Flight to Singapore & Day 1 - September 13

I am writing this post from Singapore – yes, SINGAPORE!!! Roger and I are in Singapore for the next 2 weeks! Unfortunately, he has to work almost every day, while I get to play and discover this beautiful country. I plan to record our trip in this blog each day and will add photos when we return home.

We left our home last Friday, Sept 11, at 8:30 a.m. and boarded a Metro North Train for Grand Central Terminal where we got on the subway and then the AirTrain to JFK. Our boarded our plan around 2 p.m. and took off a little over an hour later. I’m still too tired to figure out how many hours we were on that plane but we landed in Tokyo at 5:35 p.m. Saturday. It would have been wonderful to see more of Japan, but that wasn't in the schedule so we boarded another plane and landed in Singapore at 1 a.m. and at our hotel about 2:30 a.m. After a quick shower we collapsed into bed. I laid awake for quite a while trying to convince myself that it was 3 in the morning rather than 3 in the afternoon and eventually fell asleep until 7:45 when Roger woke me up to go to church.

The hotel provides a great breakfast for 1 of us at no cost, but the other has to pay and the buffet is $32S (about 1.34% American money). We found a continental breakfast for a little less which we scarfed down before catching a taxi.



Our driver was very very friendly and gave us information about the country as we drove. The driver who took us back to the hotel was equally friendly, as have been all the Singaporeans we've talked with. The ward we attended was so strong and helpful, with a variety of cultures represented - Singapore, USA, China, Malaysia... We had no problem staying awake through Sacrament Meeting. A blond young mother kept smiling at me and waved a couple of times during the meeting. I recognized her - Sarah Schmutz from our Albuquerque ward, all grown up, married, and with a 4-month old baby boy. Isn't the world small when you're a member of the Church?! Several RS sisters gave me helpful information, including the bishop's wife who happens to be sister-in-law to the people whose home we are currently living in in NY.

We were advised to stay awake the rest of the day as long as possible to help our bodies adjust to the new time, and we forced ourselves to do so. In the meantime we walked around the hotel area, and found a place to eat. I thought we were adventurous, but maybe not as much as we need to be. It was a bit challenging because no food looked or smelled like anything we were familiar with. We debated quite a bit and eventually decided to try a couple of meals that come in a bowl and that we were told were not that spicy. Well, I guess that's a matter of opinion. Mine was Katong laksa and Roger ordered mee rebus. Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup, a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Mee rebus is made of noodles,with a spicy slightly sweet curry-like sauce made from potatoes, curry powder, water, salted soya beans, dried shrimps, and peanuts. Each of our bowls also contained a hard boiled egg, a lime, onions, Chinese celery, green chillies, fried firm tofu, fried shallots and bean sprouts. They looked a lot like this, only 2 or 3 times bigger:





Our next objective was to find a place to sit down and eat. Apparently this was a popular place. It was called a food court, but all the food looked very similar no matter where you ordered.



An Asian looking couple motioned that we could sit at their table, which we did. They were delightful! They told us more about the food and the country and themselves. We even exchanged contact information and took a picture with them. Then we became acquainted with the two men who sat at the table on our other side and took the photo. See what I mean- they're all great!



Can you tell I'm struggling to keep my eyes open?! Later in the evening we walked over to the ocean or the sea and walked along the coast for a while. (I'm not sure which it is yet.) We took some pictures of the hundreds of ships we could see and of the path we walked down.



It had cooled a bit from the afternoon, but was still quite warm and humid. We were quite sweaty by the time we returned to the hotel. And still full from the food we'd had hours earlier. We didn't even finish our bowls, but it was quite filling. I'll google what each bowl had and let you know. The ingredients in mine that I recognized were fish and bean sprouts. Roger's had a jalepeno-like chili, some kind of noodle, and bean sprouts. Both were in a liquid broth and both were quite spicy. We disagreed on whose was spicier. Roger tried to find a drink to cool our palates and eventually returned with a sweet water chestnut beverage. Stay posted...