Day 18 - A final jaunt in Singapore before it is time to head to the airport

Today is the last day of this incredible adventure.  We had no need to rush today so had a lie in (unheard of for us!). We then packed for the last time, keeping some clothes on the top to change into when we got to the airport later.

We then checked out of our hotel, checked our bags in with the concierge and headed out for the day. We went first to the People's Place in search of some breakfast and a kopi for me.

After a little perusing we opted for Set A and Set B whilst I found a coffee stand to get an iced black coffee. The woman was a little shocked when I said black with no sugar and tried to convince me to have some condensed milk!

So we sat in our latest hawker market eating rice with a fried egg, a small hot dog, some crumbed fish and fried chicken with a side of some red spicy paste and some cucumber slices. Quite yummy ... and all for the grand total of $7.50!

We then headed to the MRT to catch the metro to Bayside near Marina Sands. We planned to explore the Gardens at the Bay. This is a beautiful garden set out on 105 hectares.  The gardens are the ones with the massive metal trees but also several other gardens like an Indian garden, a meadow, a cactus garden,  large lakes and rivers, bridges and a children's water park.

We attempted 2 Ad Labs to help us navigate the gardens (and achieved 9 of the 10 spots). We caught the shuttle service to go for a ride from one end of the garden to the other and back again, we had a nice cold drink looking out at Marina Bay and, as the weather was hot and humid, we sweated like piggies! We even have video footage of sweat dripping off Ian’s arms.

We left the gardens just after 1.30 and caught a train to Telok Ayer in search of some lunch only to discover that much of central Singapore was closed today for Labor Day! So we walked back towards our hotel, through a park, back to the hawkers market that we ate at yesterday in the hope that some of the hawkers were open.

We were in luck and bought a peanut granny pancake - a massive pancake that is filled with peanuts and peanut butter and folded in half and then cut up into slices. We also bought 2 curry puffs  ... one chicken and potato and one sardine and potato. They were delicious!

Then back to our hotel to collect our luggage and head to the airport. We caught the MRT Downtown line for 16 stops and then changed trains for the final run to Changi Airport.

At the airport we went straight to Jewel ... a centrally located building that is part shopping centre (on steroids), part airport lounge and part amusement park. We went straight to the "early check in" offered by Singapore. Despite being almost 10 hours before our flight we were able to check in our luggage and collect our boarding passes. We did a quick change first into some fresh clothes for the plane ride home ... and then checked our luggage through to Melbourne. 

This then gave us the rest of the afternoon to explore this absolutely incredible airport. We wandered the 5 levels of Jewel ... the location of the massive internal waterfall. We marvelled at the carefree climbing on the nets of the skywalk, and watched the transit sky trains glide gently through the centre. 

We then wandered to Terminal 2 ... and explored there. A flick pix display that takes a photo of a person and then using the old style flip boards that used to be in airports it recreated that persons image. We also watched a video of a water experience ... absolutely fascinating. 

Then we caught the Skytrain to Terminal 1  ... jumped out and took a few photos of the beautiful orchids before jumping back on the next Skytrain back to Terminal 2. Then we jumped on the Skytrain that took us to Terminal 3 ... and back again ... and then back again! 

Finally at Terminal 3 we played with Daisy ... an interactive propeller robot that follows you when you move before we checked through to be airside. 

I have wanted to see the Butterfly Garden for many years but due to transit time we have never been able to get there. Today was the day ... and we made it just in time before it got too dark. The garden is small but the butterflies are beautiful!

We then had half an hour to fill until our final destination for today ... so we popped into the free movie theatre to watch a bit of an animated Spiderman movie ... all for free!

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Our final destination  ... a little bit of a treat to ourselves  ... a lounge access for 5 hours. A chance to shower (much needed after our sweaty day today) before our flight,  to relax in a comfy chair, food and drink ... before we bid farewell to Singapore and put the final bookend to this incredible adventure.

An amazing 18 days (19 by the time we get home). We have seen amazing things ... and created so many new memories. We will make one final blog post over the weekend ... our thoughts and learnings on China and Singapore. 

For now ... today (so far)

Steps  - 19,378

Kms - 14.83

Photos - 635