Oh what a day … part 2!

We Grabbed back from the Botanic Garden to the hotel, as we wanted to drop off our purchases – a t-shirt here, a t-shirt there…as well as divest ourselves of our sweaters, as it was obvious we weren’t going to need them.  The weather was clearing up with lovely blue patches showing through, which was great!

 

From the hotel, we Grabbed (sounds SO odd; wonder where/why someone came up with the name…) to the Merlion, the wonderful half-mermaid half-lion statue in the harbor that has come to symbolize Singapore for many people (including me!)  The driver dropped us off in front of the Fullerton Hotel, with instructions to “walk down the steps” – and honestly, it was a perfect drop off point!  We did just as instructed, and came upon the view of the Marina Sands Hotel – “the” big hotel built on reclaimed land in the harbor that has also come to symbolize Singapore, especially since “Crazy Rich Asians” came out.  It truly is something to see!  We’ve got a visit there coming up, so for now were happy just to look across the bay to the very interesting structure.  

 

Strolled along the quay to the Merlion, and he’s looking better than ever too!  Hard to believe that when I first visited Singapore in 1975 that there was basically nothing else around him!  Well, he is definitely not lonely now!  Took some pictures – took some pictures for other people, and I was even included in some guy’s selfie, for some reason!  Oh well!  

The famous Marina Bay Sands hotel and area

 

My favorite Merlion!

From the Merlion we walked across the new Jubilee Bridge, built to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Singapore, and then through a park and down the street – our objective?  The Raffles Hotel!  Took about 15-20 minutes, but there it was – still white and beautiful as I remembered it!  We passed several war memorials along the way, and there are photos of each.  Singapore was a British colony during WWII, and the civilian population suffered horrific casualties and deprivations under the Japanese occupation from their surrender in 1942 until the end of the war in 1945.  

Jubilee Bridge leading to Esplanade Theatre

Quite the skyline with Merlion in foreground

 

War Memorial in the park

War Memorial to the Civilians who died

Wanted to take Debby to the Long Bar, but truly, it was about 3 pm now, and there was a LONG line waiting to get into the LONG Bar, so we said, forget this!  Instead, we headed back downstairs to the ground floor and their courtyard restaurant and inquired about lunch.  Well of course, they had finished lunch service, but they did have “bar snacks” … which were actually fine with us!

 

We were seated at a lovely table, which was nice and cool with a great breeze.  We ordered chicken satay with peanut sauce, egg rolls with a sweet and sour sauce, and some really amazing spicy shrimp to share.  This was washed down with two glasses of a French sauvignon blanc for me, and a Bellini (!) for Debby!  That worked out to be the best possible late lunch!  Plenty of food, and everything was fabulous – although we both agreed the shrimp was the best!  Incredible service, not rushed in the least, and we could sit and enjoy for as long as we wanted!  SO happy we missed the bar, truly!

 

Raffles Hotel!

Beautiful Raffles courtyard

Deb and her Bellini

Spicy shrimp - incredible!

Egg rolls

Yummy chicken satay

Raffles inner courtyard

After we finished, we found the Raffles Hotel gift shop, and I was able to purchase yet another Raffles Hotel tea towel for my collection.  I think this makes the third or fourth one (all different) that I’ve picked up over the years.  Always makes me smile we I use it!

 

From there, we headed (Grabbed) back to the hotel.  I blogged and Debby took a nap, as we needed to be out at the Night Safari at 7:15, so we didn’t have too much time!

 

As it turned out, our Grab driver wasn’t really very good.  First off, he couldn’t manage to find the hotel – which hasn’t been a problem to the other Grab drivers we’ve used, so he was 10-15 minutes late … and then drove, literally, like a bat out of somewhere to get us w-a-y across town.  Arrived about 15 minutes late, but actually in one piece, so that was good!  We were very relieved!

 

Headed to the tram, which is the main activity for the evening, and only had to wait for a few minutes for one to arrive.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible for me to take any photos, as they requested “NO flash photography” because it startles and upsets the animals!  I kept thinking that in the U.S., it wouldn’t matter, because everyone would take them anyway, but here it seems, people actually follow the rules!  It was amazing!  Really great!  So we did the entire safari basically in the dark to see nocturnal animals!

 

It was incredible!  We saw Asian and white tigers, lions, pelicans, flamingos, elephants, hyenas, different kinds of deer, tapirs, rhinoceros, and things that I can’t remember.  What was interesting about some of the animals, though, was that they were so close to us in the tram that we could have reached out and touched them – I mean, they were right “there!”  Amazing!

 

After the long tram ride, we decided to head back, as neither of us had any desire to walk the several paths – again, in the pitch black.  As I say, especially with animals “on the loose” as it were.  Got back to the hotel about 9, after a very full day!

 

So, on to tomorrow!

m

xxx