Hi everyone!

It has been another massive, massive day. We started off waking up at 5am after a very small amount of sleep. We got everything packed up quickly and jumped into the car to drive to the airport in the darkness.

One of the challenges of travelling with a child is all of the luggage you need to take, that they can’t help carry. We had three big luggages, a pram, 3 backpacks and a nappy bag. We had to haul all of that stuff to the check in gate with a toddler in tow – it was stressful.

We ended up boarding the plane for SQ212 which departed on time. Let me tell you right now, 8 hours with an active three year old is not for the faint of heart. To be honest though he was pretty good. Unlimited screen time and snacks, all normal rules out the window. We were in survival mode.

The first three hours was a breeze. Julian watched Peppa pig the whole time and we were able to relax and watch a movie etc. then he started getting restless, lots of kicking the seat of the poor person in front of him, going for walks up and down the aisles and just general unrest.

We ended up making it though which was a massive relief. Singapore airport is very clearly much, much nicer than Sydney. We didn’t check it out yet (we’ll do that on the way out), as we were exhausted and just wanted to get to the hotel.

We had a nice taxi trip direct from airport to hotel, albeit expensive. The driver was a nice guy, showing us some sites and telling us about life in Singapore. the first thing we noticed when stepping out of the airport was the humidity. Sheeeeesh. It’s about 28 degrees but about 200% humidity. Instant sweat.

We’re staying at the Fraser Suites river valley. It’s a pretty average hotel, but the cost of accommodation in Singapore is absolutely insane, so all up it’s not too bad.

We settled into the hotel and checked out the indoor play centre for kids in the hotel. They have a cool retro arcade that we had a look at and Julian played with the toys in here.

We ended up walking down the river (about 1km) to a shopping centre called Great World. It’s actually huge considering it’s in a pretty residential area. We bought some supplies like nappies etc that we’ll need. There was also an outdoor playground here that Julian wanted to play on. Honestly though by this point we were incredibly exhausted and just wanted sleep.

There is a delicious smelling hawker centre across the road from the shopping centre that we will go to tomorrow night but tonight we just wanted food and bed. We swung by shake shack and got a couple of burgers, some nuggets and chips as well as the crown jewel – a pandan milkshake. Dang it was good. If you don’t know what pandan is, look it up and try some for yourself. It’s unreal.

The food was alright, we won’t be getting it again though, tomorrow the real eating and sightseeing starts. We also bought one of those cool motorised fans that everyone has.

We went to the busiest supermarket of all time and became completely overwhelmed with trying to get supplies. It was an ordeal, we had our hands full and in a massive line and Julian decided to run away thinking it was a game while we were both overstimulated, tired and ready for bed. It was not great. The supermarket had a great name though – Cold Storage. We like it.

Step count: 13,076 or 9.44km

Costs:

Valet parking airport 21 days: $510.04

Hashbrowns – $9

Airport drinks and snacks: $36.13

Airport transfer: $82.50

Fraser suites Singapore: $351.95

Shake shack dinner: $53.65

Supplies: $61.62

Powerful handheld fan: $56.07

Total: $1,160.96

Another pretty costly day but yet again, several of this (accommodation and valet parking) were paid months ago, so doesn’t hurt so much in the short term.

Much love,

Ronnie, Aimee & Julian.