Singapore

It was a holiday weekend in Malaysia to celebrate Hari Raya which when the Muslims break fasting for the month of Ramadan. So like everyone else in KL we headed out of town. We decided to drive to Singapore. We wanted to see the countryside, which ended up being rows of palm trees after rows of palm trees. It took us 6 hours to get there. Boy were we grouchy. We thought it would be 3-4 hours so once again we ate almost all the snacks and were famished upon arrival. There was a stalled car outside of KL that added an HOUR and then immigration into Singapore was probably another 30+ minutes.

The city/country looks very much like the US but nice all over, not just in areas. It reminded me of San Francisco. We stayed on Orchard Road which is a renowned shopping area, although the main purpose of our trip was to visit the Singapore Zoo. The first night we took a Duck Boat tour of the city. Of course Samantha liked the fact that it was a bus that could swim. The city itself was a little torn up because next week is a huge Formula One car race. But we still got the gist of the city including the famous Merlion. The next morning we got up early and went to the zoo. The zoo is "natural habitat" so it is beautiful. The downside is that you do a lot of walking to see the animals. Luckily we had two strollers. The highlights were - watching the elephants take a bath 5 feet in front of us, eating breakfast with the orangutans, and Samantha loved the kimono dragon and zebras. Most of the pictures here are not zoomed. It is a very interactive zoo with great access to the animals.

After a good rest at the hotel we ventured out to do some shopping. Little did I know that we would only conquer one floor of one store. We probably shopped 1/1,000,000th of the place. OMG you could spend a week there just shopping, easily. Many big name brand stores. There was actually a roped off line outside the Louis Vuitton store. I included the a picture looking down on center court of one of the shopping malls to display the sheer number of people. Holy cow they were like ants. It was mid-autumn festival for the Asians so they were all buying mooncakes. That night we had dinner on the water at Clarke Quay. Kyle enjoyed the famous Singapore Chili Crabs and I had seafood.

All in all a good time. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to see and experience so many new things. We vowed to take advantage of all chances to travel.