Singapore Part 1

Oh where to begin! First off let me warn you, this may be a long post – just beware.

We arrived around midnight on Wednesday evening and obviously went straight to the hotel. Our body clock told us it was 3am in the morning so we were pretty exhausted. We woke up Thursday morning around 8 and left the hotel around 10. We did not have a set plan for the day so we started wondering. We ended up at an outdoor food court near Chinatown and ate brunch. There were probably 100 different “fast food type” restaurants in this area. They all served some kind of Asian food. I ended up eating sliced pork and rice and Kevin had some noodles. After we ate we went to Chinatown. It was huge! You may think it is funny that there is a Chinatown in a predominately Chinese city, but the reason is that Raffles (the man who founded modern Singapore) divided the city based on race, and Chinatown just stuck. We walked around and saw a lot of souvenir type shops and then went into another food market. This market had fresh meat, fish, and fruit. Also included in this category are frogs, eels, and durians. I have yet to eat a durian but I hope to do so before we leave. Durians are gigantic, stinky fruits that are common in Southern Asia. Anyway, this market was very cool. My senses were on total overload all morning! The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of everything were unlike anything else I have ever seen. It was pretty incredible.

Kevin in Chinatown

The 4 official languages of Singapore - English, Mandarin, Tamil, and Malay

After we wondered around Chinatown for a bit we started walking and wondering some more. It was very humid so we tried to pop into a few air conditioned buildings along our way! We ended up going into a building called FUNAN – an electronic super center. We spent more time than planned at FUNAN because it started to pour rain. It rained for an hour or two and then we wondered some more.

We eventually ended up at the Raffles Hotel, famous for the invention of the Singapore Sling. The Singapore Sling is to Singapore as the Hurricane is to New Orleans. I had a Singapore Sling and Kevin had a beer. The price of alcohol is very high here, and our bill was certainly not cheep! Needless to say we did it once, got the picture, and will not be returning back to the Raffles Hotel for another round of drinks (at least on this trip :0)).

The Raffles Hotel

The famous Singapore Sling at the Long Bar

We started to poop out so we headed back to the hotel. I would imagine we walked close to 10 miles this day! It was tiring, but it was a great way to see the city. We fell asleep around 7:30 and were up this morning at 5am. We stayed at the hotel around 9 and then went out exploring again. As we are creatures of habit, we ended up eating at the same place for breakfast. We went back to Chinatown and went to two different places of worship. The first place we saw was the Sri Mariamman Temple. This is Singapore's oldest Hindu Temple. It was very interesting to see the inside of the temple and to see some of the rituals of Hinduism.

The tower of the Sri Mariamman Temple

The second place of worship we visited was the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. This temple was very different from the Hindu Temple and it was facinating to compare the two. The differences were like night and day. The style and layout were completly different, as well as the way they worshiped. I still don't know much about each religion, but it was very cool to see the insides of the temples!

The outside of the Chinese Buddhist Temple

A quick glimpse of Buddha

We had to take our shoes off to go into each Temple

An up close photo of the details on the Sri Veeramakaliamman (you do and you clean it up) Temple - another Hindu temple in Little India that was very similar to the Sri Mariamman Temple. We didn't go into this one.

Once we were done in Chinatown we went up to Little India. Kevin was really excited to go into the food stores. We walked around for a while and will be returning later for some food and more shopping. While in Little India we also went to the Sultan Mosque - although we couldn't go in. So we saw Hinduism, Buddhism, and Muslim, or at least parts of it all.

The outside of the Mosque

After Little India we went looking for the Fountain of Wealth - the Guinness Record holder for the World's Largest Fountain. We had some trouble finding it (surprisingly), so we stopped for some food first. We finally found a Vietnamese Pho restaurant so we each had noodle bowls. Kevin was very happy! We ate at Suntec City, which is a gigantic shopping mall. This led us right to the fountain. Legend has it, if you walk around the fountain clockwise, 3 times, while touching the water and making a silent wish, your wish will come true. So, this is exactly what we did. Unfortuantly at this time I don't have a picture I can show you, but we will be going back again to get some better pictures. We purchased a picture that they took of us, and I will try to scan it and post it when we get home.

We tried to explore the Esplanade, which is the performing arts complex here, but we got really tired, so didn't get much accomplished. Maybe we will go back later. We got back to the hotel around 5 and have been hanging out since. We may go out later tonight, but we will see how we feel. I will post again as soon as possible.

SORRY FOR SUCH A LONG POST! there was just so much to share. YOU CAN'T SAY YOU WERE NOT WARNED!