travel

서울

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So country 88 and country 91 South Korea. We’ve both watched Squid Games so we knew what to expect. We also knew to avoid men with briefcases in the Subway.

Our flight landed very early in the morning and so there is always the “Can we check in early” gamble to take. Thankfully after bussing it from the airport to our hotel in Gangnam (Whoopah Gangnam Style) we won the lottery (There is a whole joke there about Won being the local currency of Korea, I just can’t think of it) and got into our room at 9am. Had showers and naps and then off for our first culinary adventure.

Found an awesome little bbq place nearby and settled in. Not long after getting our food a single woman at the table next to us sidled up to me and told me I was using the wrong glass for the Soju (rice wine). She then proceeded to chat away in broken English and a bit of google translate. She then taught us that you need to put a soju shot into a glass of beer, put one metal chopstick in and clang it with the other chopstick to mix it and turn the beer cloudy. Apparently that’s how all the locals drink soju and beer. After about a half hour of chatting she started to get very touchy…huggy…”oh I do love you” stuff. Awkward! And Weird! And obviously the road to some sort of scam.

We’re still not sure what sort of scam it was as we saw through it pretty quick and disengaged with her suddenly. She got the message and left. Chat GPT gives three suggestions.

1. Cult recruitment that then requires donations and monetary support

2. Distraction to get you drunk and then steal your stuff

3. An invitation to a bar where you will be told it’s free drinks but you will be charged a hefty fee to leave. Ha! We’ll never know coz we didn’t fall for it.

We spent the next few days exploring and eating more amazing food. In Seoul you are never more than 20 metres from an icy cold ice tea and as it was 32 degrees most days we had plenty of them.

Our first Subway experience was hilarious. They don’t necessarily have the names of the stations in English, so often we were looking for 양재 “two circles thermometer man big H” to make sure we were going in the right direction. We also hadn’t paid enough money for the ticket so when we got to the other end the gates wouldn’t open. Thankfully a lovely lady came by and spoke to the intercom to work out what we had to do and then made sure we were ok before leaving us. I don’t think she was trying to recruit us into a cult. That’s one thing that will last is how helpful and sweet the South Koreans are.

Google translate has also changed the game when travelling. We had an entire conversation when we went to get the refund on our travel card before we left, they guy spoke no english at all. Then turned up to the actual office to get the money and he greeted us in English with “hello how may I assist you today”.

We went to a local market to try the local food. Found a local restaurant filled with locals (always a good sign) then looked around at what everyone was eating. Number one South Korean delicacy, beef tartare with freshly chopped baby octopus (still writhing) and a raw egg. When in Seoul… Nigel ended up with a few blood blisters inside his check as the suckers tend to fight back and suck on your inner cheek. I don’t know as I had the bean sprout fritters.

But you can’t get that close to North Korea without trying to get as close as you can to North Korea. So we booked a trip to the demilitarised zone and to the observation point where you can see into North Korea. What an interesting day. You can google the history of the Korean Peninsula but basically at the end of the Second World War Russia claimed the top half and America claimed the South. Then North Korea invaded the South in the 1950s and the Korean War began. In 1953 there was an armistice but there has never been a peace deal signed so technically the North and South are still at war. As recently as September 2024 there were still niggles going on. The North Koreans were sending balloons over the border containing trash and used toilet paper and manure along with the key message “We are the best”. The South Koreans were sending usbs with K Pop videos and Southern propaganda. Kinda funny when you think about it. However, there have also been some recent missile launches over the border and a bit of shooting back and forth and the whole area is still covered in hundreds of thousands of landmines. It’s not entirely safe to visit.

At the observation deck you can see the massive Hollywood sign on the North Korean side that says “We are the best”. Ironic that it’s just behind the propaganda village they have built to look like everything is amazing but no one actually lives there. We did see people wandering about in other areas doing their daily North Korean thing. Their flagpole is also one of the tallest in the world. For a long time there was a tit for tat war with South Korea where they kept increasing the flagpole height. Now the South has given up and the North has an ungainly tower with a few tacked on extensions to it which is taller than the South. It was a surreal experience to be voyeurs into a strange and unknown country.

The thing we love most about travel is exploring new places, learning about new lands, seeing and breathing the culture and growing as a human. Every country teaches us more about what makes the world great and what makes it not so great. We are grateful to be able to do this. Overall our time in South Korea was 엄청난 “Circle thermometer over box, man with head and thermometer over oval and L thermometer over short L”

Singapore La

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We’re locals now la, we’ve been here multiple times in the last 3 years la. We even know enough Singlish to know that you put la at the end of every sentence la.

What a lovely feeling to arrive somewhere that’s so easy and familiar and you know how to get around. Tag on tag off the MRT with your phone or watch. Contactless payments everywhere. So easy. But the heat, it’s oppressive and exhausting and leads to making activity driven decisions based on how much you feel like tackling it.

We stayed this time in Little India, a vibrant area of Singapore filled with flowers and temples and spice stalls and pani puri and samosa. We stayed right next door to a very famous and well attended Hindu temple. We also had the temple bell literally right outside our window. So three or four times a day the temple bell rang and the ceremonial horns and drums created a cacophony that lasted about 45 minutes. And yay it started at 6am. What made it even more special was that we were there for the birth of Ganesh festival, which meant that the festivities continued all day and into the night. By the end, Ganesh himself may have suggested earplugs.

I had three Singapore things that despite being here so often over the last few years I hadn’t managed to tick off.

1. Universal Studios on Sentosa 2. Satay Street for satay from stalls 7/8 3. The light show on the waterfall fountain at the Jewel at Changi airport

Each of these things have been missed in previous visits for various random reasons. We thought we were being clever tackling Universal Studios Singapore without an express pass. “How bad could the queues be?” we said. Answer: bad enough to melt a human. Within minutes the tropical sun had us resembling slightly wilted theme park mascots. So, like true survivors, we caved after the 40 minute wait for the Minions ride and bought the Express Pass. Best decision of the trip. Suddenly we were breezing past the queues like VIPs. Heatstroke averted, rides conquered. The next day we did the sensible thing and swapped roller coasters for air-conditioning at the Singapore Oceanarium.

If Universal was sweat and adrenaline, this was serenity and awe. Jellyfish glowing like floating lava lamps, manta rays gliding like underwater kites, sharks doing their best to look menacing (but also kind of smug). There were dolphins, schools of neon fish, and endless reasons to just wander amongst the fishes and forget about time. Honestly, it felt like stepping into another universe, but cooler — literally. This Oceanarium has now become our benchmark. Everything will always be compared to this. “Well it was good, but not as good as the one in Singapore” “Yeah the jellyfish are cool but not as impressive as Singapore”. “ Awesome shark tank but nothing like Singapore”. There are loads of things to recommend in Singapore but this one is right up there.

Of course, no adventure is complete without Nigel’s input, and Nigel’s input is usually craft beer. He and his mate Tony had sniffed out Smith Street Taps, tucked deep inside a maze of a Chinatown warehouse, the sort of place you’d expect to find secret societies rather than hops and barley. Some truly bizarre brews were on offer including a yam and banana smoothie like beer and a Long Island Iced Beer that tasted more like alcoholic lemonade than beer. It was worth the hunt: icy pints in hand, satay skewers sizzling nearby. Hot tip — nothing pairs with an IPA like smoky satay in an industrial-chic hideout overlooking the infamous tiled roofs of Chinatown.

But the food highlight came later at Satay Street. Imagine rows of tiny tables plonked right in the middle of the road, people squatting elbow-to-elbow, smoke from dozens of grills curling into the night sky. The air was thick with the smell of charred chicken, peanut sauce, and that unmistakable Singapore buzz. We feasted until the satay sticks piled up. Magical chaos, deliciously smoky, and very, very Singapore.

And finally — the ultimate airport flex. We finally made it to the Jewel at Changi to see the famous waterfall sound-and-light show. Standing there as music and colors played over the world’s tallest indoor waterfall was genuinely breathtaking. Only in Singapore do you find yourself lingering landside in an airport just to watch a fountain put on a show — and only in Singapore does that actually feel like the perfect ending to our Singapore adventure.

Seoul next! Whoopa Gangnam Style! Also solidly avoiding being taken to a remote island to play a Squid Game.

So yes, Singapore gave us sweat, spectacle, sea creatures, satay and stout. Would we do it all again? Absolutely. But next time, we’re buying the express pass first.

Sometimes Careful isn’t Careful enough

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In the middle of our life in Dunedin I had a pre planned trip to Queenstown with my beautiful bridesmaids. So I flew from Dunedin back to Auckland to get on a plane to fly to Queenstown so I could fly back to Auckland to get on a plane to Dunedin. It was all a bit confusing.

Last years bridesmaids event I fell over on the last night and broke my foot, I then got home and whilst hobbling down the hall I caught my right toe on the door and broke that too… then I got Covid!  So this years theme was CAREFUL. And I was… very careful… until the last night. We walked around a corner and there was one step that I missed in the dark. I grabbed a rail with my right arm before I landed on the ground and that was that.

Both bridesmaids came round the corner and I’m on the ground with a bouncer standing over me.

“Oh Jen what the fuck have you done!”

Well, it turned out I’d dislocated my shoulder. My right humerus (not funny in the slightest) was about 6 centimetres from where it was supposed to be (nice and comfy and in a joint socket). While I was sitting on the ground working out what the hell I was going to do, a guy walked around the corner tripped on the step and smacked his head into the wall. “Yeah it happens all the time” the bouncer said. “We’ve been trying to tell the council to do something about it”. 

None of that helped me when I realised I was a 10 on the pain scale and was absolutely going to need some help to get this back in.  After ringing 111 they said it’s probably easier to get an Uber to the hospital as they had a wait time of about 3 hours. It was 2 degrees so we decided to do that instead of freezing to death on the ground. 

After a pretty horrific trip where I focussed on my giving birth breathing and everyone was worried I was going to puke, we arrived to a fairly empty Frankton hospital. Within about 10 minutes I was sucking on gas and boy did I laugh.

I laughed so hard! The A&E doctor laughed! Both bridesmaids pissed themself!  Then two clunks later I have never been so relieved in my life. Yes it was still sore but the relief of it being back in took over from that. “Oh thank god… thank god!”

20 minutes after arriving I was in a sling and in an uber and on my way back to the Air BnB.

The story from Nigel’s end is that he was already worried that I might hurt myself considering my bad balance, especially in the dark.  So when he went on Life360 to see if we were back at the apartment yet and saw I was at Frankton hospital… he knew it was me. 

About 5 minutes after my arm was clunked in and before the gas had worn off I received a text. “Why are you at the hospital?” I quickly rang and said everything’s fine but I dislocated my shoulder but it’s back in now and I’ll call you later. 

We were back to the apartment within a couple of hours of falling down and I could ring and sob my heart out about how no one will ever want to go anywhere with me ever again because I’m such a liability.  I know that’s not the case but at that moment that’s how I felt.

I’m now 11 weeks post dislocation and my physio is using me as a poster child for shoulder rehabilitation. I learned that needling (acupuncture into the muscle) is the weirdest/ickiest thing to do on a Wednesday.  That shoulder strapping makes you look like a loose head prop and that if it clunks with no pain then that’s not too much to worry about.  I’m consistent with my exercises to strengthen the muscles to hold the bone in place and my mobility is coming back really well.

I had three goals when I started Physio: 1. To hook my own bra. 2. To play pool and 3. To be able to put my luggage in the overhead locker all by myself! Gradually over the weeks I’ve ticked all these boxes and I’m feeling way more confident.

My physios last words to me have been… You’ve done great, keep up the exercises and …

Don’t do it again!! 

She’s a Dunner Stunner!

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Part of the deal of this new contract I’m on with MTF is that they wanted me pretty much full time in the Dunedin office for the first 3-4 months. They would pay for me to have an apartment and a car whenever I wanted one, they just wanted me there. I had a chat to Nigel and he agreed ok let’s move to Dunedin… leading up to winter! Maybe it’ll snow?  

So we packed up and flew to Dunedin and checked into our little city apartment.  One block from the octagon, one block from the supermarket and two blocks from work. 

In the first few days we worked out that a few things would make our time in the apartment a bit nicer so off Nigel went to the warehouse. We bought Bee cards for the buses and set about exploring Dunedin. I had an entire company of colleagues to give handy hints on places to go and so followed their lead and found some great local haunts.

Speaking of my MTF colleagues, what a lovely smart bunch of people. In what is actually a very complex business I have encountered nothing but patience with learning the language and a genuine willingness to share expertise. We also spend every lunchtime doing the Otago Daily Times quiz in the the lunchroom and every Friday, there’s chips and dips and drinks. There’s soup and bread days every couple of weeks in Winter to warm you up. And in my time so far we have had two dress up days to raise money for local charities. At the end of the year there will be a volunteering day where everyone can give back to the local community. I thought we had loads of free food and drinks in Media!

We had some weekends that were absolute Dunner Stunners so we’d walk around seeing everything in the city. Castle street with all the student flats was as broken glass rubbish all over the place and grotty houses as you would think. The botanical gardens has free duck food and so if you feel like getting attacked by ducks and seagulls you are welcome to go get some. Watch out when the seagulls feet get caught in your hair. 

Loads of really nice restaurants in town and an awesome fully roofed stadium. We went to an open day there to have a look and it’s such a great venue. We then went to see an absolutely incredible All Blacks v France game.  the Octagon was closed off for the whole day with bars and street food. Bands played and we all congregated to walk to the stadium accompanied by a bag piper. It was freezing cold there was an air of excitement and we loved our walk to Forsyth Barr. What a great stadium. So much better equipped than Eden Park, more toilets, more food and drink stands, more buses to get you away from the area after the game. I did however think I was going to die by spectacularly falling down the incredibly steep north stadium concrete stairs. Truly brilliant experience. And all of them covered seats! No rain ponchos required. 

The locals respect when any artist or game comes to Dunedin and everyone I knew was somewhere there that night: they know that if they don’t sell out they will miss out. 

One of the first Dunner Stunner weekends we got a car and went to the albatross colony and saw the Armstrong disappearing gun. Built in 1889 when there was a fear that the Russian’s were going to take over. This massive gun had the ability to pop out of the ground, fire off a round and then duck back down before it hit the ship. “Shit! Where the heck did that come from” would have been the response from the Russians. The gun never got fired in anger though even after it was brought back for the Second World War. But a group of locals have lovingly restored it and it’s a pretty interesting wee part of Dunedin history. 

There were 36 albatross chicks there and we got to see the parents fly in with their feet outstretched to feed the chicks incredibly un-gangly creatures but super cool nevertheless less. 

We walked the beaches keeping well clear of the sea lions and seals. One of the locals told me it was really bad form and you will be verbally reprimanded to allow your dog anywhere near the sea lions if you took them for an off leash walk. I wondered if any of that would work at Orewa beach considering the huge number of out of control dogs you see there.

So we started living our best Dunedin city apartment life. It was a bit of a curated Dunedin experience though as it was a serviced apartment with double glazing and central heating and underfloor heating. So apart from the short 5 minute walk to work and back we were super warm! We did have frost a few days so the footpaths were a bit slippy.

We also have to keep reminding ourselves that living in a city isn’t just a living in Dunedin thing.

There are large numbers of homeless people around our apartment and you get to know the characters. On a Sunday morning there might be a shopping trolley and a couple of road cones dumped at your front door. We regularly see and hear the students joking about outside on the weekends despite the double glazing. But it’s all part of the fun. 

We took the railroad to Oamaru for the Steampunk festival, we did the Taiarei Railway trip, the Dunedin mid winter festival, went to Arc Brewery twice for food trucks and great brews, and went to Aramoana to walk amongst the sealions. We walked everywhere, tried a different restaurant every weekend and found our favourite spots to return to (shout out to Biggies Pizza Dunedin).

And then it was over. We packed up our little apartment life, donated all our half used boxes of spices and half used bottles of oil to anyone who wanted them in the lunchroom. Had three check in bags to brings home and that was it. Back to reality oops there goes gravity. Next stop the fortnightly three day commute. 

Hotly interspersed with the jennigeltravel trip of 2025 to Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo kicking off end of August. Before heading back to Dunedin end of September to begin fortnights again. It’s all happening here. 

Dunedin we loved you. You are such a beautiful city. Your wildlife accessibility is amazing. Your weather (while cold) is so much nicer than Auckland. Your bluebird days are stunners. And your people? Genuinely lovely and thoughtful and chatty in the coffee shops. Your hospitality staff are awesome as they are all studying medicine or dentistry or some other person based profession. And most importantly as the saying goes, you’re never more than seven minutes from anywhere in Dunedin!

I laugh in the lunchroom when I hear people complain about how it took 12 minutes to get home last night instead 7. 

So grateful for our awesome Dunedin experience.

The last leg Canada and Byron with Besties

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In 1989 I met Ang when we worked together in Palmerston North, so she’s one of my oldest friends. She was there the night I met Nigel and so he’s known her a pretty long time too. Ang married a Canadian and moved to Vancouver Island which is one of the nicest little islands you will ever find in Canada. Over the years any chance we had to get together either in NZ or on the island it’s always been so great to catch up. 

So after leaving Seattle we headed over to Vancouver Island and were greeted with huge hugs! We in had our first night at Wednesday Wings at the local pub with Ang’s beautiful daughter and her lovely partner. We had visited Ang when Melany was just a baby so it’s lovely to see the awesome human she has become.

Our next day we went on a full tour of some amazing sites around Victoria. We went to Malahat Skyway which is a cylindrical tower that you walk around and around on a slow incline up to the top for amazing views. There is also a slide back down for the adventurous ones (not me, I walked… Ang squealed the whole way down).

Vancouver island is incredibly beautiful and we got to see a lot of locals spots. That night we utilised one of Ang’s sons to drop us into central Victoria for drinks and dinner and then utilised her eldest Mel to come and pick us up. 

Before we left NZ Nigel had said “there is a possibility we will see the northern lights on this trip, either in Europe or Canada”. We have never seen them before and so we were very hopeful to tick it off the bucket list. There were some when we were in Sweden but we missed them as they were quite faint. So we were really hoping for some activity in Canada. Nigel got a notification from the Aurora app that we would get some good activity that night. So we messaged Mel to say would it be ok if she picked us up and went to the top of the mountains to see something amazing. She was all in and so we spent the evening with a whole bunch of other people in car parks across Victoria watching what has to be said is the most incredible natural phenomenon ever. We kept saying, “I can’t believe it”. The night sky dances with colour. It’s amazing in the photos but to see the movement and how spectacular it is in person was incredible. We ended up back at Ang’s house where we could sit in her backyard and watch the night sky. Needless to say it was a late night. 

The next day Ang had decided to bring forward Canadian thanksgiving a couple of nights so we could celebrate our first thanksgiving with her kids and their partners. But first we needed to go get some pumpkins from the pumpkin patch down the road. A bit early for Halloween but we wanted to carve them anyway. 

We went to the dollar store and got pumpkin carving tools and headed home. We had a lovely afternoon cooking the turkey and all the trimmings for thanksgiving. Mel arrived with mashed sweet potatoes that were covered with marshmallows and grilled. Odd, very sweet but kinda worked. 

Then we had a lovely dinner with all the kids and ended watching Ice Hockey (which in Canada you just call Hockey) and playing board games. Each one of Angs kids came in to say what they were thankful for. It was a really lovely evening. We were so grateful to have been a part of it all. Heart was full. 

Next thing you know we are on a long haul to Sydney. I had a great sleep, Nigel not so much. So when we arrived we had a very cruisy nap type day. Sometimes you just need to hang out and get into the time zone groove. 

Then we were off to see our besties in Byron Bay. Love that town. Great vibes, great food, great weather and great company. It was a really lovely way to finish our epic journey.

Then Sydney airport lounge and time to get back to NZ. Is it weird? Yes… Do we need to sort out life? Yes…

Have we had an amazing time? Yes…

Would we do it again? Yes…

What’s next? Not sure, but life is an adventure and we are all about having an adventure.

Istanbul… Constantinople!

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The last time Nigel and I were in Istanbul was up there as being one of our worst travel stories.  Firstly, the last time we were here Türkiye was called Turkey, we were fresh faced 20 something year old backpackers (on a budget) and we didn’t have wifi or cellphones or google translate or xe.com or google reviews or tripadvisor.  I think all we had was a Lonely Planet guide to the Mediterranean and a smile and a good attitude.  

We arrived in Türkiye by boat from Greece in Kusadasi.  Went to Bodrum and Marmaris and travelled by bus to Pamukkale and on to Cappadocia.  We then went to Ankara which is where our Istanbul story started.  We had been eating street food the whole time and wanted a change from Doner Kebab and Falafel so we went to McDonalds.  Mmmmm Big Mac.  By the time we arrived in Istanbul both of us were really really sick.  We spent days doing rock paper scissors as to who would venture to the store and buy water.  We ate nothing and whatever went in came straight back out.  I’ll spare you the details, but at one point I ended up roaming the corridors of the hotel stealing toilet paper from the room service carts.  And back in those days the places we could afford to stay in didn’t have infrastructure that could handle you putting toilet paper down the toilet.  It was actually really horrendous (but we are still best friends).

On one of our final days we braved the streets and went to the Blue Mosque where I covered my head with a sarong and we were able to see inside. Then we left. So I don’t think we could actually ever say we’ve “seen” Istanbul.

So many moons later and with an e-sim already installed for data roaming, a taxi company google review and a translation of “how much and does that include the tolls?” we arrived back to Istanbul.

We went straight to our Hotel and then realised we’d hit the jackpot!  Right in the heart of the Old City, The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Hippodrome and Topkapi Palace are all five minutes walk away.  Plus the hotel had the most insane rooftop with incredible views where you had breakfast and could use any time of the day, bring your own food and drinks and enjoy.  Beautiful impeccably clean and comfy room and you could put toilet paper down the toilet!

Outside we found we were on a street full of restaurants so as soon as you stepped outside the hassling would begin.  “Hello sir, you want beer? We have nice restaurant, we have fish we have meat, you want tea? You want a nice shisha? Where you from? American?”  Then we entered one part of the street that they called the hassle free zone “I won’t hassle you here, you can look as long you like, take your time, American?”

I found out later why they were so keen to identify the American’s.  In Sultanahmet Square there was a public bathroom that cost 5 turkish lira to use (about 25 NZ cents), you give them the money and they give you a token to get through the door.  An American woman went through and said “I don’t have lira will you take Euro?” She then handed the man a 10 Euro note (about 18 NZ dollars).  “Sure” he said as he took the note and handed her a token.  I’m still laughing about that one.

Speaking of Dumbasses, what’s up with people feeding seagulls!  If you want a swarm of seagulls to invade your peaceful rooftop dining experience then feed the damn things… squirrels on the other hand.

F Bombs

Nigel is inclined to use the F Bomb in times when he has a person hanging about like a fly and they just won’t leave him alone.  Last time in Türkiye, after the 756th person came and approached him to try and sell a carpet he spun around and told the little kid who was perhaps 6 years old to F**K OFF!  Poor little guy got all the pent up frustration in one foul swoop.

This time we’ve had it twice.  Once with a particularly persistent hassler who then said “you f**k off too and why are you so angry?” and secondly when we got dicked around by the boat tour company which led to the “We weren’t f**king late, we were here 30 f**king minutes ago and you f**king know it”.  I’ve got a funny feeling the next four months we might have a few more thrown around for good measure especially when we start driving in Europe.  I have high expectations of “What the f**k are you doing?, Get the f**k out of the way and my personal favourite “Oh for f**ks sake you f**king stupid f**kface”.

Long time listeners, first time callers will know that jennigeltravel loves a good Hop on Hop off bus and so Istanbul was no exception.  We travelled the length and breadth of Istanbul by bus, crossing the bridge from Europe to Asia and back again.  Stopped at the Spice Market for fixed price shopping with the locals.  Then boat up and down the Bosphorus where we saw dolphins and mosques and residential buildings and more mosques and a couple more mosques. 

Speaking of mosques, our hotel had sound proofed windows so you don’t get disturbed by the call to prayer five times a day.  Unlike last time in Türkiye when in one place we realised that a loud speaker was literally strapped to our window frame.  ALLAHU AKBAR! at 5am is one sure fire way to wake you up. We found this time that we looked forward to the sound of multiple muezzin competing for worshippers.  It reminds you that you’re in a different part of the world and we respect the culture and the religion immensely.  So this time we would open our double glazed window in the evening and sit and listen silently during the cacophony.

So Istanbul, History! Wowsers! Big History! Massive! You can read all about it on Wikipedia, you don’t need me to explain it to you.  But man, whoever controls Istanbul controls the world.  Especially when you think that all goods need to traverse the Bosphorus via Istanbul to get anything to Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.  One way in and one way out. A city on two continents. So glad we weren’t sick this time.

Singapore Again!

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On our 2022 trip to South East Asia we hubbed in and out of Singapore a few times, so when we arrived at 6.30am from Auckland it felt familiar and comfy. Singapore is very efficient and so getting our luggage was quick and we were straight down to the mrt underground where you tap on and off with your credit card. One stop and we were at Expo station where our hotel was and although it was raining we managed to hike our way to check in. 

You really feel like you get your money’s worth when you get the luck of being able to check into a room at 7.30am. So thankful. We spent the day resting and showering and shopping for supplies at the supermarket next door. Went for dinner at the food court next door and then back for an early jet lagged night. We have decided that this hotel is the most convenient hotel in Singapore. Happy to provide recommendations.

Next day we were up and straight onto mrt to town to see, once again, the great landmarks of Singapore. We went to little India and had authentic Indian street food Pani Puri and mango lassi. Yum. Then lots of wandering. 

In the afternoon we had arranged to see our friend Lotta in her home neighbourhood of Holland  Village so we headed off on mrt and arrived in an amazing part of residential Singapore. A real town centre, every store you could imagine and a really international feel to it. We drank champagne and caught up on life together in the humidity. Then home to food court Chinese food. 

Our final full day saw us head into the ArtScience museum which is an iconic lotus shaped building outside Marina Bay Sands. It has various exhibitions at different times of the year. Currently they had one called Art meets Science which was focussed on light art. A room of light where flowers grew at your feet if you stood long enough and butterflies fell if you hit them while walking. Next was a room where you could sit and colour in a picture which would then be uploaded to fly around on an immersive wall where everyone’s planes, butterflies, birds and other creatures flew about. It was amazing to hear little kids yell “there’s my butterfly” and to hear Nigel say “Yay there’s my Nige Air plane”.  I had done a jennigeltravel plane so that was fun.

We then went off in search of satay and found an awesome version in Haji Lane where Nigel found his true beer love in a Singapore brewed hazy ipa and we both discovered “xo carrot cake” which is actually a savoury fried slightly spicy radish based dish that you need to try to appreciate. It was YUM.  Back to our ridiculously convenient hotel to have an early morning flight which was so simple. Up, over the road, one stop, check in… done. Love Singapore.