We were supposed to have arrived in Singapore at around 3am which would have given us plenty of time to get some sleep and do some exploring. Unfortunately with flight re-scheduling it was around 6am by the time we had arrived and cleared customs. We found a baggage storage at the airport and checked our bags. We only took what we would need for a shower and a change of clothes. This ended up being a genius move, mum’s idea, as we didn’t have a great deal of gear to carry around. We caught a limousine van to our hotel, it turns out we would have been better to take two taxis but we wouldn’t work this out until we were leaving Singapore. Scotty paid for the limo and the accomodation check in was smooth, they were surprised that we only wanted to stay until 12pm, however it was enough time to have a sleep and take a shower so we were at least a little refreshed for our adventure. 

Internet to go

Mum decided she had slept enough by 10am and started out exploring Singapore. Christine and I got up just after 11. Byron couldn’t be raised and in the end we needed reception to call him a number of times to get him out of bed. Once Byron was with us we wandered up to a 7 Eleven to purchase a sim, these guys were out of sims. We were on our way to another 7 Eleven when we passed by a phone shop. These guys were awesome, they sold us two sims, installed and registered them for us. We picked up two sims, one for Byron and one for myself, the plan was $10 for 100gig, pretty good. We downloaded the Ezywheel app and tracked down a couple of bikes. 

Breakfast at Gardens by the bay 

At this point Singapore turned on one of it’s famous tropical rain storms that Dad used to tell me about from his time in Singapore and we were forced to take shelter. We downloaded the grab app and ordered up a ride to Gardens by the bay. We had been expecting to find a myriad of food shops at Gardens by the bay, this turned out not to be the case. Thankfully we met up with mum just after we arrived at the gardens and she had already scoped the joint out, mum was able to point us to a cafe where we were able to get a couple of toasted croissants with cheese and ham. It wasn’t exactly the mounds of Singapore noodles that I had seen in the shop windows in the food shops around our accomodation, but it was delicious and meant that we weren’t hungry. 

Gardens by the bay 

After some food Scotty decided he was going to jump on one of those golf cart train tours of the Gardens so that he didn’t have to walk anymore, his gout had been progressively getting worse over the last few days.  We made our way to the sky deck and found that it was closed due to the intermittent tropical storms. Mum, Christine, Byron and I brought tickets to the flower garden. This was a spectacular dome under which a spectacular array of flowering plants and other species from around the world grew. The gardens were organised based on the countries from where each species originated. Once we were done with the gardens Byron, Christine and I went to find bikes.  Christine was able to use the bikes as I shared my wi fi from my phone which allowed Christine to use the app, provided she didn’t go too far away from me the app continued to work. Mum decided to wander off to see if she could find the China town, we decided that we would meet up there and have some food before heading to the airport. 

China town 

We rode around the gardens for a bit before heading back over to the observation deck. The observation deck was now open, but they were booked solid. We met up with Scotty who had managed to sneak into the observation deck by attaching himself to a random group who had booked. Scotty was done for the day and decided that he was going to make his way back to the airport. We collected our bikes and Byron led the way to China town. We arrived in China town only to find that mum was not in China town, of all the random places that mum did pop up, she would have to choose this one time to be somewhere else, and it was starting to rain. We decided to take shelter in a restaurant and have some food while Byron tried to identify where mum had ended up. We found a great little Sichuan place, we sat on the second floor, ate some food, drank some beer and relaxed. We still hadn’t managed to identify where mum was by the end of the meal. Byron was trying to get her to drop a pin on a map, but she was being elusive. The lack of sleep, food and dehydration were starting to catch up with her. We wandered around China town and grabbed a couple of egg tarts. Being unsuccessful at locating mum, we ordered up a grab and made our way back to the airport. 

Crises averted 

By the time we arrived at the airport mum was starting to get a little stressed. She managed to find a place to charge her phone and gave us a call. I spoke to the bloke who was helping mum and said to put her into a grab, actually I said taxi but it turns out that nobody uses taxis in Singapore, and I would pay for it when she arrived at the airport. This is exactly what the bloke did, not only that mum was able to pay the $20 for the grab with the money that I had given her at the gardens leaving around $30 left over that she could have used to purchase food and water earlier in the day, but we weren’t to know.  

The Cebu mangrove swamp strikes 

We collected our bags from the bag locker and place and then made our way through security to our gate. Christine and I went off to see if we could locate a shower. We eventually found one at the pool. The bloke charged us $19 each for a shower. Ok so generally things in Singapore are cheap, however at the airport, like most airports around the world, everything is expensive. We showered in a hurry and then made our way back to the gate. During the day mum had slowly been developing a rash on her legs, this may have something to do with yesterday’s expedition into the mangrove swamp. Christine thought it best that I try and find an antihistamine. I sprinted through the airport looking for a chemist. I eventually found one down near security. Thankfully they only had one type of antihistamine. I purchased it and and sprinted back to the gate. This had the effect of undoing my $19 shower, and I just made it back in time. Mum was able to take the antihistamine in the gate lounge. 

The return home 

We had learnt valuable lessons from our first flight we had empty bottles with us that we filled in the gate lounge. We also had a stack of snacks that we had bought in Cebu. The flight back was pretty good as we were able to doze on and off for the whole flight. We ate our snacks and stayed hydrated. It was about 8:30 – 9am by the time we cleared customs. Scotty left the airport and went straight to see his doctor about his gout. We wandered down to a cafe in Currumbin where we ate some breakfast and chatted with Nigel who had been walking past as we were sitting down. Mum would chill in Currumbin until her connecting flight arrived, we drove home and rested in preparation for work the next day.