Singapore Oct 25th

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Now in our daylong layover in Singapore. Arrived 3AM last night after a horrid plane trip. First leg with LA to Tokyo which was really bumpy and Rick had most of his meals ending up on his shirt. Rick calls it the roller coaster ride. Didn't sleep a wink. It was well over 20h with delays after our supposed 1hour layover in Tokyo. We had to deplane and then go back thru security and replane. Why? Beats me. Tammy lost her jacket during the reboarding in Tokyo and ran back off the plane to find it. The gate agents were very helpful and had one girl run around concourse with me to find it. Which we did! I was last one to reboard but people were still taking their seats so I had a good 3 minutes before door closed. Whew! Ride was bumpy from Tokyo to Singapore with that tropical storm near us. Rick got some sleep but Tammy suffered with no sleep for well over 30hours and ended up hurling her lunch and dinner. At least it was in the bathroom and not in the seat! Now that would have been embarassing. Immigration was a piece of cake in Singapore. Some countries could take a hint from these people on how to process people through. Of course, Rick and I were last ones through immigration (of course) since we were sitting in the last 4 rows of the plane. Room at Crowne Plaza airport hotel is Asian contemporary and very nice. Pictures will follow later since I'm on an internet cafe computer. When we find free wifi (remember Tammy is too cheap to pay for it), we'll upload the pictures.
Finally got out of hotel room today at noon and took train into downtown Singapore to Chinatown. We were in search of the Tian Tian hawker food stall that Lonely Planet & Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods on Travel channel) touts very highly. We found it with no problem. It was the only stall with 50 people waiting in line. We had the chicken rice which is Singapore's national dish. Quite good it was and el cheapo (right up Tammy's alley). Rick adventurously tried the octopus balls (what you didn't know they had any?). Seriously, it's deep fried dough with octupus chunks in it. Yes, I have picture which will follow later. After walking around the rip off Chinatown stalls of crappy tourist souvenirs and sweating like a pig in this tropical heat and humidity, we headed back to hotel for afternoon of R&R before 7AM flight to Bangkok tomorrow. Catch us later, folks.

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Comments

[Allene Lewis]

Wow, heck of a start. Great can't wait to see pictures

[Bettina]

more memories
I am so envious of you guys right now. How I miss all my old haunts in Singapre. All travel to Indo use to go through Singapore and our orthodontist was also in Singapre. I know downtown like the back of my hand! It's a beautiful city, just don't take any chewing gum there...it's outlawed! ;-)