Back in Singapore

So I'll come back to Bali, but time is limited so we'll continue with Singapore.

Wednesday was spent catching up on emails, blogging, and of course shopping. The sales on still going strong and there are some great stores where you don't even need the sales (reminds me of H&M). The evening was spent doing dinner and a movie. We went to Holland Village for dinner....this is considered the ex-pat place so we actually saw many Westerners (it's interesting being in the minority, puts a new perspective on things). You can find pretty much any kind of food here. Pam was craving hummus, so Lebanese it was. (I think it's called Holland Village b/c of the windmill, but that sucker is small!) Off to the movies in a taxi. New Yorkers, you're going to die...the movie cost....drumroll.......under $10 for BOTH of us. And the theatre was very nice with great seats and small. We saw Ocean's 13; awsome! I had to get used to the Chinese subtitles, but that didn't take very long. The best part was when the little guy spoke Chinese, no English translation, but none needed for anyone except my sister and I, everyone else understood Chinese. So my sister and I just sat there while everyone else was laughing. Hmmm.
The best part of the day was by accident. I was coming home from Orchard Road on the bus and missed my stop. So I went one stop up and walked back. As I was walking along I ran across a monkey just haging out and eating some leaves. I got some great video and pictures and followed him into Macritchie Reservoir (my sister lives right by it...it's like a huge park) and watched even more monkeys, with lots of babies. They were just hanging out and eating. Crazy!

Thursday...the Zoo!

Singapore is the best zoo I have ever seen. They don't do cages or glass walls or fences. It's all about the moats. The only thing that separates you from the animals is some water, so you really get to see and smell them. They had pretty much every kind of primate you could possible imagine...so many monkeys! And there were babies galore! The other thing that the Singapore Zoo is great at is the shows. The are quite entertaining, and you get to see the animals up close and personal and in action. I saw three different shows and loved every minute of each one. The zoo also offerss elephant rides, not needed for me:) But fun to watch kids and foreigners get really excited. You also have opportunities to buy food and feed some of the animals...not horses and sheep mind you, but manatees, elephants, kangaroos, oraguntanes, and more! What fun! Early evening was spent at the Orchid Garden right down the street. So beautiful. The best part was walking along and seeing butterflies, birds, other flowers, snakes, and monkeys. All the animals and plants look so different from what you would find in the US. The monkeys were just hanging out in the tree, running along the branches, swinging, jumping from limb to limb, and falling. It's crazy to watch them fall from the tree. They look like cats when they land...on all fours. The evening was spent at the Night Safari...a nightime zoo. The park is devoted to animals of the dark. We started the evening with a burger, fries, and some really good Ben & Jerry's ice cream (they're everywhere!). Our table gave us great seats for the show that followed. A tribe from one of the islands around here (I think it's the one that malaysia & Indonesia share) performed some dancing and fire eating for us. It was great! Definitely the most entertaining portion of the evening. Inside the park you hop on a tram and it takes you around the park. The lights are dimmed and almost have a green tint to them. The best part of the ride is listening to the announcer speak. I guess she's trying to sound mysterious, but between the accent and the whispering it kind of makes you a little uncomfortable...she comes off trying to be sexy but not succeeding b/c she's talking about animals...at night. There was also a show here; once again...very entertaining. Zoo managers and creaters should come to Singapore to see how it's done. The last part of the evening was spent going on the trail that led us to "The Bridge of Suspense"...yes people, this is what they call a suspended bridge. But the worse part was...it sucked. When you think suspended bridge, you think movement as you're walking across...no movement unless you jumped and made it move, and nothing to see underneath...not quite sure what we were suspended over.
All in all the day was pretty tiring, but quite enjoyable.

Picture highlights of these days are soon to follow:)

Bali...coming soon

Think total relaxtion

Oh the places these feet have been!

Pictures:
1. Pam & me in front of the National Monument
2. View of the gardens from the top
3. Lunch
4. Crazy Motorbikes!


Jakarta=Traffic, Lots & LOTS of Traffic

So Thursday night we made it to Jakarta. The flight was short and easy with lots of leg room since we were sitting in the exit row (my sister didn't appreciate the leg room, she was too worried about the responsibility of the exit row!). Some of Pam's workmates and friends picked us up and took us to our hotel room. Another blur (I'm sure I was sleeping), it was pretty late, esp. for me still trying to get on Asia time. The place was a great, think Bed & Breakfast, and the breakfast was very tasty. We ate with 2 couples that are doing missions in the mountain region. They were in the city to get their pilot's license to fly planes (which from the way they told it is halting English and some greasing of palms). Out "host" picked us up bright and early to show us around. (Asians are amazing when they host, they take care of everything for you & you're just along for the ride!) We got a small of overview of the city, it's quite big and spread out. Some things that hit me...traffic (you cannot even begin to imagine it), so many motorbikes (they were everywhere & could pretty much go wherever they wanted), medians with lots of U turns (which caused even more traffic hangups), and squatty potties (the biggest nightmare you could ever imagine!!!!). The squatty potties are pretty much holes in the ground, you don't flush them...there's a bucket of water with a cup that you pour down the toilet and it causes everything to go down, there's no toilet paper, and most of the time if there is a sink, no soap or paper towels. Needless to say it made everything quite interesting. After the overview we went to the national monument. It's a tower with a flame on top, a beautiful way to see a 360 view of Jakarta. The best part was watching the inveiling of their declaration of independence (not sure of the correct name, but you get the idea). I'm trying to get the video up on youtube. I'll let you know when it happens...it was quite the highlight for the trip. The countries indepndence day is coming up shortly, so they were working hard getting the gardens ready for the celebration, but already they were quite beautiful. The city is very interesting...tall buildings next to shanties and crazy smog. The architecture is beautiful, but set next to poverty. An interesting contrast. This was my first experience with the squatty potty (oh yeah, did I mention the heat and humidity with no A/C? UGH!)...hmmmm. The basement held some great exhibits of the history of Indonesia, I loved it but the sister was quite bored so we moved on. Next was some traditional Indonesian food. They brought about 30 plates out to our table, and we got to pick what we wanted off the plates...but...you had to figure out which plates you could buy one thing of and which ones if you touched it you bought the whole thing. The tofu and chicken was amazing...pretty much everything else burned my throat. Did I forget to mention that Asians LOVE hot and spicy..everything comes with some pepper sauce on it. I chugged my guava juice down ASAP and ate plenty of rice. The meal was also cool cause we ate everything with our hands. After lunch, the shopping experience began. Indonesia has crazy amounts of malls and they're all 8 stories tall with 2-3 malls interconnected. We started at the cheapest one, very overwhelming...not stores, just hundreds of booths, in doors. This place was all about the bargainning. The next mall(s) that we went to were a step up. Booths had more space in between and there were actual stores (walls and all). The last mall that we ended up at was the nicest of all. I felt like I was back in the States, with A/C, stores (no booths), regular bathrooms with toilet paper & paper towels:), and great food. The Indonesians were controlled by the Dutch until the mid 1900s, so i got to eat some of my favorite Dutch food...their little pancakes....yumm. So we ended the day on a good note.

Off to Bali...woohoo!

Indonesia=Little to No Internet Access...so I have much to catch you up on!

So first: Did I succeed in staying awake until 9pm on the first day? Almost. I made it til about 8:30, but the last 3 hours are a blur, including eating some amazing sushi.

My second day in Singapore was spent taking a nice little bus ride around the city, a great way to get an overview of everything. I also did a little shopping. Singapore is having a huge sale right now, so off to Orchard Road I went (think 5th Ave). Orchard Road is a little overwhelming with all of its shops, but I got some cute things at a great price. The evening was spent starting my travels. This was the itinerary:
Thursday night: Fly from Singapore to Jakarta, Indonesia
Friday: Tour Jakarta
Saturday mornig: Fly from Jakarta to Bali
Sunday: Ride some elephants
Monday night: Fly from Bali to Jakarta
Tuesday: More shopping in Jakarta
Tuesday night: Fly from Jakarta to Singapore

Wow! I don't think I've ever flown, or will ever fly that much in one week again! (The week also includes my flight to Singapore). I wasn't sure my ears were ever going to recover, but I think they have...so on to Jakarta.

Off to Asia!!

So I left on Monday night, June 11 for Singapore (my flight was supposed to depart at 11pm, but I was flying our of Newark...of course we left after midnight). I arrived in Singapore this morning. It is Wednesday, June 13 (what happened to Tuesday...I'm not quite sure...it's all a blur). I flew on Singapore Airlines, considered to be one of the top airlines in the world (and you'll read all about why in a few lines) direct, a 19 hour flight with NO stops. That's right, NONE, not even for fuel. So you must be thinking, which way did you go...east or west? The answer (drum roll please)........ NEITHER....we went OVER. From Newark we went directly north over Canada, across the North Pole (so I have now flown over the top and bottom of the world), and then down through Russia and Asia to Singapore. Think upside down U. Whoa. So what is so great about Singapore Airlines? First let's talk seats. Keep in mind I flew economy. The seats are the width of first class in domestic flights. There is tons of leg room. There's a foot rest on the bottom of the seat in front of you and a calf rest pops up on the bottom of your seat. The reclining ability is also quite crazy. I also lucked out and had an empty seat next to me. So window to my right and noone to my left...so much room and noone to contend with if I need to get out of my seat. Next, food. I signed up for the seafood meals. Dinner...white fish, asparagus, potato, fresh fruit, chilled shrimp on salad, rolls, and oh yeah, for dessert, how about some Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough icecream. Delicious! For the next, oh, 10 or so hours they had all kinds of snacks in the back room. There you can stretch, walk, and look out the window at the North Pole (sorry, no Santa sightings). The snacks were unbelievable, esp. the fresh fruit. For breakfast I had an egg omlette with salmon, steamed carrots, hashbrowns, yogurt, blueberry muffin, oj, and roll. Wow...even thinking about it makes me full. So for once my exerience with airline food was quite good. Then let's talk entertainment...tons of new movies, all on demand, tons of tv shows, all on demand, I made my own music play list, and best of the best, got to play a little original 1985 Super Mario Brothers. I didn't have to go to my laptop at all (but if I did, there's a place right in my armrest that I could charge it if I had to). Three movies, four shows (including a little Planet Earth), and so much more! And then the service was great. I had heard of the beauty of the stewardesses...true. They look like they stepped right off the stage of a beauty pageant...french twist and all. They were all so nice and they treated everyone with so much respect and courtesy. So my experience was quite good, esp. since I ended up spending almost 20 hours on the plane. My best experience on a plane so far in all my traveling experience;)

So now my goal is to not go to sleep until tonight...9pm at the earliest which is 9am NY time. I think I can, I think I can.

Lunch was eaten at the "coffee shops"..a line of cafes/venders. Eating was good and cheap. Ate at a Thai place, had prawn cakes and pineapple fried rice.

Pictures are of the north pole, sunrise?, and the coffee shops with my sister.

More will be coming later, including an elephant ride, mokeys, fire eaters, and Balinese dancing.