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Trying to stay on top of these updates and getting them written has proven to be a much greater challenge than anticipated! Especially given that this trip was planned to see as much as possible in the limited time available… =)

Anyway, our few short days in Singapore were a mix of sightseeing, catching up with old friends, and some leisurely activities. As a small city-state at the intersection of the East and West, Singapore was a good transitional stop between the Western cultures of Australia/New Zealand (even though there were tons of Asian people in both!) and the upcoming Asian cultures of Thailand/India.

Our general impression of Singapore was that it is a highly developed country that is a melting pot of people and cultures and is a “fine” city indeed. =)

Many, if not most, signs (as well as announcements) in Singapore are in 4 languages (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil)!

Be careful. Be very careful. Otherwise, be prepared to pay up! =)

Everything, even buses, was very punctual and it was nice to know exactly how much time we had to wait for the next MRT train!

Another interesting thing we noted is that people seem to be much smaller here than in America. Surprise surprise! =P However, it was surprising to us to find out that according to local BMI standards, we’re both considered over 20 pounds above the recommended weight range for our heights!

I think that in Singapore, our BMI scores are much worse than in the US! =)

Day 15 – Part II

Most of Day 15 was spent in transit as we departed from Sydney to Singapore on an 8+ hour flight onboard a British Airways flight. When we finally descended towards Singapore in the late evening after the long flight, we saw numerous lights of both the city and the multitude of ships floating in Singapore’s waterways.

From the airport, we quickly made our way (via the very efficient MRT system) to a friend’s family place where we would stay for the next few nights and promptly went to sleep. =)

Day 16

Having been given a few tips on what to do in Singapore from local friends, we headed our relatively early to explore the Orchard Road area beginning around Scotts Road and wandered over towards Suntec City and the Esplanade.

One of our first tasks was to find some food, which is abundant and super cheap (especially given that we were coming from Australia where everything seemed so expensive!).

Hawker stalls where cheap good eats are readily available!

We also encountered new and strange foods/fruits!

We quickly realized that Singapore is a huge shopping city with numerous air-conditioned malls and shops all along this road. And, since the weather in Singapore was so sticky and humid (much like the worst of East Coast summers), we were more than happy to just stay inside and explore the numerous connected shopping centers. As we’ve been seeing all along our trip thus far, globalization is making everywhere seem more and more alike with the same slew of stores represented nearly everywhere we go (McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC – just to name a few)!

From Orchard Road, we wandered over to the Esplanade to admire the architecture of the Theatres at the Bay and sculptures of the fabled Merlion just across the river along the Esplanade.

The Merlion – For some reason, my mind didn’t immediately register that it was a mer-”lion” (like a mer-”maid”). Instead, I kept thinking, Merl-ion… what an interesting name… =)

Some towers and the Theatres at the Bay along the riverbank of the Esplanade area

One of the highlights of this part of the trip was catching up with old friends. For lunch, we were able to meet up with a friend who I hadn’t seen since… 2003? 2004? Once upon a long time ago, we spent part of a summer serving Inner City Missions in Kensington, PA while at GCC. =)

Dan & Dan =)

During the course of the day, we also noticed various other interesting architectural designs that show different aspects of Singaporean cultures and snapshots in time.

Two “different” buildings =)

In the evening, after a day of walking and wandering all over the shopping areas of downtown Singapore, we decided to experience the Night Safari…

At the entrance to the Night Safari

Unfortunately, low light situations don’t allow for good photos so not too much to show. However, it was interesting to see the various animals at the night safari in an evening set
ting and we also enjoyed the “Creatures of the Night Show” where more than half of the acts seemed to have been sabotaged by uncooperative wild animals! =P

And so, after a nearly 14-hour day wandering Singapore, we returned “home” to get some sleep.

Day 17

Our plans for our second full day in Singapore called for a visit to see the resort island of Sentosa. Since we didn’t anticipate having a full day’s worth of activities, we decided to sleep in a bit and get some rest before continuing our adventures.

After a brief detour for lunch, we headed over to Sentosa by MRT and bus and decided that we would check out 3-4 of the attractions.

Our first destination was the pink dolphin show at the Dolphin Lagoon.

The three stars of the show. Apparently, these dolphins start grey and become more pink as they age and mature?

Next, since the Dolphin Lagoon ticket included admission to Underwater World, we decided to go check it out as well. Overall, our general impression was that it was very unnatural… I guess our expectations were just a tad bit high after having dived 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef and having been to the Sydney Aquarium not too long ago which also had “living” tanks? =) But there were a few cool creatures that we hadn’t seen before including sea angels and a dugong!

Yay, another aquarium!

Pretty cool little creature that is a jelly-like, shell-less sea snail? But it swims around with its little “wings”!

Following our re-visit of the underwater world, we chose to learn a bit about the history of Sentosa and Singapore and visited the exhibits at Fort Siloso.

Map of Fort Siloso on the western tip of Sentosa

One of the exhibits reenacting the firing of a 6 in BL gun which was used during the battle for Singapore in 1942

Finally, to conclude our Sentosa experience, we decided to do something fun and went for a luge ride! Whee! =)

After a day at Sentosa, we explored the Clarke Quay and Boat Quay areas in the early evening where numerous seafood restaurants line the riverbank. We weren’t able to eat dinner there though because we had already made plans to meet up with Andrew’s friend back near our “home”! (Interestingly, everyone seems to live near the Bishan MRT stop!)

Lights of numerous restaurants along Boat Quay

Andrew and Fendy

After dinner, my brother and I split ways (I went over to Dan’s and Andrew went off with Fendy) and, later that evening, experienced the heavy rains that we had somehow avoided during our two days here! God has really blessed us with good weather all throughout this trip!

Day 18 – Part I

We awoke on our final morning in Singapore to more of the heavy pounding of the torrential rains. After packing our belongings, we were able to dash back to the Bishan MRT station during a lull in the rain where we had some brunch.

Our time in Singapore was quickly over as we headed to the airport to continue our trip to our next destination… Bangkok, Thailand.