Map of the flight from Perth to Singapore, which is on the same time zone as Perth:
This trip followed straight on from the National Computer Conference (ACS-7) held in Perth from 30-Aug to 2-Sep (conference dinner 7:30pm on 2-Sep), with the opportunity to attend parts of the very first SEARCC (South East Asian Regional Computer Conference) held from 6 to 9-Sep in Singapore.
By the way, I got my first Australian passoort in August, before this trip - it cost only $20. Now the Aussie passport is amongst the most expensive in the world (last time I renewed, 2017, it was $277).
Friday, 3-Sep-76:
2:30pm flight direct from Perth to Singapore, 3,900km, arriving ~8pm.
We had booked a week at the Marco Polo hotel, on Tanglin Road, shown here in a promo photo, I think:
The Marco Polo had a swimming pool, and the 3 boys spent quite a bit of time in it. They played (and I think invented) a game in which one person was blindfolded (closed their eyes) and tried to touch one of the others: they called out "Marco" to which all the others had to respond with "Polo", and the blindfolded one used that sound to track them down. They played it at all subsequent venues, including the above-ground pool in our back yard (installed after we returned to Perth). They can't remember if they invented it or not, but initially (anyway) there were no other users of the pool, and the use of the hotel's name suggests to me they did invent it. Who knows?
View from the Marco Polo hotel:
One of the first things we did was to take a trip to Sentosa, traveling on the cable car "built at cost of $6m to Si'pore go'mnt" - so the audio guide said. Good views of Singapore Harbour.
Transport around Sentosa was by double-decker red bus:
On Sentosa was the site of the surrender of the British forces to the Japanese in 1942; here a life-size waxworks recreation of the scene (it didn't actually happen on Sentosa, but at the Ford Motor Factory). Also Tim & Graeme at a gun pillbox.
This photo of all but Helen must have been taken on that visit to Sentosa...
One day, we took a day-long trip across the Straits of Johor into Johor Bahru in Malaysia, and then traveling as far as Malacca. Here are views of Malacca, with a variety of architecture, including colonial buildings, and a temple.
On the return journey we saw many rubber tree plantations and stopped at one.
Back in Singapore, we did some "routine" sightseeing, as well as some shopping (everything was quite cheap at the time, but when Singapore was "discovered" by Japanese tourists, the prices shot through the roof). We also were taken by a friend, Moses Tay (later to become the Bishop of Singapore), to a night market in a carpark where we had local food (no photos of that).
I think we must have taken a short cruise around the harbour at some point, which is when these photos of the harbour, etc were taken.
I did attend some of the SEARCC conference, but not a great amount. It cost me $US120 to register ($A97.43). See:
SEARCC-76 Proceedings.
Friday, 10-Sep-76:
Today we returned to Perth from Singapore, on an 8:15pm flight, arriving at about 1:30am, I think.
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Alex Reid
12-Feb-2026