Singapore

Given that I was routeing through Singapore anyway, I decided to add a couple of days, both to break the journey and to re-visit a place I grew to like last time I was here. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty grim - I mean, who'd expect tropical downpours in a place like this?

Without any real plans, I spent the first morning just wandering around the city, getting used to the heat again and finding my bearings. Last time I was here, I visited Raffles for afternoon tea, but decided to give it a miss this time. The hotel's still worth a look, though:

The interior courtyard is rather splendid.

And then, by accident, I chanced upon Orchard Road Presbyterian Church:

Until the war, this was an outpost of the Church of Scotland and was where my mother was Christened.

From here, I strolled past the Philatelic Museum:

To the Peranakan Museum. The Peranakans are the descendants of the mixed marriages between traders and local Malay women. The museum concentrates on the Chinese Peranakans and tells something of their culture and influence.

The building was originally a Chinese-language school and was later used for the Asian Cultures Museum before being renovated and refitted as the Peranakan Museum.

After visiting the museum, my route took me past Canning Park - the site of numerous fortifications over the centuries but, most recently, was where the British Army was headquartered before the surrender in 1942. This rather splendid building is part of the National Park Service:

The park contains numerous beautifully maintained paths and gardens:

Last time I was here, I rather neglected Chinatown so this time, I made sure to spend some time there:

A similar scene by night:

One of the things Singapore is known for are the numerous hawker centres - essentially large food courts where all manner of food is available from little stalls. This one is the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre:

One particularly iconic dish is Hainanese Chicken Rice - basically boiled rice with boiled chicken with a bowl of chicken broth. It's nicer than it sounds (or looks, for that matter):

Back in the CBD, this is the Anglican Cathedral - St Andrews:

In the evening, I took a boat trip on the Singapore River. We passed this rather remarkable statue:

The boys are frozen in time in the act of jumping into the river.

This is Boat Quay:

One of the original quays where trading took place after Sir Stamford Raffles set up the colony as a free-trading post.

Near the mouth of the river is the statue of a merlion - half lion, half fish:

This amazing, gravity-defying structure is the Marina Bay Sands - a purpose built resort hotel incorporating theatres, a casino, numerous shops (spelt "shoppes" for some reason) and the amazing Skypark. Given the general weather conditions, there didn't seem to be any point in paying to go up to it.

More of this in another post.