Posts for August, 2024

An early start and then a comfortable but boring flight got this much anticipated adventure underway. We arrived in Singapore about 40 minutes ahead of schedule and after a short wait our pickup ride appeared and then on to our hotel - Robertson House Hotel. The hotel is well situated on the banks of the Singapore River close to a myriad of restaurants and bars.

Today is Wednesday and we don't meet our travel group until midday Friday. So we have a few days to ourselves, so what to do. Well our neighbours back in Sydney just had a short holiday in Singapore and they recommended the Singapore National Museum, so that was the excursion for the day. As it turned out the museum is within an easy walk of our hotel and on the otherside of a hill that is the sight of Fort Canning and Fort Canning Reservoir

This morning we caught the local subway to The Marina Bay Sands Hotel, that famous Singapore building consisting of three towers with a boat resting across the top of the towers. The metro station at Bay Front is in the shopping mall that sits between the hotel and the harbour. So we started our visit to this tourist mecca by walking around the mall. It is breath taking in its opulence, every up-market brand you have ever heard of and many you have not.

Today was a big day; the convening of the tour group, first (very short) train ride, and first border crossing. And all of this happening on the day that celebrates 59 years of the nation of Singapre.

An early start today, breakfast at 6:00, a 7:30 departure from the hotel, and a new route from hotel to station. Why a new route ? Well the shopping center we traversed yesterday evening was not open early enough.

Another fast start today. Out of the hotel at 9:00 for a 10:00 train to Pandang Besar, a border town between Malaysia and Thailand, where we do border processing and pickup a night train to Bangkok. That all sounds pretty straight forward and certainly the first train was. A modern Euro-style electric train that went as fast as 150km/h. There were a lot of stops along the way and a significant number of locals getting on and off. There was not much to see during the ride because of heavy jungle close to the track that obscured ones vision. Where a view became available one noticed that palm oil forests were still plentiful but compared to yesterday there were now more rice fields. Late in this leg we saw a number of large limestone outcroppings, each attended by its own cement factory.