We are happy ....
We are travelers, even when they spelled both of our surnames wrong. Arriving at noon on a Sunday it took the rest of the day to get our ‘land legs’. First get to the hotel, settle in and ‘freshen up’ whatever that means. To accomplish getting new SIM cards for our phones which is an absolute must and as soon as possible. Along with power adapter, which until we get, all of our devices will soon die. Along with a train pass we ended up not using.
Yeah, I know there are travel shows like ‘Layover’ where Bourdain runs around and tells everyone what to do in 36 hours in some interesting city on the globe. If we had a research team, a handler/fixer guy, a makeup artist, and a crew of audio and video peeps it might be different.Â
Singapore
Who personifies Singapore best? Who is an amalgamation of everyone we have met here? Maybe best represents the city itself? It is Jesselin! A nice combination of professionalism, knowledge, and charm. It is always a treat to interact into someone who knows the etiquette of dining. When I was 22 years old, I was an idiot. Jesselin at 22 has the world at her hands…and a pepper mill.
Go to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and have lunch or dinner at LAVO Italian Restaurant and Rooftop Bar. Ask for Jesselin and have a skilled waitperson send you down a culinary journey. Tell her ‘Bill’ sent you. I’m sure she will say “Who?“, but it’s nice to get my name out there.Â
I tasted the best wine I’ve had in nearly 4 months, Sangiovese (We’ve been in Thailand for most of that time). We ordered Penne Alla Vodka along with the best grilled artichoke salad I’ve had in my life. The ‘chokes’ had the perfect bite consistency and an out of the world smokiness.Â
I love Singapore. The adjectives needed to describe it cover a wide spectrum. From the air, coming in from Malaysia, Singapore looked unfathomably large. From horizon to horizon the city seemed filled the skyscrapers. Though once one the ground and using Grab, one realizes that this… is do-able. We are in an area that gives the air of ‘hotel city’ right smack next to so much shopping that it surpasses even Bangkok in scope and diversity. Â
Is Singapore expensive? Well, the obvious answer is ‘certainly’. Two or three Grab drivers said so, and I’ve read in many articles to be prepared for this. Though coming from the perspective of someone who has spent most of their life residing in Seattle the answer is ‘meh‘ (a word that I abhor, but it’s perfect here). From my angle everything is slightly less expensive here in Singapore. We just left a coffee shop and had two iced coffees, a chocolate croissant, and a banana muffin. It was $17. You do the math. Plus, cost of living in SE Asia had a lot to do with retirement plans. Singapore did not make the list because of the money aspect. I looked this information up on Numbeo’s cost of living comparison and Seattle is about the same as Singapore.Â
Cloud Forest
Diane lined up this excursion to Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay. Sometimes I’m just the “yeah, that sounds good” guy. It’s what us menfolk do sometimes. We took a Grab from our hotel and walk towards it ….. it’s a billion degrees outside and so humid that even the fish think it’s too damp. We walk some more, purchase tickets and find the entrance. Walking in the domed structure was amazing. Ten steps in, turn to the right, and you are at the base of a120-foot waterfall. It was suddenly comfortably cool as the temp just dropped 15 degrees. Then with the rushing sound of water at 90 dB while standing next to this amazing torrent of water, life has become grand. As we started spiraling up a walkway the abundant greenery made you feel you were in Jurassic Park. I took so many pictures I eventually just put my phone back in my pocket and just grooved. The hour and a half we spent there was worth the trip. It was early enough in the day to be pretty much empty of people. The air was just soooo fresh. If there was a zombie apocalypse this is where I would want to be trapped. We’d just make sure the doors were locked and bring a lot of food, wine, and Korean dramas on our cellphones and wait it out.Â
Trust me, I’m not going to “Touch” the spider below. There is no need for a sign. I got it!
Here are a couple of short videos. Be sure to click full screen in lower right corner and have audio on.
Hawker centers are for the hungry.... and brave
- (in SE Asia) a market at which individual vendors sell ready-to-eat food from small booths.Â2. A really f-ing challenging place to eat
Singapore is known as a food capitol. I understand why. Though I truly believe hawker centers are not meant for the first timer. On paper, sure. You have 80 or 100 booths with different types of foods at each and you have tables and plastic chairs to sit on. Without a doubt everything I had was excellent and made fresh in front of me by someone who has perfected the few items they sell.Â
If we lived here I would know the ropes. Know which places are my favorites. Know when to go and how to navigate with eating with other people you are traveling with. Yes, this can be a challenge. Sometimes the place is so crowded there is not a single table available, and you need to walk up to a complete stranger who may or may not speak your language and ask to sit with them. For westerners this is as foreign as a bum gun or putting ice in your beer, both of these I highly recommend doing. (For heaven’s sake don’t mix the two things up). Ok, now you got a seat, great. Though if you get up and find some food, you may have lost your seat. Dang! But that’s ok, people are used to this. Just join some other round table designed for 5 people with a family of three sitting at it. To add to all this is the fact that Lau Pa Sat hawker center holds 2500 people.
Another challenge to overcome, which combines with the above, is the fact that you and whoever you are eating with probably won’t order from the same food booth and those booths will most likely not be in line of sight. Remember it is super crowded, kinda loud and has several rows of food booths. Oh, and don’t forget you have new SIM cards with new phone numbers which you may or may not have memorized or even written down WHEN you get lost and separated.Â
Always the worst case happens, you’ve lost your partner, are balancing a tray full of food in your two hands, nowhere to sit and even if you did someone is gonna be mad because you lost them. Add to that you kinda wanted a beer and forgot which stall had them. The place is like a beehive and it’s hard to walk and not bump into someone. But now you have to walk with a tray carrying a hot bowl of soup filled to the brim, sans beer and you see nothing but a sea of black hair and GD it I just want to try some food.Â
Did this all happen? Well, to some degree, yes. And more. I could go into more detail at the things I failed at, but I already had to turn in my man card for holding Diane’s purse last week and then asking for directions earlier today. So, to add ‘not being able to efficiently feed myself, keep track of Diane, and find a cold beer at a hawker center easily, ‘ I might get a lifetime ban from carrying a ‘man-card.’Â
“What do you want to eat? I don’t have all night!!! I hope you like noodle…“
I kinda thought this was going to happen. Singapore is a sensory overload. Day one is completed with about 2 billion pictures and 1 billion thoughts. Lau Pa Sat hawker center, is a food cacophony. Seventy or so stalls and way too many choices. We froze, it was just too much. Everything looked good, tables were at a premium, lots of people, 4 different languages, pitchers of beer, pictures of beer, and two hungry first timers. We had decision overload. Since we have been eating food for over a combined 100 or so years, we figured it out and were extremely happy, but as always thinking ‘we would do it differently the next time‘Â
Singapore Cable Car
OK, cable car day was fun! The length was just over a mile and you were suspended 100 meters off the ground.
The two pics above are from the view of the cable car. At the end of the cable cars is a monorail that takes us to a lovely beach.
Chinatown in Singapore
To blow off a near food failure at Maxwell Food Center we walked thru Chinatown late at night and discovered a night market. It did the trick. We called for a Grab and headed back to the hotel.Â
Marina Bay Sands Hotel....(our mediocre hotel did not even compare)
Marina Bay Sands Hotel is behind us in the photograph. Yes, it is “the boat on top of the three towers” building.Â
Um, this might be the place we stay next time. No, scratch that… we’re staying here for sure!
Addendum: I just looked up the prices. Cheapest was $668 a night…. so never mind 🙂
We made a great deal of effort to locate the Merlion behind us. A lot of effort. In the end the fountain statue was found, a picture was taken, and Bill got his ears cleaned.Â
Conclusions:
                     Is Chewing Gum is Illegal?
Some time ago someone asked me if I was becoming an expat because of political reasoning. They obviously did not know me very well. I was actually stunned by the inquiry, but I certainly do understand.
It is ‘politically stressful’ in the US nowadays.
  We are here in SE asia out of a sense of adventure, cost of living, and ease. This is what has driven me to become an expat. In the last 3 months I certainly listen/read/ think about American politics and life much, much less.Then by watching less news there is nobody telling me whom to hate. I’m a better human being because of it.
 Are there concerns and politics here? Yes, but they are not mine. And to understand the nuances of such would take years.
  In Singapore there seems to be no assumption of privacy. There are cameras everywhere. Though this also goes hand in hand with having no worries with an 11-year-old girl taking the bus or train system by herself to school and extra activities at night. This rings in my head the question, is there a price to pay for this? I don’t have skin in this game. I can only observe and make wild assumptions then comment on this small and humble blog.  Â
Should YOU come to Singapore? Yes, of course! It’s an easy town to navigate and has lots to offer. Number one being a food culture. For us 4- nights was perfect. That is three complete days. This is a city stay, not a beach stay. If you are comfortable in downtown Seattle, London or New York this is for you. The prices are similar to these cities. The only transportation we ended up using was Grab.
The city is AMAZINGLY clean, and they have made efforts to have lots of trees and greenery. It is a beautiful city for sure.
 I’ve been ‘handling’ the heat here and in Penang pretty well, though it has been relentless. One can duck into a local mall to ‘cool down’. I suspect the weather has two options: hot and sweltering or hot and sweltering with rain.
The fine for chewing gum and spitting it out in Singapore could be in the hundreds of dollars and maybe jail time. Buying or selling of chewing gum is illegal. Google it. Though I’m a little cautious on typing this… is it really? I’m just an ignorant foreigner.Â
Our Secret Weapon...
You may ask: Bill and Diane, how do you keep all this organized? How do you answer questions on immigration and visas entering countries? Do you ever feel you are not doing something correctly which may disrupt plans and ruin the whole GD day? How do you pick a place to stay for 4 nights in a country far from home? How do you arrange a ride from the airport to your hotel in Malaysia or Cambodia because you don’t want to be surrounded by taxi cab drivers yelling at you in a foreign language as you are grabbing your stuff off the luggage carousel? How do you keep a 228-day itinerary straight with a PDF that is 184 pages long?Â
Meet Mia. A proud daughter of Detroit and another person on this planet I can now sip gin and tonics with. And not the cheap gin either, the good stuff. ‘Hendricks.’ She has built an empire on helping people like us travel around the world. We are kind of special. We are not going to the Bahamas for a ‘all expensed paid’ trip for 8 days. “We got a thing goin’ on.”
She has been at this for a while, and she is our ‘go to‘ person. A decade or so ago she began her business helping government employees travel since her hubby works for the state department and is stationed in different parts of the world, including a 4-year stint in Thailand, and now in Singapore. He and others like him need help. Enter Mia. We finally met face to face after 1000 emails back and forth concerning our travels. Not only a professional but we could hang out with her anytime, anywhere.
Even the departure gate at the airport was cool!
The above Rain Vortex was located near the departure gate in Singapore. In comparison, I believe the airport we use in Seattle has a wooden fish…
I love the sound of waves crashing on the beach. That sound calms me and my soul. Yes Monique, I have found what I have been looking for.Â
I wish my dad grew up like me. I wish he and mom had the chances to do all the things I have done. I am truly grateful for it all.Â
Wow, this photo of me gazing at a menu really looks like him.
Admittedly I look pretty good here. Though in reality, I was at a rooftop bar with loud dance/rap music in the background. I believe it was Doja Cat who had lyrics that were questionable to my sense of decorum. The sun was setting, so it was darker than this photo portrays. I believe this is the moment just before I discover my menu is upside down.