I
was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday with family this year – not usually a
given with Army’s ‘campaign season’. Whilst the rest of my work colleagues were
playing in the Shoalwater Bay bush, we were getting ready to fly out to Singapore.
We had promised ourselves that we would take MacK to Legoland in Malaysia
before leaving Darwin and with a posting order confirming a move south we
started to plan.
The
flying time from Darwin to Singapore is roughly the same as flying Darwin to
Melbourne, which just confirms how ridiculously large this wide brown land is.
The team at SilkAir looked after us, giving us the row at the front of the
cabin with a bassinet. The boys travelled really well, and we got into Changi
(Terminal 3 of 5) with enough time to head out to a local Hawker food stall for
dinner. We were a bit bemused to pay more for a bowl of BBQ Broccoli than we
did for one of the meat dishes we ordered…
I
was able to tick off a bucket list item that I didn’t know was on the list – I
saw one of the Chinese chefs at the hotel who had a tattoo (nothing new here so
far) on his arm – that was written in English; as opposed to white folks with
random Chinese characters… He had
“Everything I do, I do it for you” inked – just hope it is his attitude to
cooking!
On
Day 1 we drove out of Singapore for Johor Bahru in Malaysia. I was amazed by
the customs procedures in both Singapore and Malaysia. They were both much more
user friendly than the Australian equivalent, and the customs officers seemed
to realise they provide the first impression of their respective nations. Not
so much in Australia.
We
stayed at the Legoland Hotel for two nights. The décor is just brilliant, with
each floor themed for one of the current Lego major themes. We stayed in one of
the Adventure themed rooms. Absolutely brilliant, unless you are afraid of
spiders (embroidered into the carpet). There was a separate room for MacK, and
a treasure hunt for him with a gift in the safe when he deciphered the code.
There is Lego everywhere, including massive tubs in the foyer.
The
major clientele for Legoland is split between China and Australia. The food in
the restaurant seems to be their take on what both the Chinese and Australians
want. I don’t know enough about Chinese cuisine to know if they got that right,
but the western food was pretty good. Unless you like bacon… No bacon in
Malaysia! Turkey bacon doesn’t quite hit the mark!
We
spent our first afternoon in the water park, which was a lot of fun. The
overriding feeling is one of safety. We were comfortable leaving Hugo in the
care of a life guard while Jane, MacK and I had a race on the speed slide. The
only criticism we had about the water park is that the water pressure is toned
way down to meet the needs of the target market who don’t swim. Actually, it
was only me who had a real problem with the water pressure… I stopped dead on a
couple of slides, and had to walk out. Still excellent fun through.
Day
two was the Lego park proper, were we started with MacK getting his Legoland
driver’s licence. Apparently, this was a busy day at Legoland, but we never had
to queue more than five minutes on every ride. At one-point Jane and MacK
didn’t even have to get off the roller coaster at the end of a ride. Comparing
the park experience to previous Gold Coast theme parks for value is a no
brainer – Legoland wins hands down.
MacK
won a Lego competition in the hotel, and Hugo missed everything – although we
do have a bunch of photos of the wee man asleep next to all the attractions to
remind him of what he missed out on later in life.
Back
in Singapore we stayed in the Orchard Hotel – a fantastic hotel at the top end
of Orchard Road, and very close to the centre of town. We had a quiet afternoon
in the Swimming Pool before heading out to one of the Hawker food markets. The
next day was our day to relax without any organised outings, so we headed out
to the Botanic Gardens. I had the pedometer on my phone, and apparently we
walked 16 km over the day…. Definitely got that relaxing thing down pat! An
absolute highlight of the day was the restaurant Bees Knees for lunch.
Our
last couple of days we had organised tours, with one being to the Singapore
Zoo, and the other to Sentosa Island and its amazing Aquarium. We were lucky
enough to have breakfast with the Orang Utans at the Zoo, and MacK was able to
tick off his bucket list animals. Jane likewise, with the ballerina of the
African river systems – the Pygmy Hippopotamus (He was pretty cute).
Most
of our dining was done in traditional Hawker style establishments except for
the night that MacK couldn’t face the walk. We decided to go to the Spanish
restaurant attached to the Hotel. Pim Pam by Foc ( with MacK saying that it was
the “F” word, but with the wrong spelling) is the kind of restaurant where you would
be more likely to take your significant other for a special occasion than two
tired kids… MacK monstered a plate of exceptionally good olives and most of my
Jamon Iberico (told him I will get him his own pig to cure!) before taking on a
roast chicken cannelloni.
Singapore
is an amazing city. There are very few cars on the road (prohibitively
expensive to own), with most traffic underground in a subway system. It makes
it very easy to walk through the city, and we regularly had taxi drivers
apologise for the cost of taxi travel (which was much cheaper than here in
Australia). The Gardens by the Bay are just amazing and we would love to go
back to explore the properly. The steel forest is incredible, and they set a
light show to music every night.
Our
last night we spent in Arab Street, which is both incredibly vibrant and
unique, but also so very different to the rest of Singapore. We could have
spent hours wandering through the market stalls and shops, but were rapidly
running out of time. Besides, we needed to get back to the hotel to pack as we
had a 0530 h pickup to get to the Airport to get back to reality!
