SINGAPORE & HOME
We arrive in Singapore to a much cooler less humid atmosphere and way less traffic and people. Nice hotel by the airport, wander round the local shopping centre and bed, ready for St Patrick's Day on the final Friday. Pure luck we hit Paddy's Day but a real bonus.
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Wander onto into downtown Singapore and find the Funan Centre by chance, amazing, like a exhibition of the best and the latest in every technical field from computers, to TV's, to Cameras. to Musical Instruments and more. I could have forsworn Guinness and stayed there for the evening - but Sara had other ideas.
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Her first port of call was to eat a crab. They don't cook crabs in Bali and Sara is a Crabophile. Sou'wester on, gloves on, crab juice everywhere as she enjoyed our most expensive meal of the trip.
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Then we set off down to 'Pub Street' which lives up to it's name, just off Boat Quay. Our previous visit to Singapore was Chinese New Year. All Chinese stay in on their New Year, call that a celebration? The Irish (I am 21% Irish) go OUT OUT on St Patrick's Day. Every last one of them, they know how to celebrate properly.
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So celebrate we did!!!!!
As you can see a good time was had by all! The plan NOT to have a hangover for the 22 hour trip home (including swapping planes in Frankfurt) went right out the window.
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We were within a whisker of missing the last train home,but squeezed in with us being the only ones in Paddy's Day rig, guess the others stayed out until the first train in the morning. Certainly looked that way.
So up in the morning, properly hung over, worst way to start a long flight, but we made the best of it.
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Sara always hangs the wattle of a large Rooster off her backpack, it's a tradition of hers. You may think it is a neck cushion, but it can't be as she never uses it as such, so it has to be a massive good luck charm I'm guessing.
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Much praise to Singapore Airlines who managed to interline our luggage all the way to London, despite the fact we had purchased the two legs completely independently online.
With the possibility of missing our connection resolved we then did our best to enjoy the luxury of our business class pod all the way home.
Great trip, eight weeks, three hire cars, four countries, clearing customs seven times, ten flights, twenty hotels, 58 dinners, 800 miles driven. Not ONE mistake. Not ONE cross word between us.
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Worst we had was a five hour delay due to a storm. All credit goes to Google, Bookings.com and Skyscanner!
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Massive credit also goes to my travelling partner, Sara. It is quite hard work doing a holiday of this style, nothing booked in advance, taking it all as it comes, bookings made at the last minute. Sara is the perfect travel partner, and an amazing researcher of hotels and venues. Mostly done at 6.00 am lying in bed while I am still in the land of nod.
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We did it all with about 15kg of luggage each (which got smaller as we traveled by dint of chucking stuff that had been packed unnecessarily). We also did it on budget. For those that care it cost us about £120 a day each (excluding only the main flight LHR to SING) and that budget paid for everything - hotels, food, cars, travel, entertainment. The works.
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So home safe! Now to start planning next year.
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If you have read this far I hope it's not been too boring. I do write it mainly for my own enjoyment and as an aid to my memory in years to come. If it has even mildly entertained you then that is a bonus!
The massive added bonus is that providing you can answer this one question, then I will not need to tell you ANY stories of our travels. WHICH COUNTRY DID WE ADD IN AT THE LAST MINUTE? Answer: The Philippines. See, easy! Now we can just talk about the weather and the lack of salads in the supermarket, much better.
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