So! That's it. How to finish up writing about a month-long trip of a lifetime? I can't believe it's been two and a half months already since I came home. Three months ago I was on the way to Sydney. A whole quarter of a year. I remember looking out the window of the car as we left Cairns the morning we arrived, feeling so excited and happy, thinking how wonderful it was to be there, and not quite believing I had an entire month of it. Time flies. It's achingly depressing. Of course, the fact that experiences are limited in time only makes them more special - if they were to go on forever we wouldn't enjoy them so much...
At the end of the trip, after a month of doing something every day, and a week of oppressive heat and humidity, I was worn out. Although I loved Singapore it had been a bit of a struggle to make myself get out and explore even as much as I had in the last couple of days. Part of me was glad to be returning home, to my own bed and the cooler weather and the English countryside. But I was also very sad.
Singapore was stunning. When someone asked me, just after I had got home, if I would go back there, my response was that I didn't know – part of me wanted to, but I really didn't like the climate in that region and found it difficult to be there, I'm not really interested in going anywhere else in south-east Asia at the moment and it's a long way to go to just spend a few days in a city. Now, however, I've kind of forgotten how bad it was and I would like to go back one day. Perhaps I'd find it easier to handle the weather if it's just for a few days or so, rather than a month. It's such a cool place, I was impressed with so many things there, even the safety videos on the MRT. I'd like to spend more time at Gardens by the Bay, visit the Singapore City Gallery, go to a museum or two and learn more about the city's history, visit some temples, eat more of that delicious food, wander into Chinatown and not just skirt the edge of it, go over to Sentosa, perhaps go to the Raffles Hotel and have a Singapore Sling (haha), maybe even try some durian (a fruit which smells so bad that the MRT even has signs up saying "No food or drink. No smoking. No flammable goods. No durian.").
Bali wasn't my kind of place. While I enjoyed the things I did there – the cooking class, the sessions at the Yoga Barn – I can't say I liked the place itself; at least, not Kuta and Ubud. I may have enjoyed other, less urban, areas more. After I left, my sister and her friend went to the island of Nusa Lembogan, which is the real tropical island paradise that Bali is made out to be, with beautiful clear turquoise waters (rough seas though), white sandy beaches, stunning colourful coral reefs, MANTA RAYS!!!! (very jealous of them seeing those up close)… I would have liked it there, for a little while. Someone asked me if, despite not really enjoying Bali, I was glad I went. I can be very pernickety with the words I use and to me the word "glad" implies pleasure and happiness - so the answer to that question is no. But I recognise that it was a positive thing that I did go, that I went out of my comfort zone and faced my fear of the unknown, and learned for sure, from experience, that Bali and other similar places aren't for me, or I for them.
But Australia... I loved the rural Atherton Tablelands, especially the area around Lake Tinaroo, it's beautiful. I had such a lovely time at my aunt's, and only regret that I didn't get up to go for the 6am dog walk at least some mornings while we were there. There's a reason why she moved there, why so many people choose to move to Australia and New Zealand: the lifestyle. It is enviable. Yes, people still have to work full-time, have to pay rent or mortgages, have responsibilities and problems and fears, etc. But it's more easy-going than here in the UK, the work-life balance is easier to achieve, people make it more of a priority. There's a culture of community too; people are friendly, they get to know their neighbours and look out for each other. Health and safety isn't so ridiculous over there, people just use common sense and it serves them fine, but they're very strict on understandable, sensible things like speed limits and sun protection. And because there's so much land you can get more for your money than over here. With the money they got from selling their regular, two-bedroom terraced house near Salisbury, Tracy and Rob were able to buy an acre of land in a lovely rural location near a huge lake and design and build a stunning home. Of course, the downside is that it's so far away. And the heat. And the typhoons. And crocodiles. And all sorts of nasty spiders and bugs and creepy crawlies. We're very sheltered here in the UK, we don't have any dangerous animals, natural disasters or such severe weather. Still, I wish it wasn't so far away.
Experiencing a place from a local's perspective, or being shown round by a local, is something every traveller wants. I was fortunate enough to have that for a lot of this trip - at my aunt's, a little in Sydney, and on my first day in Singapore. I've been on tours run by locals in places before, but as part of a group of other tourists. Experiencing and learning about a place, the history, the food, the culture, etc., from a local who is a friend or family member you know well and who knows you, makes it infinitely better, so much richer, more wonderful, the memories stronger and more precious. I am ever so grateful that I was able to go on this trip.
Highlights? Well, the entire time at my aunt's. The skydive. The day where it was just me and my aunt. Sydney. The first day in Singapore. Last evening in Singapore. ...That's quite a lot, haha. But it was amazing, and it's made me rethink a little about how I want to travel in future.
I don't really know how to finish this up. I guess... so where next? Lots of people have asked me that. The only one I have planned at the moment is, thanks to generous family, a few days in Vienna at the end of March, around my birthday. I usually go on a little trip around then anyway, and one of my favourite musician/composers is performing in Vienna on the day itself. I'll spend some time in the city, which is meant to be lovely, but I'd like to get out into some more rural places, too, to the mountains if I can. I am a little nervous, though, seeing as I'll be flying out there literally two days after Brexit, haha... :/
For anyone who has read every post so far, thank you :) I know it's taken me a ludicrously long time to finish writing about this trip, with weeks in between posts since I got home, so thank you for keeping interested. Now, it's back to trying to think of things to blog about! I have some ideas. So, until the next post - byee!
November 10, 2018
November 05, 2018
Summer 2018 big trip - day 26
Wednesday 22nd August
The hostel doesn't serve breakfast, and this was a public holiday so most places were closed, but eventually I found a modern, trendy café where I had shakshouka (eggs baked in a spicy tomato sauce) for a late breakfast, with a warm chocolate muffin and a lemon-and-ginger juice drink. Yummm! As I was finishing it started pouring down with rain, so I lingered a while. I was tired and it was raining so I decided to go back to the hostel, do a load of laundry and write a blog post or two on one of the computers they had there. (I hadn't taken my laptop on the trip, just my Kindle tablet, which is annoying to write on and kept switching itself off anyway.)
By the time the washing had gone through the tumble-drier
it was around 2pm, the rain had cleared and I headed out… although a bit
reluctantly. I was loving Singapore and wanted to go out and see as much as I
could, but I was also worn out and the oppressive weather made being outside
difficult. Anyway, I got the MRT to Clarke Quay, an area of riverside
restaurants. Little was open and I wandered along a bit further to Boat Quay, opposite some of the first British colonial buildings, where I eventually had a late lunch at an Italian restaurant. Walking along, I
had fancied pasta, and the sausage pasta dish I ordered sounded good (homemade Italian pork sausage and mushrooms sauteed in light cream), but when
it came out I was a bit disappointed and wished I had gone to an Indian or
Chinese place. Oh well! (The day after I got home, I went for lunch at a little
Indian restaurant, and the day after that went for dinner at a Thai place and
had sweet-and-sour. Prolonging the good food a bit longer… haha!)
After lunch I carried on walking along the river, looking
at the old colonial buildings nestled in front of the modern city. I wondered
what it must have been like for the wives and daughters of the men who came
over here (and went to Australia, for that matter) back in the 19th
and early 20th centuries, before air con was invented and when women
still had to wear the clothes they wore in chilly England – corsets and petticoats
and long, possibly heavy dresses. Did any of them have a choice? How did they feel? I'm
sure some of them were excited at the prospect and happy to go, but others
wouldn't have been. Did any of them speak out and say how they felt? Did any of
them fully rebel and refuse to go, or refuse to stay and returned home? When I was younger it was often said I
was born in the wrong era, and while there are some aspects of previous times I would like, I no
longer agree with that. I'm very lucky and grateful to be living in the 21st
century and in a developed country where women are free and pretty much equal
to men nowadays, where I can live my life almost as I please. I can get a full
education, study subjects that interest me, get a job and earn a wage working
in safe conditions, live independently, choose who and when (and indeed if) to marry, choose to
not have children, go out and meet my friends, express my opinion, travel, etc.
(Not to mention other modern benefits like decent healthcare, safe water,
hygiene standards, air conditioning, central heating, refrigeration, etc.)
The river ended at Merlion Park, where it lets out into Marina Bay. The Merlion is Singapore's mascot
and has the body of a fish, which represents the city's origin as a fishing village, and the head of a lion, which represents Singapore's original name Singapura, meaning "lion city". The park is directly opposite the Marina Bay Sands complex, the
Singapore Flyer (a giant Ferris wheel) and the lotus-shaped ArtScience
Museum, so was packed. There are several cafes and restaurants and kiosks around, and on
seeing one place I immediately wished I'd carried on and
found that instead of settling for lunch on Boat Quay. It sold traditional
Singaporean things like kaya toast and chicken rice, which I soon wouldn't have
the opportunity to have anymore. I was full up from the pasta, but got myself a cold drink. They had sour plum ones which sounded good, but my friend had recommended trying bandung,
a drink made with evaporated or condensed milk and rose cordial syrup. (Evaporated and condensed milk are often used in drinks in Singapore, especially in tea and coffee... it seems they have a very sweet tooth over there.) The bandung was a bright pink, very sweet
thing that tastes like Turkish Delight. It was nice, but very unusual, and
there was a lot of it, so I drank it slowly. As I left and carried on round, I heard one kiosk blasting out, to my astonishment and wonderfully unashamedly, "We're All In This Together" from High School Musical. Haha! That made me laugh and put a big grin on my face. Fab :D
As I said at the end of my previous post, I had come to Marina Bay Sands the evening before, and had been blown away, had stood looking up and around literally with my mouth open. The MRT station is underneath the complex and to exit you can either go up into the shopping centre (The Shoppes) or through a tunnel underneath and exit at Gardens by the Bay. I went up into the mall before heading to the Gardens. The Shoppes mall alone is amazing - being part of a luxury resort, it's the kind of place where everything is very aesthetically pleasing, oozes class, sophistication and luxury, that is full of designer boutiques and has a canal running through the middle of it. Above a circular pool in one part of the canal is the Rain Oculus, a piece of art/water feature that is basically a large transparent basin in the plaza above/outside the centre, from which collected rainwater is sent at intervals in a downward whirlpool into the canal below. That's cool. There is also a beautiful tea shop (well, as they call it, a tea salon and boutique), full of colourful, pretty, old-fashioned tea tins, which I had a wander round. I'm not a fan of tea, but there were a few blends which smelled very nice. I did buy two bite-sized treats from the counter: a black-tea-and-blackcurrant macaron, and a chocolate truffle flavoured with black tea, sesame and honey. Can't say I appreciated the flavour of the tea, haha.
As cool as Marina Bay Sands is, a shopping centre is a shopping centre, and Gardens by the Bay is much more me. This is a huge, 101-hectare (nearly 250-acre) nature park which is largely free and open till 2am. There are numerous smaller parks and gardens, some of them themed, two large conservatories - Flower Dome and Cloud Forest - and the Supertrees.
I wandered through some of the park, an area with little Heritage Gardens themed around the cultures of the major Sinagporean communities (Chinese, Malay, Indian), to get to the Conservatories. The main park area is open and free to enter, but you have to pay to go into the conservatories. It is expensive, but I couldn't not go in, I love those kind of places, the Gardens was one of the reasons I came to visit this country. Last entry to the domes was at 8pm, for a 9pm close, and it was gone six-thirty by this point. I had no idea how long it would take me to go round either one of them so I went in the Flower Dome first, because I love flowers.
Fleurs!!!!!! I walked in to see a hall full of flowers, and gasped and grinned and giggled in excitement like a little girl. Love it! The main display area in the centre of the building, which changes every few months, is the Flower Field, and the theme when I was there was the local Peranakan culture so the place was awash with lovely orchids. So preeeeeeetttttttyyyyyy. Hehe. I love places like this, where there are huge displays of flowers. The Flower Dome replicates the "cool-dry" climate in the Mediterranean and semi-arid regions, and the rest of it is made of several smaller gardens based on various cool-dry geographical regions around the world (the Med, South Africa, California, South America, Australia, etc.). In each of these gardens are wooden sculptures in amongst the plants, of animals from each region, like antelope and giraffes in the South African Garden and an owl in the Olive Grove. Part of the Succulent Garden had an "Aloes in Wonderland" display and there were sculptures of Alice in Wonderland figures, which was cute. My favourite of all was the dragon overlooking the entire conservatory from the Baobob Garden at the top.
Just before 8pm I left the Flower Dome and went over to the Cloud Forest, which replicates the "cool-moist" climate of tropical mountain regions. (The "cool" temperature in the domes is relative to the average outside temperature of Singapore and the equatorial region, which never really falls below 25 degrees Celcius. The domes are around 23 degrees.) The zones of this mist-shrouded Conservatory are different levels within a 35-metre-tall 'mountain' covered in lush vegetation, the world's tallest man-made waterfall, and a couple of elevated walkways. I wish I had known before I went that this dome was more educational/scientific, as I would have made more time to spend there; I wasn't much interested in information about the plants to be honest, but the Crystal Mountain zone was basically the geology section (I find it interesting), and the little Secret Garden was nice. The final section at the bottom of the mountain structure, and the one I liked most, was the Cloud Forest Gallery and Theatre. This was an impressive interactive exhibition about the (unofficial) current geological age, the Anthropocene - Age of Man - and how humanity's overpopulation, continued population growth and resulting overuse of resources has impacted the planet. I'm passionate about this kind of thing, and the exhibition was really really good, giving information not just about the issues but also about possible solutions - and actually explaining the latter, giving examples and telling you how they work, so people can go "Oh, that's really cool!" and hopefully some are inspired to get into that work and continue to find solutions. It's a real shame I could only spend literally five minutes in there.
So - 8:45pm on my last night in Singapore. My flight home was at 9am the next morning. One last thing to see before I left: the Garden Symphony, a music and light show held twice every evening in the Supertree Grove. The Supertrees are spectacular, wonderful, the most iconic and instantly-recognisable feature at Gardens by the Bay. There are 18 of these vertical gardens around the park, between 25 and 50 metres tall, and 12 are clustered together in the Supertree Grove. It's an amazing place to be, especially at night when the trees are lit up and the lights slowly shift from colour to colour. I had absolutely loved it straight away when I first visited the night before, and it was a great place, a very me place, to end the entire trip. The Garden Symphony was fantastic, the lights on the trees synced to fifteen minutes of classical music.
I lingered a while after it finished, sitting at the base of one of the Supertrees, gazing up and around. It was gone 9pm, full dark, very cloudy and threatening to rain. A big thunderstorm skirted the city and many people had left, although there were still quite a few still about. I could have stayed there for a long time, but after about half an hour semi-reluctantly started heading back to the hostel to go to bed - there was every possibility I wouldn't be able to sleep for the next four days. I dragged myself away from those marvellous structures, stopping to look back one last time. I would very much like to go there again one day.
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