Category: Travel

Travelling in Singapore has been fun.  Betsy is a very capable traveller, and has been a pleasure to have along.  This is most amazing considering that she spent 17 hours on a plane, arrived at 5:30 in the morning, and then proceeded to spent the next 14 hours up and about with us.  We thought for sure that she’d need a break, but she had no problems until she crashed at 7:45 last night.  We all woke up at 8:00 this morning, rested and refreshed.

So far we have mostly just walked around downtown Singapore.  We have seen loads of interesting religious sights (Hindu temples, Taoist temples, Buddhist temples, etc.) and the colorful shops all over this area, which is nicely gentrified and comfortable.  We did get a chance to see the Singapore Botanical Gardens this morning, which was really quite spectacular, especially the Orchid Gardens.  We also went to a park in the center of the island where there were 25 monkeys playing right at our feet and throwing mangoes at us from the trees.  They missed, but not by much.

Tonight we may try to see a night safari at the zoo and to celebrate JM’s birthday.  Tomorrow we have plans to head to Melaka.  We’ll be in touch soon.

We’re in Singapore now where we will be meeting TP’s sister for a week of travelling and sightseeing.  We took a very silly bus down here.  The busline is called "Aeroline" and they pretend that their company is operating a plane.  For example, not only did we have a snack, we had a steward, and a "shuttle captain" instead of a driver.  The downstairs of the bus even had a first class lounge and a bathroom (for "light use only", though).  We, of course, held up the whole bus when leaving Malaysia because we have too many stamps and papers connected with our entrances and exits from Malaysia over the past couple of months.  Once again, though, whipping out a little bit of Malay expedited the process.  Much better than the alternative, which is bribery.

Singapore is crazy.  A long time ago we posted from Singapore, but that time we were only staying the night in a hotel while waiting for a connection.  Today we got a chance to really walk around.  The biggest difference between here and Malaysia is that Singapore is spotless.  Really, it looks like they have people who sweep up and wash a couple times a day.  We can’t figure out where the dirt goes.  More than that, there aren’t even any leaves next to the highway, let alone trash.  We have been reacquainted with two things we’ve missed over the past nine months: wine bars and pork.  It’s not that they don’t have these things in Jakarta and KL, it’s just that they are few and far between.  We walked by half a dozen wine bars this evening, and our fried rice with dinner came with pork bits instead of chicken skin and fish balls (customary in Indonesia, at least).

My poor sister has been on her plane for about 9 hours now, and she’ll be on the plane for 9 hours more.  We’ll go to sleep tonight, wake up tomorrow, and then pick her up.  Now that’s a long flight.