Woke up at 4.30am bogeyed!! Had a quick shower and some breakfast and then checked out of the hotel and waited for the courtesy us to the train station. The bus came quite quick within about 10 minutes and then once we got to the airport we jumped on the express train, which took about 25 minutes.
Once we got to the airport we cashed in our travel card and got a $50 refund of the deposit. We checked in very smoothly and my bag was 22.5kg and Phil’s was 24.5kg. Luckily, though, on most scheduled we found out that the max is 25kg. The exception is the states so we will both have to drop a few kilos before we head for the U.S.
I managed to get a souvenir from Hong Kong (a picture for the house) and some lucky Chinese sweet (that they give out for New Year) to take home. I did try and talk one of the shop assistants into selling me one of their dragonheads that they use to decorate the shop with but she was having none of it. By the time I’d spent all my leftover Hong Kong dollars, the flight had started boarding.
The meal was chicken curry with noodles (which always seems strange on a morning flight but I’m getting used to it now with these early starts and Asian airlines. After the meal, I watch a film called “Eagle Eye” that was a fairly new release that I hadn’t seen. We didn’t get the offer of wine or anything just fruit juice and Chinese tea. Yeah they will give you a dinner at 10.30am but it’s too early for a wine huh? Lol. About an hour after the film we were starting our descent.
We got through passport control pretty quickly and as we made our way through took the opportunity to go on the free Internet in the airport to update Facebook so that everyone knows I’m making it to the next place lol. By the time we got through to the baggage reclaim area our bags were already there. I popped to the ATM and got some cash out to get me through the first few days as we weren’t sure if it was going to be expensive or not yet. Had to nip back again to get a printout statement as I couldn’t remember how much I had in the account.
Once we were in the arrivals hall we had to wait for two of our friends (also ex- First Choice staff). Sam was coming in from Bangkok in about an hour as she had been doing a conservation project working with Bears and other animals. Also, Rachel was due to fly in from Dubai as she was just starting her trip and had flown from Manchester via Dubai.
Rachel came smiling through after about 45 mins and Sam wasn’t far behind her.
We went down to buy our train tickets to the city where our hotel was and I realised I had lost my Nationwide bankcard. I looked everywhere but I think I may have left if in the machine when I went back to check my balance. Phil seemed to think that if you left it in the machine it took it back after a certain amount of time so hopefully, it won't have been used.
Sam paid for my train ticket and we jumped on the next train to City Hall station, the hotel was about 15 minutes walk from there. You could feel the heat as soon as you stepped outside, the pilot had said it was 90 degrees when we landed (bliss). It will be great not to have to wear 3 or 4 layers of clothes from now on.
As soon as we had checked in I rang Nationwide to stop my card, nothing had been drawn out luckily and they were going to send me a replacement. I have money in another account its just they charge to withdraw so I will probably just pay for stuff on my credit card and pay it off straight away to avoid the fees till my new card comes. Asked Rachel to keep and eye out for it so she can send it to Phil’s friend that we are meeting in New Zealand.
Straight after the sorting my card out me and Phil went up to the roof top swimming pool for a relaxing swim while the girls got themselves sorted in their room. The water wasn’t very hot as the sun had gone in now. We did spot a small sauna too but it must be on a timer, as it seems pretty cool for a sauna. Started chatting to a German woman who got in the pool when we did, but soon wished we hadn’t as she could talk the hind legs of a donkey (and that’s rich coming from me). As soon as we mentioned anywhere we had been, she had been there and more, no wonder her young Chinese fella faked being asleep on the sun lounger and left her with us. Exit Neil stage left “oh Phil look they have a sauna”, closely followed by Phil who entered the sauna with the opening line of “Jesus I thought you could talk” (Charmin lol).
After a quick swim and an ear chewing from aforementioned German woman, we got freshened up and met the girls, for dinner, in the cheap food place just next to our hotel. It had loads of different food vendors in one place and the prices were really good. I got a soup and smoked sliced duck with noodles for £2.75. Had a beer and then we headed over to the Raffles hotel.
We were only about 10 minutes walk from Raffles Hotel, we had passed it on the way to our hotel earlier. We had all agreed to go for a Singapore sling at Raffles when we got here as that was the place the drink was created. We walked in and it was a really relaxing atmosphere in the Long bar (that’s it name not the description). We found a table in the corner and as we sat down we noticed the floor was all crunchy under yer feet. As we looked around we saw around every table and near the bar stools was piles of monkey peanut shells (if that’s what they are called). Each table had a huge bowl of Monkey nuts and it seems the custom was to just throw the shells on the floor (glad I’m not sweeping up lol).
We ordered our drinks (it seemed like everyone was drinking them so it’s probably all tourists that come here). They tasted really nice when they came, I overheard the barman telling someone some of the ingredients and I think he mentions, Gin and cherry brandy, I couldn’t hear all of them. We only had one as we knew they were going to be expensive and we wanted to go down to the harbour for a look around. The bill came and it was 108 Singapore dollars (about £54) which wasn’t as bad as we had thought. I paid on my credit card so I could have the cash off the other guys and not pay bank charges to draw out the cash (always thinking lol). We had a look around the hotel grounds and it was all very relaxing had a Casablanca movie feel to it. There was an outside square chef area where you could watch them cooking people's meals. A band was playing by the pool with a jazz singer kind of woman singing quietly but loud enough to hear (ambiance I think they call it lol). Think “that old devil called love” on low on your stereo and you’re there ;-).
After paying our bill (and picking Phil up off the floor from fainting) we headed down to the harbour where we had heard there was a few bars etc. When we got there a lot of it was sectioned off with a one-way” walkway system so you had to go in one direction around various lit up New Year . They really go all out for New Year and everybody seems to get involved in the religion side of things, praying to the various temples etc for good luck for the coming year.
Stopped off at the 7-11 on the way to the hotel and got some red wine and coke to have a few drinks in the girls room. We only had a couple as we were all goosed after a long day.
Made a quick call home and then hit the sack. G’night !
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