Singapore: Day 2

I'm writing this blog from the airport in Singapore which, by the way, is a pretty great airport. They have individual security checkpoints at each gate instead of making everyone line up at one giant security checkpoint. I think that's a pretty great idea. Anyways, I have my Starbucks latte in one hand and a blueberry muffin in the other. Both are necessary for any early morning flight!

Yesterday was our second full day in Singapore. After sleeping in for a bit, we set off to find the Singapore Botanical Gardens and the Singapore Orchid Gardens. Always thinking ahead (or trying to at least), I looked up the best way to get to the gardens on google maps, saw that there was an MRT Botanic Gardens stations. Piece of cake. Unfortunately, when we got to the MRT station near our hostel, we discovered that no such MRT station existed. After asking information for directions we found that we had to take the MRT to a different station, then walk 80 meters to a bus station and then get on a bus before getting to the gardens. No problem. Maria and I have become quite good at reading maps and asking random people for directions when necessary. Thankfully, everyone is always very helpful. The Botanical Gardens and the Orchid Gardens were beautiful. We spent over 4 hours just walking the greens which were massive. There were a couple of lakes, many swans, and small children on bikes or scooters everywhere.

After the gardens, we decided to head back to Little India (the area where our hostel was) and took the bus back to the MRT station. Instead, we happened upon Orchard Road which is filled with thousands of people going in and out of shop after shop. There was Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani... You name it, it was there. We stopped at a street stand for a little pre-dinner ice cream snack and got a slab of ice cream wrapped in a slice of bread. Sounds strange, but it wasn't too bad. We wandered the streets for a while and then had dinner at an adorable little Italian restaurant where I made a vow to eat as much cheese as possible on this trip. (They don't really use real cheese in most things in Cebu and its really expensive to buy in the stores). After dinner we wandered the streets some more. The best part of all though, was the beautiful Christmas decorations that adorned the street. Everywhere you looked, there were colorful lights, trees, stars and wreaths. Each block had a different color schemes - red, blue, or purple. Simply beautiful.

Click here for pictures from Singapore.

As I mentioned at the beginning, we are now in route to Bangkok where we will spend two days before leaving for Chiang Mai.

Bye for now.