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Published: October 14th 2011
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We arrived back in Singapore on Friday evening and headed to Mary's apartment via the subway with no problems this time. We had taken her extra key with us so when we got to her apartment we could get in, in case she wasn't back from work yet.
Once Mary arrived home around 9pm we headed out to watch the laser light show on the Marina. This light show happens every night from the Marina Bay Sands Casino and has a water show below in the marina. We took the budget route of buying cans of Tiger Beer (Singapore's local beer) at 7-11 and watched from the Esplande near the Fullerton Hotel. It was a nice evening to see the show, chat about life abroad and people watch.
Saturday, we slept in and hung out until we decided we needed some more kaya toast and kopi (coffee w/condensed milk). It was another warm day in Singapore so we retreated back to her air conditioned apartment after breakfast. Later on we hit up the quite disappointing Chinese & Japanese gardens, but at least they were free. It was good to get out and walk around though while it was our
last full day in Singapore.
That evening Pete & I decided to hit up the well acclaimed Night Safari. The park opens at 7:30pm and closes at midnight. I compare it to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego but it is at night so the whole park is full of nocturnal animals. We got there about ten minutes til 9pm as the public transit to the park was over 1 hr from Mary's place. We got to see a show with many different animals including a snake that was hidden under the 2nd row of seating (YUCK) and we did the 40 minute tram ride around the park. It was well worth it though but we didn't take many photos as we were on a tram with low lighting due to the nature of the park.
Suggestions for the park: get there at 7pm so you can get into the park when it opens, walk all 3 trails, see the shows and ride the tram as it goes some places the walking trails don't go. We only walked on 1 of the trails that was near the entrance as the others take over 40 minutes to walk
and we ran out of time. There is a bus that will take you back to the city as the subway closes at 11:30pm. So leaving the park before 11 wasn't appealing to us to catch the subway.
Overall we enjoyed Singapore, staying with Mary to see a different side of the city, enjoyed watching English TV on a comfortable couch (we don't have either in China). Living abroad has its ups and downs for every part of the world and it was neat to compare our two different types of lives in Asia. Working for Nike in Singapore vs. teaching English in China...WAY different lifestyles when it comes to hours worked, apartment amenities, paychecks and perks.
Quick thoughts about Singapore: similar to HK since it is a city/state, VERY CLEAN due to strict regulations, very easy to travel as most Singaporeans speak English, quite expensive for Asia and very hot and humid.
We have learned(and still learning) to be thankful for what we have as life is too precious to always look at the "Other Greener Side of Life" Our 11 day trip came to an end as we flew back to China on Sunday, October
9th.
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