The trip home- Singapore to Christchurch

We arrived at Big Hotel in Singapore about 8.30am hoping that we would be able to check in early.  We couldn't straight away but we were able to store our bags for a couple of hours there and return about 10.30am.  We set off for a walk to Orchard Road, which is the famous shopping street in Singapore, compared to the likes of the Champes Elysees and Oxford Street.  It was still early so only eating places were open.  We found an open air food court along the way and had pork and chicken with rice for about 2 pounds each.

Orchard Road

The were pleased that it was overcast and we were able to cope with the heat.  We returned to the hotel at the allotted time and were able to check in.  They had put our bags in our room already.  We had read many reviews online about the small size of hotel rooms in Singapore, but our room was more than adequate.  We promptly went to bed for a 4 hour nap and then got ourselves ready to head out into the city that night.

We set off about 6pm and the sun set about an hour into our walk.  We headed to Raffles Hotel first- a colonial style hotel that was established in 1887 and named after Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore.  We then went past the World War 2 Memorial and St Andrews Cathedral and down to Marina Bay.  We had fantastic views of the buildings and lights and we made our way to Boat Quay, an area on the Singapore River which has many restaurants.  We had a good look at several menus, but we thought they were a bit overpriced due to the river views, so we did the trick of going back a block from the river and looking at the eating places there.  We found a nice Vietnamese restaurant where we had dinner for about 13 pounds.

 The Raffles Hotel complex

The impressive city skyline

The World War 2 Memorial

St Andrews Cathedral

A very funky building indeed

Along the Singapore River...

Dinner

Afterwards we continued our walk down to Chinatown seeing a couple of temples and walking through the markets.  We made our way back to the Marina area again and then back to the hotel from there.

Markets in Chinatown

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

We had planned to visit Jurong bird park on our final day but decided to pass on that when we couldn't get out of bed the next morning.  We would have needed to dedicate the whole day there and get up about 7am and we were just too tired.  We slept till midday and stored our bags at the hotel.

We went for a walk through Little India and had a look at the famous Mustafa Centre- a multi level department store selling a wide range of goods.  We were just happy to be in the air conditioning!  The sun had come out and it was pretty hot.  We were on our way to the Arab Quarter when we came across a Western style cafe and we had pancakes and milkshakes, which were delicious, and again very reasonably priced.

We headed to the Sultan Mosque and walked the surrounding streets which were very pleasant and I enjoyed the Arab quarter more than Little India.  Afterwards it was time to return to the hotel and head for the airport.

The Sultan Mosque

A shop in the Arab Quarter

We checked in pretty soon after check in opened.  We were happy to be in the air conditioning and do some eating and shopping!  So much so that it was a bit of a rush to get to the departure gate.

We enjoyed Singapore.  It was really helpful to catch up on sleep and get a glimpse of the city.  It is very clean, pretty safe and has some amazing buildings- plus ALOT of people speak English.

Our flight departed at 7.45pm and was about 9 hours to Christchurch, New Zealand.  We landed at 9am and after an hour of immigration and quarantine checks we were reunited with our families after 3 years!

The trip home- Haltwhistle to Singapore

It was less than a week after we sold the van when we set off to fly home.  The prices of the flights were continuing to go up so we booked flights leaving 6 days after we sold the van.

Goodbye campervan!

On Monday we left the campsite and caught the train from Haltwhistle to Carlisle, then changed at Carlisle to train to Manchester Airport.  Our train was late leaving Carlisle and terminated 1 stop before Manchester Airport due to being so behind in schedule.  This meant all the remaining passengers and luggage had to wait on the platform and we were to catch the next train going to Manchester Airport.  Once on the platform a message came over the speaker to say the next train was 13 minutes late.  Then a 2 carriage train came up to the platform and we all had to get on that.  They had obviously decided to get a train from 'out the back' to get us all down to the Airport.

So we got to the Airport a little late and we saw the bus stand before the taxis.  There was a number 19 there, which we both thought went past the hotel we were going to stay the night in.  I asked the driver and he said yes he did, but this turned out to be a big mistake.  We thought it was a short bus ride and after awhile Dale went up to talk to the driver.  We were wrong and had already been on the bus for about 45 minutes.  A lovely lady next to me said that it would be best and easiest to stay on until the end of the line and catch a taxi from a rank close to the bus stop.  This meant another 45 minutes on the bus and looking at each other not quite believing that we could be so stupid!  We managed to get a taxi once we got off the bus and it didn't cost us too much extra.  We did get to the hotel about 8.30pm.  We headed straight to the restaurant for something to eat.

Our bags- the full 30kg checked baggage each

The next morning we got a (15 minute!) taxi to the Airport at 7am in preparation for our 9.10am flight to Singapore.  We left on time and 1 hour 40 minutes into the flight we stopped in Munich for an hour to pick up more passengers and for a change of crew.  The entertainment and food were good on the flight, but we were unable to sleep more than about 30 minutes each.  We landed early at 6.40am Singapore time and caught a taxi to Big Hotel in Singapore for our stay in the city of about 36 hours.