Around The World In 80 Waves

I have a day to amuse myself in the city so decide to take advantage of the double decker bus tours here. As I am being driven around the first thing I noticed was the surprising number of military aircraft in the sky.

Singapore must spend a huge amount of money on its defences to fund the activity I am seeing. Particularly because the city state is only half the size of the Isle of Wight.

The tour takes me past the scene of last night’s crime at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

I am still a tad worse for wear from the skin full that Rick and I had managed to put away the previous night when I drive past the building that looks like a ship that has been deposited on top of three office blocks.

I got off the tour bus to take a stroll around the Botanical Garden in the city that includes the National Orchid Garden.

The plants are amazing but the experience is hotter than hell because no air seems to circulate around the pathways alongside the beautiful flowers.

Here I am doing my best to impersonate David Bellamy alongside one of the orchids, complete with my beard which is coming along nicely. A typical orchid has three sepals and three petals. The sepals are similar in shape but one petal is usually different to the others. It is called the labellum and is the landing spot for pollinating insects.

Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants according to the information at the national garden, and there are more than double the number of birds species, and about four times the number of mammal species. 

Cooling down I took a stroll by the lake in the botanical gardens amusing myself by watch terrapins making love. Very slowly!

There were loads of fish in the water too and everything knows that humans are usually a free feed so they all come to check you out when you do the same in return. It was too hot to hang about though so I headed for the bus once more and back into the city.

At the end of my day I wandered down to the famous Raffles Hotel, named after Sir Stamford Raffles who founded the city, to have a cooling drink in their courtyard.

I managed to resist the urge for a Singapore Sling which was created in the hotel’s Long Bar. I preferred to go for a Tiger beer that had been brewed a few miles down the road.