Hi all,
We walked to Lau Pa Sat hawker market last night and each had some yummy food
and a juice. Then we walked to Gardens by the Bay for the 7.45pm light show. It
was excellent. Beautiful coloured lights coordinated to some music representing
Asian culture across the decades. We loved it.
Afterwards, we walked through the Marina Bay Sands to the Marina Bay. We
enjoyed the glittering lights of the buildings and the Merlion. We did a big
loop and walked past the Merlion again, before passing through Boat Quay and
getting back to our apartment. It was a big walk but an enjoyable one.
We slept OK. Annoyingly there has been overnight construction work our entire
trip that has been waking us up at all hours. But I turned the air con fan
noise up last night to cover it and it seemed to work ok.
This morning our first stop was to ATA Medical Clinic for our pre departure PCR
test to get back into Australia. This was our ninth and final test related to
this trip. I think we are the most negative testing Melbournians going around
at the moment, considering the government have buggered up testing access at
home. It was a very quick and efficient process, the clinic was a great
recommendation by my friend Kate who came here two weeks ago.
We then caught a taxi to the zoo, and spent the next nearly five hours enjoying
the animals here. Highlights were being so close to animals like cheetahs,
leopards and rhinos. We also really enjoyed the sea lion and rainforest shows,
and watching the orangutans play. I have always said since I last visited that
Singapore is on par with Melbourne Zoo. I thus far have not been able to say
that about any other zoo I have visited. I love visiting zoos in other places
and seeing different animals and how they set them up differently. Mum enjoyed
a freshly squeezed orange juice out of a vending machine, which released and
squeezed the orange juice into a cup right in front of you inside the machine.
It was very cool!
Overall we were lucky with the weather, but it did pour once at the zoo which
made it really steamy, and then again in the taxi on our way to our next stop
which was Kranji War Memorial. This was opened in 1946 in memory of those who
died during World War II. The remains buried here were exhumed from Changi and
other Singapore POW camps and moved to Kranji so they could lie in rest
together. There were mostly Australian, British and Indian graves here that I
came across, but the site was huge. There are 4461 graves in total, 850 of
which are unmarked. We found the grave of Mum’s friend’s uncle, Frank Gore, which was pretty special. There were also 24,000 names on the walls up the top of the
hill, representing those who perished in this area but whose bodies were never
found. What was also interesting was that their was a section for the graves of
relatives of those already buried there. It seemed that people had requested to
be buried there with their husbands and fathers after they passed away.
Finally, we caught a taxi to the Vivocity shopping mall (which we passed
through on Friday on our way to Sentosa). Here we purchased the remaining rapid
antigen tests we need to bring home for family, and a thickshake. Now we are
back in the room and will be heading out for dinner soon.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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