Singapore

In mid-July Jen and I took a trip to Singapore. The flight over bordered on torture--it took about 21 hours of flying time to get there, and as you know the seats in economy class are incredibly cramped. Our flight arrived at 1:00 am local time, so we were able to catch a few winks and then we headed out to explore. We relied exclusively on the bus and light rail systems to get around, and we mainly ate at the hawker stalls and food courts that are frequented by locals. All of the foreign tastes and smells began to get a little bit overwhelming for Jen the first day, but she only needed a little bit of sleep to recuperate.

Well, you know what they say about pictures being worth some ridiculous amount of words, so without further ado here is a day-by-day itinerary with some pictures.

Day 1: Walked down the Singapore river quays and then headed for the National Museum. After visiting the museum, which was housed in a gorgeous colonial building, we headed for the downtown area where we visited the Raffles Hotel (Unfortunately we weren't rich enough to stay a night there). The Raffles Hotel is a historical establishment from early in the British colonial period. It was used as a safe-house for British women and children during World War II just before the Japanese took the Island. After lunch at a local food court, it was off to Chinatown. As I mentioned before, I think that this was the part of the trip that really did Jen in for the day. The tastes and smells of Chinatown can be overwhelming, especially if spent 21 hours flying the day before, and you are running on 5 hours of sleep.


Day 2: We started off with strawberry pancakes at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. With the help of some first-rate strawberry pancakes Jen's stomach recovered from the shock of the previous day, and then we were off. The Botanic Gardens were strikingly lush and beautiful, and our favorite part was probably the Orchid Garden. After the Botanic Gardens we headed to Orchard Road--the high class shopping district. We both thought it would be fun to window shop at some of the designer stores--Dolche & Gabana, Prada, and the likes--but after looking at the first price tag and realizing just how far out of our league we were, it lost all of its fun. After being put in our place we had a great time. We went to lunch at a hawker center near the LDS mission office, and happened to bump into some elders, so we had lunch with them. Then we capped off the day with a trip to the Night Safari.

Day 3: We started off the day at Kampong Glam, which is the Malay shopping district. Silk shops lined the streets, and there was a beautiful mosque standing over it all. Next we were off to Little India, where we had a sumptuous meal of naan and curries. We ate in traditional style off of banana leaves, and used our hands in the place of utensils. This time we capped of the night by taking a boat ride down the Singapore river.


Day 4: We spent the majority of the day on Sentosa Island, which is a small resort island just to the south of Singapore. If beaches are your thing, don't waste your money on a trip to Singapore, because their beaches second rate at best. However, they've put a lot of money into making the most of what they have. In the end we thoroughly enjoyed wading in the warm water of the South China Sea, and feeling a little sand between our toes. We also couldn't help chuckling a bit after visiting the "Underwater World" where we read information on protecting sea creatures like shark--who's fins are used for the delicacy Shark's Fin Soup--because we knew that 500 yards down the beach was a food court where you could buy BBQ sting-ray, chilli frog's legs and yes, even shark's fin soup.

I know my words fail to be very descriptive, so hopefully the pictures do the trip justice. We had a great time, and we are looking forward to taking another big trip in, oh . . . 9 years or so.