Singapore

The flight from Frankfurt was a bit bumpy but passed quickly. Amazing how 13 hours of your life moves on. I do love premium economy.  Thank you doctor Paul for the help of chemicals. Bless. I've seen about 8 movies I think on all of the flights and I've forgotten which ones I've watched so repeats happen. I'm now into watching Bollywood with subtitles.

Tricia was waiting for me at Changi Airport and it was lovely to hug her and get on the road together. She knows her way around Singapore which is such an advantage.

The city is full of smoke from the fires in Indonesia so at times the views are blocked out. Today is really really Baden Tuesday night we caught a cab to the marina and wat he'd the light and sound show and ate dinner at a local bbq/ satay area which was fun and delicious. It was hot but bearable. We walked around for a while but I had the speed wobbles and needed sleep.

Yesterday we caught a tourist bus and sat on the top deck in the open air. The conductor assured me it returned to the pick up point but as we passed the same place for a second time and it was no where near Orchard Road we figured all was not well. We swapped buses and spent another hour plus sightseeing a different route back. It was fantastic as we saw so much. There is still plenty of evidence of the British colonial era. It's a superb way to see any city and as we repeTed the route with slight variations we had a fantastic orientation.We passed Raffles a number of times and that's where we are having high tea on Friday. How posh.

Much of Singapore is reclaimed land and built multi story to conserve space. Shopping areas go for blocks and blocks underground with one area linking to another. Many of the stores are big brand, big name. Cartier, tiffanys, Versace. Just my thing

The aircon is great and the heat sure hits when you resurface. So we tried not to resurface and went shopping instead.

I found the shoes and handbag place Charles and Keith that Anita recommended but I'll shop at the airport to get duty free. No idea where I will carry the stuff as my bag is full and over the limit.

Tricia booked a guided tour to Changi prison where Graham's dad was a POW with the Japanese. He spoke about it once to me when I was doing a university paper and interviewed him. Sadly a few days before he died he flicked back in his mind and was once again a prisoner of war. He was terrified and fighting for his life in his mind.

The tour was disappointing. I'd forgotten that Changi is currently a high security prison where they still carry out the death penalty once a week at lunch time. Hanging seems to be the dish of the day.

All we saw of the original was one watch tower and the original gate which has been shifted. You can only see it from a distance but they are instantly recognisable from movies and photos.

The Singaporeans have not maintained the original sites of mass murders and burials and records are sketchy.

Changi airport has been extended from the original beach and there are thousands buried there somewhere. Changi Beach is also a mass murder site and there is a tiny plaque there which you can easily miss. A little way on is a small hill that is also a mass burial site. It's overgrown and unmarked. -at least 80000 chinese were slaughtered and thousands of locals as the Japanese took control.

Fred's name is not recorded and I felt quite sad about that. The records are so sketchy and the memorials are barely noticeable.
It poured with rain for a while but with our 7eleven umbrellas we soldiered on. It was still hot.
The Changi museum has very few artefacts and stories and as most of the prisoners of war in Japanese internment camps never talked about their experiences, much will be lost to the next generations. Lest we forget is already partly forgotten.
Tricia worked out the underground train route so we joined the homeward bound masses and jammed onto a couple of trains.
We treated ourselves to a lovely buffet dinner with genuine food from different ethnic chefs. The shock came with the $95 each bill.
I still can't upload the photos but I will do it in Perth so there's a sequence of things we did and saw.
Tricia can shop. We have walked the length of Singapore.  She has a great habit of walking off an escalator and then turning the wrong way so we walk miles before we get on the next one. Now I wouldn't exaggerate.
Singapore is a great city and its even better being with someone who knows their way around.
Such fun.by the time we got back to our rooms we were very Miranda Moist.