Singapore Sling

We spent the day exploring Singapore on foot. Our hotel is right at the end of Orchard Road which is the main shopping street and goes right through the centre of the city. One of our main objectives (as with most British tourists) is to visit Raffles and a have Singapore Sling - it looked like this was just at the other end of Orchard Road, so we set off down Orchard Road.

It was very sunny, hot and very humid when we set off. All the Xmas decorations are up everywhere and the shops are all open and very crowded even on a Sunday. The road is very wide and lined with tall trees some of the way and arcades of shops most of the rest, so there is some shelter from the sun.

The 2.5 miles to Raffles felt like a lot further! We stopped for a couple of Singapore Slings, a beer and some lunch. The cocktails tasted great in the heat and the beer went down a treat. S$143 later (£50!) later we had a look around the hotel which is pretty impressive and still feels like part of a bygone age.

After Raffles we decided to find the Esplanade and see what the seafront looked like. We wandered through mall after mall, never seeming to get any closer - but in the end we made it and joined the hundreds of others, nearly all of them taking photos, on the Esplanade. Thunder clouds were gathering and the lightening started as we popped into a Starbucks for some refreshment. We were expecting to see a downpour but we were just treated to a very spectacular thunderstorm with no rain.

We made our own way back as the queues for taxis were huge, I worked out later that we had walked nearly 10 miles in the day. When we got back to the hotel we showered and just fell into bed exhausted - at 8pm!