Singapore catch up

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Well Raymond's at work and it is POURING so I thought it was a good time to catch up on blogs. Wow, I am behind. I hope you are not too sick of reading this, and blogs help me remember my trip so I am enjoying the time to catch up!

Thursday 2 weeks ago (I guess that would've been Jan 29 or so - I'm trying to backdate the travelblog) we also spent at Sentosa Island. We went to Underwater World, which is supposedly the largest underwater tunnel. We fed the stingrays, which was fun. They eat by suction, and it feels sort of funny when they eat out of your hands. The touching pond was fun too, even for grown up kids. We also went to a dolphin show, where they had pink dolphins. I think they are another endangered species, but I can't remember the details. They were really fun to watch, I wish it was longer! We stopped for a food break (we do that a lot in Singapore) and had delicious clay pot rice and coconut juice (straight out of the coconut) for dinner. For our last Sentosa adventure, we saw the "Songs of the Sea" show. It begins with the cheesy lip synching and horrible acting that many child-geared shows have (think Blues Clues) but they turned out to have a really good water/fireworks show. It was really pretty and reminded me of the fountains show at the Bellagio. Very fun.

We ended Thursday evening with durians and mangosteen, the king and queen of fruit. Raymond's dad drove all the way to Malaysia to get us fresh durians (OK it's only 45 minutes drive or so to Malaysia, but still, a big trip - kind of like driving to Wenatchee for apples) Unfortunately, I can not appreciate durians the same way that people have grown up around them can ;-) Durians have a spiky outside, and are about the size of a basketball. (Random thought: I wonder how many people have been killed by durians?) The inside has a creamy texture. I have been unpleasantly surprised at the dessert buffets when the "cream puffs" were actually durian puffs. Fortunately my nose can now pick them up from 500 yards away. He brought 3 different kinds, from lowest to highest quality, and we tasted them all. A "good" durian is wasted on me, but I gave it my best shot. HOWEVER, mangosteens are DELICIOUS!!!!! I much prefer the queen to the king (Hmmmm....)

I think I am running out of picture space so I am going to start another blog now! Have to keep you in suspense! xo

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Photos

Feeding the stingrays
Check out those teeth! I didn't even know they had teeth til I saw this picture!

Jellyfish
They shined different colored lights on the jellyfish to make them glow. Cooooooooool maaaaaan.

Crab
Underwater world had lots of HUGE crabs, but this one was definitely the biggest. And Pierre is a tall man. Goes along with everything BIG in the jungle... leaves, lizards, butterflies, fruit and crabs

Dolphin show
This is mid-flip

Song of the Sea Show
It was really pretty!

Merlion
The national symbol, founded by the Singapore tourism board. This however, is the Sentosa version. Kind of like seeing the statue of liberty at NYNY Las Vegas

More flowers at Sentosa
Like I said, everything is really big... even the fake flowers!

The feast
Mr. Tham spread out newspapers for the durian/mangosteen feast. Kind of like crabfest, and just as pokey.

Raymond's Dad
He takes his durian seriously

The inside
The picture can not convey the smell though. It's similar to leaving cut up cantelope in your hot car for a couple days.