Hong Kong and Singapore 2016

Results tagged “Pools”:

Day 12 - Monday 25 January - Singapore to Canberra

And continuing onto Tuesday ..

Had a bit of a sleepin on our last day - til 7:15am!

View from our hotel room

I did photo and blogging stuff then headed out for a walk around the Gardens by the Bay.

Dragonfly Lake

Marina Bay Sands

Supertree Grove

Supertree Grove and Marina Bay Sands

Supertree Grove

Floral clock

Marina Bay Sands

Marina Bay

Singapore Flyer

Gardens by the Bay

Marina Bay Sands

Dragonfly Lake

Gardens by the Bay

Supertree Grove and Dragonfly Lake

Dragonfly Bridge

Water lilies in Gardens by the Bay

Walkway between Bayfront MRT station and Gardens by the Bay

And got some morning photos from the roof

Marina Bay Sands infinity pool

Sands SkyPark Observation Deck

Downtown Singapore from Observation Deck

Singapore from Observation Deck

Victoria Theatres

National Gallery of Singapore

The Float @ Marina Bay Grandstand

The Durian

Sands SkyPark Observation Deck

People in the infinity pool

View of Singapore over infinity pool

Came back and got ready, then headed down to Rise for the buffet breakfast. It was a lot bigger and the hash browns were actually hot (they hadn't been anywhere else this trip), but also a lot more people so a lot more craziness. Plus I was stressing about getting everything done before we checked out.

After breakfast had a final swim in the infinity pool to have it under morning light. We watched a rainstorm come closer and got out just as it hit.

Stu and Kaz having a last swim in the infinity pool

View of Singapore and incoming storm from infinity pool

View of Singapore and storm over infinity pool

Then back to the room to repack all our bags, and we managed to checkout right on 12pm.

Left our bags at the Concierge then went for a wander through the Shoppes. Stopped and had some ice tea and macarons, and wandered around for a bit. But The Shoppes is a really awful boring mall. Unless of course you're into the high end super expensive watches and handbags. Boring boring boring.

Stu with his tea and macarons at TWG Tea

I couldn't stand being there for another hour or two, so we jumped on a train and went one station to Downtown and had a bit of a wander around there. Stu stopped for coffee and I wandered, and even found an outside bit to get a view of the bay from another angle.

View out the window on the train to Downtown

Dream sign and Marina Bay

Marina Bay panorama

Marina Bay Sands

ArtScience Museum and Singapore Flyer

Finally headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Then three trains to the airport.

Singapore Air Traffic Control Tower

Had some noms and some bubbly (and a shower!) at the Qantas club before boarding. Our boarding passes must have been checked at last half a dozen times. Security was only at the boarding gate, not any earlier.

A330 for this flight - up near the back on the left. Took off to the north so no interesting views (other than the airport).

Airbus A330-200 VH-EBV at Changi Airport

Had the beef goulash for dinner.

Dinner on the plane - Slow braised smoky beef goulash with mashed potato and steamed vegetables

Watched The Walk first up which I really really enjoyed. I'd seen a documentary on it relatively recently, and this was a sort of a docu-drama. Very cool. All CGIed of course. Although even if the towers were still there, they'd have had to CGI a lot of stuff *out* of it.

Then watched The Hangover which was actually ok.

It was midnight by this point so attempted to sleep. Failed.

Thinking I had time, I put on Boyhood, but the time listed was wrong and I was still watching it right up until arrival at the gate in Sydney, so missed the end of it :(

(They turned the cabin lights on at 1:30am, and got a bit of breakfast at about 2am. Landed at 3am, which was 6am Sydney time).

Breakfast on the plane - sour cherry pastry

I was feeling about anxious about everything actually (mainly missing the end of the movie), and I thought this set off an upset belly. But in actual fact I just had an upset belly which was making me feel queasy. Stuff came out both ends which was fun. Not. Luckily all at Sydney airport and not on a plane! And felt better after that. Stu was feeling a bit delicate too.

Then our last flight to Canberra. A fairly empty Dash8 in the back row on the right. Took off from half way down 34L and were airborne by the time we passed the east-west runway. Rain and clouds all around Sydney though, so not much of a view.

Qantas Dash 8 VH-QOC at Canberra Airport

Chrissie picked us up at the airport which was lovely of her.

At home we snoozed for a couple of hours then started tackling the mess that is our house.

So pretty good holiday. It was spoilt a bit by the rainy weather in Hong Kong and the unbearable humidity in Singapore, as well as not having much of a plan for what we wanted to do. But we did do some cool stuff and eat lots of good food, so pretty good in the end.

Day 11 - Sunday 24 January - Marina Bay Sands

Had a super slow start. I'd had trouble sleeping (woke up in the middle of the night and took forever to get back to sleep). Ended up sleeping in past 7am.

Spent some time getting ourselves organised, and went down for a fairly late breakfast. Then back to the room to pack up.

It was 11am before we finally got out the door.

Our destination was just across the harbour - the Marina Bay Sands. At over $600 a night we certainly weren't going to stay here more than one night, but as it was the last night of our trip we decided to splurge.

Also because it was our last night, the hotel staff let us checkin when we arrived at 12pm instead of waiting til the normal checkin at 3pm. And they gave us a late (12pm) checkout instead of the usual 11am. So lovely :)

The hotel is amazing. Even the atrium is spectacular. When you get into the room and plug your card into the power, the curtains open up and you see the amazing view. Although we missed that effect because we didn't plug it in straight away heh. The room is *huge*. The bathroom is nearly as big as our bedroom heh. Just amazing.

Kaz looking out the window in our hotel room
Photo by Stu

Bathroom

Our hotel room at Marina Bay Sands

View from our room at Marina Bay Sands

View northwest from our room

So we enjoyed the view for a bit, then headed up to the roof to have a look at the pool and the observation deck. Wow.

Bayfront Pavilion

Gardens by the Bay

Infinity pool and Singapore view

Rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands

Downtown Singapore

The Durian - Theatres on the Bay

The Merlion

Stu and Kaz on the rooftop at Marina Bay Sands
Photo by Stu

Singapore from SkyPark Observation Deck

View east from SkyPark Observation Deck

Singapore Flyer

Gardens by the Bay

Marina Barrage

Then we headed down the "shoppes" downstairs to find some lunch. Got some food at the food court but it was very busy and getting a seat was a challenge. We were a bit hot and frustrated by the end of it.

Marina Bay Sands atrium

Canal in the shopping mall under the hotel

Atrium in The Shoppes

Back to our room briefly.

ArtScience Museum

View from our hotel room

So we came up and had a swim in the Infinity Pool. It was super windy up the top, and then it rained, which successfully cleared out most people. But then the rain stopped and they all came back - doh!

Went back to the room. Stu chillaxed and I went out for a walk to get some photos of the building in the afternoon sun and go over the "helix" bridge. It was hot, but the breeze meant it wasn't too unpleasant.

Marina Bay Sands atrium

Looking across to Gardens by the Bay

Helix Bridge

Heilx Bridge and Marina Bay Sands

Then got ourselves ready for dinner. We went to "db Bistro" by Daniel Boulud. Had some lovely scallops for entree. Stu got a *huge* bowl of seafood, and I had a very tasty coq au vin blanc. All super yummy but there was so much food we struggled to finish it!

Appetiser at db Bistro

Rosemary skewered Diver Scallops, smoked bacon, savoy cabbage, soft polenta, hazelnut brown butter sauce

Stu's seafood dinner at db Bistro

Coq au Vin Blanc, white wine braised chicken, smoked bacon, carrots, local greens that I had for dinner

Went and watched the 8pm light show outside.

Downtown Singapore by night

Marina Bay Sands sound and light show

Marina Bay Sands hotel by night

Took some photos from our room at night

View from our hotel room by night

ArtScience Museum by night

Then had another swim at night.

Stu in the infinity pool at night

Watched the end of the 9:30pm light show from our room.

Marina Bay Sands sound and light show

Then I went back to the roof to get some photos at night.

Helix Bridge and Benjamin Sheares Bridge by night

Gardens by the Bay by night

Singapore Flyer by night

Marina Bay Sands Hotel rooftop and infinity pool by night

Was about to collapse into bed when I realised I hadn't washed my hair. Doh.

So just a note about this hotel. Don't come here expecting any peace and quiet. You'd think from the price it'd mostly be business people, but unless (presumably) there's a convention on, business people don't seem to stay here (why would they, it's nowhere near the CBD). There's a *lot* of families and young people so there's a lot of noise and activity in the corridors. They make a bit of a fuss about the dress code, but since most people coming and going are using the pool, there's a lot of very casual clothing and bathrobes in the lifts heh.