Buzzing Through Singapore

We have now finally made it to South East Asia, where we will be spending the majority of our travel time. We had been looking forward to this piece of our trip as it was probably going to be a bit more challenging and also more enlightening. We started off with our late night flight out of Sydney airport on Gulf Air. It was an overnight flight, and consequently we arrived in Singapore at 4:40 a.m. There are more people that you think awake at this insane hour. After finding a hostel that would take us at 7:00 in the morning, we set out on the MRT (Mass Railway Transit) to find our crappy little hostel, and the heat and humidity hit us hard. We were not used to the heat or the humidity for that matter after travelling in Australia and New Zealand for 2 months. Our clothes were instantly wet as we stepped outside. We have gotten into the habit of showering 3 times a day to curb the smell.

Once we settled into Singapore, we were able to try some of the local cuisine from the nearby food stalls. This was quite a cultural experience, as we were not completely sure what was in the food, and we were surrounded by locals in the stifling heat. As we continued our on tour through some of the major sights in Singapore, we encountered many friendly Singaporeans. They were eager to help us if we were lost, or even if we were not. We were able to visit the famous Raffles Hotel, which is a huge white complex (not just a hotel) built in the late 1800s by some Armenian immigrants. It gave us a little history of the building of the Singapore itself at the museum upstairs. We also had the opportunity to visit Sentosa island just a few kilometers south of Singapore itself. The best part was taking a cable car over from Singapore in order to get a bird's eye view of the area. On Sentosa, there was an amusement park feel, and we couldn't leave without trying one of the attractions. John's choice was the "luge", which was actually going down a semi-steep concrete path in a plastic cart with a brake. It was a pretty quick trip, but fun nonetheless. Also on Sentosa, was the southernmost point on the Asian continent, so that was pretty cool to be there even though we hadn't been hardly anywhere north of it!

I'll save on shampoo now!

The next day John decided that he needed a haircut. There was an Indian barber that would do it for just 5 Singapore dollars, so why not? John thought the best cut for travelling might be a buzz cut. As for you Texans, that's a burr. As all his blond hair was coming off, I was wondering if he might look a little funny, but it's a new "militaryish" look for him one could say. He can look very mean with that haircut if he wants to!

Our last activity was a Night Safari at the Singapore zoo. It sounds a bit corny, but it was actually very good. We saw lot of big animals, and it was a clever setup. Since it is nighttime, we couldn't see the cages, and in some instances there wasn't cages at all. There were moats separating us from the animals. We were joined on our Night Safari by a fellow traveller from Belgian named Herman. I told him about the "Herman the Worm" story, and he thought that was pretty amusing.

As for now, we have entered into Malaysia, and are enjoying the laid-back beach life so far. For now, selamat jalan.

Nadine