Global Traveler

Singapore

Yet another rainy, nasty day and our taxi driver did his best to get us to the airport but a massive traffic jam (at 6am) on the highway prevented us from moving forward. As though it were the perfectly logical thing to do, the driver puts it into reverse and drives backwards about 1/4mile. He did this until he borrowed the brilliant idea from the other impatient drivers to just turn around and drove the opposite way in the right lane. He did this all the way to the exit ramp and we made it to the airport in plenty of time to join the massively long lines. It is interesting to note that though seemingly aggressive people, no one beeped or even gave the slightest annoyed look as we drove this way.

We obviously wanted to eat at Starbucks but of course it was closed. We ended up going to a cafeteria-esque eatery that specialized in grease. It was okay though because we were lulled by Singapore Airlines the greatest airline ever.

I love Singapore. It was my first choice over Japan. My second choice was Hong Kong, then Japan. SARS ruined my first and second choices. I love Singapore because it reminds me of America but with a significantly Asian feel. I need my creature comforts, good stores and some American restaurants from time to time. English also helps. Singapore is a gigantic melting pot for Asian culture and they maintain teriffic little villiages like Arab Street, Little India and China Town. The city itself is ruled by strict laws that enforce such things as no gum, no public urination and no littering, to name a few. The streets are so clean you could eat off of them. Everything is lush and beautiful and the laws, though strict, are easy to live by and it seems that most Singaporeans are happy to abide by them in order to keep their country looking beautiful. Despite its massive humidity, I definitely think it is a place I could live and love. If the job search doesn't turn up anything worthwhile I just may have to look into it;)

The second we landed in Singapore we saw the sun and knew it would be good. Our hotel was in a prime location on Orchard Road where all the cool stuff was. We settled in and decided to break our rule of no group tours and go on a group tour because we were too lazy to think for ourselves.

We ended up going to the night safari which is part of the Singapore Zoo. I'd been before but would go everyday if I could. En route we were reminded of why we hate group tours. We hadn't been given a receipt and this caused all sorts of problems. Basically, the entire bus waited for us while we straightened out the problem. (We were right, by the way) I made friends with an Indian couple who were on their honeymoon. I managed to offend them in every way possible. When they told me theirs was an arranged marriage I felt so awkward that all I could think of to ask was if they liked the arrangement. I spent the rest of the night avoiding them.

The first thing we did on our next morning was to cash in on our free breakfast. We went wild. Being in Japan made us eat as though we would never eat again. By the time we made it to Sentosa Island, the major resort draw in Singapore, I was feeling ill. We enjoyed a nice stroll around the beautiful Silosa beach. This beach is completely fake and manicured and of course, I loved it. It would have been perfect but Singapore is a major port city and the actual water was filled with ships. Not pretty yachts or boats or even cruise ships, but cargo ships and massive tankers. The water was sludgy and there was trash floating everywhere. Standing from the water looking up, it looks like a beautiful beach.

We went to Underwater World, which is much like Sea World's Creatures of the Deep. A fun aquarium though small, but I didn't care because I got to pet the stingrays.

We saw there was a big mini golf thing that was touted as being really cool. We HAD to go. It turned out being really lame. At about noon, it suddenly got extremely hot and humid. Singapore generally has 80% humidity or something heinous all year round but that afternoon it was just about to rain and the humidity increased to about a trillion percent. About halfway through our course we decided we couldn't take it and went back to the hotel where both got sick for the next two days.

Heat, dehydration, pure shock from sunlight, exhaustion, whatever it was we were not going to let it keep us from eating. We made it to an Irish pub and had some yummy snacks of totally greasy fried food. We woke up sick several hours later. Of course, we were on vacation so we weren't going to let a stupid thing like illness keep us down. We figured a good spa treatment was what we needed. It did make me forget I felt so bad. I forgot so much in fact, that I foolishly thought I could handle Dairy Queen. It just felt so good to see something familiar. Shortly thereafter, my facial exuberance left me and I was sick again. But I did some shopping while Jed did something else. Then I felt sick again and had to lie down while Jed went to an internet cafe to handle scheduling our ferry to Malaysia for the morning.

Just as I was starting to feel better Jed came back with the news that the ferry to Malaysia is no longer in service and the only way to our island was by a small plane that has one flight a day. We couldn't get ahold of them because they had closed so we decided to eat away our worries.

We went to a delicious steak house called Stuart Anderson's Black Angus. (Yes we laughed endlessly while pretending the G had been omitted.) Jed discovered an intense love for ribs while I left memories of my 7 year stint as a vegetarian and my recent illness behind as I devoured about 25 pounds of food.
The deliciousness of the meal temporarily made us forget that we had no way to get to Malaysia in the morning.

Would we find a way to Malaysia? Would we continue to be sick? Will my posts continue to be boring and show that we do nothing but laze around and eat?

Stay tuned.....

Posted by karen at July 22, 2005 12:01 AM