So a little while ago we said “to hell with this dreary Winter! We have had about as much as we can take. Let’s book a trip to Singapore!” And so we did. Granted, it’s not Winter in Perth anymore, and it was actually a balmy 34c on the day we flew out, but I don’t care! I want hot weather and I want it now and all the time!

We flew out of Perth around 6:30pm on Wednesday. I was a little apprehensive as we were flying with Scoot – Singapore Airlines budget carrier. Budget and airline are generally not two words I like to use in the same sentence, but alas the fear was unwarranted, as the flight was actually rather pleasant and the plane was quite nice and I even bought an awesome limited edition Pokemon Scoot bag. I like bags. Especially official limited edition ones.

There was a pretty amazing sunset as we flew out of Perth.

4 1/2 hours later, we arrived in Singapore. The only downside to the flight was the lack of meal provided. You could buy food but it didn’t look appealing and they are quite strict about eating food that you brought with you. We did sneak a bit of trail mix though. Ooohh rebels, I know.

As soon as you get in to Singapore it’s like some one has switched a massive heater on. It’s just so hot. But I love it.

We caught a taxi to our accommodation and checked in. By this stage it was already around 1am, so it was time for sleep.

After a bit of a sleep in, we had to go and find us some breakfast. We went to a nearby cafe called 28 Cafe. I had bacon and eggs and Steve had açai and oats and stuff. And coffees. They were good coffees. It was nice to have a meal after last nights trail mix dinner.

We decided some shopping was in order for today. We kinda planned to have a bit of a chill day, but I’m not so sure we were so successful with that. It’s hard not to walk in Singapore, because we like walking, but it is so hot and so humid, it makes you weary quite quickly. Anyway, we decided to head up to Orchard Road and just stop in any shops on the way that looked interesting.

We found all our favourite Japanese stores such as Donki and Tokyu Hands so had some fun looking in those. Didn’t buy much, so that was good.

I was still too full from breakfast to eat any lunch. Steve had some ginger pork rice at the Matcha cafe we went to.

There’s always room for icecream though…

We hung out in Takashimaya for a bit. We don’t only visit Japanese stores in Singapore – honestly! Although we did spend a bit of time in Kinokuniya where I managed to pick up Jarvis Cockers book “Good pop, Bad Pop” and then I also bought a new pair of sneakers that I had been wanting to get for a while and couldn’t find in Perth. So some successful shopping there.

We were getting a bit weary so decided to head back to our hotel for a swim in the pool.

We are staying in the Little India part of Singapore and they have all these awesome light up signs up for Diwali the festival of light.

After our swim in the pool, we decided to head out for dinner and had a wander through Little India on our way to the train station. I couldn’t really capture it in photo form but the light up signs all the way down the street looked really cool.

Our plan was to head to Chinatown for dinner. When we visited in 2015 & 2018 it was one of our favourite places to go an get a cheap meal and a Tiger beer and sit out in the warm night air to enjoy. I was very much looking forward to it.

So we make it to Chinatown, and start walking through the crowds, making our way to the place we know and love. But wait, we can’t find it….where are the vendors? Is this the wrong street? What is going on here? A few laps around Chinatown and we have realised that the hawker style street is gone…..so disappointing. I was so looking forward to this. By know it’s starting to get late and our dinner plans have been crushed. There are still lots of restaurants in Chinatown, but most of them are serving massive meals – huge all you can eat hot pots and the like. They look good, but I just wasn’t hungry enough.

What to do…??? So we see a small Vietnamese place that looks decent. Let’s go there we say. But then, foiled at the last minute – CASH ONLY. We have no cash. But it’s ok, there is a cash machine up the street. Ok, let’s go there. But we can’t find the cash machine. Ok, let’s go back and ask at the restaurant. Ok, cool, we found the cash machine. Phew! Cash machine won’t let us withdraw any money on any of our cards. Ok, let’s go to that other Vietnamese restaurant just there, it’s bigger so maybe they accept cash. No, no only cash. Dammit.

Ooh look lit up bunnies!

It was like 9pm or so by now and look everyone was getting a little tired and tetchy by this stage. We had no cash and no internet access and no food.

We decided to head back to Orchard Road and all the big shops where we knew they’d take credit and hope they were still serving dinner.

Back on the train and a short time later we arrived at Orchard ION and after initially trying to find a Vietnamese place we knew was in there somewhere (the place is like a maze) we gave up and went down to the food hall which was luckily still open til 10pm and ordered some dumplings and noodles and OMG they were THE. BEST. THING. EVER. So friggin delicious! Crisis over.

Then for some stupid reason, we decided the best idea was to walk back to our accommodation and get an icecream on the way. Nearly 25,000 steps later, we completed our first full day in Singapore.