Singapore

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Ok so I will endeavor to cover my time in Singapore in the next fifteen minutes, I'm in Hat Yai waiting to catch a minibus for a four and a half hour ride up to Surat Thani and then hopping the night boat to Ko Samui.

Everything on the flight from KL went fine, you basically reach cruising altitude and begin the descent immediately. Went through customs with a bit of confusion - I was on flight SQ5325 but it was also listed as flight ML1335 and it was apparently my fault that I didn't know that. Paul came and met me at the airport and we took a taxi back to their condo. I showered, with HOT WATER, and was gloriously refreshed, then we just noshed on some homemade hummus, pita and carrots with REAL WINE (I was in heaven). Spent the afternoon lounging and talking and doing laundry and then had a late dinner when Linda came home.

The next morning we went down to the Singapore Botanical Garden and I saw the bench where Paul proposed to Linda in the ginger garden and wandered through the orchid garden for a few hours taking pictures and sweating like crazy. After the garden we went to Holland Village, a really cute area with every kind of expat restaurant you can imagine and ate lunch at a lebanese restaurant. We finished the day with a stop by lucky plaza for some souvenier shopping and then headed home to regroup. Dinner was again AMAZING (thank you Linda!) and then Paul and I went to the Night Safari with every other person on the island. I had forgotten it was Valentine's day and because I had decided to take a night train Sunday night we didn't have a chance to go any other night. The Night Safari was really cool actually, plenty of animals I hadn't seen in a while and very active in the dark, but my camera was absolutely useless to me in those conditions so you all will just have to picture it. The guide on our tram around the night safari had an extreme Singapore accent, weird stressing on words, incorrect grammer and syntax that was driving Paul absolutely wild. Then we heard the next tram behind us and the woman sounded the exact same, so what the problem really is, is that they are being trained to speak incorrect English, which didn't sit so well with Paul the English teacher 😊.

We got home pretty late and had a chocolate party, with crumb cake and delicious Belgian chocolates.

The next day I just lazed around, reading The Plague, doing more laundry and going down to the Khatib market near their condo and buying myself some really nice shirts for work and trying sugarcane juice for the first time. I also had rose apples which were incredible! Paul and I went for a swim in the afternoon and then we ate another sumptious lunch and I finished packing and we ran for the train.

Made it to the train on time - got to pass by Singapore's giant shipping yards which are FILLED with kilometer after kilometer of shipping containers. I LOVE internationl shipping (caroline!)! The train was actually on Malaysian soil on Singapore's Island (a little confusion over national sovreignity but they seem to have it under control) and I said my goodbyes and boarded the train which left the station at 6:00pm or 18:00 hours if you ask anyone that lives there.

Well I'm off to catch my minibus, tomorrow I will try to fill you in on the Perhentian Islands and then I will be all caught up I hope!

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Comments

[Traci Haback]

Sooo, you really have become a fan of the metric system on this trip... "go native!" I suppose... Sounds like Singapore was a very relaxing and worthwhile destination, I'm glad you had fun! What's sugarcane juice taste like and what's a rose apple? ( I imagine some rose flavored aplle slices?) Keep the updates coming and PACE out~