right about the camera lens. Time will tell. He pointed us in the right direction for the hop on hop off bus, so off we went with our purchases.



We bought tickets for the bus – 48 hours for $39 Singapore each (around £20) that includes three different routes and a river cruise. Not bad. The bus came shortly afterwards, and we went upstairs and sat on wet seats. I was sure we would dry off, because “it wasn’t going to rain again today”! The first route we took was the City route, that took us down Orchard Road, around the Singapore Flyer (similar to the London Eye) around the Marina, through the skyscraper business and commercial districts and then up to the Botanical Gardens. We got off here, and walked around the gardens. There was a huge Orchid Garden that we walked around – I have never seen as many different orchids in as many different colours and shapes and sizes. It was absolutely beautiful. We walked back through the gardens to the bus stop, and got on for one stop which dropped us a ten minute walk back to the hotel. Time to shower and change, and just about right for the complimentary cocktails and canapés. There was so much choice, that we decided to use that as our evening meal (skinflints)! We have eaten quite royally on this trip, so it is time to start being sensible again.



We then decided to go for a Singapore Sling in Raffles – it just had to be done. The hop on hop off bus could take us there – but it didn’t because we just watched the last one pull away before we got there. It had nothing to do with Paul turning the wrong way out of the hotel first of all, of course! We waited for half an hour or so, realised there wasn’t another one so got a taxi. Around £5 – don’t know why we waited so long for the bus!



We got to the Raffles Hotel, but couldn’t go in through the main entrance – that is for hotel residents only. Can’t blame them I suppose – they would have a myriad of tourists traipsing through the lobby all day long if it was open to all and sundry. We were directed around the side, through the Raffles Courtyard of shops to the Long Bar, which is up on the second floor. We were directed to a table, where I promptly slipped and ended up on the floor. There were empty peanut shells everywhere on the floor – it is supposedly in keeping with how it was in the old days. After being hauled up – that made everyone in the bar stop talking and look – I ordered my Singapore Sling at $26 + 10% service charge. At £15ish, I had just the one. Paul pushed the boat out and had a beer – plus added to the growing pile of peanut shells on the floor. Singapore Slings were definitely the order of the day – the barman stacked up the glasses time and time again on the bar. It was an experience not to be missed though. We treated ourselves to another taxi to get home.



The next day when we were having breakfast it started to rain again. “Oh good” I said, hoping that Joe was correct in his analogy that it rained once a day only for an hour. Let’s get it over with so by the time we would be ready to go out, it would have stopped. And it did! We walked down to the bus stop and got on the City route again until the hub at Suntec City Shopping Mall. This one comprises five huge skyscraper towers – does anyone ever manage to get to every shop in town? We then changed to the Heritage Route, which took us through Little India, Chinatown, as well as a couple of areas we had already been to. We got off at the Marina, and went to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel – the iconic new hotel with three large towers and the ship shape resting on the top of all three. We bought a ticket to get to the 56th floor, and up in the lift we went fairly quickly. The views from the top were amazing over the whole of Singapore and even over to Malaysia. The weather was dry, but there were still huge dark clouds hovering overhead, which made all the pictures quite grey unfortunately. But it was worth the trip up to look at the vastness of the city. The middle of the “ship” was the swimming pool for the residents of the hotel. Wonder if it is the highest swimming pool in the world?



We then walked over to the Marina Bay Shopping Mall (another one!) and through to the Singapore River and the stop for the River Cruise. The sun then came out, and it was really hot. The river trip took just under an hour, and like the hop on hop off bus, you could hop on and hop off this as well. We didn’t, as we were running out of time, but the cruise itself was very sedate and we could see the other sides of buildings that we had seen on the bus.



We got on the bus again, and the last stop we made was to Fort Canning Park, and The Battle Box. This is an underground cave that was made into the forces headquarters for World War II. It has been made into a commentary of the last couple of days before the Japanese occupied Singapore in 1942. There was a video of the news reels for the few months leading up to the Japanese invasion to give you the background. Each of the underground rooms had the equipment in for sending the morse code messages, and how the information was relayed from the different areas and to and from each General and his troops. This information was then assimilated on a large map of the area which plotted the Japanese aircraft and ground troops. Would have been a lot easier with mobile phones!



We then went back to the hotel for cocktails and canapés before heading out to the airport for our final flight home. We just got a taxi this time - $30. Bargain. Last time in the First Class Lounge, last time to be given priority to board the aircraft and for them to greet you by name. I could easily get used to this. The plane was a new plane – excellent I thought. Wrong. The seats were not made for short people like me. The seats on this plane did not have any foot rests – they were tucked in the far corner and converted to a seat if you had anyone wanted to come and chat with you. But I couldn’t reach. The light on the chair instead of being a spotlight was on the chair upright, and had a lamp shade on it which completely blocked my view out of the

window. I did have another window, but that was full of condensation for the whole trip. Amazing how picky you can get – and how I will wish for a condensed window next time I am flying in economy.



Back to the UK – the end of an amazing trip. The IRIS scanner didn’t work and the baggage was delayed because of problems getting it off the plane.

Welcome home!

Australia - Heron Island

We flew from Brisbane to Gladstone for our week on Heron Island with my daughter, her partner, the twelve year old daughter of her ex husband and her six year old daughter. Complicated! This was just over an hours flight, on a fairly small de Havilland plane. When we arrived at Gladstone, a tiny little airport on the Queensland coast, we had a transfer bus to the port, and then a launch over to Heron. The Heron Islander is a catamaran, that holds probably just over one hundred people. Today, it was less than half full. This is the only way to get over to the island, apart from a helicopter transfer. Heron Island time is an hour ahead of Queensland time, so watches had to be put forward one hour.



Unfortunately, the good weather we had been experiencing up to now had not followed us. The clouds got heavier and greyer, and by the time we boarded the boat at 11.30am it was looking and feeling very rough. The wind had got up to 30 knots per hour. To start with, the rocking of the launch was a bit of fun. Slowly but surely nearly all of the passengers succumbed to having to aim carefully into the little white sick bags that were scattered liberally around the place. I think there was probably three or four people that weren’t ill, and by the time we reached the island just under two hours later, there were a few white and green faces. Didn’t affect me at all much to Paul’s disgust! The staff on the ship were very good, mainly going round to all the tables collecting full bags and disposing of them. If I can say one good thing, there were loads of sick bags, so at least if you were ill it was quickly taken from you so that you didn’t have to look and smell what you had that morning for breakfast! The weather was absolutely appalling. When we left the launch, the rain was lashing down and the wind was howling. This was not what I had ordered for our week of relaxation!



We were shown into the Wistari Room – which was used in wet weather for the showing of films as they had a large screen. We had a lovely cold drink – could have done with a hot chocolate at this point though – before going to the Shearwater Restaurant for a late lunch. We all tucked into the buffet lunch – most had recovered from the boat trauma quite quickly – except Paul. He really did suffer on the way over. At the first sign of the rough weather he took himself out on deck, and stayed there for the whole two hours. When we arrived, we did wonder if he was still going to be there, as the boat had lurched from side to side it was hard to see how anyone could still be standing. But he was, albeit dripping from head to foot, and with a look that said “you know I don’t travel well”. Not my fault! He took himself immediately to the room to have a hot shower and change out of his soaking clothes and to generally feel sorry for himself. He soon got over it!



The week at Heron was certainly a week of two halves. From the Sunday to the Thursday lunchtime it was awful weather. Cold, wet and windy. It was so windy that the dive boat didn’t go out, and when it did, the visibility was so poor and the sea so rough it wasn’t enjoyable. I didn’t partake until Wednesday morning when the wind had dropped a little. There are regular information walks each day – Bird Walk, Reef Walk, Research Station Walk, Island Walk and Star Gazing – the latter not happening due to the lack of stars! Each lasts around an hour, and has a guide telling all about the subject. We did the Bird Walk on the first day – during a spell of drier weather. The bird life on the island may not be extensively varied, but is certainly extensive. The amount of Shearwaters and Egrets alone are huge. There was always three or four outside of our house every morning, or walking around the bar or other areas. And very tame as well. They do like pinching your food or drink if you don’t have your wits about you.



There is also a very extensive Research Station on the island. It was the very first to be set up in this area many years ago, but burned down a few years ago and was rebuilt with state of the art equipment. It houses around ten full time staff, with up to one hundred students or other research bodies at a time on various projects. Their work on turtles and global warming of the seas is extremely valuable. With the Research Station walk, we were only walked around the outside of the buildings, but it was really interesting to hear about what they do there. They are on Queensland time, so half of this tiny little island is out of kilter with the other half by an hour!



The Island Walk consisted of walking half way around the island by way of the beach, and then cutting back though the forest. It was explained that the island was fairly unique in that it was never part of the mainland, but was a totally coral cay. Over the years, the way that the teardrop shaped reef has formed the island is by the wind and tides putting all of the corals into the small bit of the teardrop. Over thousands of years, the island has been building up very slowly, until it is as it is now. A limited amount of vegetation can grow on islands such as these – but looking at this island now it is very well established. Only the hardiest of plants and trees can withstand the low levels of nutrients in the soil, and these are the ones that have taken root. Very interesting. We also learned that the island had its own desalination plant that turned sea water into drinking water, as it uses over 100,000 litres of water a day to run the resort.



Georgina, my six year old granddaughter, joined the Junior Rangers programme. This was held between 11am and 12am each day, as well as 3.30pm to 5pm. Each session was on a different subject, learning all about the island, its fish, birds, plant life as well as other general topics. Each subject was in a workbook, which, when finished, meant that she got her badge. If she completed all of the subjects, which she did, she got her Junior Rangers badge. She did really well, and is now officially a Heron Island Junior Ranger. What a good idea – it is educational and fun. All of the guides on this and all of the walks are marine biologists with an extensive knowledge of the island and its workings.



The reef, as I explained before, goes all around the island, but is closer in some points than others. The tide is about 2 metres in height between low and high tide, and on the low tide the water is only a maximum of knee high for about half a mile in parts of the island. This is when you can do the Reef Walk. The guide will point out all of the creatures that can be seen that live on the reef, as well as the fish that swim around here. It is not a game of chance – the reef is so full of living creatures it is like looking in a fish tank. There are star fish and sea cucumbers everywhere you look. Take a step, and there is one type of fish or another. It is absolutely amazing. At high tide, this is when snorkelling takes over. And the fish then are in their thousands. All different types, from the tiniest to large rays and reef sharks. It isn’t an odd occasion that you will see the larger fish either – just walking along the beach at high tide you can see the shapes of the rays swimming just metres from the shore, or a sharks fin patrolling the area with thousands of small fish jumping out of the water so they don’t become dinner!



By Wednesday I had taken the decision to start diving – Paul had decided to see if I came back alive before he made that bold move though! I made my first dive on a cloudy, but not too windy morning. The visibility could have been better, but it wasn’t too bad. The underwater world that came into view though was worth it. The coral was fantastic and the fish were so plentiful and varied. I saw the biggest turtle that I have ever seen – it was huge. Around two metres in length I would say – but who knows, my judgement on size might be a bit out. I really must swat up on my fish species, because I know what I see but have no idea what they are called. I know the Nemo clown fish, but not a lot else. Take my word for it – this is one of the best places in the world that I have dived in.



With that knowledge, Paul decided that he would have a go too. So on Thursday we both dived. We saw a fairly large shark, and then saw a school of four rays majestically swimming past. I can’t put into words how magical that actually feels. He was glad that he “took the plunge” – excuse the pun – as he agreed that it was fantastic diving. He had dived in Cairns on a previous trip, and said that this was so much better in comparison.



Thursday was the start of the second half of the week – in more ways than one. The first thing that happened was that the desalination plant broke down. When we got back from the mornings dive at 12.45pm, we were told that there was no water on the island, and we were free to leave should we choose to. The launch was leaving at 2.00pm, so not a lot of chance of that. Also, where would we stay? With the breakdown of the plant also came the arrival of the sun. Everything looked so much more idyllic with the sun shining on it. Even if we had just dived and got a lovely salt water layer on our skin and no way of getting rid of it. No water to shower, wash, or flush the toilets in the public toilets.



We had a conference about staying or going the next day, and decided that we would stick it out. Unfortunately, the water plant was broken until at least Saturday. Memories of our Nepal trip and no showers came to mind – at least everyone was in the same boat here as well. We were issued with bottled water to clean our teeth with – and I had a few wipes that would suffice for washing. I know a few teenagers that would relish the fact that they didn’t have to wash! On Thursday evening the toilet in our house gave up the ghost – even though the toilets were supposed to be on a different system so that they could keep going with sea water being pumped into them. Paul, as always the boy scout, utilised the waster paper bin and made regular journeys to the sea to fill it up to flush the toilet. OK when the tide was in, but a bit of a trek when it was out – and quite hazardous at night if the tide was out as there were rocks and coral to contend with before getting to the wet stuff.



The island was not taking any new arrivals at this point, as they couldn’t provide a full restaurant service, as they couldn’t do any washing up. Any food that used water in the preparation was either very limited or not on offer. We had plastic knives and forks to eat with, and were “issued” with one plate per person. The food did get very repetitive. To be honest, the food was very average to start with compared to what we had been used to. I think that this is probably a little unfair, as the food we had for the previous three and half weeks was exceptional, but I wonder if I would have thought that anyway. No laundry could be done either, so we got no clean sheets or towels – by Saturday they were nearly standing up on their own! The public toilets closed, as they were disgusting.



The staff seemed to be mainly young people with no real direction. They were all friendly enough, but seemed to lack initiative to give a good service. Many of them had only been on the island for a few weeks, or even days, and there didn’t seem to be a maitre d’ to take charge. That wouldn’t have happened if Gabor had been here. Things would be running like clockwork!



The sun, once it had shown itself, did not go away. The whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday was absolutely perfect weather. It was probably in the high twenties centigrade, with the wind dropping to a whisper. Paul had been checking the wind speeds every day – he was determined not to go back on the launch if the weather was in any way going to be inclement. The forecast for Sunday was 10 knots, and another beautiful sunny day, so decided to risk it by sea. With the option to change to helicopter should anything not happen as it was supposed to!



The island took on a whole new look with the changed weather. Our loungers from our balcony were moved to the beach – we had a wooden walkway from our balcony to the beach which was under tree canopy. It was an absolutely ideal spot. Each morning I would take my camera and sit on the lounger and take photos of all the wildlife – birds and fish, both were plentiful. It was also so peaceful. I think the island was running at about 37% occupancy, as many had decided to leave and no new arrivals had come since Wednesday. Perfect! Had we been able to shower, had clean linen and good food,



On Saturday after our last dive we took a walk all around the island by beach. If we had walked briskly I think it would have probably taken us about twenty minutes. We wandered, looking at all the rays and sharks – and a creature that had a sharks face and a rays middle and back. Weird. There were heaps of them. Then a sharks fin came up, and chased big fish that were chasing little fish and the whole ocean came alive. What an experience to see all of this just by taking a walk. When we got three quarters of the way around the island, we came across an Australian couple that was sitting and having a beer. It turns out that he was the Maintenance Manager on the island, so Paul had to get the full ins and outs of how the desalination plant works, and how it went wrong. Whilst this was going on, just the other side of the reef there was some blowing of water, and a whole line of humpback whales went past. We must have been watching for about twenty minutes – they just kept coming. There is another reef further out than the Heron Island reef, and the two reefs form a funnel shape between islands. The annual migration of whales takes place every year between June and September, and around 40,000 whales pass the island. Wow! What a sight.



All in all this island has the potential to be the most idyllic spot in the world. No TV’s, no internet access and no phone signal. Nothing to disturb a few days of complete getting away from it all. The resort leaves a little to be desired – it has changed hands in the last year or so, so maybe they haven’t quite got their act together yet. But I would have no hesitation in coming back. The island itself is a perfect piece of paradise.

Sunday was the day we were due to leave. The weather was perfect, so Paul decided that he would stick with the launch. The launch arrived at 2.30pm, and we duly left at 3.00pm. The two crossings couldn’t have been more different. As we were leaving the island, we had two lots of whales passing by our side. The two hour crossing was as calm as calm. Hardly a ripple on the sea. We sat on the outside deck for the whole crossing – the downside to that was that it looked like I still had my sunglasses on even after I had taken them off. My face got a teeny weeny bit burned. We then got the shuttle bus from the port back to the airport for our flight to Brisbane and then on to Sydney for our last night in Australia. We said goodbye to Fran and her family in Brisbane, and then waited for our delayed flight to Sydney. Apparently the whole Qantas reservation system had crashed earlier on in the day which caused delays throughout the whole day. It wasn’t too bad – just an hour. But that did mean we didn’t arrived into Sydney until 10.30pm and got to the hotel at 11.30pm. Late night for me!