So exciting! For the first time since 2019 I got to get on an actual airplane and fly off to another country!! The pandemic cancelled two big trips for me (I'm not complaining, just stating fact) - a trip to Italy for 3 weeks, and a 6 week long service leave trip through Japan and Taiwan. With a lot of restrictions having eased, my partner and a friend got away for a quick week's holiday in Singapore.

Somewhere close and safe where we could relax and eat delicious food. We've been to Singapore many times, usually as a stop over on the way home from trips to Europe or the US to relax and acclimatise to our time zone for a few days before the final leg back to Australia

Flights and Hotels

We flew with Jetstar international for the first time, paying for the flights entirely with Qantas points accumulated during COVID lockdowns on credit cards (groceries and bills). The flight out was a day flight, so we flew economy, which was actually ok. I'm tall at 6'2", but had no issue with leg room, and apart from a 40 minute delay to departure, everything was as you would expect. The way home we flex business (=full service airline premium economy), being a night flight to try and have a bit more room to sleep, which did help quite a bit.

We stayed for our first 5 nights at the Swissotel Stamford the Plaza having stayed at the adjoining Fairmont previously, and nearby Carlton. The rooms were surprisingly big for Singapore, with all the amenities and a great view. We had use of the shared pool area and Willow Tree Spa which is a great way to sped a few hours on a rainy day - sauna/spa/plunge pool. The Swissotel is above the City Hall MRT and quite central to be able to get to most of Singapore very easily.

Our last 2 nights we stayed in a new Hotel in Chinatown called the Clan Hotel. The Clan is a luxury boutique hotel themed around the Chinese settlers in Singapore. The theme comes through in all the details throughout, it was a very relaxing stay, very quiet and sophisticated without being over the top or showy. Very understated and cool. Chinatown was a great spot top explore - not a neighbourhood we had spent a lot of time in previously. I would definitely come back and stay here again, it was a great experience.

Buildings

On this trip I didn't spend a huge amount of time out capturing images at the start of the trip, but took quite a few towards the end. I wanted to try to find a few images of the 'older' side of Singapore rather than the incredible modern constructions that now dominate the skyline (although I still captured quite a few of them!)

The hero image at the top of the page (and below) is one of my favourites, the Old Hill St Police Station. Vacated by police by 1980, other government departments moved in from 1983. It was painted in its iconic rainbow colours in 1999. For these shots I brought my camera right down low to the ground to use the grass and remove the road from the image. I then camped for AAAAAGES waiting for someone interesting to come past. Both shots are composites of 1 image without any cars or busses, and a second with the interesting person at the exact centre. Both taken from the same spot within 15 minutes of each other. The shot below was late afternoon, above around 10am. Both shots are taken with a 35mm sense, the one above a composite of 4 images - 3 for the building and 1 for the lady, the second 2 images, 1 for the building and 1 for the bike.

In China town I wanted to a shot that captured some of the older style architecture with the huge condo in the background. As an added bonus these lovely ladies were off to the market behind for their morning shopping.

This is the Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple & Museum at around 7am. Built in 2007, the temple gets its name from what the Buddhists regard as the left canine tooth of Buddha, which has been recovered from his funeral pyre in Kushinagar, India and displayed on the temple’s grounds. Usually very busy with a lot of traffic, I got here early in the morning as the temple was opening, wanting to capture a scene similar to the Old Hill St Police Station, with a lone person out front saying their morning prayers. The base image is from three vertical images shot with a 35mm lens and stitched together. The woman comes from a separate image shot at 35mm within minutes of the main images.

Marina Bay area

I remember the first time we explored the Marina Bay area and Gardens by the Bay years ago, it felt like we had arrived in the future. My partner and I stayed for one night at the Marina Bay Sands on our last trip to experience the pool, and it was a pretty cool experience. More for the endless display of posing and selfies than anything else! On this trip I wanted to again capture the Art Science museum (first three shots below). I've always been drawn to it, this time wanting to try and focus on the shapes and shadows more than the overall scene (although I still grabbed one below)! I really only got these in passing as I really wanted to try and capture the skyline at sunrise (see below).

On my last trip I rented a bike and came out to this side of the city with my infra-red camera and tried to capture the skyline, but I've just never been happy enough with those shots to share them. I wanted another chance this time, and I'm really happy with the result. This was taken at around 8 or 9 am in the morning after a bike ride from my hotel (the tall building to the left of the wheel). I wanted to incorporate some nature into the image, and used some of the grass and trees in the foreground. As I was taking a series of shots, this large monitor lizard causally crossed the bike bath, posed for a second and then slid into the water. *PERFECT*!

A great skyline with that elusive added extra.

Cloud Forest and Flower Dome

I've been through the domes a couple of times before, but on this trip on a rainy morning I wanted to visit once more to photograph the intersection and relationship between the incredible structures and the gardens, plants and people within. I was really interested in the curving organic expanse of glass and metal housing delicate organic temperature controlled gardens.

FOOD

This trip really was all about food, although I didn't shoot very much of it! Char Kway Teow, Lor Mee, Chilli Crab, Congee, Ipoh Hot Fun, Laksa, Curry Noodles, Kaya Toast, Satay, Duck Rice, Sambal Stingray, Hainanese Chicken Rice, we ate all of the things! Most of the trip consisted of planning which Food Hall to visit, what to eat, and then what to do to kill time between meals!

The most beautiful of the food halls is Lau Pa Sat, nestled in between high rise office towers. Originally a fish market in 1824, it was moved to the current location as a market in 1894, and then in 1972 converted to a food hall. Perhaps one of the more touristy ones, it hosts a huge array of food stalls with drinks and deserts in the centre, and Satay street out the side during the evening!

Pulau Ubin

Organic Buildings

There were a number of new buildings vs our trip in 2018. They all seemed to have embraced incredible organic shapes, and incorporate greenery, gardens and recreational space into their designs. They just suit the city and the climate so well, and build on theme in the Marina Bay area. I looked up the driving force behind this initiative, and found the Singapore Green Building Masterplan aims to have 80% of buildings (by floor area) to be green by 2030. It’s incredible to see some of these new buildings since our last visit. Organic shapes, plant life, shade and community built into the CBD environment. Imagine what it will be like in 8 more years!

Abandoned Village at Thomson Nature Reserve.

The Thomson Nature Park is in the centre of Singapore between the Singapore Night Zoo and MacRitchie's reservoir. In the park there is an abandoned Hainan Village that's slowly being subsumed by the jungle.

Established in 1930 and abandoned in 1980, the last of the residents moved to a newer Housing Development Board complex. There are great easy to follow trails and maps taking you to the main ruins, and quite a lot of monkeys to see along the way. You can read my full blog post here.

The Rain Vortex at the Jewel

And finally I got to spend some time at the Rain Vortex at Changi Airport's Jewel. The rain vortex is pretty damn amazing. It's one of those places that you've seen a thousand times on social media, BUT it actually lives up to the expectations. It's worth just sitting down and taking it all in, or watching all the people taking it all in. It's also worth climbing the stairs up the platforms on the side as high as they go. It's probably also worth paying extra to go on the skywalk at the top level. A place you could really kill a few hours without even noticing that they had gone. A word of warning though, the Rain Vortex is in the centre of the Jewel (shops and restaurants), but it's on the land side of customs. You can't go there after you've gone through customs or if you're transiting between flights (unless you exit customs). I was lucky to have an evening flight, so caught the sun as it dipped below the tree line. Periodically the rain stops and fog is let out, and at night coloured lights completely change the experience! This was shot with a 20mm lens to emphasise the vast space.