April 15, 2013
Our final morning on the boat. We traveled all night long back to Sutera Harbor in Kota Kinabalu and made it back just after 6 a.m. Breakfast was served around 7 a.m. and everyone said they final goodbyes. About eight other people were on our same flight back to Singapore, so we all loaded onto a couple buses for the ride back to the airport about 9 a.m. for our noon flight.
The flight back to Singapore was only about two hours and went by quickly. After we landed and got through passport control and picked up our luggage I ran down to the airport MRT station to purchase a three-day MRT tourist pass, which is a cheaper way to get around and only available for purchase at certain stations--the airport being one of them. Then Eric and I caught a taxi to the hotel Capri. We would have taken the MRT there, but with all of our luggage it would have been quite a pain.
We arrived at the Capri after a short taxi ride--it is right near the airport. We got checked into our room. We got an even nicer room than last time. I think it is twice as big with a huge bathroom, kitchenette, and large living room area.
Right after we got on the flight back to Singapore I started really not feeling well--every muscle in my body started aching, so obviously I had a fever and it only got worse. So after we got to the hotel I took a shower and climbed into bed and slept all afternoon and all night. Eric obviously was hungry and so he went out in search of food.
The hotel we are staying in is attached to a really nice shopping mall which he discovered also has a grocery store and a cupcake store, so he brought back some cupcakes (which were probably the best I have ever had anywhere) and some other snack items. It is really nice because we have dishes, a microwave, fridge and cooktop, etc. in our room. There is also a Subway and McDonald’s and some other fast food restaurants in the mall, but Eric decided to go down to the Deli in the hotel and try their chicken club sandwich.
I basically stuck to water and sleeping and hoped I would feel better the following day.
Roger gave us a call after we got into our hotel room and talked with Eric and told him since we had already been down to the Marina Bay Sands and knew how to get there we could probably manage to get to the Gardens by the Bay on our own--which was our planned excursion for tomorrow. He sent us detailed directions on which stops to take on the MRT to get there--which was very helpful.
April 16, 2013
I felt much better today than I did yesterday. A little drug out but not aching all over like I had been run over by a truck. We did not get as early of a start as we had been thinking as Eric needed to make some phone calls and send some e-mails and of course post our blog from the past week.
I think we got out the door some time after 10 o’clock. Since we got a later start, we decided to skip the observation deck at the Marina Bay Sands and just go straight to the Gardens by the Bay. Wow was it amazing. I don’t think they have anything that can even compare to it in the states. It is huge. They have two giant glass atrium domes. One is the Flower Dome full of flowers, trees, and succulents and the other is the Cloud Forest with a 115 foot waterfall (the world’s tallest indoor waterfall) just after you walk in the door. It seems as though they have a lot of things in Singapore that they hold the world’s record for...
In the Cloud Forest you take an elevator all the way to the top of the plant covered “mountain” and take the aerial walkways around and through the mountain all the way back to the bottom. The mountain is covered with orchids and all kinds of tropical plants and flowers.
They also have a huge outdoor garden area that you can wander around for free, but of course it is not air conditioned. The cooled air in the domes was very welcoming after wandering around outside in the steamy Singapore heat.
After visiting the two domes and taking a ton of photos we decided to find somewhere to eat lunch. We finally settled on the Verandah--one of their moderately priced restaurants. Eric was starving and we had yet to have any “real food” in Singapore yet, other than Eric’s chicken club sandwich, so we ordered several things from the menu. First we ordered a bread platter--they make their own bread fresh daily. Boy was that good. Then we split a chicken ceasar salad which was very good also, then we both ordered a waffle. Eric ordered his waffle topped with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce. I ordered my waffle with Canadian maple syrup and fresh strawberries. Eric also ordered one of the local beers--Tiger. By the time we were done I was stuffed.
After eating lunch it was time to make the journey via MRT back to our hotel so that Eric could get ready to head to the airport for his afternoon flight to Penang. We made it back in just enough time for him to take a shower and throw the few items he needed into a suitcase for his two-day trip to Penang for work.
After Eric left I watched a little TV, looked up some stuff on the internet, sent some e-mails, and then went down to the front desk to get some tokens so I could do our laundry from the trip so far. Each floor in the hotel has a themed launderette room, with things like a Wii, Xbox, etc. Instead, I put the laundry in and worked on typing up this blog post.
April 17, 2013
I woke up to wind, rain, thunder and lightening this morning. Luckily it finally let up for the most part by the time I left just before 9 a.m. I hopped on the MRT (subway) and met up with Roger at the Outram Park station. From there we went to the HarbourFront station and caught the Jewel Box cable car over to Sentosa Island.
The cable car ride offers a nice view of the island and surrounding area. After we got off the cable car we walked down to the Underwater World exhibit (which we mistakenly thought was the S.E.A Aquarium). It was a nice oceanarium, but Roger and I were slightly underwhelmed.
Next we went to check out the Skyline Luge. These are gravity-powered go-carts that you ride down the winding hill to the bottom and then take the Skyride (ski lift) back to the top. Originally we just purchased one luge ride down and Skyride back up, but Roger enjoyed it so much that he went and bought us each three more rides up and down. It was a blast. You can go as fast or as slow as you want--I wanted to go fast, of course.
After luging we then went over and checked out the 121 foot tall Merlion at Merlion Plaza. You can pay to go up inside to the observation level, but we just walked around the outside. After that we were both hungry, so we went down to the Chili’s restaurant and had lunch. After lunch we made our way back to the cable car for the ride back to town.
Roger got me back to the Outram Park station and then said goodbye and I made my way back across town to my MRT stop right at the hotel. After wandering around in the steamy Singapore heat I was ready for a shower by the time I got back. I can tell you right now Phoenix monsoon season has nothing on the humidity and heat here in Singapore.
April 18. 2013
I woke up to sunshine this morning. Woke up about 7:45 and checked for e-mail, watched the news on TV and looked at the paper, then headed out about 9:30 to meet up with Roger at Outram Park station again. I left a little earlier today as I was not sure if I was going to have to top off my Tourist Pass for the MRT. I bought a three-day Tourist Pass on the 15th but did not use it that day and figured it was activated the day you bought it and it was probably be expired today. However, I tapped it on the machine and it worked, so I did not need to pay any more today.
If you are going to be doing a lot of sightseeing around Singapore the Tourist Pass is the way to go. It gives you unlimited rides on the MRT, LRT, and buses around town for one price.
I actually got to Outram Park station about 25 minutes early, so I waited for Roger to meet up with me. Once he arrived then we got back on the MRT and went down to Little India. It was great wandering through all the markets with all the fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh flowers, spices, and incense. After wandering through the shops Roger took me to the market there. They have many, many food stalls selling all kinds of Indian food, produce stalls, and a wet market with meats and seafoods of all kinds. It was really neat to see.
In the food market we stopped and Roger bought us a sugar cane drink. I had not had one yet. It looked very interesting. They basically run the stalks of sugar cane through a heavy duty press a bunch of times and squeeze every last drop of liquid out of it. It was actually pretty tasty. Kind of like drinking green hummingbird water.
Then we made our way back to the MRT and headed for Chinatown. I wanted to do some souvenir shopping and they have lots of that in Chinatown. I had seen something specific that I wanted the other day when we were there and I actually managed to find it again. After our steamy shopping trip we headed back to the MRT station and Roger and I went our separate ways.
Eric is flying back into Singapore this afternoon/evening, so we made plans to meet up with Roger again around 7:30 p.m. tonight to go to the Satay Club down by Raffles Place. I think Eric wanted to walk around the Gardens by the Bay again after dark, but I don’t know how much time we will have since we will have to get back and make sure everything is packed up for our early morning flight to Hong Kong tomorrow.
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