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I mentioned yesterday that our room in Singapore was pocket-handkerchief sized, and I wasn’t kidding!

Not only was it tiny, but it felt like the walls were made of paper, the bed was made of bricks, and I’m not convinced that the air-conditioning was working.

Oh, and the shower head was broken in the bathroom.

And – oddly – there were no windows.

I think we paid about $150 to be in that room for about 10 hours occupancy. That’s … nope, don’t think about it 🙁

I finally got to sleep and then woke again at about 2.00am in the dark, and feeling a little bit confused about where I was. MBW also woke and there was this glow in the room, so naturally I thought that she must have been adjusting her halo.

But she was checking her phone – obviously to figure out exactly what time it was.

If I was inclined to gamble, I’d be betting on somewhere between 2.00am and 3.00am … you know, that period where you are at your deepest sleep, and most disoriented. Not my best time of the day.

It turns out I was completely wrong. It was just after 8.00am. Sleeping in a room with no windows will mess with you like that 🙁

Obviously we’d slept for around 8 hours.

There was no coffee in our room. OK, so there was a packet of Nescafe Blend 43 and a packet of creamer left over from last night, but that doesn’t really qualify.

Up, showered, and we repacked our bags so that all of the important stuff was in our carry-on luggage for the trip home, and all of the stuff that we wouldn’t need again until we got home to Brisbane was packed in our checked luggage.

We also kept out toiletries and a change of clothes for the plane ride home. Our flight home was Qantas QF52, departing Singapore 8.30pm, so we had about 12 hours to kill. Another day exploring Singapore.

We had asked at the front desk when we arrived if there was any possibility that we could have a quick shower – even just a freshen up would be OK – after a day in Singapore. We double-checked that with the hotel manager (Joshua) when we checked out, and all we got was a non-committal “let’s wait and see …”

We got directions to a good coffee shop down the road, left all of our worldly possessions with the hotel staff, and headed off into the heat.

I may have mentioned previously that Singapore is not cheap. The taxi ride from Changi to our hotel last night cost us about AUD$31.00, which I thought was OK.

Breakfast at the “Common Man Coffee Roasters” just down the road – for 2 coffees and 2 croissants – was about AUD$32.00.

Don’t judge us for eating croissants for breakfast. Or spending $32.00.

So, over coffee, we planned our day. The Intergoogle gave us a number of suggestions for “the top 5 free things to do in Singapore in a day”.

Our unlimited MRT/bus passes had expired (to be fair, we only bought a 2 day pass that we had already used for 2 days, and that was over a week ago), so no surprises there. That means that we would be tapping on and off with our credit card(s) today. We understood that transport is quite cheap in Singapore, despite everything else being expensive.

We found the bus stop, and climbed aboard, headed for Fort Canning Park and the BattleBox – an historical WW11 underground bunker.

Fort Canning Park. Try saying that quickly when you’ve had one too many Mojitos!

Port Fanning? Fort Panning? Argh!

Here is a fun fact – when the Japanese rode into Singapore, they came on bicycles. Their bicycle tyres often burst (or went flat) but they kept riding them anyway, and with the rims running along the bitumen road, they (apparently) sounded like tanks rolling into town.

There is also a tree tunnel at the park, which is really pretty … except that there is the usual assortment of locals all pimping and pruning to get the ideal photo.

It was really hot in Singapore, and we were starting to feel it. The bunker was all air-conditioned, and the neighbouring park was shady and kind of cool(er), but it was still very hot and humid.

Plus we were carrying water and snacks and all of our important stuff (passports, papers, etc).

It turns out that the Fort Canning Park was just around the corner from Bencoolan, where we stayed in Singapore at the start of this trip.

Google Maps is a wonderful thing, right? You ask it how to get from where you are to where you want to go, and how you want to get there (walk, drive, bus), and it does the rest. Even tells you how long until the next bus arrives, and when to get off.

So we figured out what bus to catch and we headed off towards the Helix Bridge and views of the city.

The Singapore Formula 1 (F1) is being held in September 2024 – about 1 month from now – so there is a great deal of pre-work going on. Barriers being put into place, grandstands being erected, and a bit of disruption.

The final thing that we really wanted to see on the “free things to do in Singapore” list was Haji Lane – a quirky little lane with lots of colour, shops, and eateries. It seems to be in the Arab part of Singapore. We got there via the MRT (trains) again this time, and once again we were blown away by the size, scale, cleanliness and efficiency of the Singapore system.

And the fact that their trains are completely driverless.

We grabbed some lunch, then some gelato, then jumped back on the bus towards our Hotel to collect our stuff and get to the airport.

We had planned to be back at the Hotel Classic around 4.30pm to get freshened up and away to the airport by 5.00pm, but it was just so hot and humid, and we were so tired that we bought some local goodies from a supermarket across the street from the hotel, and were back at the hotel by about 3.00pm.

Joshua is the manager of the Hotel Classic, and he had kindly arranged for a room not to be serviced after the guests from the night before … so they gave us a couple of clean towels and we had access to room 311 to have quick showers and get changed ready for our flight home.

Thanks Joshua!!

Uber doesn’t exist any longer in Singapore as it has been bought out by Grab. We installed the app, booked a car and got collected (Grabbed?) and taken to Changi Airport.

Changi Airport is such a big airport. There are at least 4 terminals and we were dropped off at Terminal 2 Departures, only to find that we were actually departing from Terminal 1 … so we hopped onto the Skytrain and got to the right place.

And there is not much more to say. We checked in our luggage, bought coffee, and found some comfy seats to wait out the 2 or 3 hours before we were due to board for the flight home.

Because the airport is so large with so many arrival/departure gates, they use travellators extensively.

We were on one travellator heading to our gate, and there was an airline pilot/captain ahead of us. He got to the end of the travellator, looked around, shrugged, and got back on again to go back to where he came from.

Crikey, with that sense of direction, I home he’s not flying us home because we could end up in the Caribbean … which wouldn’t be altogether a bad thing, but not where we specifically wanted to go.

It’s about 7.5 hours back from Singapore to Brisbane, but you lose another couple of hours flying from west to east, thanks to crossing time zones.

MBW dozed for a few hours on the plane, and I think I dozed for maybe an hour … so by the time we landed in Brisbane at 5.41am Friday 23 August, we were feeling pretty ratty – we had gone about 18 hours without sleep and faced another full day before we could get to bed.

But we were home 🙂

Zach collected us from the airport and dropped us home before he went off to work for the day.

We managed to avoid Bali Belly for the whole trip, and also managed to avoid picking up COVID (or any other nasties) off any of the many surfaces we came in contact with – taxis, busses, hotel rooms, MRT trains, Skytrain, departure/waiting lounges, travellators, airplane seats and armrests, and so on.

I mentioned earlier that we used our credit cards for catching public transport around Singapore. It turns out that I used our credit card, but MBW mistakenly used her BoQ Debit card.

I know that it takes a few days for overseas charges to catch-up with our Aussie accounts, but at the time of writing this, MBW’s trips on Singapore public transport cost AUD$5.45 for the day on the BoQ Debit card, while mine – don’t forget that we did identical trips – cost AUD$0.11 (11 cents) on our Westpac Mastercard.

That’s confusing.

Maybe it’s just time to start planning the next trip …

Ciao

#Thailand2024

Last night – Thursday night – we went to the Dark Sky Serenade at the Age of Dinosaurs museum, our last night of opera festivities.

Not for them though. All of the opera peeps are now heading towards Longreach while MBW and I are heading towards Darwin.

Now firstly I need to get something off my chest. As luck would have it, I was seated behind a guy with an unusually large head.

Abnormally large.

While that was useful for blocking out the setting sun that was in my eyes, he kinda got in the way of my vision of the stage and the performers.

Which was a shame. But not the end of the world, right?

Well … as luck would also have it, his device of choice for taking photos was an iPad.

A full sized iPad … which he constantly held up above his head to try to figure out how to point and position it so that he could take multiple photos.

Anyhow, being the opera buff that I am, the experience was an auditory one, not necessarily a visual one. And I could still hear perfectly, even though I couldn’t see much.

It was a spectacular experience. The dark hauntingness (is that a word?) of the desert, with the amazing sounds of world famous opera singers, backed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) was astonishing.

Surreal.

Now I have to confess that I don’t know much opera, and I don’t have a great deal of it on my Spotify playlist. Plus they kept singing it in Italian, with no subtitles, which really just made it difficult to follow along.

The conductor – some guy who could have been Tom Gleeson’s doppelgänger (with a sense of humour to match) – was the Head of Artistic Something-Or-Other from Opera West Australia. He tended to get a bit too excited about operas in 6/8 time and quivering quavers for my liking. But then he probably doesn’t understand amateur radio.

And he did dumb down the plot of one particular piece that they performed.

“Boy falls in love with girl. Girl dies. Boy cries.”

The final piece that they performed was Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, which I’m sure that you will recognise, even if you are as much of an uneducated Philistine as I am.

It was performed by some guy – a tenor – who apparently is world famous, even though I confess that I’ve never heard of him.

There were people there who (apparently) came out on a charter flight, plus people on bus tours, and of course all of the giants of Opera Queensland were there hobnobbing with the Minister for Whatever and the Arts. Probably 500 people in all.

Jason Two-Dads was there again, and he sang a couple of pieces.

Of course they all got a standing ovation at the end, so they graciously and spontaneously performed “something that was written around here”, namely Waltzing Matilda.

And we were all invited to sing along. So …

… technically, I can honestly say that I have sung Waltzing Matilda, accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and backed up by some world-famous opera singers … and at the end of that performance, the audience erupted into wild and rapturous applause.

Beat that!

It was a great night. Beautiful music, and beautiful voices, all performed in a stunning desert environment.

We were home by 8.00pm, caffeinated by 8.30pm, and in bed by 10.00pm.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I have finished the Tattooist, and now I am looking for something else to read. And having trouble finding something that I can get into. I’m thinking that I might try Faye Kellerman, but happy to hear your suggestions.

I currently enjoy Lee Child (Jack Reacher) and Nelson DeMille (John Covey). But I’m happy to try something new. Leave me a comment with suggestions. The best suggestion wins 🙂

I feel bad that I am being lazy sleeping in until 7.30 or later each morning, but I have an excuse.

I’m sure that you all know that we were in Winton the last few days, and Winton is waaaay over there where the sun sets. Yes, in the west.

But while we are much further west, we are still in the same timezone as home. Home’s sunrise is currently 6.21am (in the east of Queensland), while Winton’s sunrise is 6.53 (in the west of Queensland). That’s more than 30 minutes later!

That’s my excuse, anyway.

It was a cool start to the day again today. Our neighbours – who we have spoken to, but not exchanged names with – come from Townsville and were walking around this morning dressed as though they were ready to commence an assault on Mt Everest.

Personally, while I acknowledge that it was cool, I didn’t think that it was THAT cold, so we settled for our regular shorts and T-shirts.

Toast and coffee for breakfast this morning. (Can you tell that I’m running out of content for the blog?)

MBW tidied the house, while I went out to capture a tiger or two to put in Elsie’s tank. She only took $125 worth this morning, and it concerns me that I can say “only” and “$125” in the same sentence.

We rolled out of the Winton Wanderers CP around 9.00am and headed west to Kynuna. A road that we have never travelled before.

Never.

Today we are travelling towards Julia Creek. We will be travelling the road towards Cloncurry (north west) and turning off just before Kynuna, to the north.

Good roads, fast, smooth, and wide.

And every-so-often you see an unusual land formation that breaks the monotony.

I continue to be astonished by the variety of levels of helpfulness that you see in other road users. One minute we were sitting behind a van, when the driver calls us on the CB radio and offers to slow down and pull over so that we could pass.

20 minutes later we were sitting behind another numpty who was doing 25km/h under the speed limit, wandering all over his lane, hogging the centre line, blocking all forward view of oncoming traffic, providing no clue whether it was safe to pass, and was entirely and completely unhelpful.

Seriously, you can understand how accidents happen.

We had previously picked up the local tourist guide for the area, and it gave us several compelling reasons why Kynuna is not a place to “just drive through”, but a place to stop and visit, and enjoy.

So we drove past the turnoff and kept going a further 5km or so to Kynuna to stop and visit. And enjoy.

They lied.

Kynuna has a population of 20, and I’m certain that we didn’t see a single, solitary one of them. Not one.

So we turned around, drove the 5km back to the turnoff to Julia Creek, and kept on going.

They are seriously lacking in imagination out in these parts. Guess what the Kynuna to Julia Creek road is called?

Kynuna-Julia Creek Road.

Guess what the Winton to Richmond road is called?

Winton-Richmond Road.

And if they include the word “Developmental” into the road name – eg Winton-Richmond Developmental Road, that is generally code for “unsealed road, drive at your peril”.

The road from Kynuna to JC (aka the Kynuna-JC Road) was a single lane, sealed road that was smooth and fast, and I needed to set the cruise control so that my speed didn’t keep creeping up to 110km/h.

We did need to slow down or stop a couple of times, and they were because of road trains coming the other way9 (there simply wasn’t enough space on the road for us AND a road train), or because of these cattle grids that were really rough and threatened to either cause your suspension to bottom out, or to cause you to become airborne.

We rolled into Julia Creek (population 511) around 12.30pm, and went looking for the Visitor Information Centre. We are planning to stop at a free RV park just outside town, but we needed to get a permit first.

Free to stay here, but a permit is required. And you cannot drop anything on the ground. No grey water, nothing.

I said to the lady at the Visitor Information Centre that I had always wanted to visit Julia Creek. Her response probably summed up everything you need to know about Julia Creek and the level of excitement that you can expect here.

“Why?”

Well, that is a very good question, and I’ll have to give some though to why I have always wanted to visit JC.

So we got our permit and decided to have a pub lunch for a change. 2 x Parmys with salad and chips, followed by a walk through town.

We went for a quick walk up one side of the main street and back the other, and that was about it. I saw a guy getting a gas bottle filled at the local hardware store, and asked how much … because I also have an empty bottle on the van.

Remember Augathella?

$49.95 for a 9kg gas bottle. $24.95 at home.

Sigh 🙁

Maybe I can wait until we get to Mt Isa?

We found the RV park, found a spot by the water and have had a bit of a rest waiting for sunset to arrive.

We have a few feathered friends turned up to say hello. Ducks and chickens, although one of the chickens has been crowing, which means two things:

• He’s not a chicken, and
• He has no idea what time it is.

That’s about it. I think that we are all caught up now.

Tonight we stay here in the Julia Creek RV park, and tomorrow we travel through Cloncurry (population 3,167) and stay at the Mary Kathleen Abandoned township.

Well, that’s the plan, anyway. And you know what they say about a plan …

A plan is only good until the first punch is thrown. Hopefully there will be no punching tonight!

One final thing: I know that you have all been worried sick that I have forgotten to give you the answer on a cup of Winton (smelly) water being allowed to decant all night in the fridge. Is it the best water you’ve ever tasted, or was the lady at the shop having a go at us?

Well, we tried it. It wasn’t smelly any longer and it was nice water. Not necessarily the best water that I’ve ever tasted, but not the worst either.

Cold, wet and refreshing.

What more can I say?

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife