Greetings from Bintan Island

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We left for Singapore on Friday night with a little sadness. We loved Bali so much we could have stayed there. But Alas, the travel itinerary said we had to go. Our flight was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we were booked on a discount airline which doesn't allow more than one suitcase each and they shouldn't weigh more than 20 kilos each. Well good thing we had one of Darrell's connections with us, cause they wanted to charge us US$4 per extra kilo we had - and that just happened to be 78 kilos! Ha! We were so over that the guys just laughed at us. He would have had to charge us $320!!! but took pity on us and only charged $80, PHEW!

As soon as we landed in Singapore and started driving to our hotel, I remembered why I loved this city so much. You've never seen such a clean city! And every street is immaculately landscaped with huge overhanging trees and flower bushes. It's amazing, it must cost a fortune in upkeep.

We only had the one day in Singapore so we tried to cram in as much sightseeing as possible. We did a river tour which was fun and allowed us to sit on our butts while getting a bit of a breeze in the stiffling heat - again. Oh yeah, while we were waiting for the scheduled tour boat to come, Mr Darrell wanders off to get a Starbucks, we only had about 10 minutes to wait. So the boat comes and there's no Darrell! I'm looking, waiting, then the lady gets impatient and she's looking too so I walk all the way over to Starbucks and there he is, just waiting for his drink. So I walk back and tell the lady, she walks over to Starbucks, cause by this time she's starting to lose patience, she finds him, tells him we're all waiting for him, she walks back, we're still waiting!!! By this time we're ready to leave without him!!! FINALLY he shows up with his Starbucks. They had forgot to make his drink, then they got it completely wrong...he was on the shit list for a while with ALL of us after that!

After the bus tour, we decide to go to the Jurong Bird Park. It was a long way to get to but managed to figure it out via their transit system with the majority on their version of the LRT and then a bus transfer to the park. This city has 4 million people and we were so impressed with how they are so well organized, everything is clearly marked and works so efficiently.

We spent a few hours at the Bird Park and totally enjoyed it. We got there just in time to see a Birds of Prey show where we saw among other birds a huge vulcher with a 10 foot wing span! He was amazing, he flew right over our heads, everybody ducked! It's amazing how they can train them so well.

I'll post some of the amazing pictures we got when I get home. We both love birds so we were in heaven, it was amazing! I can't begin to describe all the cool birds we saw, it was well worth the trip over there and gave us the opportunity to see more than just the downtown core of Singapore.

We had to hurry to catch the last shuttle bus back to the train at the end of the day. We get to the bus stop and there's this unmarked bus there and the driver is waving people onto his bus and saying the name of the train station over and over (Boon Lay) to assure us he'll bring us to where we want to go, so most people got on - including us - and he seemed to be in a hurry to leave, then we ended up stopping at another bus stop and picking up more passengers!

The driver is just laughing and grinning all the way, so he drives us promptly to the right train station, then makes us pay a little less of a fee we would have paid to the official public transit bus. It was hilarious, this guy was just driving around and picking up people who were tired of waiting for the public transit and making a killing at it, it was too funny.

On our way to our hotel from the train station we had to walk through the Arab district and we were starving so we stopped at a bustling fast food joint. It was so foreign, it was like another world. They have this bread specialty (like a roti) where they fold an egg and whatever meat you want into it. It was so busy and loud and the service was terrible but we got fed fast and it was delicious and cheap. We sat next to the window where we could see the men slap those things together and cook them on a big huge sort of heavey wok that sits on top of a fire. It was a very cultural experience.

The next morning we packed up and went and took a ferry to Bintan Island, only a 1.5 hour trip. We paid a bit extra to sit in first class but it didn't seem too special when the little Japanese girl who was in this small compartment with her family with us proceeded to puke projectile style! Ha! Poor little girl. She got seasick cause the water was a little rough.

Anyway, we spent the rest of yesterday here exploring the premises and relaxing, it's pretty nice and not quite as hot as Bali although still hot compared to Canada! I wasn't feeling well with this cold so I decided to just accompany Darrell on his round of golf today and be his driver and photographer. It was beautiful again, it's so nice around here that it's almost getting boring! Ha! NOT! The back nine was almost all by the ocean with stunning views.

I hope to feel well enough to golf tomorrow. I'll give you an update later! Only 4 more sleeps left : (

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