The next day we went to an island called Palau Ubin. This required a subway and then a bus and then a boat to the island. Once there we rented bicycles to get around on. These bikes we worn and uncomfortable. I know I am a bit of a bike snob, but these were bad. We managed to get around the island on them, and we did better than some we saw. We saw one guy carrying a bike because the rear derailer had broken off the bike preventing the rear wheel from being able to move at all. I offered to look at it to see if I could help at all, but was unable to. The metal had just snapped apart. “G” bike did lose its chain once, but that was a pretty easy fix. Overall the island was a bit of a bust to me as well. It was similar to the wetlands the day before so it didn’t seem that great. Maybe if we hadn’t gone to the wetlands it would have impressed me more, but it didn’t. There were some very small crabs we saw that were digging holes that were interesting to see. We also saw one of the lakes that was once a rock mine on the island. It was just a big lake so it really wasn’t much to see. I get that it was once a mine, but it had no indication of that now, so it was simply a lake. The girls and I got separated from “B” right towards the end of the bike time, and that caused some frustrations. Then when it was time to go “B” and I each thought some thing else. I thought we were leaving and she wanted to eat first. She didn’t express this to me and so I didn’t know and then an argument occurred again. I truly believe it has a huge amount to do with the humidity in Singapore making all of us very grumpy and taking it out on each other. We finally moved on from it (but it took a bit of time).
When we got to the mainland we decided to head back to the airport and explore the Jewel more. This time we spent the money on some of the attractions there and did the mirror maze, hedge maze, and net walking. The net walking was scary because at times you were over 5 stories above the ground when looking through the net. I knew I wasn’t going to fall, but it was still very scary. We ate at a place called Jumbo Seafood. It was good seafood. Then we had an unimpressive waffle and ice cream dessert. This was another late night where I didn’t get to bed until after midnight. I think that lack of sleep was also getting the me at this point as well.
Last full day in Singapore was finally upon us – YEAH!!!!! I was ready to be done, and I think “A” was as well. The humidity and heat was just way to much. We spent the morning packing. This is always a chore to do since my wonderful wife wants us all the have at least 2 full sets of clothes with us on the plane and then the rest separated among the checked bags in case something is lost along the way. And we had to figure out all our purchased stuff as well in the bags (no shipping this time of stuff back to the states). Once that was done we had the Gardens by the Bay planned for the late afternoon/evening. We decided to walk to the merlion in Singapore, which is a famous landmark of a merlion. So we did that, and then walked to the Gardens by the Bay after that. It was a good few kilometers to get there total, but not a bad walk. Nothing compared to some of our other walking days. The Garden was really nice. We had bought tickets to see a bunch of the stuff in the garden and did them all. We saw some great flower areas, and some interesting designed work in the park as well. Toward the end of the day we headed to the talk metal “trees” that the Garden is known for. We went up to the observation deck there, and was unimpressed. We got to see the light show they do from the base while we waited to get up to the observation deck. It was had a soundtrack that I think was almost all John Williams stuff. I recognized Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and more. It was neat. Then we were able to get up to the skywalk and we timed it just right to get to see the light show again from up high in the lights and trees. It was really cool from up there, and was worth the time and money to do it. We almost missed getting up there since the line was long, but we made the cut off. Certainly a highlight from being in Singapore. Then we descended and decided to take the subway back to the hotel rather than walk late at night a huge distance. We ended up at a fancy mall where the underground was, and the girls bought fancy tea. I hung around outside the store since I had no interest in that stuff at all. Another very late night and we had a VERY early morning to get to the airport to catch our plane to Cairns, Australia (or that was the plan…)
