Good Morning Singapore!

Wow.

We absolutely loved Singapore!

Lets see, I'll start at the beginning. From our penultimate stop in Thailand at the Khao Yai national park, we took a train south into Bangkok. Bit of a long ride, but pretty uneventful. For our last night, since we were flying out early, we stayed at a (relatively speaking here...) nice hotel near the airport. They had a pool. It was rad.

So, the next morning we hopped on our plane, and said goodbye to Thailand. We met some cool people, travelled with lots of friends, had some great adventures, and ultimately had a great time in Thailand. Singapore isn't exactly a place you hear a lot about in the states, at least we hadn't. So with that limitation, we didn't really know what to expect. We quickly found when we were booking a place to stay, that it is quite expensive in Singapore. We also travel with a guidebook on Southeast Asia, which gives us some basic information, and let us know that they love to shop, and eat there (Sounds nice!) so we went into it prepared to do those things, and dreading what it would cost to do so. We ended up booking three nights in a hostel in Singapore's trendy Chinatown neighborhood called Matchbox. We stayed in a 16 bed dorm (the largest of our trip - something we had been trying to avoid) and were paying what to us, was an astronomical rate. $36 a night. Each. For comparison's sake, in Indonesia and Thailand we lived off of about $30 per day. That included lodging, food, water, travels, adventures, etc. Our last place near the national park in Thailand was 200 Baht per night (total), or about $6.25. That was for a private room, with a private bathroom, etc.

Our 'pod' at Matchbox Hostel

Anyway... So we booked three nights in Singapore, as much as we felt we could without breaking the bank completely. Let me tell you - we were VERY sad to leave after three days. And the costs? Worth it. While lodging in Singapore is quite costly, the standards of living are also extremely high. Not only was the tap water clean and drinkable (!!!!) for the first time since we left Australia, but it is the cleanest, safest, most orderly place we have ever been. The food? Incredible. Shopping? Second to none. Public transportation? A joy. And the hostel we paid so much for? Expensive, but rad. I think its the best hostel we ever stayed in. They had pod-style beds, which, it turns out, are great. Rather than squeaky bunks filling a big room, its a hallway with built-in beds stuck into the wall on one side. The 16 bed dorm felt smaller and nicer than 4-bed dorms we have stayed in. The pods were VERY comfortable, each had their own lights and power outlets (let me tell you - that's rad!) and Krissy and I had a little window we could open between ours, to say hello. Fun! Matchbox was CLEAN too! Oh and, the best part? Free all-day breakfast. Two kinds of cereal, toast with jam, peanut butter, and Nutella, OJ, apple juice, milk, coffee, tea... Its hard to describe what kind of wonderful that is.

The best part of Singapore? Once you have paid for lodging, its CHEAP! The way to do food in Singapore, is at the Hawker Courts. These are big areas with lots of food stalls in them. Similar perhaps to what you might find at a festival in the states, these food stalls each serve their own specialties. For the most part a single stand wont feed you. Its a mix-and-match type of meal, and its fantastic. Our first day we tried: Spring rolls (amazing) BBQ pork buns (way amazing) curry pastry (amazing) little ball things with peanut, or coconut inside (way amazing), and pork dumplings - both fried and steamed. (and yes, way amazing). We both left stuffed to the gills, and managed all that for about $10. This would become a habit for the next three days.

Marina Bay Sands Resort

So - we lived the modern, jet-set, city-slicking lifestyle for a few days, with an Asian twist. It was about the best thing that's happened to us for quite a while. This is a city that we will definitely come back to visit, and hopefully with a bit of money to spend next time. What an incredible place for a high-class vacation!

Our first night after that amazing dinner, we jumped onto the MRT (Signapore's Mass Rapid Transit subway system) and headed over to the uber-posh Marina Bay Sands shopping center. This place has no less than three - three! - Louis Vuitton shop fronts, including a private island-store in the bay. For reals. Restaurants from the likes of Mario Batali, Guy Savoy, Wolfgang Puck, et al are just the icing on the cake. Just outside, each night, they run an incredible laser-light show overlooking the bay with the city skyline as the backdrop. We were simply stunned. Truly, this is one of the most incredible moments one could possible enjoy in a city. Just a few kilometers north of the equator, year round warm nights provide the perfect accoutrement to this stunning display of what it is to be in Singapore. What a first night!

Famous Raffles Hotel

Our adventures over the next few days did not become any less pleasant. We jogged through two parts of the city, and loved every moment. We ate, oh, did we eat! We also went to a microbrewery, for the first time in 2012. On the famous Clarks Quay right along the river, their beers were great, and the food delicious. It also was amazing. Have I used that word enough times yet? We managed to even find a place to watch our US Women's Gymnastics Team take home the gold! Another day we went to the Singapore Art Museum, the paid a visit to the historic Raffles Hotel, and enjoy the world famous Singapore Sling. A truly beautiful hotel (where we would love to stay when we come back) which was very swanky, but not too full of itself to keep away the free peanuts, with shells strewn heedlessly all over the floors.

There aren't enough good things we can say about Singapore. It may well be our very most favorite city in the world, and we have visited quite a few of them now. We loved every minute of our stay, and cant wait to come back.

Courtyard at the Singapore Art Museum

Sadly, as much as we wanted to stay, we are quickly running out of time on this trip! A few short weeks will find us back in Seattle. A time which I'm sure will be bitter-sweet for us, but never the less we are looking forward to. Next stop? Melaka, Malaysia. The whole place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - a nice break between the ultra-modern Singapore, and Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.






The Light and Water Spectacular - Marina Bay Sands