On September 17, 2015 we flew from Bali, Indonesia 2.5 hours to Singapore on our 5th leg of our "Long Way Home" adventure. There had been fires in Indonesia causing poor air quality and alerts in Singapore since the wind had carried the smoke and fumes there. Luckily the levels had gotten a little better during the days we were set to be there. Upon landing we could definitely tell the air was cloudy and couldn't see the ground until we were very low.
We were so excited to be in Singapore because it meant we were going to be reunited with our friends Jessica and James who we met while living in London! Jessica was one of the first people I had met when I joined the American Women's Club. Her and James are originally from Texas and they had actually been living in Scotland prior to moving to London for James' work around the same time we did in August of 2013. His job in the oil and gas industry then took them to Singapore. We were sad to say goodbye to them when they left London in February 2015. It was so great to see them again and they provided us a great place to stay in their guest room as well as did an excellent job being our tour guides! That night when we arrived they took us nearby to a local hawker center to eat. Hawker centers are kind of like outdoor food courts with many options of things to walk up and order.
We had some seafood pineapple fried rice, it was really good!
The next morning James went off to work and Jessica was our guide for the day. Our first stop was the beautiful Singapore Botanic Gardens...
Such a pretty place!
Within the Botanic Gardens is also the National Orchid Garden. Being that the orchid is the national flower of Singapore there sure were a lot of different types and many beautiful arrangements.
There were many varieties that I had never seen before. I loved the spiral ones on the left, they were so unique. Also there was an area with plaques showing different hybrid orchids that were created and named after certain important figures prior to their visit to the Orchid Gardens. In the picture on the right is the one created for Prince William and Kate Middleton for their arrival in 2012.
So bright and colorful!
It's hard to tell from the pictures but we were dripping with sweat by this point! The humidity was thick and the temperatures in Singapore stay pretty much around the 90's all year round since it is located basically on the equator. After the gardens we were ready to find some AC!
From the botanic gardens we headed over to Orchard Road which is the main shopping street and many malls are located along each side. We walked through looking in a few stores, enjoyed the AC and had lunch.
After lunch we rode the train down to the marina area to walk along the boardwalk and see the city skyline.
The building on the left in the picture below is the Marina Bay Sands, looks like a surf board or a ship on the top. It's actually a hotel and later on there are pictures from when we went up to the top to have drinks and see the view.
Such a neat view...
The unique shaped building above is an art & science museum and below was a crazy looking bridge. Also in the background you can see the Singapore Flyer which is a large ferris wheel sort of like the London Eye.
Next Jessica took us over to the famous Raffles Hotel. Brian was pretty excited about all the nice cars parked in the front since the Singapore Grand Prix was going on that weekend.
Long Bar in the hotel is famous for the creation of the drink known around the world as the Singapore Sling. Of course we wanted to try one!
The drinks were very tasty and refreshing and we were given a bag full of peanuts to eat. After our drinks as we checked out the gift shop in the hotel Brian spotted something interesting...A machine where you could buy pure gold. It dispensed different sizes and designs of your choice. We saved our money but were fascinated by it and wondered how often someone actually bought one?!
From there we met up with James after work to have dinner at a sushi restaurant they had been to before. It was located in sort of a hidden place in one of the malls and we got in just in time. When we left there was a line to be seated out the door and you could tell they were all local people so that confirmed what we already knew after eating, that it was a great place! Later that night we went back and hung out at Jessica and James' condo and Jessica made a delicious fruit pizza for us to enjoy, yum!
The next morning we had planned to go to Pulau Ubin, an island nearby. But first our lovely tour guides brought us to an amazing coffee shop called Chock Full of Beans to have breakfast. 3D coffee art was the specialty here...wow now this is something we had never seen before! Cutest coffees ever!!! Great food too :)
We almost didn't want to drink them!
After breakfast we took a short ferry ride to the island of Pulau Ubin. Our boat driver was pretty crazy and was yelling "go go go!" for us to get on. Then while we were driving he was walking around collecting money meanwhile leaving nobody at the wheel, yikes! He also yelled at Jessica for putting on sunscreen on the boat, crazy guy. Pulau Ubin is unique because there are only bicycles to get around on the island, we were excited to rent some and set out exploring.
Shortly after renting our bikes and heading down the trail I spotted our first monkey sighting, so cool! We also had fun playing around with our face masks that James had bought for us all. Technically physical activity wasn't advised due to the air quality issue but since we only had limited time there we decided to still go out but to take things easy. We didn't actually wear the masks...with the heat they made it even harder to breath. But we had to get a picture!
We also saw some wild pigs...
On the edge of the island was a mangrove forest that had a boardwalk through it and we walked along to check things out. There were some very interesting things growing, they looked like bumpy large volleyballs.
We climbed a look out platform where we were able see above the treetops. It was neat to see this perspective but also we could really notice the haze out over the water. The sky and water practically merged together in sight.
More monkeys!
We had such a fun afternoon on Pulau Ubin. After one of the island loops we decided we better be done since all of our lungs were feeling a little tight and I was slightly light headed. We had some lunch there and then took the ferry back to the mainland. Below is a picture when we were in the cab back to Jessica & James' place. The roads were so pretty with tall trees and flowers lining them. Singapore is also very very clean since littering is highly fined and it is even illegal to chew gum or eat food/drink in public spaces such as public transportation.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool at the condo complex that Jessica & James live at, such a nice place!
That night as we headed into the city center for dinner we heard some loud car engine noises coming from the streets where the Singapore Grand Prix was taking place. We were able to find a tiny gap in the barriers to glance through and get a little peak, pretty cool!
For dinner Jessica and James brought us to a hot pot restaurant that they had been to before. It was a fun experience and was kind of like fondue where you cook strips of meat in a pot with broth/sauce. We got to choose our vegetables from a salad bar and once things cooked down a bit and we were finished with our meats we added the noodles into the pot to then create a noodle dish at the end. It was so good but wow were we stuffed!
After dinner we randomly went up the elevator in the building/mall we were in and the next thing we knew we wandered out on to a huge rooftop patio area that overlooked a long stretch of the Grand Prix track. We completely lucked out since people who were just down below us had spent about $200 each to get in. We had an amazing view and watched the time qualifying rounds for the big race which was the next day. The cars were unbelievably loud and went so fast. We also had a great view of the Marina Bay Sands lit up at night!
The next morning Jessica and James took us to a nearby market. There were beautiful flowers for sale and we bought some orchids for Jessica to bring home.
There was some things that we had no idea what they were and it was fun to look!
We decided to buy some fresh fish and crab to make that night for dinner. Jessica did a great job negotiating the purchases for us. A hilarious old man really wanted us to buy all his remaining crabs. It was getting close to the end of the market so of course he wanted to sell out so he could close up and go home. We finally convinced him we didn't need 20 crabs, he wasn't very pleased though...His face was priceless!
Next it was time to find some fruits and vegetables...
The picture below on the left is a durian fruit. They are very popular around Singapore however smell absolutely terrible, like a foot inside. They are actually banned in some workplaces and we saw signs in train stations saying no durians.
Next we went to walk through China Town...
The streets in this area were also decorated for Singapore's celebration of being a country for 60 years.
After awhile we decided to get something to eat. We tried the dumplings, prawn bites and chili crab dumplings.
Later that night back and Jessica & James' place the guys decided to learn how to cook the crabs that we had bought using some helpful YouTube videos.
We enjoyed making a home cooked meal after being traveling for so long and so much eating out. The guys figured it out pretty well and there was only one very stinky rotten crab!
We created a pretty nice spread...
and the crab turned out great!
The next morning Brian & I went to explore the
Singapore Zoo.
This is a unique zoo since most of the areas are not typical cages like at most zoos but more of an open design. The tiger area below was basically on a little island with a mote of water around it. Also in some places monkeys can climb right above where we were walking and we got scared by a couple lizards.
We saw a seal and elephant shows and some crazy looking baboons...
Zebras, giraffes and tortoises were a few of the many other animals we saw while there.
After the zoo we took a cab back to Jessica and James place and then walked to the nearby hawker center again for lunch. We shared these huge tiger prawns, they were delicious!
Then we met up with Jessica again and took a cab to the Marina Bay Sands to go up to the top for drinks. I had to take a picture from the back of the cab because the guy had basically the whole windshield covered in stickers and things dangling. Haha, didn't seem too safe!
The view from the top of Marina Bay Sands was pretty hazy but we could still see a ton of ships out in the water.
It looked like it was about to rain in which case they would have closed the bar but we lucked out and missed the shower. Fun spot for our last afternoon in Singapore!
Jessica wanted to bring us to do some foot reflexology which was quite entertaining. Three old men worked on us and for me it was hard to keep from laughing at times because I'm ticklish. But the best part was when the guy who was working on Brian burped and not long later his phone rang and he proceeded to answer it and then have a few minute long conversation while leaving Brian just sitting there (we couldn't understand anything he was saying since he was speaking another language). Too funny!
Later that night we ate in again, Jessica made some great burgers for dinner. Then her and I tried out our face masks that we had bought while out shopping. These are Korean skin care products that are very popular among the culture there. It was fun because we had bought the animal print ones! The best part was that Jessica and James had called their building maintenance person to fix a window earlier...sure enough the door bell rang while we had them on so we decided to go to the door (it was hard holding straight faces) the guy looked surprised and confused but didn't say anything...priceless!
The next morning Brian and I left real early (about 4:00 AM) to head to the airport to move on to our next stop, Tokyo, Japan. We had such an awesome time with Jessica and James, their hospitality was so great and we felt thankful to spend our time in Singapore with them. It was also great to have them show us around and to bring us to places we probably wouldn't have found or gone on our own. We were sad to leave them...Great memories!
