We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot - David Bowie

Five years married to she who must be obeyed and my brain was hurting as to how to celebrate the occasion. She wasn’t going to get that ring she was always going on about, so it would have to be a trip to somewhere special. Trouble is, she updates the list of places she would like to visit on an almost daily basis.

Everest base camp- too cold
Paris – too French
Korangal valley – too deadly

So I settled on this:

It’s the Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore and there is so much of it I will let Wikipedia provide the description:

The resort features a 2,561-room hotel, a 1,300,000 square foot convention-exhibition centre, the 800,000 square foot The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, an iconic ArtScience museum, two large theatres, seven “celebrity chef” restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world’s largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The complex is topped by a 340m-long SkyPark with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67m.

The total cost was S$8 billion and construction took four years, which is less time (and maybe less cost) than the ongoing nightmare to re-surface Thappraya Road. There’s a video on the project here:

It is an extraordinary feat of construction, but the 2,500 rooms do not make for a good hotel experience. Checking-in is inevitably impersonal and the ground floor concourse, which is shared by all three hotel towers, resembles a railway station at rush hour. The rooms are elegant (and expensive), but there is no way you are going to feel cossetted when you are sharing the facilities with around 5,000 other guests and 10,000 staff.

The ironing board on top of the hotel is called the Skypark and the views are pretty good.

There is an infinity pool which sounds like a good idea, but again the crowds do not make it very appealing.

The jacuzzis on the other side of the park were more peaceful.

As evening falls, the various bars and restaurants on top of the hotel fill up.

Fortunately, I had booked a table for dinner. Unfortunately, the bored-sounding women in concierge services had failed to make the reservation for us. Luckily, they had a spare table and we had a very good meal washed down by a most acceptable New Zealand white.

A wander through the bewildering casino and the dangerous shopping arcade, and that was it. A less than five star experience for a five star price. The Korangal valley is looking very likely for the ten year celebration.