Another Day Another Adventure

Our post conference excursion today involved a leisurely river cruise at sunset. We began our evening, enjoying a pre cruise wine while waiting for the sun to sink a little further. Conveniently located at Clarke Quay a 5 minute walk from our apartment, we hopped onto a bumboat. Historically these large barges were used around the Malay archipelago to transport cargo from ship to shore or vice versa. Today the only bumboats on the Singapore River are those frequented by tourists for sightseeing.

With it's painted eyes to look for dangers in the water we departed Clarke Quay. Although the  bumboat was equipped with an audio track, we missed most of it as it was difficult to hear form our position at the back of the boat. Our 40 minute tour took us on a loop of the three Quays - Clarke, Boat and Robertson.

As we approached Boat Quay with the city skyscrapers dominating the sky with their lights. Dad points out one building, the OCBC building - the building on the far right in this photo. Built in the mid 70's, Dad tells us he was involved in the drawings of this 57 storey (197m) skyscraper!

At the mouth of the Singapore River, we pass the 8.6m Merlion, the offical mascot of Singapore. This mythical creature has the head of a lion (representing Singapore's original name - Singapura meaning lion city) and body of a fish (representing Singapores origins as a fishing village).


Continuing around Robertson Quay, Marina Bay Sands hotel, the ArtScience Museum, the Singapore Flyer and the Helix Bridge all awash in coloured lights and looked spectacular. With the loop complete, it was a mostly direct route parallel to the north bank of the Singapore River back to Clarke Quay.

After alighting, we ambled through the Clarke Quay mall eventually finding the restaurant that Mum and Dad had eyed off during the day. It was an interesting one - a grill crossed with a noodle shop! We were instructed to place our order on the slip provided - ticking the box next to your selection. While waiting for our dinner to arrive Dad decided to sample (a rather large mouthful) from a small dish that looked like sliced cooked onions! Instantly he was in hysterics as the onion had been doused in chilli oil!!! He took some while to recover but that moment for us will never be forgotten :)