2025 Singapore
29th December 2024
In line with our desire to make travelling as easy as possible, we booked a night at the Heathrow Sofitel which was connected to Terminal 5. so we could travel down leisurely by coach and relax in the hotel before leaving the next day. I had quite a restless night which didn’t help when I dreamt that I was in a fight and woke up when I went to kick my assailant. It had happened many times before and always when I was lying on my left side so I was worried that one day I might kick Federika in my sleep. That night, for the first time it happened when I was on my right side, and as I was lying near the edge of the bed my leg went flying into mid-air and I fell out of the bed with quite a thump. When I regained my senses, I saw the funny side and by a miracle hadn’t woken Federika.
Next morning I was feeling all right but as we were walking to the terminal, I felt a cold sweat come over me. It only lasted a few seconds so I thought nothing more about it. At check-in, we had to deal with an automated baggage machine so I pretended to be a clueless old man so a helpful British Airways agent did it all for us. What seemed weird was that having completed the baggage check-in and watched our suitcases make their way to the plane, the woman said we had to follow her so she could verify our documents. You would think she would have done that before sending our luggage on its way to Delhi. Fortunately, our visas were in order and we went quickly through the well-organised security control.
I had booked a two-seater at the back of the plane so settled down into the comfortable space. Right out of the blue, the cold sweat came back and my heartbeat started to increase so I knew I was going to have a panic attack. As an indication of how terrifying they are, I had a resting heart rate of around 55 bpm and during my last panic attack, it went up to 130 bpm while I was sitting down doing nothing. On the plane, my heart rate went up to 100 bpm and with no idea when it would stop, I wanted to get off the plane but couldn’t face the hassle it would cause, not just for us but for the hundreds of passengers. I told Federika how bad I felt and she took my hand and told me she could feel my heart rate coming down. I had no idea if it was true, but it did seem to calm me. I put on my headphones and eye mask and by playing some relaxation music I just about managed to keep it together. I had taken a diazepam earlier, so I don’t know whether it was finally kicking in or as often happens, once we took off I often felt better.
The next thing I knew there was an earthquake. I was trying to work out where I was and assumed we were in Delhi, but I couldn’t remember if Delhi had earthquakes. Then I realised that it wasn’t an earthquake but turbulence and I was on a plane so I must have fallen into a deep sleep. We often had earthquakes in Croatia and so every time I felt any kind of tremor my first thought was an earthquake. I felt fine for the rest of the flight, and we arrived in New Delhi at 01.30 in the morning. We set the alarm for breakfast and although we chilled out for the rest of the day, I can’t say we felt that rested and the five and a half hours’ time difference didn’t help.
Next morning we took the six-hour flight from Delhi to Singapore. I had no problem with the flight but was anxious about the draconian Singaporean drug laws. The government website warned that taking drugs into the country without permission could result in caning, prison or execution. There was a web page where I entered the drugs I wanted to take into the country and diazepam was on the controlled list, so I had to apply for a permit to take them into the country. I uploaded a doctor’s prescription and a letter from the doctor saying why I needed the drug. I was also supposed to upload a picture of the box of pills with my name printed on the outside which they didn’t do in Croatia so I had to improvise. I did all this three weeks before our departure and received an autoreply saying that it would take up to two weeks for me to receive the result of my application. I never did get a reply so as we came into land at Singapore airport, I half expected to be searched and arrested but we sailed through customs. It seemed that everything I had read was just to put the fear of God into people. In the airport toilet, Federika was greeted by an elderly woman who was washing her dentures in the sink and greeted her with a large, toothless smile. It was one of those indelible memories that stayed in the mind far longer than most temples.
It was 45 minutes before midnight when our taxi arrived at the centre of town and the main bridge was full of people waiting for the new year. We quickly checked into our hotel and got to the bridge with 15 minutes to spare. It was a fantastic start to our holiday when the countdown began, and the fireworks started. As tired as we were, we still had a little walk along the river where there was a never-ending stream of boats playing music and celebrating the new year. When we finally got to bed, I couldn’t ever remember being so tired. 
We were staying at the Paradox Singapore Merchant Court Hotel in Clarke Quay. It was an excellent hotel, well situated in the centre and next to a train station so it was easy to get around. Under normal circumstances, we would have booked a tour, but they usually started early when I was at my most fragile and needed time to ease into the day. We had breakfast in the shopping mall next door and then I went back to the room to meditate. As always, I found it a great help so I was ready to face the day. Surprisingly, there weren’t that many tours available anyway and most of the tourist things we could easily do by ourselves.
We were very impressed with Singapore and enjoyed a long walk along the riverbank towards the Marina Bay Sands which had an extraordinary building with three tower blocks in a row and what looked like a ship resting along the top of them, although Federika insisted it looked like an aeroplane without wings. We only saw it from a distance but earmarked it for a visit. 
There were a lot of bronze statues around the place which I particularly liked, especially one of some children jumping into the river.
We bought a few things and were told that we could claim the tax back at the airport but then I heard that VAT was only 5% which meant it wasn’t worth the trouble. A bit different to the 22% in the UK and 25% in Croatia.
In recent years we were lucky to be able to stay in more expensive hotels which came with the stupid problem of laundry. The cost of washing underwear and socks is more than buying them new. That can be the case even in some cheaper hotels. You would think after all these years of travel it would have occurred to me to start my travel with all my old underwear and just throw them away when they were worn. I twas particularly stupid that year because I had thrown away a lot of underwear just before leaving Croatia.
At night we went to China town which was buzzing. We were drawn to one large shop where almost everything was red. 
Federika’s Chinese Zodiac sign was a monkey, so I bought a lovely little monkey key ring to carry around with me and the saleswoman put it on a metal plate. She closed her eyes, gave it some kind of blessing and then told Federika to take it out of the plate with her left hand. I was not really into those kinds of superstitions but that didn’t stop me from loving the ceremony.
We wanted to eat in the area but everywhere was so busy it was difficult to find a place, but we found one just in time before I collapsed with fatigue. Most of the restaurants had huge menus but a lot of it was heavily fried or the kind of food we didn’t like to eat at night, so we settled for something with noodles which was not great. My brother (who has a restaurant) told me it was much better to have a few things that you do well rather than having a 10-page menu of dishes that were average. Apart from the quality of the food we find it overpowering to be faced with so much to choose from. One of the best meals I ever had was in a restaurant in Sardinia where the manager refused to give us a menu. He told us what we were going to have and it was amazing. Because of the antidepressants I was taking I had not been drinking and was surprised at how little I missed it. I realised that a lot of the time I drank alcohol it was out of habit. I had probably had at least two drinks a day for heaven knows how many years and in the summer it was more.
Next morning we went to the Botanical Gardens which was a very easy ride by train. I was surprised to see that we didn’t need to buy tickets, we just tapped our credit card at the entrance to the station and again when we left at the other end. I thought that was wonderful although Federika told me they had the same thing in London which shows how long it has been since I used public transport in London. The last underground ticket I bought cost me a shilling.
The gardens were very big and it was hot, so we were still struggling with the sudden change of temperature and not much shade. It was quite a long walk to the main attraction which was the Orchid Gardens. Some of the orchids were kept in the Cool House which was home to orchids that grew in mountain climates. I never realised how many different kinds of orchids there were, from the plain to the spectacular.
We were dreading the long walk back to the train station, but I put on my weary old man act (not difficult) and a passing ranger took pity on us and drove us back to the entrance in his electric buggy.
On our last day, we took a trip to the famous Raffles Hotel but there wasn’t much to see. Next stop was The Gardens by the Bay. The main event was the Skyway which was a walkway high up where there was a good view of the gardens. Access to the walkway was by elevator. There was a long queue to go up the elevator and an equally long queue to come down. We weren’t keen on queueing, especially because it looked like it was going to rain and the woman in charge said once we had paid the entrance fee there were no refunds. We went for lunch instead and while we were sitting there it started pouring down. From the restaurant window we could see people hurrying along the skyway trying to find shelter from the rain. No one was queuing to go up but there was a big queue at the top with people desperate to get down. 
Early evening we went to the Marina Bay Sands to watch the light show. We were early, so we went to the amazing shopping mall. Apart from the size and opulence of it, there was a river with boat rides running through the centre. It was all designer shops which were well outside our budget but as Singapore had the world’s highest concentration of millionaires in the world, I doubt there was a shortage of customers.
The light show was held outside, projected onto the water and as time grew close to the start of the show, people started to gather around. I loved it. The sound quality and music were perfect which is something you won’t often hear me say. It lasted about half an hour, but we left just before the end as there were a lot of people, and we didn’t want to get caught in the rush to leave.
2025 Singapore
