Singapore, Wednesday 9 March





















1) Raffles Hotel

2) The Long Bar at Raffles.

3) The Financial District from the Riverside.

4) Evening View of the financial District from the Bay Esplanade

5 Night view of the financial District from the riverside



My hotel room is on floor 19 so I had a great view over the City. Weather was hot humid and sunny with patchy cloud and temperature getting to 31C. It was notable that in most places the default for Air Conditioning is off but here when the room key is taken out of the slot cutting power for the lights the Air Conditioning automatically comes on.

I set off to explore, walking through the alleys of Little India to the South of the Hotel and eventually making my way to the Raffles Hotel.

The middle of the hotel including the Hotel Lobby is off limits to non guests but anyone is free to wander the courtyards and go to the shops and museum. I finished my visit with a hot Chocolate at the famous Raffles Long Bar. This cost about 3 pounds but was worth it for the ambience and I kept the bill as a souvenir .

I next headed past the Singapore Cricket Club to the river and got on a river trip which leave from various Warf's every 15 minutes. This was a great introduction to the City.

I had lunch at a riverside restaurant before heading across the river to the Financial District with its great conglomeration of Skyscrapers. The centre of all the Skyscrapers is Raffles Place Shopping Centre (not connected with the hotel) and I stopped at a cafe there for an air conditioned afternoon break.

I next explored a walkway on the other side of the river estuary and bay from the Financial district. This goes past the "Esplanade Theatres on the Bay" which is a new building looking a little like 2 giant hedgehogs. I returned here after a quick meal for sunset and twilight pictures of the financial district and later took night pictures from the riverside.