Singapore

The final stop on our travels is Singapore. We began with a visit to the botanic gardens (well no city visit is complete otherwise!). There were some lovely lakes filled with turtles and lilypads and plenty of tropical trees and flowers. The highlight was the orchid garden though, where we saw hundreds of beautiful orchid varieties and were even lucky(?) enough to bump into Maggie Thatcher.

One of the lakes in the gardens

A few of the orchids

Margaret Thatcher (we jest not!)

After our stroll round the gardens we went to the colonial district and saw lots of old buildings and statues, including one of Sir Stamford Raffles (founder of modern Singapore).

Sir Stamford Raffles (check out that tropical rain!)

The Merlion, mascot of Singapore

In the evening we felt obliged to head to the Bar & Billiard Room at the famous Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling. We had intended to go somewhere slightly less classy and expensive for dinner but Matt got a sniff of the buffet dinner and we somehow never left. Oh well, with 8 courses we definitely got our money's worth (it was very yummy too, especially the desserts)!!

Claire with her Singapore Sling, invented at the Raffles

Now we just have a few hours left then time for the long flight back home. See you all soonish :-)