Singapore - Sunday, Monday

Sunday started off good, like every day in Singapore. I went for an exercise and fruit while Elizabeth stayed back and read her book. About an hour later I returned, we went together for our breakfast of gado-gado and lime juice and then next door for our daily coffee. After our morning routine we headed off to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which has over 4 million visitors a year.

Before going to the gardens we were looking at all sorts of maps on-line and in print but could not figure out how large the gardens were, as none of the maps had a scale to show the actual distance between places. We didn’t know if it would take minutes, or hours to walk from one side to another. We really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.

We took the metro out there, about a thirty-minute journey, and it was only about S$2.50 each. Transport is very cheap in Singapore – this same trip in Auckland probably would have cost NZ$5-$10 with an exchange rate of almost 1:1. Upon our arrival we wandered up and out of the metro station, following everyone else into the botanic gardens, hoping it wasn’t too big. As we followed the signs into the garden we were quickly startled to find another visitor in front of us hitting one of the plants in a moment of anger. Now this other visitor was a female in her early 20s – too old to be throwing a temper tantrum. We found it very strange that she was taking her anger out on a plant being that we were at the botanic gardens. A bench or maybe a fence would have been more appropriate – not a plant. Anyways, we followed her and her companions (2 males of roughly the same age) for a while seeing what other outbursts might ensue. No other plants were harmed that day, at least as we could tell, but we did do a bit of contemplating on what was going on with these three and this is what we came up with:

The girl (who was rather dressed up for a daytime outing in a park – she had a black dress on that some might wear to the club) was expecting to go on a nice date with here bf (male #1). He showed up 30 minutes late for their outing and brought his friend and/or brother with him (male #2). She was expecting some one on one time with the love of her life and he ruined it by not being sensitive to her plans. Whether this is the real reason she was upset or not doesn’t matter, there was no reason for her to take out her frustration on a poor and innocent plant.

We unfortunately were separated from the angry girl and her male companions somewhere in the foliage garden. From there we wandered through the evolution garden and the healing garden. Nothing was all that interesting to look at – no great flower displayed or really strange plants – and it was so hot we couldn’t imagine stopping to read signs, especially if that required us to stand in the sun. We were sweating profusely, it was over 90* I’m sure and humid as well, and just wanted to get somewhere with aircon. After wandering around the gardens feigning interest and looking for the quickest path to the visitor center, we finally found an air-conditioned gift shop, and was it ever wonderful or what!

On our wander we did try figuring out what a botanic garden was – as I have no idea what the purpose of it was since it really wasn’t all the spectacular to look at. I must be to show off the botany of a region? Great if your botany consists of beautiful blooming flowers, not so great if your botany is a bunch of green plants on display in the sweltering hot sun.

While enjoying the nice aircon of the gift shop, Elizabeth used a “tester” lotion that wasn’t actually a tester and made us the receiving end of many nasty and suspicious looks from the staff. After that we had to leave. Plus we had one last thing to see in the botanic gardens, the orchid garden, which from reviews online was the top thing to do in Singapore.

Now if it weren’t for the heat I would maybe agree that it was the top attraction. The orchids were amazing. So many beautiful flowers - 1000 varieties of orchids and 2000 hybrids. I’m sure we didn’t see them all but there were beautiful blooming flowers everywhere. Plus, there was a cool room – our favorite part of the entire gardens. We spent maybe 30 minutes in the orchid garden – definitely the best part of the botanic gardens – and then made a b-line across the botanic gardens to the MRT stop, back to Little India for a quick lunch, and then back to our glorious hotel, the Haising, for a little R&R before dinner with Richard and Guessy.

Just before 7 we headed out from the Haising to meet Richard and Guessy at his place for a drink and view of the city before dinner. Richard lives at a newly built apartment complex (well it’s really more like a city than a complex – there’s probably 6 towers with 30 floors each with 10-15 apartments on each floor – it’s huge!) the City Square Apartments on the opposite side of Little India from where we were staying. He lives on one of the high floors – maybe 25 – and has uninterrupted views of the city from his apartment, it really was amazing. (We have since invited ourselves back to Singapore to live with Richard the views were that amazing! Well the views and the city and the company of course.) We had a drink there, well I had water but everyone else had a drink, watched a plethora of Rihanna music videos on MTV while chatting about something I don’t remember and then when out into the night in search of a good Indian meal.

Richard, having lived in Little Indian now for 6 months or so, had a few nice open-air cafes in mind. After managing our way through throngs of Indian men (apparently all the Indian man go out to Little India on Sunday night – that’s why he took us out that night so we could meet a man, just kidding – he did want us to see the craziness of a Sunday night in Little India though) we found ourselves at a very nice Indian restaurant set back from the road where we were able to dine outside but not on the sidewalk with people pushing past right next to our table. The dinner was nice – not the best I’ve eaten, but the outdoor dining experience was good, as was the company – but the bathroom was not the best I’ve seen. I did get up shortly into the meal to use the toilet only to find most of the bathroom floor wet from the leaking bidet attached to the only western toilet they had. The other toiled was the more traditional squat toilet that we will soon have to start using – more to follow on this shortly.

Anyways, with the leaking water, the tiny stall, and no toilet paper I abandoned my first attempt at the bathroom hoping I could wait until I got home. Well this didn’t work as I did have to return to the bathroom later, had to search out my own toilet paper from one of the staff and replace it myself in the stall, and then had to maneuver around the wet floor trying to stay as clean as possible. It wasn’t really that the bathroom was all the bad, but we were at a nicer restaurant where I was surprised they had a bathroom of that quality. I mean it wasn’t fancy, but I would have expect a dry bathroom floor and toilet paper – not too much to ask I don’t think.

Upon my return to the table we had two quality conversations for the rest of the evening, (1) how to use a squat toilet and what the outcome can be if not used properly and (2) Richard’s belief that he looks like Chris Hemsworth in Thor. For the first one, we kept the conversation going as long as possible without getting too graphic, but I will be honest with you I am not looking forward to the first time I’m going to use a squat toilet. I’m going to start practicing my squat soon as I don’t understand how to squat without squatting right over my pants. Richard told us he’s had a few bad experiences, as I’m sure Elizabeth and I will also have, but thankfully most come with a hose you can use afterwards in the case of a really unfortunate situation. As for topic number two, Richard believes he looks like Chris Hemsworth from Thor. Now I am not a movie buff, could not recognize a photo of Chris Hemsworth, and have never seen Thor, but Elizabeth just did not agree. And based on the fact that Richard came up with this on his own – no one has ever told him this – I’m just not sure I believe it. Once again, as I know nothing about Thor and/or Chris Hemswoth, I can’t really judge, but I’m sure Richard looks about as much like Thor as I look like Beyonce. Actually, I’m not really sure this is a fair comparison either, but Elizabeth and I and Guessy all got a few laughs out of this. Don’t worry, we still love you Richard!

All in all dinner was good. We had nice food and nice time out wit Richard and Guessy. It was really nice for us to have someone we “knew” in Singapore, someone we could ask for help or suggestions and just someone to hang out with. After dinner it was back through Little India to our home, the Haising, and off to bed.

Monday started again just like any other. Fruit and exercise for me, reading for Elizabeth, followed by gado-gado and coffee. Then off to do the Marina Bay walk around none other than Marina Bay. Marina Bay is the nice waterfront area in the CBD alone which the Marins Bay Sand hotel, the ArtScience Museum, the Helix walking bridge, Merlion Park, and lots of nice park land, restaurants, and hotels. The walk took us around an hour after which we headed over to the Asian Civilizations Museum. Again, Singapore was really hot, and on the way iced lattes at Starbucks distracted us. I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed an iced latte as much as I enjoyed the one on that day. We took our cold drinks, headed out outside, found a nice bench in the shade, and sipped away. After 4 days in Singapore you adjust to the heat, to the point where any place outside of direct sunlight seems like quit comfortable. We sat there, outside the Asian Civilizations Museum, watched the people walk by, and let the sweat dry.

Once finished we headed inside to find our timing was perfect, we were there just moments before the start of a free, guided, one-hour tour of the museum. We stayed with the tour group for a bit, but as there were likely 30 people on the tour trying to huddle around one piece of art here or there, it was rather difficult to see what was going on or hear the tour guide. Plus, Elizabeth had just finished her third coffee for the day and was getting a bit crazy. We sneakily broke away from the group, wandered around a bit making jokes amongst ourselves, tried not to let the tour guide see that we had desert the group, and then eventually left to go get a nice lunch in Chinatown.

Now this was going to be our 4^th stop at the Chinatown Hawker center – our favorite place to get food in Singapore. We walked from the museum only to find that it was closed for a deep clean. This was disappointing but understandable as the only live cockroach we ever saw in Singapore we saw at this Hawker Center. We saw a few other unsavory practices here but you just have to look the other way and continue to enjoy your food. I mean what more can you ask for when you can eat an entire meal for 2 people for less than US$10? And it’s super tasty? Adjust your expectations and don’t get hung up on cleanliness practices.

We ate at a more “proper” restaurant in Chinatown but we’re all that impressed. My Xiao Long Bao (my new favorite food – Chinese soup dumplings - they are the bomb!) were the worst I had in all of Singapore and we were charged S$0.30 each for the napkins that were already on the table when we sat down. Granted we did use a lot, but still, who charges for something they put for “free” on the table?

After lunch it was back to Little India for a rest, some fruit eating – a new afternoon routine of ours, always fruit for dessert after lunch, and lots of it – and some TV time.

Dinnertime rolled around and we headed to a vegetarian place in Little India, Komala Villages. This place had the best Indian food we had in Asia, maybe the best I’ve ever had. I had a Paneer dish, Paneer is Indian cheese, and it was so fresh. It tasted like it was just made. I had it was garlic Naan, just delicious. Elizabeth had Aloo Gobi, a great vegetarian/vegan dish. The food was good, I’d definitely recommend it if you end up in Little India in Singapore. The best part, about our experience there, however, was when we walked in the door. The restaurant has two floors and when we walked in on the street level floor and asked for a table for two the host immediately told us to go upstairs even though there were free tables downstairs. We weren’t given a choice, but rather just told to go upstairs. We got up there and saw it was all families and then us, the white people. The only reason I can see as to why they would put us upstairs with the families is that Elizabeth was acting like a child. Actually this isn’t true, I just told her that was the reason.

We did, during our time upstairs with the Indian families, come to the conclusion that Indian families have the best-behaved children of all ethnic groups. They are quite, listen to their parents, don’t fuss around in their seat, usually are quite smart and studios – basically we love them. Much better than other ethnic groups, that’s sure!

After dinner it was back to the hotel, planning for the next day, and then off to bed.

I’m going to end this blog post now as I’ve been writing for a while and am getting tired. I will do our last day in Singapore later. Hope you’ve enjoyed so far!