January 3 – last day of vacation!

Today we slept in, had a final buffet breakfast – frankly I like the breakfast buffet as it’s easy for the kids – who doesn’t like breakfast food? They can always find something that appeals – and I’m all for the made-to-order omelets and buttered toast. I’ve become addicted to pineapple juice, too.

From breakfast we took the MRT to Raffles Hotel, a famous property and Singapore landmark, infamous for the Singapore Sling. It’s a gorgeous, white, stately hotel with the famous Long Bar on the 2nd floor (cool automated fans in shape of big leaves that used to be operated manually). Shops and restaurants are interspersed throughout the hotel complex.

We then made our way to St. Andrew’s Cathedral, a national landmark. The site, a lovely green area with pristine white church, tall steeples stretching up – is in the midst of Singapore’s busy urban-ness.

We stopped in the welcome center and shortly thereafter were getting the grand tour from Clifford, volunteer and parishioner at the Anglican cathedral.

The first church was torn down in the 1850’s and rebuilt (too small), used as a hospital during the war, survived the bombings (they removed the stained glass to protect it, later replaced it and it is in the current structure today).

The windows are indeed gorgeous, as is the architectures, pews and wood inside. Lots of plaques adorn the walls commemorating military service and donations/leadership of the church.

Nearby we got to see the contemporary portion of the church – an underground sacristy that serves the less traditional religious crowd, with amphitheatre at the entrance for outdoor Christian concerns. The Cathedral offers more traditional services w/ hymns.

The underground curch met historical building restrictions (couldn’t obstruct views or interfere w/ green space around it.) The visitor’s center is glass for the same reasons. Inside the center is an exhibit of pottery and effects found during excavation – dating to the 1400’s.

In the early afternoon we headed to Sentosa, one of Singapore’s islands. We rode a gondola over the water to get there – so much construction below – great view though. We got to see our ship from above!

Our first stop in very busy Sentosa was for ice cream on the beach – quite the industrial view from the shore.

We caught the dolphin show in a very inauspicious seating area, but a great show with pink dolphins. Kids sat with an Indian family – a couple with a 5 year old daughter who we shared a shuttle with from the ship to the hotel then again to the Night Safari and Sentosa. (Go figure – we fly hours away from India to end up hanging out with Indians.)

After the dolphin show (they retrieved balls, did jumps, raced across the pond, waved, clapped, etc.) we went to Underwater World, Sentosa’s aquarium. The kids touched sea creatures and admired all kinds of sea creatures – huge octopuses, crabs, fish, stingrays, etc.

From there we went to a wax museum about Singapore’s history – it was fabulous and definitely my favorite attraction of the day. A short film set the stage – the 4 winds that blew to create Singapore, the melding of cultures/values that have made the country what it is.

The museum’s wax figures w/ plaquards shared information about leaders/influencers, ethnic groups, religions, festivals, day to day life, etc.

We dissed the last item on the agenda – a light show – for a last dinner at Newton’s Circle, which was truly the right way to end the trip. There we had a wonderful seafood noodle dish, a small peppered crab (also delicious but the chili crab will reign forever as my favorite) and satay (beef and chicken on sticks). It was all fabulous. We walked it off back to the hotel, took a nap and yanked ourselves out of bed for a 2 a.m. flight.