Singapore

Singapore was amazing. We were heavily warned about all the strict rules such as no spitting, be careful about how you dispose your gum, no smoking outside of designated areas, and so on, and it was evident that the people there take it very seriously. The city was impeccably clean, even the subway was spotless. It was a modern, bustling city with a gorgeous skyline and gondolas going between skyscrapers as a means of transportation between buildings. It was awesome to see.

We spent the morning in Chinatown and then went to Maxwell Hawker’s Food Center for lunch. Basically, it was a huge food court with three huge isles of food stands that you could choose from. We got a big plate to split and some Tiger beer, the beer of Singapore. It was delicious! We gave up our table to the Global Studies professor and the dean’s wife and went on our way to Little India.

It was pouring when we got dropped off by our taxi, so we darted into this English pub for a Singapore Sling. He didn’t have the ingredients so he made us a mock one that still tasted pretty good. We hung out there for a while and made friends with the bartender, Alex. It stopped raining and we were soon on our way. Kim wanted to get her fortune told by birds so we looked around for a while but eventually gave up. As we had just been in India, this was nothing new. It smelled the same, looked the same, everything. So, we hailed a taxi that just happened to be a Rolls Royce, and he took us to Orchard Street, the main shopping district.

Well of course, Forever 21 called our names and we spent a good chunk of time there looking around before heading off to dinner at this Mexican restaurant run by Indian men. It just happened to be ladies night, so we qualified for free unlimited margaritas, Corona, and Tiger beer. If the food hadn’t been so delicious, we probably would have had a problem getting home. We were so full from the awesome chicken nachos, guac, and amazing salsa, not to mention our main courses (I got bomb fajitas) that it was hard to take advantage of the drink special! I think they were counting on that when they made the offer. Either way, we hung out and talked for a while before going back to the ship.

Once at the ship, we were confronted by HUGE lines to get back on the ship. The cruise harbor was basically an airport for ships. It had all the shops, customs, security, everything. We didn’t know about this and it was a struggle getting through. Our line alternated with another cruise ship’s customs clearance so we ended up being a little late, less than five minutes to be exact. It turns out, we got three hours of dock-time for being late by a couple minutes. That means that we can’t get off the ship until three hours after we’re cleared in Vietnam. We were bummed but understood just figuring we would sleep in the first day, getting off around 11am or so. That was until we found out we wouldn’t even be pulling in until 11am. That means that the ship wouldn’t clear until at least 1pm, meaning we couldn’t get off until 4pm. That would be an entire day wasted for being late due to circumstances we couldn’t control. Ridiculous. We appealed and hopefully we’ll find out tomorrow if we can get off or not. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Aside from that little mishap, we had a great time in Singapore. I wish we had more time as there is a lot we didn't have time to see. That's definitely a port that I hope to get back to someday.

Oh man. Okay. I think I’m all caught up now. I’m probably forgetting a few things but oh well—these last couple posts have been long enough and I doubt anyone is still reading. Hope you all are doing well at home! I can’t believe we’re on day 67 already, well past the half way point. Ah!