Singapore 02/05 – 02/07

The two main activities in Singapore seem to be shopping and eating. Unfortunately, we arrived to the city right after the Chinese New Year and many places, such as the hawker centers (food markets) we were so excited to try, were closed. Who would have known? But, we were not deterred and explored a huge portion of the city-state by MRT and walked miles and miles every day until our calves ached.

Dramatic skies and new construction at Marina Bay.

Singapore's back side.

Singapore is a lot like a US city except a bit cleaner and more future forward. Everything costs about the same as in Chicago. The roads are huge and in great shape. There are no crowds. It is super clean due to strict litter laws. There are plenty of beaches and even some tropical rainforests. The public transportation system is quite sophisticated and seems to link pretty much everything together. Also, there are shopping malls literally everywhere in the city center. Like the US and fortunately for us, shopping malls do not acknowledge holidays. To enter or exit an MRT station, you go through a shopping mall. Orchard street, kind of like Magnificent Mile on steroids, is not a street with shops but a street with shopping malls. One high rise mall is next to another high rise mall and this goes on for miles. I counted about six Prada stores just in one small area. Same for Channel, Adidas, Nike...and so on. One day we basically spent all day shopping without actually buying anything. We found one mall that seemed to be all entertainment based with movie theaters, karaoke bars, gaming rooms with computers, gaming rooms with video games, and gaming rooms packed with just those machines where you put money in and steer some contraption to retrieve a trinket or a teddy bear.

Kachong - tasty shaved ice treat with sweet,
colorful syrup, corn, and colorful noodles underneath.

Mmmm....tasty pork soup with homemade noodles.

Dim Sum lady at the mall?  Now that is a mall I can shop at.

These fish were on display at a riverside restaurant.
They are meant to be consumed.

These are the largest crabs I have ever seen.
They are literally about the size of my head and are to be consumed
in the famous Singaporean dish "Chili Crabs" which is basically
crab with hot chili sauce.

Waiting for the train at the MRT.

The best mall had to be the new one at Marina Bay which had live performances, a skating rink where children were ice skating on plastic ice (it was pretty slow going), and waterways with boat rides. Peter suggested that we go to the food court since we were hungry and I was horrified at the thought of eating Subway or Burger King in Singapore of all places. But, turns out that the food courts in the shopping malls are basically cleaner versions of hawker centers and have a great variety of delicious food. So we ended up spending a lot of time eating in the malls.

Aerial performance at the mall.

Trinket/Teddy Bear arcade.

Today we are off to Hanoi. Not sure if this is a good idea. A chilly and foggy 19 degrees (Celsius), it may be a bit cold for us as we have gotten pretty used to something more around 29 – 31 degrees. I don't even want to think about the bitter cold that is awaiting us in Chicago. Also, it's a bit out of the way now that we have gotten all the way down to Singapore and are thinking of moving on to Java and Bali for the final leg of our trip. But, we already have visas, so we figured why not and when will we have another chance to go? I booked us a ticket on Tiger Airways, the super budget Singaporean airline. But, upon arrival at the airport we found out that I booked the ticket for the wrong day! The day was actually correct, but I was about a month ahead.  My brain must have gotten fried in the tropical heat because I checked the date several times while booking. We had to pay a hefty fee to change the ticket and I am not even going to tell you what it was because it makes me want to throw up. Sometimes a simple, small mistake could cost you dearly.

Locals enjoying the seaside on our last day.