13 hours and 8 time zones after leaving Heathrow the big jumbo descended gracefully towards Singapore. Back in London it was a cold grey February morning, the wind was chill and Gordon Brown was thinking of new and innovative ways of removing my disposable income. Here though it was a sunny Friday afternoon and I looked out of the window with a mix of excitement and expectation. Ahead lay a three week holiday for me, my wife Ula and our little son Matthew, far away from the drudge of work and the awful weather of another damp dark UK winter. Perth lay sparkling ahead on our holiday itinerary, but for the moment all eyes were on Singapore.
Perhaps expectation is not a completely accurate description .Truth to tell I did not know what to expect from Singapore, for the simple reason I knew slightly less than bugger all about the place. Quizzed on whether Singapore was a city, island or state (“and remember if you get this wrong you slip back to £1000”) and I would probably have guessed at city (I know, trick question – its all three). Pressed further, my misers hoard of useless junk information would have produced the following feeble list. The Raffles hotel, vague memories of “Tenko”, General Slim’s WW2 victories over the Japanese (spot the History Grad) and…. the Raffles hotel. For me Singapore was a kind of twin with Hong Kong, busy, cramped, lots of people, little space, rich, and thriving economically.
This step into the unexpected was augmented by the Matthew factor (19 months) which had almost resulted in the whole holiday being shelved. Would he cope with the flight? Would he cope with the jet lag? Would we cope if he didn’t? Matty had extensive flying experience under his belt due to being born in Paris (another story) and because Ula is Polish and therefore half his family is there ( more a book than a story), but all his flying had been short haul. London to Singapore, was clearly a different order of magnitude. We had decided to risk it on the grounds that it wouldn’t get any easier as he got older, we might have a second child, and most important, he was free until he turned two. Our decision was looking good as thanks to an overnight flight, the good service and our DVD player (note for parents of small children, never go on a plane flight without Pingu) he had been fine - so far. The challenge of jet lag lay ahead, but we tried not to think about that.
Singapore from the air made a positive impression, shimmering in the afternoon sun. It made a second as we left he plane. It was hot. Really hot. Given that we were near the equator this was not a huge shock. The surprise was in the nature of the climate, a humid tropical heat that reminded me of a gym steam room. Clearly air conditioning would be essential, but the jeans and jumper I was wearing would not, and could be safely packed away for the next few weeks.
One of the key reasons for stopping in Singapore, beyond the fact that we had never been - and the practical reasoning that London to Perth direct with a small child was a level of masochism too far - was to visit our good friends, Rachael and Dominic, who moved to Singapore last autumn. How good these friends are, can be deduced from the fact they were prepared to share there new home with a potentially jet lagged child for the next five days. Further detail is I feel, superfluous.
Rachael was there to meet us on arrival and as we headed to their apartment I got my first glimpse of Singapore up close. I realised that one of my assumptions, the one about no space everything being crammed together had been way off the mark. Singapore may have the de rigeur skyscrapers and high rise apartments of a modern metropolis, but it also had a pleasant, verdant feel, with spacious parks and plentiful tropical vegetation.
Arriving at their condo we unloaded ourselves from the taxi, (one foldable bed, one stroller, multiple assorted bags and one case the size of a wardrobe) and went up to meet Dom.. On our skype calls before the trip, Rach and Dom had proudly told us how they had “baby proofed” the place. On her own blog, which I can recommend for a different perspective of this holiday, Rachael admitted that this process was not quite as impressive as they had hoped. Looking round I could see a worrying number of breakable objects within easy reach of Matty including, in no particular order, wine bottles, lamp stands, DVD player, IPOD station, Computer, glass cabinet with a lot of expensive crystal and some nice glass candle holders. If this was post baby proofing, I wondered what had been removed. We quickly helped them make some urgent alterations while I mentally cursed not including house repairs in my holiday budget.
Finally when most of the dangerous items had been locked away and I had read through my travel insurance cover, we got a chance to catch up properly over a glass/bottle or two of wine. Later with Matty in bed and over a few more glasses / bottles / flagons of wine we discussed the itinerary for the next few days. Rachael and Dom had been used to people -sans children - coming to see China Town, the Indian quarter and Singapore’s night life, but they adapted with impressive speed to the kiddie challenge and quickly came up with a list headed by the zoo, the park and the beach. Before we did any of this though we decided the first day was for chilling and shopping.
Perhaps expectation is not a completely accurate description .Truth to tell I did not know what to expect from Singapore, for the simple reason I knew slightly less than bugger all about the place. Quizzed on whether Singapore was a city, island or state (“and remember if you get this wrong you slip back to £1000”) and I would probably have guessed at city (I know, trick question – its all three). Pressed further, my misers hoard of useless junk information would have produced the following feeble list. The Raffles hotel, vague memories of “Tenko”, General Slim’s WW2 victories over the Japanese (spot the History Grad) and…. the Raffles hotel. For me Singapore was a kind of twin with Hong Kong, busy, cramped, lots of people, little space, rich, and thriving economically.
This step into the unexpected was augmented by the Matthew factor (19 months) which had almost resulted in the whole holiday being shelved. Would he cope with the flight? Would he cope with the jet lag? Would we cope if he didn’t? Matty had extensive flying experience under his belt due to being born in Paris (another story) and because Ula is Polish and therefore half his family is there ( more a book than a story), but all his flying had been short haul. London to Singapore, was clearly a different order of magnitude. We had decided to risk it on the grounds that it wouldn’t get any easier as he got older, we might have a second child, and most important, he was free until he turned two. Our decision was looking good as thanks to an overnight flight, the good service and our DVD player (note for parents of small children, never go on a plane flight without Pingu) he had been fine - so far. The challenge of jet lag lay ahead, but we tried not to think about that.
Singapore from the air made a positive impression, shimmering in the afternoon sun. It made a second as we left he plane. It was hot. Really hot. Given that we were near the equator this was not a huge shock. The surprise was in the nature of the climate, a humid tropical heat that reminded me of a gym steam room. Clearly air conditioning would be essential, but the jeans and jumper I was wearing would not, and could be safely packed away for the next few weeks.
One of the key reasons for stopping in Singapore, beyond the fact that we had never been - and the practical reasoning that London to Perth direct with a small child was a level of masochism too far - was to visit our good friends, Rachael and Dominic, who moved to Singapore last autumn. How good these friends are, can be deduced from the fact they were prepared to share there new home with a potentially jet lagged child for the next five days. Further detail is I feel, superfluous.
Rachael was there to meet us on arrival and as we headed to their apartment I got my first glimpse of Singapore up close. I realised that one of my assumptions, the one about no space everything being crammed together had been way off the mark. Singapore may have the de rigeur skyscrapers and high rise apartments of a modern metropolis, but it also had a pleasant, verdant feel, with spacious parks and plentiful tropical vegetation.
Arriving at their condo we unloaded ourselves from the taxi, (one foldable bed, one stroller, multiple assorted bags and one case the size of a wardrobe) and went up to meet Dom.. On our skype calls before the trip, Rach and Dom had proudly told us how they had “baby proofed” the place. On her own blog, which I can recommend for a different perspective of this holiday, Rachael admitted that this process was not quite as impressive as they had hoped. Looking round I could see a worrying number of breakable objects within easy reach of Matty including, in no particular order, wine bottles, lamp stands, DVD player, IPOD station, Computer, glass cabinet with a lot of expensive crystal and some nice glass candle holders. If this was post baby proofing, I wondered what had been removed. We quickly helped them make some urgent alterations while I mentally cursed not including house repairs in my holiday budget.
Finally when most of the dangerous items had been locked away and I had read through my travel insurance cover, we got a chance to catch up properly over a glass/bottle or two of wine. Later with Matty in bed and over a few more glasses / bottles / flagons of wine we discussed the itinerary for the next few days. Rachael and Dom had been used to people -sans children - coming to see China Town, the Indian quarter and Singapore’s night life, but they adapted with impressive speed to the kiddie challenge and quickly came up with a list headed by the zoo, the park and the beach. Before we did any of this though we decided the first day was for chilling and shopping.
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