About four days ago we woke to a wet February morning at the Premier Inn on Bath Road, near Heathrow's Terminal 2. Just a note here, in case you ever plan to visit - there are two Premier Inns on Bath Road near Heathrow Terminal 2. It's as well to know which one you want to get to...
So, yes, wet, windy, chilly February. A check in, a bag drop, an Airbus 380, some bizarrely timed meals and 12 and a half sleepless hours later we arrived to - a wet, windy, stunningly hot February morning in Singapore.
How can I tell you about Singapore? There's just so much to say - and we were only there two days. Here are some of the things that spring to the top of my mind...
It's clean. Very clean. The public loos are pristine, the basins wiped after every use, the floor gleaming, the walls meticulously scrubbed.
There's no litter. Not one little piece.
There are some sort of mynah birds that scoot in to clear crumbs - like our pigeons,but so much more delicate and curious, that put their heads on one side to observe you, and primp up the feathers on their heads while making a strange sort of gurgling noise.
There is amazing food, in so many varieties you are so spoilt for choice you just get hungrier and hungrier while trying to decide where to eat.
There's Raffles, with the Singapore Sling, and the gift shop whose prices made my eyes pop from their sockets. It's so crowded with tourists I can't imagine staying there is much fun, but peering in at the dining room with its polished silver and guests partaking of high tea (tiny cucumber sandwiches and delicate cakes on cake stands) was redolent of colonial times.
There are vast shopping centres where you could take a wrong turn and be lost for days.
There are friendly, helpful people, both in the service industry and on the street, who take what seems a genuine interest in visitors.
There's a huge underpass under a road junction where young men practice their street dancing, ignored by groups of friends and families picnicking complete with picnic blankets, tupperwares full of sandwiches and thermos flasks on the gleaming marble-tiled floor.
There's the river, sadly now as pristine as the city, but beautiful nonetheless.
There's Little India, which took us straight back to Kolkata. Full of men standing around, shopping, gossiping...
There's an amazing skyline, with an hotel that is topped off with an ocean liner!
Look, I could go on and on. One or two people said, no, don't stop off in Singapore, it's soul-less. Others said it was one of their favourite places. I know that I'd go there again in a heartbeat.
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