Singapore Extremes

Marina Bay Sands

You will have to agree that this is one spectacular building and the size of it is truly awesome. What you are looking at is the hotel in this massive hotel/casino/theatre and shopping complex which is still being built. The hotel section pictured below is three towers about 60 storeys joined at the top by this ship like skypark. Yep, it is a park on top of the building, amazing. The park is opening on June 27 you can be assured that it will one hell of a party. This little vegie however will NEVER go up there as just looking at it gives me the hebbie jeevies. However we couldn't pass the opportunity of having lunch (Dim Sum for me and Nasi Goring for him) in the lobby. The atrium rises all the way to the top and they have 83 (no I didn't personally count them, just read it in the blurb) pottery vases about 10ft tall containing full size trees scattered around the foyer. Below is a pic of the entire complex, the casino is open, the hotel is up and running, the shopping centre was just starting to open and the theatre complex is still a work in progress. The design of the whole complex is quiet startling, with the sweeping curve of the skypark and the upended cup shape of the theatres.

Art Deco madness

The Park View tower is an example of Asian madness in a particular style. This Decoish tower has more deco styling than the Rockafeller/Chrylser/Waldof put together. We spotted this building when we were on our way to the hotel when we first arrived and just had to go back for a look see. The statues at the top are 6 or 7 stories high and there are lots of similar "over the top" statues scattered around the base. The truly astounding part is the inside which is overwhelming in bronze/gold deco reliefs and decor. Unfortunately you are not permitted to take pics and even though I tried I didn't succeed. Oh it is a building full of lawyers, who else could afford the rent LOL.

Heritage Singapore

Lastly on one of our many shopping centre trips (how many Rolex/Armani/Omega/Tiffany shops can one city have? ) we stumbled into this little bastion of Ol' Singapore. This beautiful little street running off Orchid Road is lined up both side with these lovely terraces. At the Orchid Rd end they are converted into bars and cafes but as you go further up the street you get into the residential area. As you would expect, nothing parked in the driveway is less than a Merc, so I guess we won't be buying there.

On reflection our trip to Singapore was fun, but it really is one big shopping centre and food hall. Next time a stopover of a day or so will be enough - 5 days is 3 days toooooo long.

It's almost over.....

One more day to go and then it's back onto the big bird (hopefully minus the wind shear) for home. This trip seems to have raced away, oh well time to start planning the next one.

We went to the outer islands for snorkeling and once you made it past the regular tourist area the coral and fish life was fantastic. We did have to convince our guide that we knew what we were doing and that it was ok to allow us to go out to the diving zone. Once this was done the day just flowed. The next day was the expected "Ouch toooooooo much sun at the reef " so we had a quiet one just chilling by the pool with a book. Today will be quiet, we have finally reached the "resort" state of mind and everything just happens in slow motion so we will just kick back and enjoy. Only one more "All you can eat" buffet to go and yes Hans I have been watching the waist line very closely because it seems to be getting closer to the ground, don't know how that happened.

Good morning from Sabah

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah 35 degrees, steamy, large pool, calm blue China Sea, what more could you ask for. Our return to Nexus was always a bit of a worry - "Will it be as good as the first time?" well in a word answer no. But having said that the resort is now 10 years older and they have built another large complex about 32 klms down the road and all their attention has been on that. The main resort is still fantastic, the pools are wonderful, the staff great and the laidback feel to everything is just as we remember.

The A group of staff have moved onto the latest and best, and this happens all over the world, but the replacements are very good. The food has also suffered a weeee bit but there is nothing to complain about, it's just not at the same amazingly high level as when it first opened. Yesterday we went into the seafood restaurant in Kota which was fab. Lobby and scallops fresh from the tank all for $80 oh and that included lots of beer. LOL.

Tomorrow off to the outer islands for some snorkeling and today ? well let's just say our place is marked out at the pool and at some stage we will fall into the "all you can eat buffet".

Singapore in seconds

Shopping, food, shopping, food, shopping, food, shopping, food, Zoo, food, shopping, food, Night Safari, food, China town, food, walking, food, shopping, food I think by now you get the point.

Off to Sabah tomorrow for some food, pool, food, pool, cocktails, food, - until then.......................

Bruce I hope you are safe and sound and things dont spread south. Keeping a close eye on the news.

Good Morning from wet and wild Singapore

Well at last we are on our way, and it has to be said that we always find new ways to keep things interesting.  Firstly there will be no pics as I don't have my laptop and the computers here at the hotel don't have card readers so it will be all text until we get home.

Our first flight on the A380 was stimulating if nothing else. To begin we were quite impressed with the layout and leg room in economy. (It's still not business or first but getting better) On the Singapore Airlines layout you don't even get to see the other side of travel. The cattle class is totally isolated from the others - dam.

The flight itself is pretty much like any flight , long and generally boring especially when you appear to be the only person whose  entertainment centre is not working. The best I could get out of a movie was 5 minutes before my screen froze. That said I did manage to beat living daylights out of the backgammon game. The plane is very big and behaves like something very big, it sort of wallows around the sky - odd feeling. In turbulence it drops and slides spooky.

The landing

We were about 10 minutes out and everyone was looking forward to getting off and stretching their legs when the captain announced that they were experiencing some very strong winds at Changi and that all runways other than the north/south had been closed so there would be a delay while we queued. That was ok and nothing we hadn't done before. On final approach we flew straight into this massive thunerstrom, lightening, massive amounts of rain and lots and lots of wind. We were about 200 feet off the ground and definitely committed to landing when we got hit with "Wind Shear". The captain applied full power to stop us going down and we were not sure whether he was trying to do a fly around or what, but as it turned out he was just trying to get us onto the runway. The only problem with applying lots of power at this stage was that we speeded up and overflew the beginning of the runway and landed half way along. Still in torretial rain and wind, we slid all over the place. It is the first time that Ron and I have grabbed the seat in front to stop from being thrown around the cabin - yes we did have our seat belts on. VeryVery scary. As we taxied to the terminal we kept an eye on the runway and we were the only ones to have attempted the landing.

Weather 35 and wet

Rockface

It seems like ages since I have posted a painting. This is painting no 20 in the Whiteman Dreaming series and is inspired from a walk through the Beechworth Gorge just before Christmas 2009. We came across a waterfall and inbeded in the wall was this face with just a trickle of water coming down the rockface. Couldn't resist it, hope you like it as well.

I am entering it in the Mount Eyre Vineyard Art Prize which is a competition in the Hunter Valley of NSW, so fingers crossed I make it into the final selection of showing.

whitemandreaming.blogspot.com

Sold

We are now officially "Homeless Pensioners". It was a very stressful day and neither of us ever want to do it again, but at the end of it all we sold for 910 which is what we think is a good figure. We were worried about some of the finer things like some wonky floor boards etc but the only request the new owners had was when they could get access for the architect and interior designer, so I guess the ol' place is in for a major refit and face lift.

Last night we took off with Scott, Julie and Bailey for a dinner around at the Stingo pub to celebrate and had the best nights sleep in months. Today is going to be a real kick back - NO making beds, No changing towels, No polishing on hands and knees those dam marble tiles, No sweeping or weeding, actually it's going to be a very sloppy day with dishes in the sink reading Escape in the paper and getting ideas for our next adventure. We are off on a quick holiday on Sunday and have been thinking about a trip to Lake Eyre when we get back, that's if it still has water in it.

Here's one for Hans and Bruce

Remember those great rides down along the coast ending up at the Portsea Pub? well it's still there LOL. Yesterday we decided that we needed to get out of town a little and go have lunch, so the obvious place was a drive along the coast to the Portsea Pub. If you know the pub you can see from the pic that it has continued to grow but in essence it remains the same place. Now it wasn't the "packed to the rafters" place we remember from the bike days and the fact that the temp was a balmy 14 might have had something to do with that LOL. I have forgotten just how quiet Portsea is in winter, no shops open apart from the Dive shop and one bakery, but it is still a wonderful relaxing place to go.

The house saga continues and Saturday is rapidly approaching and the good news is the continuous bed making and cleaning is about to stop LOL. We had our last "Show and tell" last night and it was very quiet, again the 10 degree temp and rain might have had a tad to do with it.