Singapore

We had three great days in Singapore, which is such a beautiful place! It is amazingly clean (especially after being in China, it is really striking!) and there are lovely trees everywhere forming canopies along the roads in some parts, and many beautiful flowers and orchids. Singapore is very hot and humid, and usually consistently stays between 30-36 degrees each day throughout the year.

We were met at the Singapore airport by Wehuns’ uncle “San Chew” and his aunt “Auntie”, who are lovely people, and it’s been so nice to spend time with them. They brought us to their apartment where we stayed during our time there, which was great. After settling in we met up with Mom and Papa at their hotel which was more central in the popular Clark Quay area at the riverside. We all went for dinner together and had a typical Singaporean meal of Hainan chicken rice.

The following morning I took the MRT (subway) to meet Mom and Papa for a bus tour of the city. It was a very good tour where we visited most of the key sites, and our tour guide was very interesting and informative. Meanwhile Wehuns spent the morning visiting with San Chew and Auntie. We then met up for lunch at a Hawker centre for some great Singaporean food. After lunch San Chew dropped the four of us off at the orchid garden, where they grow so many beautiful different kinds of orchids. Just down the road from the garden is the Singapore night safari which we went to next, which was great! We had dinner there at the safari themed restaurant which had very good food and neat décor. We then went to see a live animal show with all sorts of creatures of the night doing some stunts. Afterwards we took the trolley through the safari area, which was the best part. There were many different animals to see from various regions of the world, with very dim illumination in each area so that it doesn’t disturb the animals. We then headed back downtown and had a nice evening walk along the riverside before heading back to the apartment.

The next day the four of us met up with Wehuns’ cousin Cody and his aunt “Da-Ee”, who are also lovely people, for an amazing buffet lunch at the Hyatt. The food was so delicious and was an interesting mix of Singaporean, Malaysian, Indian and Indonesian food. We had a great time meeting more of the family and learning many more interesting things about Singapore from Cody.

Cody and Da-Ee had to go back to work afterwards, so we then went and wandered around Orchard road, which is one of the main shopping areas in Singapore. We visited the courtyard and lobby of the famous up-scale Raffles hotel (well actually just Mom and I were allowed in since Wehuns and Papa were wearing shorts, which do not fit the dress code, even just for the lobby! So we went in and took pictures to show them what it was like inside). We then went on to another shopping area called the Vivo shopping centre, which was very North-American. It was funny to see that fall fashions are in here in Singapore also, and they don’t sell shorts at this time of year just because it’s “fall”, even though the temperature remains in the 30’s year round!

The next day we went to East Coast Park where we rented bikes and biked along the beautiful trail along the ocean. It was nice to have the breezes from the ocean helping to cool us down a bit as we biked as it felt especially hot that day. It was then time to head to the airport for our flights to Bangkok. Wehuns and I were on separate flights from Mom and Papa’s, but they arrived fairly close together, so that was good.

We met all together at the airport in Bangkok with Wehuns’ Dad, C.K., who has been living in Thailand for the past year, doing volunteer work in the local community in Sangkhlaburi and with one of the local orphanages. It was another great family re-union! We had some delicious Thai food for dinner together at the airport and then CK drove us to our hotel in Bangkok. The next few days were quite a whirlwind of activity with so much packed into each day, so I’ll describe that in my next entry!