[2016-10-06: Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore]
I was sad to leave Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam. Vietnamese food is so good. Just thinking about the bubble tea, Pho, and Roast Duck makes my mouth water.
We took a 3 hour flight to Singapore. Singapore airport is supposed to be very efficient. So we decided to test it. It took 47 minutes from the plane touchdown to us out in the pickup area – pretty fast!
We got picked up by an Uber driver. He is funny, fluent with many languages such as English, Chinese, Cantonese, and told us many stories. He drove us to our Airbnb apartment. I found out that we are staying in the red light district. What an interesting thing! In Singapore red light businesses are legal.
We had dinner at a restaurant recommended by our host called No Signboard. What a funny name! As I looked around the restaurant, I saw a sign that said “How was the Name Conceived?” I found that the restaurant started as a family stall by the Choo family. They sold White Peppered crab. Crab was a strange dish back then, almost no one bought them. The family was so poor, they couldn’t afford a signboard. So, the people who did eat crabs, called the stall No Signboard.
We had the famous Chili crab for dinner. It was delicious.
2016-10-07 Singapore
The rain pattered on the roof as I walked through the seemingly endless corridors in the Thian Hock Keng Temple, the oldest Taoist temple in Singapore. The painted carvings were beautiful, and the temple overall was well preserved. I liked the peacefulness of the temple. The curved roofs made it feel very zen.
I peeked through the rooftops and saw the colonial buildings of Chinatown. I saw the tea green glazed roof tiles, they still work effectively, even after all this age. The painted bas-reliefs were well kept. These were good examples of many houses in the Chinatown.
We then walked to Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, a Hindu temple in Chinatown. It was the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. I didn’t know that the religion had so many gods. I noticed the gods seemed more life-like. They weren’t in a uniform position; they seemed to literally be sitting on the towers. We even saw a ceremony. There was music, as a person moved candles in front of a god with giant incisor teeth.
In Singapore, there are different sections for different cultures, such as Chinatown, Little India, and Malay Town. We decided it would be cool to visit all of them. We thought that a good next stop would be Little India. At Little India, one of the streets we saw was adorned with peacock banners.
We also found a nice market. The first floor was very busy, and noisy. It was full of all sorts of food. I wonder how people decide on where to eat. We stopped at one of the stalls and had a drink.
We then walked to the 2nd floor: where it has all sorts of traditional Indian clothing. They were all very colorful and bright, unlike the monotone clothing of some other cultures.
Across the street, I got my first henna tattoo. It was a dragon on my right forearm.
Right next to Little India is the Malay Quarter. We went there to see the Sultan Mosque. I was amazed at how clean and intricate the exterior was.
After dinner, we took the subway to the Merlion, the symbol of Singapore.
The Sands Hotel performed an amazing light show that included lasers, spotlights, music, and fountains. Sadly, none of our cameras could capture its full beauty.
We then walked along the bay toward the Gardens By The Bay. We stopped to watch a free Brazilian music show, then crossed The Helix Bridge. We were so tired that we gave up on going to the Gardens by the Bay, and took an uber home.
2016-10-08 Singapore
We gazed at the hi tech green houses. They reminded me of the places in Valencia.
We then walked to see the Supertree.
On our way there we saw a children’s park. We walked in, only to find a water park and playground. I was amazed that this was all free. I couldn’t believe how beautiful this was. As we strolled the seemingly endless trail, we enjoyed the floral life. There were many educating signs around too.
After the Gardens by the Bay, we went to go on our night safari. I was so excited to see that there was a rhino on this park. For during our Safari, we didn’t see any rhino. We had dinner at the Zoo, for the Zoo, River Safari, and Night Safari were next to each other.
After dinner, we stood in line waiting for the line. When we were finally let in, we were in another line. After that line, we decided to go on the tram first, and went to the tram line. After the tram line, we were in the secondary tram line. We finally got on the tram and started our journey.
We first passed by the hogs, deer, and African grazing animals. We then progressed to the Asian White lion. They were mostly sleeping, very few were active. I was so excited to see the white rhino. I know that it doesn’t look good or anything, but the are at the edge of extinction. Also, we didn’t see any rhinos while on the safari. We then passed the tiger, they passed so fast, I wish that we could see it more.
After the tram, we immediately went to see the tiger. After passing some cute animals relative to kangaroos, we met the king of the jungle. The tiger was finishing up some meat. After that, he circled over to us. His head and paws were huge!! He went away from us, marked his territory, and came back. He lay down right in front of me!! He looked at us, then all of a sudden, someone, accidentally used flash. He seemed to be agitated. We quickly left this exhibit. The rest of the night, we were haunted by his giant roar. Even the other cats we visited seemed to be disturbed.
After the tiger, we went on the leopard trail. We saw many different cats. There were two very pretty golden cats in a nice little habitat. The leopard cat really was like a leopard, just smaller. I was amazed at its pace, it was really fast. Our last cat stop was the clouded leopard. There was a giant structure made of tall, thick, sticks. We didn’t see it at first, then it came limping out. It was SOOO sad to see that it had lost a leg. I wonder whether it lost the leg to traps set by people who wanted the fur. It was still beautiful, and had still immense strength.
We also walked through the fruit bat enclosure. I was amazed that we were right next to them, nothing separating us. We also saw the Flying Fox, a close relative to the golden crowned flying fox, the world’s largest species of bat.
I was so tired after the night safari, that I immediately fell asleep in the car. But that night, I lay awake, still hearing the tiger’s roar, or the otter’s squeal, or all of those peaceful natural noises.
2016-10-09 Singapore and in the air
We walked through the endless gardens of flowers. Smelling each one. It was a bright and sunny day. We strolled through the courtyards with fountains.
We entered a cool house, to see the carnivorous plants. Sadly, we only spotted a few pitcher plants. There was also supposed to be Venus fly traps, and morning dew too.
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We enjoyed the floral beauty of this giant garden. I was amazed that you could combine pollen to create different plants and flowers. There were so many flowers, that some needed to be named after celebrities that visited the botanical gardens.
After the Botanical Gardens, we had lunch at a restaurant, called Long Beach, for our last Chili crab. I savored the flavor for the last time.
I had enjoyed the food in SE Asia, including the fruit and drinks. I will always miss the dragon fruit and bubble tea we had enjoyed in Vietnam.
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After lunch, we returned home and took a nap . Then went to the pool. After the pool, we packed some more. We didn’t feel hungry, so we held off on dinner.
Later, we drove to the airport, had a small dinner, and set off for Gold Coast, Australia. I slept through all of the flight, though I was amazed that even though this was a Dreamliner, and an 8 hour flight, there wasn’t a TV.
