Greetings from Singapore!
Well, as you may have guessed, we've made it to Singapore. Admittedly we had a bit of a rough start. We left Clonmel at 10am on Wednesday, thinking it would take us no more than 3 hours to get to Dublin (which realistically it does) putting us in by 1pm to give us an hour to get to the airport by 2pm for a 4:30pm flight. Well, we should have known better after having lived in Ireland the last 10 months that nothing is ever a) on schedule or b) at a rapid pace. Around 12:30 we started to worry after noticing we had only really just passed Kilkenny. Needless to say when we didn't see a sign for Dublin until 1:45pm (saying we were still 30km away) we started to seriously get concerned. We didn't get off that bus 'til 2:25 and then nervously ran to a taxi. We obviously made our flight however we opted to stay in the airport during our 4 hour layover in Germany.
We wandered around the airport for a bit--had dinner there. I spoke horrible French to a very lost couple. And generally mused at how much we hate smokers being allowed to have smoking sections inside a terminal with little ventilation. Got our seats on the plane and off we went. Unfortunately my order of a vegetarian meal did not go through but Qantas was great. The stewardess bent over backwards offering to accommodate me--even offering to make me a sandwich (she found me some Moussaka later which i was a bit worried still had meat in it, but have since quieted my anxiety). Watched several movies. 10 hours on a plane was long tho. Not the longest i've ever done, but long enough.
We had a lovely arrival into Singapore: Pretty clouds
Finally we made it into Singapore where my Aunt Roz and cousin Duncan were waiting for us. Whew, tho you walk of the plane and are smacked in the face with a huge, heavy wall of humidity. Anyways, we made it back to their place which is stunning. It's a huge place sharing a large pool with 2 other flats (the bulk of the pool is right off their flat). We immediately went for a refreshing swim and felt much better. Sadly jet lag got the better of me and by 9:30pm i was out like a light.
The next day Matt and i went for lunch with Roz and Gil and had some tasty Dim Sum. Then it was to the Funan "Digital Life" mall which was like 5 stories of nothing but techy-it related shops. A geeks paradise. We did some perusing for a UMPC for my dad but only made it to about floor 3 before crashing. We ended up watching Dunc that night as Roz and Gil were going out. He took us to the "American Club" where we ate by the pool. We even discovered that he plays Runescape just like me and Matt. So the three of us went back and all played together before going to bed. We got up the next morning and after a leisurely lunch got a car ride tour of downtown. Gil showed us all of the interesting buildings and we went by the Hedgehog one (see photo) and saw the giant Merlion (Singpore comes from the word "Singapura" which means Lion in some language).
Included on this drive was WILD MONKIES! That pretty much says it all, except for the fact that it was very obviously post mating season and the babies were clinging to their mommies.
That night we went to dinner at Newton Circus which is a hawker centre. Hawker centers are giant outdoor food courts like at the mall--only outdoors and with like 50+ vendors there. You order what you want from a stall, tell them where you're sitting, they bring you the food and then you pay and eat.
Then Sunday we went and had a leisurely walk through the botanical gardens which are right near Roz and Gil's house. There was a great Orchid garden. Uber pretty.
Then for dinner we went to an Indian restaurant in Little India were we ate our food off of banana leaves and utensils are optional! Delicious food and i got to see an authethenic tandori oven. Sundays are apparently the night when all the foreign workers are allowed out and when i say it was packed there, it's a serious understatement. There was thousands of people milling around. We went for a walk around Little India and went in this temple dedicated to Kali which was packed with lots of people and musicians playing real Hare Krishina stuff. Uncle Gil bought us this Jasmine flower garlands that smelled amazing. After a bit more of a tour around we headed home.
Monday Matt and i went off on our own and checked out Chinatown. We got caught in a torrential downpour and waited 'til the rain let up. We had some lunch and saw this neat temple in the area where we were looking around.
Afterwards we went to the Sim Lim Center which is much like the Funan except perhaps a bit dodgier. We started at the top and worked our way down. There are loads of deals and Matt bought a 1gb memory card for his camera for only the equivalent of like $20 USD!
After my reading how close we were to Indonesia, Matt and i decided to check out the island of Palau Bintan on Tuesday. After short 45 min ferry we found ourselves on the Island and in beautiful weather. Much of Sinagpore is very hazy, ironically due to Indonesian farmers burning their farm land (winds blow it to Singapore and other parts of Asia).
The symbol of the Republic of Indonesia:
We initially had wanted to check out the local beach but soon discovered that we had vastly underestimated the size of the Island (which is double the size of Singapore) and opted to go to one of the resorts. We spent the day on the beach exploring--we had almost the whole thing to ourselves. We also decided to try and conquer the seas and Matt, my captain, took us out sailing on a boat that we rented and even i got to try my (nervous) hand at driving!
We caught the ferry back and had dinner a the Golden Mile hawker centre watching all the people doing tai chi and karate down near it.
Well that's all for now. I'll tell you all about today and tomorrow from Australia once we get in on Friday night.
Cheers!
x
Lindz
