Day 1:
Spetember 18th Andrew and I boarded a train at 9am for the eight hour journey to Singapore, Singapore! Yup, you read that right...it's a small little island off of the southern tip of Malaysia. The train ride was not fun and they pretty much starved us. No food was served and we didn't have the option to buy any...so it was a long, hungry ride.
When we arrived, we were a bit confused because all we saw at the tiny station were Malaysian flags and a giant sign that said "Malaysian Tourism." Trying to figure out how to get to the hotel, we gave up 10 minutes into the walk and picked up a cab...best decision ever. The cab driver was one of the nicest I have ever met, and he was very informative. He told us about the hot spots to check out as well as the best food. When I asked him what we should do during our three days he said, "Eat!" A lot of people come to Singapore for the shopping and all of the unique food. When we arrived at the hotel you could tell it was new, the Aqueen Lavender Hotel. The room is small and is designed as one of the new concept, space saver rooms. It's perfect for what we came here for and it's safe. We looked at several cheaper options but the reviews all complained about being able to hear the prostitutes working and not to leave the hotel after 7pm....umm....no thanks.
After settling in, we walked two blocks or so the the food court. It was an outdoor eating area made up of about 30 different vendors. Anything Asian you could think of from pigs feet soup to pigs tail ramen to anything in between. I'm not THAT adventurous so I settled for some wanton soup and a water :)
Day 2:
Well I left Malaysia without any souvenirs but I didn't leave empty handed. Yesterday before boarding the train I woke up and my eye was really sore. Not thinking much of it, it continued to hurt a little worse as the day went on. Well, I woke up day two with my right eye swollen shut. So our first full day in Singapore, and we spent 2.5 hours in the morning in the emergency room. A very nice hospital where everyone spoke English (one of the four main languages in Singapore) so my nerves were calmed after we checked in. Not wanting to scare anyone, I kept my sunglasses on the entire time I was in the waiting room. Once it was my turn, they took my blood pressure, checked my blood sugar and then I had to go back to the waiting area. Being called again, I saw another nurse who told me my eye "looked angry," and I needed to wait about 30 more minutes for the eye specialist. I began to get nervous at this point. Finally the eye doctor came and got me. After looking at my eye through a contraption much like one at the eye doctor at home, he seemed confused. Another doctor came in and did the same exam. Now I was freaking out and thinking, "O gosh...they don't know what it is..... they are going to have to remove my eye.... I'm going to be blind...!!!" Finally, with a smile he said it's just a bad eye infection, it's gross, but very curable. Anyways, I was relieved and the doctor wrote me a prescription for some drops. I also couldn't believe that a visit to the ER and a prescription only cost me $67!! Yeah for Asian health care!! Dealing with some embarrassment and a lot of discomfort, I'm going to be just fine, and my sunglasses are my new best friend!
After that lovely start to the day, we decided to hit up Orchard Road, a famous shopping district. Filled with at least a half dozen malls, the shopping was extremely high end but the atmosphere was amazing! We loved just walking around this place. There were street singers, and performers and we sat and enjoyed one lady sing for about 2o minutes...it was great! We spent the whole rest of the day there just soaking in the atmosphere, the people and all the luxury items we couldn't afford :) We are really loving it here so far and we are excited about tomorrow!
Day 3:
Today we got a later start than we wanted, by the infection had spread to my other eye and I was in a lot of pain. I wanted to wait a bit for the swelling to go down so I could open my left eye before we left for the day. We left the hotel at about 12:30pm and headed for China Town...yes another China Town but this was a "must see!" The food is a big draw to this part of the city. We walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. They had just finished up a festival so there were decorations everywhere and it was really neat. We walked the streets in hopes of finding some treasures, but we didn't buy anything. We sat at an outdoor restaurant and sampled a local chicken and rice cuisine as well as the most delicious chocolate milkshake I have ever tasted!
After leaving China Town we continued "our journey around the world" and checked out Little India. Smelling of curry and garlic nan, we took in the sites and shops for about an hour. Not as much to see here but I am glad we checked it out. We returned to the hotel earlier than I wanted because my eyes were so uncomfortable it was hard to keep them open bit Andrew was a trooper and we rested the rest of the day in hopes of being able to stay out in the city longer tomorrow.
Day 4:
Today Andrew and I were excited to explore Sentosa Island, a very small island off the tip of southern Singapore. When we arrived we were met by yet another mall and not much direction. We thought we were on the island and then we spotted the cable cars. We went in to inquire the price to get to the island and they told us $50! We thought that was a bit much for a super short ride and not really knowing what was on the other side. We also knew that we wanted to ride in the famous Singapore Flyer and we knew that was expensive also. So we chose the latter.
We decided to change our plans and so we headed out to the promenade. The Singapore flyer resembles a Ferris wheel and it stands 165 meters; making it the world’s largest rotation observation deck. It was interesting to hear the stories about how everything that deals with the flyer in some way is in line with the idea of Chinese Chi. The flyer originally rotated counter clockwise, but since that wasn’t in line with this idea, it now rotates clockwise. Eight is considered a lucky number in many Asian cultures. There are 28 observation capsules, which can hold 28 passengers and it takes 28 minutes to make a full rotation. The flyer is also surrounded by all four of earths elements and it is said that if you make a wish at the summit, then it will come true. The views of the city were awesome and it really gave us a different perspective of things. You could also see the Formula One race track that they were putting the final touches on for the big race on the 24th. Despite it’s expense, it was well worth the experience.
After the Flyer, Andrew and I walked to the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes. It’s a brand new multi-billion dollar resort/extremely high-end shopping center. It’s such a unique looking building that we were really interested in see the inside. Too bad much of it wasn’t even open. The majority of the store windows said, “opening soon.” It was a little bit of a bummer because I felt like we wasted a lot of time getting there and walking around. It will be a spectacular site when it’s completed though. Entirely out of our price range, it would still be a cool place to walk around on a rainy day.
We had hoped that the mall’s food court would have been open, but of course it wasn’t and there was no food around us. We were getting…correction, ‘I’ was getting hungry, thirsty, and cranky; so we decided to go back to the nearby Orchard Road for an appetizer and drinks. Guess what we found there?! An APPLEBEES!! My favorite…we went in spilt a small meal and then walked around a bit before calling it a day.
Day 5:
Today was our last day in Singapore and we pretty much had all day since our flight didn't leave until 10:50. But we didn't really know what we wanted to see. Most of the things on our list had been checked off. So we decided to explore the area around our hotel. We went for another really long walked and ended up once again looking at another mall; which happened to be Singapore's first Eco-Friendly shopping center. We walked a bit more, ran into Little India street and ran into a 24 hour mall. We were so shopped out, but needed to kill some time so ventured inside.
After our long time killing walk, we went back to the hotel lobby, soaked in some of the air conditioning and then caught a cab to the airport at about 4pm. Being there 6.5 hours early you might be thinking how crazy that is but the time flew. Thank goodness Air Emirates let’s you check in early, so we would go through security and then wonder around the airport. A very nice airport, we found stuff to do. We looked at a few shops and then we came across some games. Sponsored by the Formula One race the next day, we could race remote control Formula One cars…FOR FREE! Not passing up free entertainment, we did our best but were embarrassingly bad. However we got a chance to redeem ourselves. They had a racing simulator set up for four people. After waiting our turn, Andrew and I as well as a couple from Hong Kong took the wheels. A very hard game to get the hang of because the wheel was so sensitive to the turns, I was constantly slamming into the walls. But after a tough battle….team USA was victorious with Andrew placing first and I took second!
We collected our prizes and went to find a place to sit down. After playing several games of Gin, we decided to walk around and venture back to the free racing simulator. The workers remembered us and wondered why we were still there but laughed and let us drive again. This time, Andrew and I were racing against a New Zealander and an Italian. The race was close but the unstoppable twosome did it again taking first and second!
Singapore was a great experience and it's one of those places that I wouldn't necessarily want to visit again, but I wouldn't mind living there for a while if a job brought me there.
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