Day 1 Getting There
Up at 4:30 am for some final packing, our hire car showed spot on time at 6:30 am and we headed through the light Friday morning traffic to the airport. Check in was painless with even the automated Immigration machine recognising Jeanette and letting her through (which is a first in our travels).
Only small pain point was being charged $26 for two small lattes and one piece of banana bread at a cafe on the Departure side. Who said Ned Kelly was dead.
Boarding went smoothly. We were on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777. A bit on the old side but our seats were very comfortable.
Seven hours later we arrived in Singapore which incidentally have an automated immigration system which was even more clunky than the Australian one which I would not have thought possible. You can see here how travel does broaden the mind.
After a short drive, we arrived at the Grand Park City Hall Hotel where we will be staying for two nights . It was a very nice place ideally located in the old historic part of town.
Our room however had a couple of quirks. The first was the bathroom walls were all glass as you can see from the above photo which was not ideal for persons of a shy and retiring nature.
The next was there were only two light control points. One had twelve little buttons which controlled just about everything – airconditioning, ceiling fan, Clean My Room indicator, etc. It was located low on the wall behind my fixed bedside light and I could only work it by kneeling on the floor and leaning on an angle with my reading classes on.
The other switch which was located in the bathroom was a box with 4 press squares in it. Two of these press squares worked the lights, the other two worked two rather noisy motorised blinds that dropped down covering the glass bathroom walls. I pressed the wrong button trying to turn on the bathroom lights in the middle of the night and created a huge racket as the curtains ground their way up.
At 6pm we caught up with our friends Alan and Noelle and headed off for dinner at a Restaurant called True Blue Cuisine. Nothing whatsoever to do with Australia. It was a very traditional restaurant that specialised in Peranakan traditional cuisine. We were not sure what that is but they make a fabulous prawn omelette, the staff were very kind and friendly and the decor is something to see.
The nights here are very warm and we took the long way back to our hotel, passing what has to be the most magnificent Chamber of Commerce building we had ever seen.
Hardys’ Travels 