Singapore; Day 1

We bid farewell to Cambodia this morning and to our hosts at the Authentic Khmer Village Resort who provided us with charming accommodations. Each of their “rooms” are stand-alone villas which were built to appear as independent buildings connected by boardwalks over a marsh.

Despite the volume of water, we saw no mosquitos and weren’t bothered by any pests. We saw a frog and a few geckos but mostly stone elephants. The service was excellent and it was far from capacity so the staff remembered our names and preferences.

Our flight to Singapore was mid-morning which gave us an opportunity to enjoy a final breakfast before packing and departing.

The airport is newly constructed and opened just 30 days ago. We were a little alarmed when all our flights got abruptly cancelled back in September. It turns out it was just how they changed the airport code from the old to the new so it was no problem.

This Chinese-financed project should allow for greater passenger traffic than the prior airport. You can see the Chinese elements in the design.

You can also note that the volume of Chinese traffic hasn’t returned to the terminal (or Cambodia) since the onset of the pandemic.

We had a number of Cambodians thank us for visiting. Siem Reap is highly dependent upon tourists and their spending.

At the other end of our air travel today was a different airport experience. In Singapore, the airport terminals surround a shopping/dining/attractions space called the Jewel.

Besides hosting every mall shop and restaurant option imaginable, it also has a very unique water feature called the Rain Vortex. The water falls from the center of the roof down 130 feet to a cylindrical basin.

It is an immense space that has vegetation surrounding the Vortex. The commercial spaces are mostly out of sight, which left us with a botanical garden feel. The kids were pretty impressed.

We spent about three hours here after our flight from Cambodia. The kids explored an indoor hedge maze, a mirror maze, and a sky net that they bounced on above the canopy.

Brian & Tiffany stayed below and were rewarded with a welcome sight.

Brian’s cousin Jessica and her two kids are going to join us for more Adventures in Singapore this week!