We had a relaxing start today.  Breakfast…a swim….relaxing by the pool…apart from me having to do a bit of work, it was what a holiday is meant to be like!  We returned to our rooms to shower and get ready to go and see some sights though.  I called room service to get some ice.  After waiting over 15 minutes, I gave up on waiting, as we were supposed to be leaving.  So I just had my camel back with water in it.

We walked up to Raffles (about 5 minutes from our Hotel) and got on the SIA Hop-on Hop-off bus, to see a bit of the city.  Our first hop off was at Chinatown, where we walked in to a temple there.  It wasn’t as nice as the ones I see in Japan.  Maybe that’s because it was Indian… but it didn’t have the same appeal, and seeing some of the food and drinks they were serving.  YUCK!!!  We then left and continued walking…

Simon considered buying a suit, so we had a look in a store at materials.  We got the price down from $720 to $500, and eventually Simon said he’d think about it.  The guy was a bit too pushy, so he wasn’t interested in buying from him.

We stopped for some lunch, which we shared about 5 small servings of food.  More great stuff to eat!  I always love that part of travelling!  We then walked around Chinatown a bit more.

Back on the hop-on-hop-off bus, we went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens.  We spent a couple of hours walking around them, where Simon managed to get a number of photos.  There were some great colours in the flowers, and the “Cool House” was great!

We just missed the next hop-on-hop-off bus by about 30 paces, so took that as a sign to have a cold beer to cool down after all our walking.  The next one arrived about 20 minutes later, and that took us back to Raffles for a Singapore Sling in teh Long Bar.

Back at the hotel we were going to have a swim, but the heavens opened up on us.  Nonetheless it seemed like a good idea for me to walk out to the pool.  I got just as wet on the walk as I would have if I had gone in the pool fully clothed!  I was dripping wet!  So I went back to my room to have  a warm shower.

We had a couple of drinks at Happy Hour in the bar at the hotel, and then caught a taxi to the Casino.  The Singapore Casino looks amazing as you drive around the city, so I wanted to see what it was like up close.  In the food court we had dinner, so a simple meal.  Then it was off to try our luck on the Roulette Wheel.  We had to show our passports to get in to the casino (something which, luckily, we had found out earlier), as locals have to pay ~$100 to get in!  Lady luck wasn’t with us though, so after not a lot of spins, we were both done.

Instead of a taxi home, I suggested we catch the train.  It’s cheaper, and always fun to work your way around a public transport system in a strange place.  I knew a bit of what to expect, from when I was here in 2001, but when I pointed out that the train had no driver in it, it had Simon caught by surprise!  It took a little longer than a taxi, but we made it back without too much trouble.  Once we were at the City Hall station, we just had to look for the Carlton Hotel sign, which wasn’t too hard.

It seemed wrong for a Saturday night, but we were out of things to do, and so went back to the hotel.  We thought about a few drinks to end the night, but ended up crashing early.