A pit stop in Singapore

We've now both added a new country to our list of places visited, Singapore! We luckily arrived at London Heathrow airport with plenty of time to spare before our flight because the airport is a completely disorganized zoo of people. We finally managed to make it through security after having to cram the contents of 4 carry on bags into 2 (the maximum allowable through this airport). The flight was a long one (approx. 12 hours) but Singapore Airlines did a good job of helping us pass the time. We were served two meals, had a snack, personal TV's with new release moves on demand and video games. We also slept for a few hours so the time passed rather quickly...then again once you've been on a 40 hour ferry trip that goes no where anything seems like a short voyage. We weren't really sure what to expect in Singapore as it was the first time either of us had been to Asia.


We were given a warm welcoming with this message printed in red on our immigration papers. I knew the laws were strict here but WOW!

Day one in Singapore we took it fairly easy and found some dinner, played on the computer for a while and then watched some TV. Singapore doesn't really seem to have its own identity, instead it seems to be a mix of many Asian and Arab cultures. This means the a lot of the food here is strange and uncooked, this makes eating a little weird for me and very strange for Jordan. After a good nights sleep in our hostel we awoke for a day of adventure. Without our trusty "Europe on a Budget" or "Europe on a Shoestring" books to guide us along we explored the city fairly aimlessly. Singapore doesn't have all that much to offer in the way of tourist attractions or activities so we mainly just admired the city for it's beauty and architecture.


Jordan and I posed for pictures in front of the downtown district. In the foreground is the famous Merlion (Mermaid Lion) statue that sprays water into the ocean.


We weren't at the statue long before the sun dropped and the city lights came on.


This is the view looking in the other direction. The strange bubble shaped building in the center is an opera house, similar to the Sydney Opera House that we will be seeing soon.

After our day of fun we decided to check out some of the Singapore nightlife and have a couple drinks. The hostel we are at recommended a bar called the Ministry of Sound. We hung out at the bar for a couple hours, had some extremely overpriced drinks (nothing new there), and watched a bunch of Asian (primarily Chinese) people dance to retro beats...it was quite amusing. Today we have spent much of the day strolling the streets around our hostel and doing our best to kill some time before heading to the airport for our flight to Oz...we'll just have to remember to leave the drugs at the hostel :)