The way home

Singapore was our flight stopover on the way back home. This flight stopover was one for the books for us. It was our first time to wait close to 24 hours for a connecting flight. It wasn’t planned. That was just the best flight booking available for a connecting flight. I was assuming that, with the pandemic over, the resumption of unbridled travel has made flight bookings more difficult.

The wild, wild Davao City traffic

We almost didn’t make it on time to the airport for our flight to Singapore. I had always been lamenting about the heavy traffic in Davao City and the general disregard of following road rules and regulations. We were caught in a traffic gridlock while driving along Diversion Road (Pan Philippine Highway). Vehicles were moving in inches and only inches away from each other. It took a lot of patient driving to get out of the gridlock.

I wish I took a photograph, or better, a video of driving in Davao City.

I am still considering Davao International Airport as one of the better airports. The volume of travelers had definitely increased over the years. Somehow, this airport has been successfully maintaining the steady flow of traffic through its security screening and pre-boarding.

This is a red light district?!

It was late in the evening as we were landing at Changi Airport, Singapore. We didn’t have to deal with collecting our luggages since we had a connecting flight. We did however had to deal with an unfamiliar app to hail a taxi for the hotel.

Our taxi driver politely informed us that our hotel was right in the middle of red light district. We didn’t know and we were surprised. It didn’t look like a red light district. There were no visible street walkers, drunk customers, or sleazy characters. The hotel was looking like any other hotel and its room looked like any other hotel room. Anyway, the bed really felt comfortable on my back and I did get a good night’s sleep.

Gardens by the Bay

We were up early and ready to start heading for Gardens by the Bay My son and his wife had been to this place and they had been telling us about it. We were excited to see and start exploring the place for ourselves. The location of the gardens were on reclaimed land. It was really amazing how Gardens by the Bay was able to transform reclaimed land into a horticultural wonder of flowers and plants.

With only a few hours of exploring, we tried to cover every area around Gardens by the Bay. We had fun walking around the following places: the super tree grove, cloud forest, and flower dome. Late lunch was at Satay by the Bay. We wanted to keep on exploring and enjoy all the gardens. It was time to start heading back to Changi Airport for our flight home.

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