Singapore 1

Making it to Singapore took a lot out of us.  The flight was a little over 16 hours, and in darkness the entire time.  We left San Francisco at 11pm and chased darkness.  When we arrived, the sun was not up yet, Singapore was shrouded in fog, and it was pouring rain.  

Tommy eating at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas with some friends that wanted to tag along on the trip.  

Katherine and Tommy in the MRT

When we arrived in Singapore, we hopped on the MRT and headed to a hostel in Little India that has a service to hold your bags for a fee.  Since we arrived at 7am, we couldn't check in at the apartment we rented until 3pm, so leaving our bags somewhere made sense.  The hostel was named The Inn Crowd, and was a great place to use the WiFi, restrooms, and most of all, cool off!  Carrying the dive bags is not fun.  We left to go on a city walk with just a light bag and could move much more easily.  

One of the many temples we saw out on our walk. 

After a great Indian food breakfast, we were ready to hit the town.  Typical of hot summer travels in big cities, we headed to a giant mall called Orchard Central.  We never go to malls at home, and had no interest in actually shopping, but the AC is nice, and the people watching is even better.  The place was very crowded and hectic.  Prices were comparable to  a US shopping venue, and food was all around.  We did some exploring and rode the escalators to the very top of the building.  Some of the extremely long escalators were outside along the edge of the building, and others were inside, creating a crazy matrix of madness. The layout of the building, delightfully, did not make sense.  

To our surprise was this outside sculpture garden on the roof of Orchard Central Mall.  Very cool!

K with lunch.  

After exploring for a couple hours, we decided to eat lunch at the food court called Food Republic.  We got three claypot meals to share.  Drinks were served by a person going table to table with a cart. All of the employees cleaning the tables and serving the drinks were elderly people.  It seemed strange to us, but I think there is a city program to keep them active and get paid.  They were friendly and looked very happy in the dining area, but I felt like a jerk letting a grandma clean up after me while I stuffed my face. 

We ordered 3 bottles of water which came with a cup of ice and a straw.  I already felt bad getting another plastic bottle, but to top it off with an extra serving of plastic seemed over the top.  Refilling bottles will be the way we go from here on out.  Singapore water in fine to drink and doesn't taste too bad.

Chance taking in the Singapore skyline before the hockey game.

Change watching the Golden Knights put one in the goal.  Go Knights Go!

We lost.  Don't want to talk about it. 

Michael arrived in Singapore on the same United Airlines flight number 1 one day after us. He took a cab from the airport and made it to the apartment just after we woke up.  Now we are off to see more of the city in the next post. Stay tuned.