Singapore

Singapore...a nice place, kind people, hot and humid weather.  The famous shopping street, Orchard Road, reminded me of any other shopping street in any major city.  Overall, it's an okay place.  Not somewhere I'd ever recommend or a place I need to go back to.  Jason and I both thought we'd like it a lot more than we did. Here is the photo journal (with comments) of our time there.(12/23/2012-12/27/2012)

5 Foot Way Inn, our hostel.
We decided to stay in a hostel in Singapore.  Neither of us had ever stayed in one before, a new adventure.  Singapore is very expensive so a hostel was a good choice in that regard as well.  The cost of the hostel was a lot less than any hotel we could find (and still quite expensive since there are four of us and we were in Singapore).


Usually when you stay in a hostel you rent a single bunk in a dorm style room.  Since there were four of us we just rented the whole room.  We were able to rent a room with a bathroom attached, but usually you use a community bathroom.  The kids took the top bunks.  


 Hostels are used by backpackers and singles, people looking to travel light and cheap, etc.  Part of the appeal of the hostel, aside from the cheap rates, is the home like setting.  There is a kitchen that is available to use day and night, which is stocked with breakfast items in the morning.  The breakfast is simple - cereal, toast, jam and peanut butter.  There is hot coffee and tea.  Anything else you want you can bring yourself and cook there.

 The next pics are all of the kitchen area.  It was a nice balcony that we actually came to look forward to every morning.




Our main form of entertainment in Singapore was simply walking around and looking at things.  There isn't really all that much to do there. We did spend one day at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari.   We decided to skip the big amusement park and Universal Studios - mainly to save the expense.  It would have been great and had we known that Lily would end up spending the rest of the vacation sick we probably would have gone for it...Anyway, the rest of the pics are just some of the awesome things we saw.

Orchard Street is the famous shopping street in Singapore.  It is filled massive stores, 1000's of small stores, and more malls than I have ever seen in one place.  The shopping wasn't all that exciting - very expensive, but the decor was pretty amazing.  Singapore goes all out for Christmas.


Singapore is quite a melting pot - there are people from all cultures there.  Being so, there is some pretty amazing food.  Here are a few pics of some of the food we had while we were there...



Dinner our first night!  We went for Thai from a little street food court.  Delicious!

Others:


  

One of the things that I liked most about Singapore was the all the religious sites and temples.  I loved being among the varying religions, cultures, and ethnicities.  I heard the call for Islamic prayer time for my first time.  It was beautiful, especially that specific night in that specific setting. Here are some of the pics of the different Temple and Mosques that we saw.
























The panels above were all part of an arch way leading to a mosque.



















Additionally, Singapore has some very colorful and interesting architecture.  Here are a few pics...














Shopping pictures

This is inside one of the malls.  The picture does not represent just how dizzyingly huge this place was.













This place was in Little India and had 2 floors.  The first floor was all raw/fresh foods.  Everything you can imagine.  Walking up and down the isles you were able to watch butchering happening while you tromped through smelly puddles of various animal "juices".  The second floor was mostly traditional clothing.




 Lillian getting her first henna!


The finish product.  It lasted about 5 days.







And finally...random pics.




Lily is trying to look like the Lego man is killing her...

Us having an original Singapore Sling at the famous Raffles Hotel, home of the drink.
Plugs here are different.



At the night Safari.




A fire show at the night safari.  The show was most amusing to me because it was done by 3 guys. 2 looked like this one, very sculpted and nice.  The third was quite chubby.  

This pic is more about the elephant"s butt than Lily.  :) I was amused watching the elephant go in and out of the water. Every time it went it, it curled up it's tail to avoid getting it wet.  As soon as she left the water, the tail went down.

Statue outside the Singapore Art Museum.

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