And now on to Singapore

Part two of my vacation began the day after I got back from San Francisco.  My plan all along had been to go to Singapore in January and see my friend's Carla and Steven.  Carla and I have been friends since the 9th grade.  She was the first person I met when I started high school (she didn't take to me at first, but I kept chipping away) and after 24 years, we are still pals.  She and her husband Steven recently relocated to Singapore for a two to three year expat gig with Steven's job.  I had hope to see them in January until the pesky mitral valve got in the way, so with my deferred vacation, I planned to head over to Singapore in March.  I was fortunate that my base chair and vice chair, Ted and Maureen, allowed me to take a trip removal for some union work I had done towards the end of last year, so I had the rest of the month off to play in Southeast Asia.  So I packed my bags, grabbled Flat Stanley, and jetted off to the orient.

Traveling on space available passes means you have to go where the seats are, and so I went the long way to Singapore, via London and Kuala Lumpur.  I would end up coming home via Tokyo, so I got to say that I circumnavigated the globe for a third time.

It was kind of strange flying Malaysia Airlines a week after their plane went missing in the Indian Ocean, but lightning doesn't strike twice.  From London to KL, the flight is about 12 hours, but I had a whole row to myself on the new A380 double decker, and it was quite pleasant.  The Purser was nice enough to extend a personal tour of the airplane and I got to see some of it's neat features.  It sure flies smooth.

I arrived in Singapore two days after I left Dallas, but it wasn't a bad trip.  Carla and Steven and their little girl Isla were waiting for me at the airport.  This was actually my second trip to Singapore, since I had visited there for a long weekend with Carla and Steven back in 2006 when they were living in Malaysia.  The city is perpetually under construction and there wasn't much I recognized from my previous vacation.  I immediately noticed what a strange sense of fashion some Asian women have.  This lady clearly was a fan of Snoopy.

One of the first things we did was celebrate Carla's birthday with a nice brunch at a trendy eatery called Wild Honey.  Two facts about Singapore: it's terribly expensive and it rains every day.  Once you get over that, it's quite a nice place, with humidity on par with my upbringing in Florida.  We dodged the rain and were able to enjoy a meal in their patio (which as a backup was covered).  And a little prosecco goes a long way in helping you recover from Jetlag.

We didn't really have an agenda of anything we wanted to do, so we just took it day by day.  One of our first tasks was to get them a few rugs.  The floors in their apartment are marble and that coupled with a toddler makes for stress, so we made our way down to Arab Street to shop for some quality floor furnishings.

The Arab art of haggling can be quite stressful.  After rather intense negotiations, I stepped in with a final price and said "let's shake hands and part as friends" which became our mantra for the rest of the trip.  Ibrahim acted like he sold the rugs for a huge loss, but we know at the end of the day he still made out just fine. It's all part of the game.

Singapore has a strong British influence as it is a former colony of Great Britain.  The modern city was founded as a colony in the late 1800's as an important stop over point for ships trading between India and China.

Carla and I signed up for a tour with her American Women's Association one day and visited Waterloo Street.  It's kind of the religious center of town, with Buddhist temples, Hindu shrines, and even Jewish Synagogues all located in one central area.  Being the token male, I was the hit of the tour with all the middle aged expat American women.

My favorite part of the day was when we passed a fortune telling parrot.

I got out a few days and did some sightseeing of my own.  One thing you see everywhere is skyscrapers.  There is a very small amount of land, so space is at a premium, and the solution is skyscrapers!

I spent a really interesting day at the National Museum of Singapore.  They have wonderful exhibits that really give you a look into the founding of the city-state and the history of the nation.

The most popular part of the city is the Marina Sands complex near the harbour.  Eight years ago, none of this even existed.

A popular activity is apparently letting fish eat the dead skin off your feet.

One of the coolest parts of the trip was that another one of our high school classmates, Lark, was going to be in Singapore for business during the tail end of my stay.  One of the highlights of my trip in 2006 was a visit to Raffles Hotel and the Long Bar to have a famous Singapore Sling, the birthplace of the famous cocktail.  I wanted to recreate the experience, and this time, our little Singapore Sling club added Lark as our third member.

Here we are in 2006.

And here were are in 2014.

About the only thing that has changed at Raffles is that the drink glasses are smaller and the price of a Singapore Sling has now doubled to about $30 a piece!  But you can't put a price on friendship and a mini reunion with Lark made the experience all the more fun!