On the day after our wedding, we cleared everything up at Manor Hill House, went home to finish packing then drove to Heathrow to start our Honeymoon.
We had planned to leave the house by about 3.00pm but packing took much longer than we thought so we didn't end up leaving until 6.00pm.
The drive to Heathrow was fairly quick but finding the hotel wasn’t! We ended up doing three laps of the one way system around the airport while trying to find it. We stayed in the Arora Hotel which overlooks the airport. The room was a suite on two levels, a living room area and bathroom at the bottom and bedroom on the top. Oddly from the outside the door looked like a bookcase which swung open into the room.
We had an early start - we got up at 6.00am for our 2.30pm flight to Singapore and spending the morning waiting in the airport. Our first experience of a long distance flight was a good one - it was comfortable with lots of food and drinks and a good choice of films to keep us entertained until we landed.
We landed in Singapore at 10 in the morning after our 12 hour flight. Our first impressions were good, there was a driver waiting to pick us up to take us to the hotel. The weather was good but the heat took a bit of getting used to.
The driver took us to the Park Hotel, Clarke Quay where we stayed for the first few days. We couldn't check in straight away so we took a bit of a walk to see what was around the hotel. We found a small shopping centre just across the road from the hotel so went in there for some breakfast.
When we got the keys to the room, it's very nice although slightly strange as there's a glass wall in the bathroom so you can see right from the bed through the shower to the toilet! There is a blind that you can pull down if you want a bit of privacy.
On Wednesday morning we took the MRT to Singapore Botanical Gardens and had a walk around the lakes. It was very warm but nice to have a wonder with nothing in particular to do. We then went for a look around the National Orchid Garden at all the different types and colours of Orchid the produce there.
In the evening we went to the Night Safari at Singapore Zoo. After a coach ride to the zoo we had a buffet meal before going on the Safari. While we waited we watched the Thumbuakar fire dancers fire eating and flame throwing.
We took a tram ride around the park to see all the nocturnal animals. We also stopped for a walking tour on the Leopard trail to see some big cats as well as a walk in an enclosure with fruit bats and flying squirrels.
We decided to take a look around China Town so got a taxi from outside the hotel. It was quite an interesting taxi ride as the driver, realising we were tourists, wanted to take us to various shops he knew rather than where we wanted to go. We eventually made it to China Town where we went to look at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple a Buddhist temple and museum. The temple has four floors of Buddhist exhibits and relics and a roof garden. Also on the roof, is the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which contains 11,111 gilt Buddhas and is used for praying and worship.
Later that day we went to Raffles Hotel for High Tea. It was one of the poshest meals I think I've ever had. There were little sandwiches with the crusts cut off, dim sum, small bite-sized cakes and scones with clotted cream and jam. To drink there was a glass of fancy Champagne to drink and as much tea or coffee as we could drink.
When we left Raffles, we decided to go for a walk to see the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Gardens by the Bay. While at Marina Bay, it started to rain so we decided to get the MRT back to our hotel as we didn't have any coats or anything with us. We got the MRT back to the closest station to our hotel but by the time we got there we were in the middle of a thunderstorm and it was raining the hardest we'd ever seen. We tried to get back to the hotel under cover but couldn't get closer than about a 15 minute walk away. We would have got soaked walking back in the rain so we decided to try to get a taxi. We managed to walk undercover to a shopping centre and found where the taxi rank was but due to the weather there was a huge queue. In the end we bought some umbrellas and walked back to the hotel without getting too wet. Annoyingly just as we got back to the hotel it stopped raining, even more annoyingly the umbrellas were too big to fit in our luggage so we ended up leaving them.
We started our trip to Indonesia on Friday by getting up at 5.00am for an early morning flight to Medan in Sumatra. We were picked up at the hotel and taken to the airport for the short 1.5 hour flight.
To find out about where we visited in Sumatra, view What we did in Sumatra
After our late night flight back to Singapore, we were met at the airport by our driver who took us to start of our stay in the Sentosa Resort & Spa. Sentosa is a small island to the south of Singapore, it is home to a number of hotels and other attractions as well as some nice sandy beaches. It was late by the time we arrived at the hotel so we checked in and went straight to bed.
On Thursday morning we decided to have a walk and explore Sentosa Island. There was a path leading straight from the hotel to the beach so we took a walk along there, before we reached the beach we saw a bright green snake in one of the trees. We had a walk along the beach and at one point there’s a suspension bridge over to Palawan Island which claims to be the Southernmost point of Continental Asia.
We then went to visit Gardens By The Bay which is a park with large glasshouses, one contains flowers from around the world, the other has a large waterfall inside it and a cloud mountain which you can walk to the top of. The gardens also contain a Supertree Grove which contains manmade tree-like structures with a walkway between them. The Supertrees have various plants growing up the sides of them and are lit up during the evenings. While we were there we went to eat at the Bakerzin restaurant which specialises in deserts, unfortunately after eating a main course there, neither of us could manage desert!
We had a more relaxing day on Friday, going for another walk around Sentosa Island and went to see the Sentosa Merlion. The Merlion is a symbol used by Singapore and it’s a half lion half fish mythical creature. There are a number of Merlion statues around, the largest of these is 37 metres tall and on Sentosa Island.
Another attraction on Sentosa which we visited on Friday morning was the Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom, this is an enclosed garden housing thousands of butterflies and other insects. The butterflies are free to fly around the garden which is designed to look like a tropical rainforest. As well as butterflies, they have other insects such as beetles and stick insects, and other animals like parrots, turtles and reptiles.
On Friday afternoon we went back for a walk around China Town and visited the Sri Mariamman Temple, which is Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple. The temple has a large tower over the entrance that is covered in sculptures of Hindu Deities and other figures.
In the evening we went for a walk by the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and went to see the Wonderful Light Show, this is music and light show which happens every night in Marina Bay. The show has lights, lasers and projections along with water fountains which spray water in time to music, the projections use a water mist to create a moving screen.
Saturday was the end of our honeymoon and we started the journey back to England, the flight was at the slightly better time of 12.45pm, which didn’t mean quite such an early start as the flights to Medan.