SINGAPORE VACATION

    My wife and I returned from a vacation to Singapore. This blog contains my description of the vacation and a few of my impressions. Note: As usual, I have not used names in this blog. Also, pictures with people are avoided in this blog.

    The true test of a good vacation is that during the vacation, time seems to extend. This has nothing to do with the duration of the vacation : even on an extended weekend trip, the events of just a day earlier seem to have occurred a long time ago. This probably has to do with the fact that there are so many new experiences for the senses. Accustomed to city life and routine, every small change from the routine has a way of stimulating the mind, in my opinion. During this vacation, this was what we experienced. Our days felt long in a pleasurable kind of way. After the trip, I feel energised and am actually looking forward to resume working on Monday ! I don't know how long that feeling will last though : probably until Monday evening, is what I feel !

    Our plan for a vacation began in the middle of May or so. Since my wife had a lean time at work, we decided to take a vacation in the beginning of June. We went to Hoysala Tours and Travels (http://www.hoysalatours.com/) to organise a vacation planning to go either for the Gangtok - Darjeeling circuit or the Himachal Pradesh hill stations. However, when we checked the weather forecast, we noticed that the risk of rain ruining our vacation was always a constant threat. So we opted to visit Singapore instead. Doing the booking at relatively short notice meant that the cost per person worked out to nearly Rs. 60,000 per person for the two of us, for 5 nights and 6 days. The Singapore exchange was also unfavourable at nearly 48 Rs. to the Singaporean dollar. Still, we decided to go ahead with the trip anyway, since the options appeared riskier. Overall we must have spent around Rs. 75,000 per person.

    What follows is a day-by-day account of our vacation in Singapore.

    We packed on the morning and evening of 06-Jun, before and after we went to work. By the time I returned from work it was almost 7. My wife came later since she collected the foreign exchange. The taxi we called and booked had a little trouble locating our house. Still, when we left at around 9 p.m. we were well in time for the Tiger Airways flight at 01:05 a.m. on 07-Jun. We purchased a Singapore SIM card and an add-on card that came in handy. The flight had a few empty seats including our row. So the two of us used the extra seat to stretch our feet side ways and dozed.

    We landed in time on 07-Jun-14. Immigration formalities were completed quickly. Changi International Airport is huge and has three terminals. Each terminal has an attraction. T2 where we landed has an indoor garden with flowering orchids. The plan was that we meet the tour organiser near the Information Counter. Since there were many counters, we called up the Singapore hotline number of the tour service provider (ACD) provided by Hoysala Tours and soon met the representative. He gave us a copy of the itinerary that we already had and also tickets to the Singapore attractions. We spent some time in the coach checking the number and validity of the tickets.

    Then we were off to start our Singapore vacation in earnest !

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    07-Jun-14, Saturday: Our hotel Parc Sovereign (http://www.parcsovereign.com/parc-sovereign) is located on Albert Street, a few minutes away from Little India. At that time, we did not know that. Later, when we explored the area around Parc Sovereign, we discovered that if we crossed one main road, we were on the edges of Little India, a boon for eating lunch or dinner, particularly for vegetarian meals ! Hoysala Tours had planned to reserve rooms either in Hotel Aqueen Lavender or Grand Chancellor which were in the heart of Little India. Though Parc Sovereign is further away, we preferred it since the rooms were comfortable.

    When we arrived at Parc Sovereign, it was around 10:15 a.m. The receptionist said that she will be able to offer rooms only after an hour or so. We kept our luggage in the cloak room and set out for a walk around the hotel. There were restaurants that offered Chinese food in the road just behind our hotel, but no Indian food.

    By the time we came back to Parc Sovereign, room 608 was available for us. The room had keyless entry. It opened into a passage with the rest room to the right. The double bed was the center of the room after the short passage. There was a tall mirror to the right of the bed with a stone table and steel chair. On the wall to the right of the mirror (the rest room wall) there was a counter with a kettle and a refrigerator below it. Next to this counter was a wardrobe with a safe and two slippers. The TV was mounted on the wall facing the bed. The air-conditioning was welcome, since we were already sweating a lot after spending an hour in the hot sun walking around the hotel.

    We showered and got ready for lunch. At the airport we had collected a map of Singapore and the metro routes. We saw two museums somewhat close to Parc Sovereign. As we walked, we saw that we were in the direction of both museums. One of the museums was less than 10 minutes away, in fact. Since lunch was uppermost on our mind now, we did not enter the Art Museum, but walked back towards the hotel. One snack common in Singapore is the Kaya toast. It is a kind of coconut jam, sweet and tasty. We ate it and drank coffee to have a light lunch. We had also brought snacks (biscuits, etc.) which supplemented this light lunch later. Close to our hotel, we saw a road full of shopping stalls and shoppers. This was Bugis, which was more like a shopping area with excellent bargains offered, similar to the more famous Chinatown and Little India. Promising my wife that we would come there later and hoping that this would not happen, I urged her to return to the hotel !

    For a couple of hours in the afternoon, we slept well, cooled by the air-conditioning. In the evening, at 6 p.m. a driver from ACD called our names and checked that we had brought tickets to the night safari. The night safari begins from 7 p.m. There is a show by a tribal performer from Borneo who is a fire eater that begins shortly before the safari starts. The safari is conducted in a tram seating around 45 persons. The trams travel on roads surrounded by habitats that are meant for the animals in those habitats. So there are barasingha deer and lions from India, hippos from Africa and black and white tapirs from Malaysia, all placed in environments according to those locations. I took photographs, but without the flash (which is forbidden) the images look black, leaving the animals to be more imagined than seen (in the photographs) ! Still, the night safari was an interesting experience.

    We ate dinner at the Ulu ulu safari, which comprised a vegetarian biriyani accompanied by a potato dish, papads and raitha. The price was steep at SD 17 but with no alternatives, we made the most of it. One feature that we noticed was that a private organisation offered to take digital photographs in the tram queue which took us around 40 minutes of waiting. Those attractions are shown at the end of the tour and then if one is willing to pay SD 20, the photograph is given as a souvenir. Also, all tourist attractions end either in a restaurant or in the souvenir shop selling the photographs. It is a good way to make money for the attraction organisations. We noticed this feature in all the tourist attractions.

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    08-Jun-14, Sunday: Breakfast at Parc Sovereign was the same during all the days. There were two non-vegetarian snacks, something resembling french fries,veg fried rice, noodles, sliced water melon and papayas (or other fruits), toast, butter, jam, eggs and a couple of juices apart from tea and coffee. The variety was missing, but the toast, fried rice, fruit and french fries kept our stomachs full until lunch time, which was good.

    Since nobody from ACD had come until 10:15 a.m. and our departure was planned at 10 a.m., I called the hotline. I was told that the coach was on the way and sure enough in a few minutes, it had come. Mathew, our guide, showed us Raffles hotel, Hotel Rendezvous and Suntec City Mall, the Foutain of Wealth (the world's biggest fountain, but when we drove past it, there was no fountain yet) and then on to the Central Business District.

    My impression was that Singapore's economy runs on banking and trade apart from tourism. Today, when I looked it up on the web, http://www.singstat.gov.sg/statistics/visualising_data/GDP-2013.pdf indicates that even manufacturing contributes to around 18% of the GDP, including bio-medical and chemical industries. By contrast, services sector contributes to 52% of India's GDP and industry accounts for 18%. The CBD in Singapore contained tall skyscrapers around 50 floors tall with huge logos of banks on them : Citibank, OCBC all had tall buildings. Mathew said there were 165 banks a few years ago, but after the mergers and consolidations, that number has reduced to around 110. Clearly, finance is a big earner for the city-state.

    Our first stop was at the Singapore flyer. This is a huge giant wheel in the style of the London Millennium Eye which provides a view of Singapore. The area leading to the flyer contains a park and also the principle of the flyer. The idea of gears are used to keep the Flyer moving at about a foot per second. The capsules look small, but are actually 7m X 4m, i.e. around 24 feet X 13 feet, the size of a coach ! As http://www.singaporeflyer.com/about-us/fun-facts-about-the-flyer/ indicates, the height of the flyer at the top is 165m, or around 55 floors of a 10 feet floor !

    The views from the flyer are remarkable. On a clear day, we were told that Malaysia and Indonesia are also visible. I don't think we saw it, but just the sight of the greenery and the city scape were good to behold. A Chinese or Korean family obliged us by taking photographs and we returned the favour. All of us were excited as we neared the top of our ascent and saw the terraces of the tall skyscrapers appear level. We saw a penthouse on three towers on the Marina Bay. The Singapore night F1 Grand Prix route is around the Marina. 32 minutes after the rotation completed, we got down and saw a fabulous Lamborghini parked there. The top of the car came just below my knee. The low center of gravity and the power that use this low centre of gravity are best left imagined ! Translation : don't expect me to drive the speed machine, I will stick to my 17 year old motorcycle that huffs and puffs at 50 kmph !!

    Our next stop was the Merlion Plaza, by the bay, constructed in 1965. The Merlion is a symbol created in 1965. The legend is that a Sumatran prince landed on the shores of Singapore and thought he saw a lion, which was regarded as a good omen. The city he established was Singapura or the lion-city. It is unlikely that he actually saw a lion. In 1965, it was decided to combine the lion and the mythical mermaid or merman into one symbol that represents Singapore, which is what the Merlion is. The bottom part is that of a fish representing the sea and the face of the lion is a symbol of the history of Singapore. The Merlion statue is 8.6 metres tall, around 27 feet tall and spews out water from its mouth.

    After that, Mathew drove us to Chinatown and a shop selling souvenirs. Our last stop was in Little India, near the famous Mustafa store. We ate lunch with another couple at Balaji Bhawan. Since this was their first day in Singapore, they went to their hotel later while we headed back to Mustafa for shopping. The prices in Mustafa are low but what is aso noteworthy is the incredible variety of choices. There are rows and rows of watches and jewellery and shoes. Enthusiastic shoppers will like Mustafa. Unfortunately, I am not one among them ! My upper limit for shopping in one place is around 1 hour after which I become testy and start showing my frustration. My wife wanted to pick up chocolates and souvenirs for relatives and friends back home. It took us more than 2 hours to complete the shopping. At the end of it, the backpack that I had slung on weighed considerably more and I was pretty frustrated. Little India feels like Chennai, with Tamil signs and restaurants. By default, the signs are in 3 languages in Singapore : Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Little India and the crowded population felt familiar to us !

    We drank lemon juice nearby and then set out to Gardens by the Bay. We searched the bus routes to find ways of reaching it, but it required a change in buses. While searching for taxis, one travel agent whose office was on the way, offered tickets to the Gardens by the Bay for SD 24 each. Since we had heard a lot about it, we purchased 2 tickets and caught a taxi, after purchasing a take-away dinner at Komal's, a vegetarian restaurant. The third taxi that we sought agreed to take us to Gardens by the Bay.

    We reached there around 5:45 p.m. or so. I kept my back-pack in the locker and thankfully stepped into the "Flower Dome" described at http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/the-gardens/attractions/flower-dome.html. The dome looked interesting from the Flyer. Inside, we found its space full with a green Eiffel tower, plants from South America, California and Australia. On a higher level, succulents and the baobab tree were also present. My wife likes flowers a lot. She enjoyed the sight of different flowers and trees. Despite the long day in the sun, the Flower Dome rejuvenated us. Seeing her delight, I also perked up and observed the different kinds of flowers around us.

    Finishing the Flower Dome by around 7 p.m., we ate biscuits that we had brought and then went into the Cloud Forest. This dome contains a 100 feet tall waterfall inside the dome. In the evening, the waterfall changed colours according to the LED lighting. The Cloud Forest contains tropical plants, caves and also a cloud walk on the highest level. It was a memorable experience. We saw the Venus Fly-catcher plant and tall super trees. The super trees are artificial trees illuminated with LED lights that presented a beautiful sight from the Cloud Walk. It looks just like the fireworks display to put it loosely.

    By the time we finished, it was almost 9 p.m. I decided to call for a taxi since I did not want to risk getting out into a wrong location. Besides, both my wife and I were tired after the roaming in Little India and the Gardens by the Bay. There was a fruit stall opposite Parc Sovereign. We purchased fruit and bun from a 7-11 supermarket in our hotel basement which made for a light supper that night. Hitting the bed felt good after the long day.

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    09-Jun-14, Monday : I had set the alarm so that we could get ready in time. It helped since the coach came to pick us up at 10 a.m.

    Our destination was Universal Studios. My wife's parents have visited Universal Studios amusement park in USA. Their experience there is similar to what we experienced. To begin with, there are different areas around the park organised around movies produced by Universal Studios. So there is New York, Transformers, the Mummy, Jurassic Park, Shrek and Madagascar. There are rides that are organised around these themes, with a loose story woven around them. All rides are accounted for in the ticket price, but the queue can be long in the popular rides.

    We began with the Transformers. The story of the Transformers ride is that we fight the bad guys. After putting on the 3-D spectacles, the coach feels like a futuristic car. One moment, we felt that we were swerving dangerously, the next moment we had braked and were reversing to escape the bad guys. The ride was fun and at the end of it, we were told : "Congratulations, you have saved Planet Earth ....". There, I knew I was a hero !! The fact that one of the other heroes along with me was a young 9-year old boy deflated my ego. Still, the thrill that the ride gave was a good feeling to begin with !

    There was a similar pattern to the rides: first, there was a queue with members of the Digiphoto team offering (and taking !) photographs ; the approximate waiting time was indicated in a display ; then, there were absurdly young looking helpers guiding people through the queue into different rows or seats in the ride ; people coming through the more expensive Universal Express queues bypassing the wait of a long queue were accommodated along with people in the regular queue ; once the people sat in the rides there was a check that the seat belts or restraints were correctly in place ; one helper would give a thumbs up once this is done and finally the ride was off, set off by another helper ! Once the ride was done, the unloading from the rides was done in one way or direction (for example: exit from the right) and simultaneously, the loading was also done in another way (for example: from the left) in a smooth manner. It was interesting to see the process.

    I wonder about the helpers. My own feeling is that they are youngsters just out of college. As I said, they looked absurdly young, including few who looked barely out of school also.

    Both my wife and I felt that the scariest ride was "The Revenge of the Mummy". We were thrust into darkness and felt water and heat as if we were in hell. The darkness accentuated the feeling of disorientation and it felt like we were on a roller coaster. Though the ride was brief, it was thrilling. Most of the rides ended in a few minutes. The queue for the Rapids at The Lost World took more than an hour for us to clear. We were warned that we would be wet, soaking wet. Expecting white water rafting, I kept my back pack in a locker paying SD 4 per hour (two hours was what I was charged). There was a round canoe that went around the Lost World. Mechatronic dinosaurs sprayed water and the canoe rushed through rapids during which some water entered the canoe. The high point of the ride was a drop of around 12 feet. The canoe was lifted in an elevator and then plunged down, again leading to water entering it. It was rather thrilling, but still the wait of more than an hour was too long, I felt. I was almost bone dry (pun unintended) while my wife did become drenched, but the heat of the afternoon sun dried her. The "soaking wet" warning was an exaggeration, to say the least.

    In the Lost World, there is also a Canopy Ride, an open ride showing the tree tops of Jurassic Park. The centripetal force around the bends in the ride felt good. This was also a ride that I liked. My wife was also thrilled after completing this ride.

    We ate lunch and then went to the Water World show. This is a live performance with stunt men (and one woman) showing how movies could be filmed. The theme is that there is a girl and her boyfriend, a Merman are looking to escape Water World which also has baddies. So, the good guys and the bad guys fought. There was hand to hand fighting and stunts like speeding water scooters, people diving from around 20 feet into water and shooting. When a gun shot was fired, a cracker or fireworks would go off.

    My wife and I don't watch too many movies in the theatres. However, at home, if Sholay or Star Trek or The Lord of the Rings is shown on television, I will watch those movies. I am a big fan of fantasy movies. This was the first time that I had seen what shooting for a movie would be like. For some reason, I was moved by this live performance and felt like applauding the actors. Cinema at its core is about telling stories. The 3-D and 4-D effects are embellishments, but the main purpose of a movie is to tell a story. The live performance of Water World showed how a tale can be told. For me, this was the biggest highlight of the Universal Studios visit. Sure, the 4-D movie in a Land Far, Far Away was enjoyable and fun. However, equally enjoyable was the spectacle put up by the stuntmen in The Water World.

    Having watched the Water World show, we headed for the Land Far, Far Away based on the Shrek movie series. We watched a short 4-D movie based on Shrek and a ghost of Lord Farquaad. The antics of Donkey and his cool attitude towards 3-D made the movie fun. During the movie, it felt like rats were moving under our seat. The movie was enjoyable.

    By this time, it was nearly 3:30 p.m. and our departure coach was due at 4:45 p.m. We went to the Madagascar boat ride, which was fun, but not thrilling like the Lost World Ride. Finally, we went to Hollywood - not literally, but to the last stop in Universal Studios amusement park ! We requested an Indian gentleman to take our photo. He was separated from his group and family. They were expected back by 7 p.m. but we felt sorry for him. I hope he was reunited with his family and group.

    My wife and I were tired when we stepped into the coach at 4:45. Back at Parc Sovereign, we enquired about the way to National Museum. The receptionist advised us to take a taxi and gave us rough directions. The suggestion to take a taxi was tempting, but we wanted to explore. So we drank coffee in our room, cooled down for some time (quite literally, with air conditioning set at 21 degrees Celsius !) and then stepped out again. We walked along the same road as we had walked out on the morning of 07-Jun and found the museum. This is an old and magnificent building with a restored dome.

    After 6 p.m., there is no entry fee for the museum. The history of Singapore was shown in the museum. There was one gallery dedicated to the movies in Singapore. We were pleasantly surprised to see posters of Bollywood movies there. One gallery showed the hawkers selling dishes and the difficult life of the Chinese hawkers and Indian milk sellers. Sir Raffles established Singapore as a port and encouraged rubber industry. He was also a naturalist. It was only after the extortionists who exploited the poor were curtailed by a strong government that Singapore slowly began to prosper.

    For dinner we found a hotel Anand Bhawan 5 minutes away from our hotel. We discovered that Little India was probably five more minutes away.

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    10-Jun-14, Tuesday : When my eyes opened and I looked at my mobile to see the time, I was shocked. The time was already nearing 9:00 a.m. ! It was only during weekends in college that I had slept until 9. Even my wife was surprised that we had slept so late. Still, since our pick up was at 11, we got up and got ready leisurely.

    There were a lot of tickets that we had to take with us, beginning with the tickets to the cable car ride from Mount Faber. We reached there at 11:30 a.m. or so. My wife and I took one car for a 10 minute ride above the sea. The view of the Sentosa resort from the cable car was good to see.

    Sentosa is an island with various amusement games, casinos and also the Universal Studios amusement park. Depending on one's interest we can select the shows and games. Our first stop was "Images of Singapore" which showed the history of Sentosa and Singapore. The four races that comprise Singapore, i.e. British, Malay, Chinese and Indian are represented by four businessmen and "Four Winds Trading Company". The company laid the foundation for growth in Singapore. The "Images of Singapore" depicts the development of the island, including the tough times during the second world war and its independence following the war.

    Our next stop was the Merlion Plaza, a 120 feet tall statue of Merlion at Sentosa. The lift that takes one to the top leads to two view points. One is at the mouth of the Merlion and the other at the head. The views of Sentosa are pretty. We received a Merlion medallion souvenir that is supposed to bring one luck.

    Getting down, we drank coffee at the cafeteria in the base of the statue. Around the Imbaiah look out, there is a nature trail meant for children, teaching them how to observe and note wildlife and also flora and fauna. We walked along the trail. In the hot sun, we noticed a shelter. In the morning, we had packed puliyogare from Anand Bhawan for lunch. We ate lunch at the shelter and then walked to Siloso, which hosts the Underwater World.

    The Underwater World contains many fishes in aquarium tanks. There is a moving travelator that provides an all around view of fishes. The colourful jellyfish, sting rays and other myriad types of fishes made the Underwater World a pleasure to watch. What was equally fun was the dolphin show. The playful dolphin jumped through hoops, as did the sea lion. The sea lion goaded the audience to applaud. We gladly did that. The children in the audience thoroughly enjoyed the show.

    We caught a bus to S.E.A. (South East Asia) Aquarium, which was near Universal Studios. This Aquarium is huge. As we entered we walked through a passage that showed regions and explorers with links to Singapore. Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta and their journeys were shown, as were Calicut (Malabar), Africa and other places. The pirates of the east in the 19th century were also mentioned.

    We descended into the museum downstairs. Having seen Underwater World, S.E.A. Aquarium was similar, but the scale is far bigger. The aquarium hosts more than 800 fishes, including sharks. Like in the travelator at Underwater World, we were surrounded by fishes as we walked through the aquarium. The highlight of the S.E.A. Aquarium is a huge fish talk, about 50 feet long (I may be wrong !) and 12 feet high. It is located near the end. As we approached it, the sight of the fish slowly swimming, the dark surroundings and the blue light inside the tank made the environment peaceful. A lot of people were simply sitting on the carpeted floor. For a few minutes, my wife and I also sat taking in the surreal blue light of the humongous tank and the fishes in it. It was almost like meditation. When we got up, we felt refreshed.

    We headed back to Imbaiah by mono-rail. The bus and mono-rail are free in Sentosa. In Imbaiah, we watched Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Like Shrek, this is also a 4-D movie. The story is of a grandson joining his grandfather in Atlantis which follows a cycle of destruction and re-birth. There were opportunities to see spiders in 3-D, feel a cannon poke us on the back, on the right side and smell a fresh scent as the protagonists stepped on the island. Like Shrek, this movie was also fun.

    Now we were ready to depart. Here, I made a mistake confusing the Coach Park as the Coach Bay. When we reached the Coach Bay and called our driver, he sounded angry and said he would depart. Actually, our itinerary indicated that departure was at 8:30 p.m. The time was still 7:30 p.m. In strong words, I asked him to proceed and said I will speak with the management. That cooled him down and he said he would wait. We caught a bus back and at 8 p.m. or so, we left. The driver had the courtesy to apologise to me in front of the other tourists. So I also decided to ignore his words and treatment, in the spirit of the vacation. We ate dinner at Anand Bhawan.

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    11-Jun-14, Wednesday : We finished breakfast by 8:45. The itinerary was only until 12:30 p.m. on this day. I felt that we could visit either the Botanical Gardens or China Town. We decided to go to China Town as the coach driver said that after visiting Gardens by the Bay, the Botanical Gardens may be disappointing. I purchased lemon rice as take-away lunch.

    Meanwhile, half a day was reserved for the zoo. Hoysala Tours had indicated that the maps in Singapore were helpful. We had found it helpful already, while locating the museum and roaming around the hotel. However, the zoo was not indicated in the map. It turns out the Mandai Lake Road is where the zoo is located.

    Like in the night safari, there are animals from all across the world in the zoo. We saw two white tigers swim in the water, which was quite a sight. The other highlight was when we entered the Australian Outback. My wife saw a kangaroo on our path. Much to my surprise, it stayed on the path even as we approached it. Staying in the zoo, it appears that the kangaroo and other animals have lost some of their natural shyness and inhibition. We saw this on the next day when we saw a huge dove fearlessly walk in front of us. It may have to do with the fact that the citizens also do not hurt the birds. On the streets and footpaths, we saw that pigeons were not shooed away, like we do in Bengaluru and India in general. Since there is no threat perceived by the pigeons, they are also friendly and walk about on the footpaths. The animals in the zoo probably had a similar experience with their caretakers.

    Besides the tiger and kangaroos, there were also the Malayan tapirs, the various monkeys and an area that is built like the Ethiopian Rift Valley. There are also tram services in the zoo. For some distance, we went in a tram. The orang-utans are playful and friendly. We saw rhinoceri, zebra and giraffes in the African part of the zoo. There were also lions and one leopard.

 

 

    Completing the tour on time, we returned to the hotel by 1:15 p.m. We ate the lemon rice and then went to Little India MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) station. We got down at Chinatown. Chinatown is a bustling place, rather like Little India. Our first stop was China Heritage Museum. We learnt that the Chinese came first as labour for rubber plantation and tin mines, much like the Indians and Malays. Just like the chawls in Mumbai, there were four of five labourers who stayed together in small tenements.

    All communities celebrated festivals together. Apart from the Chinese new year, a fire-walking festival for Draupadi was also shown in the museum as a festival celebrated in Chinatown. I remembered Karaga in Bengaluru.

    Opium addiction, gambling, drinking and prostitution were evils that affected the Chinese in the middle of the 20th century. After the second world war, there was also extortion to contend with. A determined government in the '60s weeded out the evils leading to prosperity for the residents of Singapore. What comes out from the history of Singapore is the pain that it went through before the prosperity and progress that we see currently.

    Our next stop was the Buddha tooth relic museum. My uncle had asked us to visit it. Since we were in Chinatown, we decided to take his advice - and I am glad we did it ! The tooth relic is housed amid gold tiles in the fourth floor. We had visited the tooth relic in Kandy. The devotion and faith in Kandy is more. The temple in Singapore is grand. We saw people praying in earnest in Singapore. I found it a surprise, since I thought Singapore was totally materialistic. The information available in the temple amazed me and my wife.

    In the ground floor, there is a statue of Maitreya, who is the equivalent of Kalki in Hindu mythology, a redeemer who shall rescue mankind. From there, we went to the roof garden where pretty orchids flowered. The tooth relic is located in the resplendent fourth floor. In the third floor, we saw the life of the Buddha shown in detail along with statues and his footprints. The second floor contains paintings and statues of Avalokiteshwara, who personifies compassion. The firs floor contains details of how the Buddha Tooth Relic temple was established. My wife and I learnt a lot about Buddha and the Bodhisattva from the museum.

    From the temple, we went Nanyang Old Coffee, a café that serves hand brewed traditional Singapore coffee. It was excellent. I had seen the advertisement in the map and being a fan of coffee, I persuaded my wife that Nanyang deserved a visit. I am glad we made the visit. Just like V. V. Puram's Food Street in Bengaluru, Smith Street in Singapore is also a "Food Street" that serves mostly non-vegetarian food. We walked through the road after visiting a Mariamma temple.

    Later, we spent time searching for the best bargains : "3 for $5", "4 for $10", "1 for $5", the T-shirt, hand-bag and other souvenirs. We purchased T-shirts and bags, drank a dragonfruit milkshake and finally left Chinatown as twilight set in. We went to Parc Sovereign, relaxed for some time and walked out to eat dinner at Komal Vilas, another old hotel in Little India.

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    12-Jun-14, Thursday : The morning was spent packing - or rather, stuffing our newly purchased items into one suitcase and my back-pack. My wife had brought a bag that became an additional hand baggage into which we packed a few of the new items.

    We finished breakfast, deposited our luggage in the luggage room of the hotel, checked out and were ready by 9 a.m. for Jurong Park. The drive to Jurong took nearly 45 minutes. We were in time for the "Birds of Prey" show. Chandra the Jurong Bird Park caretaker hosted the show. We saw vultures, owls and eagles swoop in and display their hunting prowess. We saw brilliant orange flamingos and colourful macaws near the entrance plaza. The novelties were the penguins and arctic terns. We walked to an aviary where a large blue crested dove, called the crested pigeon strutted in the aviary as if it were king. It gladdened my heart to see the birds walk and hop fearlessly.

    After this, there was another bird show comprising pelicans and macaws. Aravind, the caretaker made the colourful macaws fly through hoops of decreasing diameter. Each bird was in the pool amphitheater for a maximum of 10 minutes. Aravind showed how the female toucan seals itself in. We saw an Amazon parrot talking "Welcome to Singapore" and then laughing like a human. The show was pure delight for the children in the audience. My wife and I also thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the finale when pelicans, macaws and flamingos came in a fashion parade unlike any other !

    We roamed around the bird park, covering the Swan Lake, the scarlet ibises and the toucan. There was a chat with a caretaker of the toucan, who explained its lifestyle. Sally, the toucan had her wings clipped, but the caretaker assured us that it would grow back. I touched Sally who was busy preening herself. From there we went in a tram to the waterfall. On the way back, we saw ostriches.

    While we awaited our coach, we saw a green monitor lizard which camouflaged itself pretty well in the green grass. After eating lunch in Anjappar with another Indian couple who became friends with us during the last four days, we decided to take the Metro. My wife and I guided them on how to visit Chinatown while we went to Orchard Road.

    Orchard Road is the high-end shopping street in Singapore. We saw various malls along the road, each looking glitzier than the rest. We consulted the map and walked into Centrepoint mall for window shopping. There was a bench on Orchard Road pavement. For a few minutes we sat there admiring the birds which flitted about in the green grass by the side. Nearing the end of Orchard Road, we saw Istana Park, which marks the beginning of the Civic District. After our walk, the small pond with lotuses and the greenery provided relief for our weary feet.

    Our walk was incomplete, though. We walked to Bugis. As seen in http://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/browse/shopping/shop-by-category/curios-and-knick-knacks/bugis-street.html, Bugis is a shopping street. Bugis Junction is a more expensive mall, but Bugis Street offers deals comparable to Mustafa and Chinatown. We drank kiwi fruit juice. My wife purchased trousers for SD 5.

    We collected our luggage and removed our passports from it. We had barely settled when the coach driver Junaid hailed my name. We saw the Singapore coast on our way to Changi airport. We ordered a small cappuccino and a regular hand-brewed coffee at the Starbucks café in the airport. I thought that the "small" size was a misnomer - until I saw the size of the "regular" ordered by my wife. We could have drunk from the regular coffee cup for breakfast, lunch and dinner, particularly if the "by-two" concept of sharing a cup in Bengaluru and the "cutting chai" in Mumbai were used !

    Finally, our vacation was over. At the end of it all, what are our "take-aways" ?

    The Water World performance, the splendour of the Buddha temple, the kangaroo that hopped into our path and faced us with curiosity, the coffee at Nanyang, the shopping at Chinatown and Bugis and above all the feeling of relaxed peace facing the huge tank in S. E. A Aquarium, are all experiences that are memorable.