Early in day 2 at Singapore (Sunday 7 June) we took a half-day city tour. It was great. We went to the harbour where the Merlion featured (see earlier photograph) but there were also some magnificant trees including picturesque Banyans. We went to the first Taoist Temple in Singapore and we are showing one of the side altars here. It was very impressive and a look at the other photos taken is well worth the effort. , a From there we went onto the Botanical Gardens and we were very impressed. We would have loved to have had much more time there. The best part was that there were flowering orchids everywhere. Again,the photos of this are well worth a look. From there it was on to little India, a couple of blocks dedicated to the shopping needs of Indians and those of Indian descent.
We spent the afternoon doing a bit of shopping. I focused on the electronics but was disappointed as they were even a little more expensive than Australia for most larger items such as laptops but the Digital Life shopping centre meant that you did not have to go elsewhere for anything to do with electronics.
In the evening, we did a motorised Junk tour of the Singapore Harbour (supposedly some sort of a replica of the big four-masted junks before they were banned a few hundred years ago) but the lacks of masts and the presence of powerful diesel engines somewhat detracted from this concept. Overall, it was a big disappointment - the food was bvery basic, the narrative was taped and distorted, and the staff had no idea about customer service. Do give this a big miss if you go to Singapore.