Singapore fun with Karen!

Karen came to play this weekend, and whilst quite a large chunk of me just wanted to spend the weekend under my duvet eating carbs, as soon as I collected her from the airport we embarked on a high speed, whistle-stop tour of Singapore, and it has certainly helped to drag me out of my pit!

            We spent most of our time ticking off the most touristy things that I could think to do. Karen had travelled through Singapore during her gap year, but as she only stopped off for a day or so, and it was when she was living on a shoestring, I wanted to make sure that she saw as much of the action as possible.

            On her list of things to do were: go to Raffles to drink a Singapore Sling, drink cocktails at the top of a tall building and to get a tan. Three very easily achievable things, so I added a bit more onto her list to ensure she really made the most of her two days before shipping her off to Japan.

            When she arrived, I collected her from the airport, rushed her back to the flat to shower and change and then we went out for our first adventure. Street food at a local hawker centre where we tried local specialities of chilli crab, black pepper crab, fresh satay and vegetarian Indian food, followed by drinks at 1-Altitude, the highest alfresco bar in the world!

Getting involved in the chilli crab

Drinks at the highest point possible, with a great view of Marina Bay Sands light show

It was a slight shame that Karen's arrival into Singapore coincided with an influx of haze from Indonesia, where the smoke from their slash-and-burn activities drift over Singapore and get stuck for days on end. It meant that the views from our high cocktail bar were slightly hazy, but we were as high as physically possible, so that was the first tick off Karen's list of three.
               Having finished up at 1-Altitude at around midnight, we headed back to the flat to get as much sleep as possible before our early breakfast plans meant that we had to be up and out of bed by around 8am the next day.
               When I lived in London Karen and I went on more than one trip to London zoo, so it felt only right that she get to take advantage of being in a country with one of the best zoos in the world. I had booked us in for the 9am breakfast with the orang-utan experience, which we then followed up with a full tour of the zoo, which was a pretty amazing way to spend the morning. As it was such a childish trip, we treated ourselves to slushies with fun animal straws before making our way onto the more adult section of the day.

Our new buddies, and our new Asian photo poses 

Kids drinks for the children 

After the zoo we headed to the Singapore Botanical Gardens for a wander through the perfectly kept parks and forests, and a nosey around the orchid gardens too. I've never really been that into orchids, but seeing them growing almost as though they are in the wild is always pretty amazing, and it makes them a much more impressive plant compared to the potted ones that you get back in the UK.

Orchid Garden 

 For some reason, once we had done one garden we felt like we had to do another, so following a quick lunch at my favourite PS Cafe we then headed to the Gardens by the Bay, which not only houses the huge Super Trees (man made constructions covered in growing plants and flowers), but also the two huge flower domes, where we made the most of the strong air-conditioning units to see breath a little easier whilst wandering.

The view from the Flower Dome,

 Having had our fill of flowers and gardens, we made our way to the top of the Swisshotel for a few happy hour cocktails, before grabbing a Singapore Sling at Raffles (number two on Karen's list) and then heading out for a quick dim sum dinner near the flat. Following our early start and busy day in the sun, by 10pm we were back at the flat, showered and in our PJs, ready to watch Jurassic Park whilst drinking tea. Not the most eventual end to the day, but in our defence it had been a very long day!

Happy hour at the Swisshotel 

 Fully recovered and with only one day left to play, Sunday was a much more relaxed day than Saturday. Having left Karen to sleep through until 10, once we were up and showered we took a quick look around Tekka wet market, where I forced Karen to try the local stinky speciality, Durian, before we jumped in a taxi and headed to Sentosa for breakfast on the beach and a morning of mooching.

Durian preparations at Tekka

 After an egg-heavy breakfast we spent a good hour going up and down the Sentosa hill on the street luge. You get a chair lift to the top of the hill and then you skate down again on a very simple go-kart type luge. We did this three times and were very tempted to get another three ride pass, but decided that as the day was hotting up and the queues were getting longer it was maybe time to head for a dip in the sea. This just about ticked the third item off the list (getting a sun tan), as we spent a good hour cooling off in the sea and indulging in just one, very delicious ice-cream!

Safety first when attempting to street luge

Sunny weather down on Sentosa

Having completed all the main aims of her trip, we ended Sunday on a very lazy note. From Sentosa we made our way back into town for a quick bite of local food before mooching by the pool at the flat, getting Karen all packed up and ready for the rest of her trip and then a quick dinner out on Arab Street.  Then it was time for bed, ready for the 5:30 wake up call on Monday to get Karen into a taxi, and me into a gym to try and undo some of the weekend's bad behaviour.