Mum and Lovey Arrive! (River Cruise and Singapore Flyer)

From the 9-19th of May, Mum and my grandma (Lovey, to those of us in the know) came to visit us here in Singapore. We picked them up from the airport on the Friday afternoon to drop them to their fancy hotel near the river, had an equally fancy (and expensive) dinner with them, then let them sleep off the plane trip.

First glimpse of the travellers.

On the Saturday, we decided to have a look at the harbour area, so caught a water taxi down to the harbour and accidentally got a free river cruise (the guy forgot to stop at our stop, so we got to go around the whole loop). We went past Robertson Quay, Boat Quay, Clarke Quay, the Sands, past the Gardens by the Bay, to the Barrage (the dam wall across the front of the harbour that makes the harbour into a reservoir by keeping the sea water out), then back to the Flyer.

Mum pulling her usual photo face in the water taxi

Clarke Quay

Looking back past the Gardens by the Bay to Marina Bay Sands and the Flyer from the Barrage

We jumped off the taxi at the Singapore Flyer (the largest ferris wheel in the world until March 2014), had some lunch in the little faux-hawkers underneath (chicken rice, roti, beef soup, and fried oysters) and then got whisked away through back passages to get the wheelchair onto the ferris wheel. It's a half hour ride around and goes up to 165 m, giving a good view over the Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay, and over the Singapore skyline.

The thingos were slightly more modern than the Wiener Riesenrad in Vienna's Prater.

It's all held together with duct tape really.

Mum and the East of Singapore.

Gardens by the Bay

The supertree grove in Gardens by the Bay (we went there too, but that'll be a later blog)

The view from the top

Two red people and Singapore

Two non-red people with Marina Bay

After the Flyer (and some gelato, of course - sunny days in Singapore mean hot days!) we wandered down by the Esplande (the durian-looking concert halls at the Bay) to hear a Mother's Day concert rehearsal and then escape into the air conditioning by heading underground to the mall areas. We found a BitCoin Exchnge machine (pretty exciting! Just sitting there like it was a real thing!), and had a good rest.

BITCOIN EXCHANGE MACHINE!!!