An "Australia and Singapore" Staycation From Reading

Claudio and I had planned to be spending a large part of this month on a dream international trip. We were going to fly out to Singapore for a couple of days before travelling to Australia. Our first week was going to be spent seeing the sights of Sydney, and from there, we planned to take an excursion to the Blue Mountains. For our second week, we were going to stay on the Gold Coast, where we were going to hire a car and visit places like Brisbane and Byron Bay. After that, we would fly back home, stopping for another 24 hours in Singapore en route.

Unfortunately, we'd booked our flights to and from Singapore with Gulf Air, transiting through Bahrain, as this was by far the most affordable option. A few weeks after we'd booked our flights, the war in the Middle East started, and Bahrain airspace was closed. The situation did not improve over the following weeks, and our flights were inevitably cancelled. I tried hard to get the flights changed to another airline, but it wasn't possible. So instead, we've traded sightseeing and beach trips for online help centre chats, trying to get as much money back as possible.

However, we didn't want to spend the days of the cancelled trip feeling miserable (though I admit I've looked at Flightradar24 a couple of times with some sadness, and it seems we can't go anywhere without being targeted by adverts for holidays in Australia and Singapore!). So, I had the idea of trying to recreate some of the aspects of our trip that we were most looking forward to by taking day trips from our home in Reading. I remember back in the pandemic, when I was stuck in my parents' house unable to move to Chile as planned, I used day trips around my local area, including to places that were reminiscent of other countries, as my own way of travelling the world, when it wasn't possible to do so. 

So, I've taken inspiration from that strange time to do something similar in April 2026, and recreate some of the exciting experiences of Australia and Singapore, all in places reachable from Reading via public transport!

Recreating Singapore in Reading: Tropical Gardens and Hawker Centres

Singapore is known as a "City in a Garden" thanks to its large number of green spaces, including the Botanic Gardens (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Gardens by the Bay. Even the airport has a garden inside it!

When I talked to Gemini to get some ideas for my day trips, I mentioned that I wanted to visit some kind of tropical garden. I was thinking of London's Kew Gardens, but Gemini gave me a free, local alternative: the Harris Garden on the campus of the University of Reading.

You can even get there for free from central Reading if you don't mind a long walk (it's also reachable by bus). Though it is quite an uphill route, I personally really like the walk to the university, as it takes you past some nice old buildings.

The Harris Garden specifically has a "jungle garden" section that Gemini recommended to me. It's full of exotic plants, like palm trees, and did make me feel a bit like I was in a tropical rainforest - except for the English weather!

The rest of the garden also had some other really pretty areas to explore - right now is a great moment to go, because you can see all the beautiful cherry blossoms in bloom.

After exploring the garden, I walked back to the town centre and went to find some lunch in The Village Global Food Destination. This arcade is a bit of a hidden gem right in the middle of town, and contains restaurants and cafés serving food from various Asian countries, including Vietnam, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, China and Korea. This is a little similar to the Hawker centres that Singapore is famous for, where you can find various vendors selling Chinese, Malay and Indian food.

We've been there a few times previously and really enjoyed it, as we love all kinds of Asian food. On this occasion, I opted for a pancake sandwich with egg and avocado and a mango matcha from Fluffy Fluffy, a Japanese dessert café.

Recreating the Gold Coast in Pangbourne: Australian Wildlife

Australia is known for its unique wildlife, and we planned to see some of its native animals during our time on the Gold Coast, by visiting the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and the Coombabah Lake Conservation Park.

Fortunately, we had the opportunity to see some emus and wallabies closer to home over the Easter weekend, when we headed to Beale Wildlife Park, which is around a 25-minute walk from Pangbourne railway station.

We particularly loved seeing the wallabies. We got to see a few of them jumping about, and one of them even had a little joey in her pouch!

Another somewhat Australian experience was seeing a giant snake!

Other cute animals we saw included rhea (or ñandú), a happy llama, otters, a sleepy sloth, tortoises and capybaras.

The park itself is very picturesque, featuring a few lakes, an Italian fountain and even a little swimming pool (currently closed, which is why it's not very clean)!

There's also quite a sizeable Japanese garden, which was a very tranquil place to sit for a while in the sunshine. 

One of the most fun parts of the outing was getting to ride the little colourful train around the park!

Recreating Sydney in London: Coffee Culture, Iconic Landmarks and Harbourside Life

I wanted to recreate the experience of visiting Australia's biggest city here in the UK's biggest city. The most obvious area to visit for this purpose would be Clapham, which has the largest Australian population in London. We've been there in the past and had a great time visiting an Aussie café, but this time I wanted to visit somewhere with an aesthetic that was similar to Sydney. So I took the Elizabeth Line over to the east of the city, getting off at Canary Wharf.

First of all, I wanted a coffee, so headed to Grind. While this isn't an Australian coffee chain (it was founded in Shoreditch), it does a great flat white, and the pain au chocolat I had was also really good. 

Next, I returned to the Singapore staycation theme by visiting the Crossrail Place Roof Garden on top of Canary Wharf's station. This garden is located right on the prime meridian and each side has plants from its hemisphere!

Being inside really feels like being in a tropical jungle and there are lots of beautiful plants to see. To make it even better, it's completely free and much less crowded than similar places in the City of London like the Sky Garden and the Garden at 120.

I next took the tube over to the Greenwich peninsula in order to do part of the Line Art Walk. This is a walk that covers a large area of East London and takes you past various sculptures. I did the part that goes around the O2 Arena and takes in three different modern artworks.

The walk also has some great views of the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf and the cable car.

After finding some lunch in the O2, I took the tube back over to Canary Wharf and then transferred to the DLR, getting off at East India station. The DLR is one of my favourite modes of transport in London, as it almost feels like being on a little toy train and always has great views.

From East India station, it's a short walk over to Virginia Quay, from where you have the best view of the O2. 

This area of London has always reminded me a little of Sydney, especially in the sunshine. The O2 may be quite a different building architecturally to the Sydney Opera House, but they have some similarities, both being big concert venues on a peninsula surrounded by water, with skyscrapers behind them. You can also climb over the O2 like you can over the Harbour Bridge!

And I was lucky that the day I went was a sunny day with temperatures of 25 degrees, meaning I almost felt like I was really in Australia!

Obviously it was really disappointing to have to cancel our holiday at the last minute, after feeling hopeful for weeks that it would still go ahead. However, in a way, things actually worked out for the best - around the time we would have been starting our trip, I was offered a new job. I've been searching for months and finally found the right role that puts my skills and experience to their best use. So, 10 days later, rather than exploring the Gold Coast as expected, I found myself starting work in a very aesthetically pleasing office in a great area of London. It's funny how things work out sometimes!

Of course, we plan to rebook the trip for sometime later this year. We put in a lot of work and had to spend around £100 for Claudio's visa (UK citizens can get a free tourist visa that's very easy to apply for, but unfortunately it's more complicated for citizens of countries like Chile). As the visa is valid for a year, we definitely want to use it before it expires. We also have a credit (rather than a refund) to rebook our Sydney - Gold Coast flights, which we don't want to waste either. So, if all goes to plan, we'll have lots of adventures to look forward to in several months' time!

However, it has been over 6 months since we've been abroad now, and we're missing travelling in countries that aren't the UK! So we're going to try to book a long weekend away sometime soon. I'm looking forward to blogging about that in the near future and all about our travel adventures closer to home in the meantime!