Sorry I haven’t been writing on here very much, I’ve been so busy lately that I just haven’t had the time to write a nice long post with lots of pictures!
After I got back from leave I had 2 short days off and then I left for a 5 day trip to Singapore and Melbourne! Once we arrived in Singapore, 4 of us girls (me, Kirsty from England, Kat from Ireland and Aneliya from Bulgaria) went out to get some delicious street food for dinner and decided to go to a place called Sentosa Island the next day. After dinner 2 of the girls went into Chimes bar, right next to our hotel, and I went straight up to bed!
The next morning us girls and Peter, a guy the girls had met the night before (who was also doing the same trip, but on his way home) squeezed into a taxi and drove to Sentosa. We picked up a map of the island and wandered down to the beachy area, stopping every few meters to take pictures!
There were palm trees everywhere and it really felt like we were on holiday on a tropical island!
As we were walking along the beach we saw another very small island which had a couple of little lookout towers on. We walked over (not without a quick stop at the 7/11 that was well placed for some cold drinks!) and found it was the southernmost point of continental Asia. We crossed a wobbly wooden bridge and climbed up to the top of one of the lookout towers. Luckily there were some chairs up there so we stayed enjoying the breeze and chatting for about an hour or so!
Once we had decided it was probably time to start making a move back to the hotel, we walked back down to the beach and just as we were about to cross back over the bridge to the main island, spotted a horizontal palm tree perfect for climbing on and taking pictures!
It was a little less stable than it looked and actually quite scary once you were dangling over the water!
We then headed back to the hotel (did have to run to catch the free shuttle bus!) for a little nap before the night flight to Melbourne.
We arrived in Melbourne early morning and after checking in I headed straight to bed for a good few hours sleep. And then….. my cousin Sarah came to meet me! I packed my bag and we got the tram to her place where Aunty Mary (her mum) and Granny were waiting for us! They had driven all the way down from Canberra (8 hours!) just for the night, which was very lovely.
We sat and had a cup of tea and some biscuits and chatted until it was time for dinner. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant and I had pasta – surprise, surprise!
After dinner Granny and Aunty Mary went back to their hotel and Sarah and I started getting ready for a night out in Melbourne! One of her friends from uni was having a little party so once we were ready we went over there. Later on we ordered a taxi and drove over to a club that was having a 90’s night (YES!) and danced until we were too tired to stand! (Very glad I decided not to wear heels!)
Back at Sarah’s we went to bed for a few hours sleep before meeting Aunty Mary and Granny for breakfast in their hotel. Real bacon!! 😀
We said goodbye to them as they got ready for the long drive back to Canberra and decided to do a bit of shopping in Melbourne Central. We then walked over to Victoria Market which is an absolutely amazing market which has everything you could possibly need, including hundreds of fresh food stalls. We bought some ham (real pork, not turkey or beef ham!) tomatoes, mozzarella and bread for lunch and I got some fresh fruit to take on the plane. Sarah also did most of her grocery shopping and we walked back to hers with our hands full.
After lunch I packed up my stuff and we hopped on the tram back to my hotel. Soon enough it was time to say goodbye and fly back to Singapore. We arrived pretty late and had made up our minds to go for a Singapore Sling (which originated in the Raffles Hotel, just opposite where we stay) but unfortunately it was shut! 🙁 The next morning Kirsty, Kat and I walked over to Bugis Street, a huge undercover kind of street market mostly selling clothes. We all bought a couple of things hoping they would fit as you can’t try anything on there! We then decided it was time for some lunch so we crossed the road to the “food court” and got some fried noodles and sat with the locals. Just as we were finishing we noticed that it had started to rain, and not just a bit of a drizzle, a huge downpour! We waited a while for it to stop a bit and ran over the road back under the cover of the market.
We saw a couple of food stands and decided on some dessert – I got a crepe (which was sliiiiiiightly larger than expected!!) and Kat tried some fried mars bars!
As the Long Bar at the Raffles hotel had been shut the night before we had to try one of their famous cocktails before flying back that night. (we were probably only just legal within the flying time to drink, but shh!)
Of course we all tried the Singapore Sling 🙂
Kirsty and Kat decided to walk over to the Marina Bay Sands hotel but as I had been there on my last trip I just popped over to the supermarket and picked up some really fresh sushi for the flight home and went to get a few hours sleep.
By the time the flight came round we were all ready to get home, it had been a great trip but everyone always looks forward to getting back to Dubai!
