Day 26 - Monday 25th September

Today was my birthday and what better place to celebrate it than here on Sentosa Island in Singapore. I woke to a variety of messages from people wishing me a happy birthday.

We went to the hotel restaurant for the buffet breakfast after 9am and sat on the terrace to admire the view. There was a good choice of hot and cold food. However we concluded that some of the breakfasts in Vietnam and Cambodia had been better. For a start, they do pastries better in Vietnam and Cambodia.

As we sat on the terrace, we noticed some peacocks nearby. Then they started walking past the tables. Next they started jumping up on tables where people had left and they helped themselves to the left-overs. We also saw people feeding them by hand despite the nearby sign telling you not to.

I'd left my Orange Airbox mini WiFi with the Singtel SIM back in the room so we could test out the Sofitel WiFi. It was pretty poor - less than 1Mb/s in both directions. My device gives me up to 50Mb/s download and 20Mb/s upload in this hotel.

Suzy couldn't find her bag of medicines this morning and concluded that she must have left them at the other Sofitel Hotel in the city. Reception at our current Sofitel called the Sofitel SO and, after a few phone calls, they found the medicines.

To cut a long story short, we caught a taxi back to the Sofitel SO to pick up the medicines. The concierge staff were surprised to see us again and we joked about the fact that they had asked us yesterday whether we were sure we had everything from our room.

Initially, we'd thought of asking the taxi to wait for us when we went inside the hotel but I changed my mind. One reason was that it might take a while - which it did. The main reason was that I didn't like the way he drove. It was a rough, bumpy ride and too fast.

At one stage, a car changed lanes in front of us to make a left turn and our driver blasted him with his horn. It was quite a contrast to driving in Cambodia and Vietnam where the traffic is chaotic and nobody objects if someone does something outrageous - perhaps because such things happen all the time.

Singapore traffic is very orderly. For a start, the roads are wide, well-marked, well-signed and well designed. There are very few motor bikes and cars travel in their lanes.

Also, taxi drivers in Singapore don't seem to be as polite and helpful as in Vietnam and Cambodia. The same could possibly be said about hotel staff - with a few exceptions at both Sofitel hotels - particularly Angela here at Sentosa who is wonderful.

In Vietnam and Cambodia, people are polite and friendly. All hotel staff say hello and they go out of their way to serve you. It reminded me of that Avis motto - "we try harder". Perhaps in Singapore they are so well off now that some of them have decided that they don't have to try as hard as they used to.

From the Sofitel SO, we caught a taxi to the Vivo Centre which is a shopping centre on the southern shore of the Singapore main island. A few blocks after we left the hotel, we noticed half a dozen police carrying sub-machine guns. It looked quite scary but our taxi driver assured us it was quite normal.

From there, we walked along the boardwalk back to Sentosa Island. Part of the boardwalk is out in the open and part is undercover - which makes sense for bad weather or just to get some shade to escape from the heat. The views of the harbour and foreshores made it worth the trip.

At the other end, there is a variety of tourist attractions. We found our way to the monorail and caught it back to the Vivo Centre. It turned out that the monorail trip was free. It's very modern and highly organised.

We walked through the Vivo Centre and then into the next door building called HarbourFront. By now it was after 1pm and we found a little restaurant for lunch. Initially we planned to catch the shuttle bus back to the hotel but we couldn't find where it stopped and so we got a taxi back.

The taxi hadn't gone very far when the shuttle bus overtook us and we told the driver to "follow that car" - just like in the movies which is probably apt because were close to the Universal Studios theme park.

When housekeeping came to do our room, we decided to go to the bar. On the way, we spotted a male peacock with its feathers fully on display. It was strutting around looking beautiful but unfortunately for him there didn't seem to be any females around - just a female human gardener trimming the lawns and she was ignoring the peacock display.

Soon after we got back to our room, Angela turned up with a birthday cake for me. Not only was it a chocolate cake (the best type) but it had birthday wishes written on the plate in chocolate icing. She also gave me a handwritten birthday card and a Sofitel travel pillow as a gift.

We took photos of the occasion and she stood chatting with us for a while. As I've said before, Angela is wonderful.

At about 5pm, we decided to go down to sit by the side of the pool and at about 5:30pm, we ordered  a beer and another Singapore Sling. This time Suzy's drink didn't look so pink because it was in a blue glass.

We were sitting there having our pre-dinner drinks when Suzy noticed a male peacock strutting towards us. As I grabbed my camera, it walked straight past us and then circled around to come between our lounges.

There was a cherry on the swizzle stick in Suzy's drink and the peacock decided he wanted it. After plucking it from her drink, he walked around the other side of my seat to gobble it down.

Then he decided he wanted to have a drink out of the swimming pool. Having had food and drink at our place, we wandered off to visit other people. He jumped (or flew) on top of the roof and looked down on us as I took more photos.

Our booking for dinner was 7pm at the Italian restaurant near the pool (il Lido at the Cliff). They gave us a table on the terrace overlooking the harbour. When we arrived, the sky over the harbour was a pretty pink before going very dark except for the lights of the harbour and the ships.

Because it was my birthday, we decided to splurge on a bottle of Italian Cabernet Sauvignon red wine. It must have been Italian because it was labelled Giuseppe & Luigi. It was a nice wine - not as heavy as you might expect for some Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

For entree, we shared prawns. For main course I had sea bass and Suzy had pork - but she wondered whether it was chicken rather than pork. As for other expensive restaurants, the more you pay, the smaller the servings.

Angela arrived to give Suzy a Sofitel travel pillow just like the one she had given me this afternoon. Suzy commented that Angela seemed to think that she had met us before - perhaps when she'd been working at a different hotel.

Just as we were starting our coffee, Philip rang me on Facetime and so I had a chat to him and Oscar, Charlie and Sarah. They were just leaving Felpham after the funeral for Sarah's dad on Friday and they were driving north towards London.

It was good timing because the waiter approached the table with another chocolate cake for my birthday - just like the one Angela had brought to our room this afternoon. It had a candle on top. I was able to point my iPhone at the cake with the candle so my grandsons could see it. They joined in a chorus of happy birthday as I blew out the candle.

We were back in our hotel room by 9:30pm after a most enjoyable and memorable birthday. Our task was now to pack our bags ready for our departure from Singapore tomorrow morning heading home to Sydney.

It had been a memorable birthday on Sentosa Island.