Perth to Singapore to Dubai

On our way to Ireland we decided to have 2 stopovers on the way, to make the journey more manageable.  The first one was Singapore.  We had both been there several times, but never together.  We like Singapore because it is in Asia, but is fairly western ie they have clean water etc, so we thought we would be safe from lurgies.

 

On our first day we went to the fairly new Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay.  They are 25-50 metres tall, there are 12 of them and at night they are lit up with all different coloured lights.  Inside one of them is a fantastic garden display.  You can go up to different heights to see all the different succulents, ferns and orchids growing on the 'trunk' of the tree.  

At the base of the tree there were all different types of gardens eg desert, tropical etc.  It was amazing how they could get them to grow inside, all together.

We were really glad that we saw the supertrees on our first day, because I came down with a stomach virus and couldn't go anywhere for a few days (seems we were not safe from lurgies).

The next stop was Dubai, because it meant no flight was longer than 8 hours.  We stayed at a fabulous hotel not far from the airport.  We had an amazing room high up, so the views were amazing.

View from our room

 

 

 

That wormy looking thing is one of the airport terminals.  The airport is absolutely massive, has it's own train system.

Dubai was a bit of a surprise, to be honest we had reservations about going there, but things were fine.  It was nearly 50 degrees C outside, so we caught a taxi to a shopping centre and it was very western in one part.  However downstairs it had a souk, containing lots of little shops with more traditional fare, although still fairly touristy.

In the hotel the guests were treated like royalty and we couldn't have faulted the service.
We didn't do a lot while we there, as it was only a few nights and I was still not feeling good, but we would like to go back again some day.