(this happened on) Saturday 29th August 2009

(I know what you are thinking Saturday 29th, what the hell happened to Friday 28th? Well, it passed by somewhere over an ocean in a different time zone).

The Gap Year Gang Get Lost (A Little)

The Long Lost (by Me) Mercure Roxy

Considering the long flights and the impossibility of sleeping on a packed plane I was surprised to be awake and ready to get out by 11:00am.

I left the others still asleep in bed and went for a wander.

Opposite the Hotel is a large shopping mall, I had a quick look in there to see if it was worth all of us visiting later.

I then got a taxi to the nearest MRT station (one downside to the hotel is the distance to the nearest MRT), and from there I went to Orchard Road, Singapore’s main shopping area and a street which always has a real buzz.

The MRT in Singapore is so brilliantly efficient and a real pleasure to use, it’s clean, cool and there is never any drama getting around.

At Orchard Road I got a long needed haircut and then walked around looking at the couple of new shopping malls that have been finished since I was last here.

Then I hit a major snag, I took the MRT down to the stop called Bugis which was closer to our hotel, then I got a Taxi, here the problems started, I could not remember the name of the hotel or the shopping mall opposite, I tried to explain to the taxi driver where it was and  he thought he knew where I was talking about so I sat back and left it too him and then when he pulled up outside of a mall back on Orchard Road I knew I may have a problem.

So I told him no this was not it and then followed a period of confusion as I tried desperately to remember anything that may help get me back, finally I remembered the name of the road  ‘The East Coast Road’ and told him to head that way, and then at last my memory kicked in a bit more as I struggled to remember the hotel name, I finally came up with the Royal Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel, the driver said do you mean the Mercure Roxy? I wasn’t sure but said let’s go for it. and than we finally really were off and on our way.

That taxi journey cost me $22 and the driver kept apologizing to me like it was his fault, it wasn’t and I told him so.

Back at the hotel Basty and Sofia were dressed and ready to go so we headed across to the Mall and had a good walk around.

We tried unsuccessfully to get Basty some shoes but failed. Sofia did manage to get herself some lashes and hair colour and then of course we all got in the Borders bookshop and all bought more books, now we have finished flying, heavy bags are not such a problem.

We stopped in a cafe where we boys had soup and Sofia had a lime juice with chunks of aloe vera jelly in it, very interesting.

After dropping the books back in the room we got a cab over to Orchard Road, Singapore’s biggest and best shopping street and called in at one of our favorite watering holes Muddy Murphys as we were all hungry and thirsty. I enjoyed a delicious pizza again, as far as I am concerned the pizzas at Muddy Murphy’s are simply the best any where in the world, they are not massive but they have the thinest crust and the tastiest toppings I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

Basty looked to be in absolute heaven with his bacon sandwich, in fact so much so that he ate two of them. Sofia enjoyed her food steak cubes and blue cheese, but not as much as she enjoyed her ice cold pint of cider. I also enjoyed a nice ice cold Guinness. Basty got though two bacon butties and Alan had his favourite pizza in the whole wide world and a nice ice cold Guiness.

While we chilled Sofia started to read one of her new books Mr Darcy Vampyre by Amanda Grange.

Then we hopped a taxi back to Orchard Road as we wanted to eat at Muddy Murphy’s which we know does good food and cold drinks.

I enjoyed a delicious pizza again, as far as I am concerned the pizzas at Muddy Murphy’s are simply the best any where in the world, they are not massive but they have the thinest crust and the tastiest toppings I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

Basty looked to be in absolute heaven with his bacon sandwich, in fact so much so that he ate two of them. Sofia enjoyed her food but not as much as she enjoyed her ice cold pint of cider. I also enjoyed a nice ice cold Guinness.

After we had enjoyed a few drinks and a sufficiency of food we hit the street and enjoyed a very pleasant stroll along Orchard Road, Singapore is a wonderful place and Orchard Road is a great place to walk around.

One of the big benefits of living in Johor Bahru will be having Singapore just across the causeway.

We continued our walk down Orchard Road, going into some malls and shops, Eventually it was time to head back to the hotel and bed.