Wow Singapore - Day 1

Last weekend we flew to Singapore for a 4 day trip.  Our journey started early Saturday morning.  Despite the early wake up call of 5:30 a.m., they were both in good spirits and were able to make it through the day without being too cranky.  It was only a 2 hours flight, which was a treat compared to the 30 hours journey to get to Bangkok or the journey that will take us back home (but we don't need to think about that for now!).

Adriano up and ready to go with enough energy to unpack his brother's tooth brush! 

Cristiano's friend Mr. Kitty picked us up and drove us to the airport. We left earlier than needed afraid that we may get stuck in protest traffic but the ride was smooth so we had plenty of time at the airport to have breakfast and get ready for our flight.  We flew Singapore Air.  It was an amazing experience.  The plane was practically empty so we had plenty of room in our seats.  The boys we very well behaved, Adriano slept most of the way and Cristiano watched Despicable Me (his favourite movie) which kept him quite busy. Most importantly, the crew was amazing.  We have never been taken care of like that by any flight crew. They made sure we were comfortable and they made sure the kids were entertained.  It was cute because they addressed us by mom and dad.  Of course, they loved the kids and the kids loved them and Cristiano took a picture with his favourite lady...he even held her hand while he was sitting in the stroller as she walked with us out of the airport.

Beautiful monument in the Bangkok airport

Cristiano comfortable watching Gru and the minions

Adriano's up! Ready for landing.

Landing view - amazing how many cargo boats were in the water.

With his stewardess.  In this part of the world they love doing hand signs in pictures so he was trying to imitate her.

As an aside, sitting beside us was a man by the name of Patrick. He turned out to be in the movie business and he told us he is working on a TV series for Netflicks called Marco Polo which should air in the coming year.  Click here for details.  So if you watch Marco Polo one day you can think of him and of how we met him!  I was hoping to be "discovered" but no such luck.

We arrived in Singapore mid-day.  Singapore is one hour ahead of us so it worked out really well with the kids' routine and it meant we could enjoy the evening activities partially without interrupting their routine too much.  We were immediately impressed by Singapore.  Beautiful, clean and people speak English.  It was a nice little break from the hectic streets of Bangkok and the language barrier.  Since I am talking of comparisons with Bangkok, Singapore is much more expensive - food was at least double the price.

Upon arrival we checked in and the first thing we did was hit the pool.  We stayed at the Marina Bay Sands and our room was on the 41st floor so we had an amazing view (we thought the one we had in Bangkok was nice, but this one was way beyond anything we have here).  The pool was on the 57th floor. Sitting up there by the infinity pool was breath taking.  The water was very cold and so were the winds but we had to swim. The boys didn't seem to mind it!

The hotel and grounds - picture from the hotel's website

One of the views from the observation deck on the 57th floor

The pool

They look like they are freezing.  Au contraire they were fine and simply didn't want to look at the camera.

The pool at night - picture from the hotel's website

After the pool and showers, we walked around the grounds of the hotel.  The hotel is attached to a conference centre, casino and huge shopping mall which includes a variety of restaurants.  The grounds are massive - similar to the grounds of hotels in Las Vegas, and even bigger.  Every store and brand one can imagine can be found.  Shopping heaven...I got a small taste of it but will tell you about it in my last post about our trip.  We had dinner at an Australian type restaurant (we didn't have the energy to look around and just picked what was recommended to us) and went to bed.  Luckily, Adriano slept well and so we were able to share a room and all get some sleep!

Part of the mall

View of the mall

Reverse fountain in the mall

Gondola à la Venice

View from our room

This is random, but I had to share one of Cristiano's selfies - he even puckers his lips!

View from our room at night.

Cristiano enjoying Gru and the Minions while looking at the view.

To be continued...