First 3 Days in Singapore

Well, here I am in Singapore after 24 hours of travel. I was afraid that I would be jet-lagged but thus far things have been fine.

On the first day, Steve & I went to breakfast at a mall. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he was exaggerating when he said that here were malls and shopping EVERYWHERE but apparently that is true. So we went to a cafe for breakfast and was introduced to a Flat White (essentially American style Cappuccino) and the ex-pat wives community, which seemed to be mainly comprised of Australians.

Later in the day we went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which are more or less right down the road from where Steve lives. This seems to make up a good area of the city. It was really beautiful. They have a wonderful orchid exhibit that I loved and as Steve mentioned, "Who doesn't like orchids?" Apparently, Singapore is a center of orchid cultivation and creation of new species.


Steve took some really nice pictures of the flowers and especially those in the slipper exhibit.


That evening it was off to Chinatown for dinner. I know it sounds strange since most of the people in Sinapore are ethnically Chinese but whatever. We went to a place to have cold noodles and the guy made them right there in the store, which was pretty cool and the noodles were awesome. It was cool to walk around the area at night. It was packed and a little crazy. After the noodles Steve took me to the Bratwurst booth where a echte Deutsche is making sausages. It was kind of funny and really crowded. I guess everyone likes a good sausage. We will be going back there.


On to Saturday...

We spent Saturday walking around the city some more time exploring the city. In a way it is hard to plan you days since it may seem overcast in the morning but then you go out and a few hours later the sun come out and it is hot hot hot or vis verse. Today we went down to Little India and did some exploring. It looked as if there was a festival recently because there were still signs over the streets. This part of the city certainly was fragrant with flowers and spices. We headed to the Veeramakaliamman Temple - dedicated to the ferocious Hindu goddess, Kali - and it was a pretty cool temple. We ate at a South Indian place called Komala Villas that for the first 5 minutes was hectic and confusing. This is how I envision India to be in reality. We had a great lunch of dosai which are big pancakes stuffed with potoatoes and veggies - yummy! - and were entertained but the young woman next to us who was talking non-stop. After than we did some more walking around and browsing the shops. A young Indian woman tried to sell me a $180 Pashmina scarf! It was a great color but I'm still not sure what is so great about Pashmina.

We thought we would head to the Arab Quarter as well but for some reason we got really tired. I guess it was the heat a bit. We saw a big thing of street vendors selling Moon Cakes for the Autumn Festival. One of the stands sold vegetarian ones so he picked some up. We checked out the Kuan Yim Temple (Buddist) and the Sri Krishnan Temple (Hindu). The Kuan Yim Temple was interesting because people were burning incense and praying. I wished I understood more about Buddism. Interestingly, there were many Chinese lighting incense at the Hindu temple as well. I'm not sure why. After that we went back to Steve's place and relaxed.

Biking on Sunday...

Sunday we headed out to one of the islands near Singpore, called Pulau Ubin. We hopped on a bumboat and in less than 15 minutes we were there. We rented mountain bikes and went riding on the island. The guidebooks claim that Pulau Ubin is what Singapore looked like 50 years ago...I guess that depends on which part of Singapore you are looking at. I'm pretty sure the colonial area wasn't comprised of wooden houses and dirt roads but then again, what do I know.


After a bit we got off our bikes and walked through the wetland preserve. It was really interesting though we probably should have gone when the tide was low to see some of the sealife and corals. It was cool to walk through the mangrove forest. Though there is a significant amount of garbage that washes up on the shores. After our walk through the preserve, we got back on our bikes and headed out for more exploring.



The island is pretty small and easy to get around there are a few hills and at times it was a bit scary going down the hills. I guess I have been spoiled this summer in flat Chicago. I have to say that mountain biking is pretty fun and I'd definitely do it again. On one hill my chain fell off and I couldn't get it back on so we walked it back to the rental place. The woman was like "use gear 2 it is better!" My knees were like, "gear 2 are you nuts???" So after that some of the hills were a little challenging. Right was we were heading in for the day it started to rain. We got in just in time. We grabbed a drink and then is started to pour for like 15 minutes. Then it just stopped again...I guess that is the tropical climate for you. We jumped back on the bumboat and headed back.

Later that evening, I met my friend Olivia. She and I went to undergrad in Madison. She's from Singapore and lives here now. I met here husband, Tom, and daughters, Georgie and Ella, who are all cute. It was great to see her and it seem like we both felt that we were pretty much the same. We'll be meeting up later in the trip. It is hard to believe that I hadn't seen her since 1994.