I'm sitting in the hotel on my last evening in Singapore. Amanda and I have been here since Sunday night (local Singapore time) and will be showering and heading to the airport shortly for a long ride home.
This trip started at 2am ET on Saturday, June 18th. I woke up at that time to get a shower so as to be as fresh as possible for as long as I could. Upon finishing my shower, I received an email that my 6:20am flight from Cleveland to JFK was canceled. I called Amanda but we agreed that we didn't have many options except to drive to the airport and battle it out with Delta. The battle was long as there was a flight canceled the previous night and everyone was rescheduled on the, now canceled, 6:20am flight. People were angry and lines were long. We talked to Joel and decided that our best bet was for him to rebook us on a 8am flight to LaGuardia where we could then take a cab to JFK and pray that we would make our 11:30am flight to Dubai. Since we brought larger than carry on size bags, this plan would also mean we'd have to wait for our luggage at LaGuardia before catching a cab.
Incredibly, we made it. It cost us an extra $25 cab ride but the driver was going about 100 mph to get us to JFK. We rechecked our bags, got through security and arrived at the gate just as our flight was boarding. The plane was huge so it took quite awhile to board but we did not have much time to spare!
After a 12 hour flight, we arrived in Dubai. We did not have much time here so we just freshened up in the restroom (as best as we could) and boarded our next 8 hour flight to Singapore. When arriving in Singapore, we got a cab to our hotel and crashed for the night. We woke the next morning and enjoyed a complimentary breakfast at the hotel and then took off for sightseeing. This was to be our only "free" time so we wanted to make the most of it.
We took a cab to the humongous fashion mall on Orchard Ave called Ion. This mall contains every high end store you can imagine. Just a couple of examples are: Jimmy Choo, Harry Winston, Dolce and Gabbana and more. We obviously didn't do much shopping here. We headed down Orchard Ave toward the Visitor's Center.
This was my first taste of Singapore. My feelings were very mixed. The juxtaposition of high end fashion with "Condom World" and food courts (which contained only local food) nestled in the middle was odd. The architecture is odd. It's not like any other city that I have visited. I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it.
After taking some photos and dawdling around in some stores, we made it to the Visitor's Center where we purchased a day pass for the "hop on, hop off" bus and a river cruise on the Singapore River. Our first stop was the Singapore Flyer. The Flyer reminds me a great deal of the London Eye but our bus driver was sure to point out that the Singapore Flyer is 5 meters higher.
After walking around the "Flyer" area, we hopped back on the bus. Our next stop was the Marina Bay Sands. This is one of the world's most expensive hotels/casinos to build. It is an amazing complex with a "Sky Park" on top of three towers. It's connected to another huge, high end fashion mall. This one with an ice skating rink inside. We decided not to pay the $20 fee to go up to the Sky Park - we'll do this next time!
When we were done touring the Marina Bay area, we headed to Clarke Quay. This is mainly a night club area so it was very quiet at this time of day. We found a spot on the river to have some lunch. After lunch we did a little more shopping - in a "lower" end mall this time - and then took a 30 minute river cruise. The river cruise allowed us to see a different view of the city, especially the Marina Bay area.
Following the river cruise, we hopped back on the bus to Chinatown. We bought the requisite "cheesy" souvenirs here and looked at all the fun "medicine" shops. The last bus of the evening was getting ready to run so we took it back to Orchard Ave.
On Orchard Ave, we decided to partake in a Foot Reflexology session. It was very interesting. Of course, the idea is that every area of your foot connects to different areas of the body and the "reflexologist" can determine where your problem areas are by manipulating your feet. Go figure that the VERY first thing out of my reflexologist's mouth was something to the effect of "That's your liver. You drink too much." Great. The rest of my "diagnosis" was pretty much that I have bad circulation, I don't drink enough water and I don't exercise enough. Perfect.
By this time, we were hungry so we ate at the Food Republic in the mall we were in. I had the national dish of chicken and rice and fresh lime juice to drink. Following dinner, we returned to the hotel to get some sleep. We'd be training the next day.
