First Day in Singapore

After the longest, most agonizing plane flights (my knees were KILLING me...but Blake was REALLY, REALLY good), we finally made it to Singapore! We got in at midnight on my birthday, Friday the 9th! We all stayed up til 2am talking and then crashed. Dad and Blake woke up earlier than I did (Nana says Blake only took a couple hours sleep and read a lot) and took a walk...Nana woke me up at 9am. Dad and Blake walked over to the Newton Hawker Market. They had a Thai coconut that Blake says he couldn't eat because it made his stomach sick. They also had sugar cane drink with lime...Blake doesn't like it plain...and a potato puff that Blake says tasted eerie. When Blake first woke up, he looked outside and said that the things that he was seeing...Singapore...made his eyes sparkle and twinkle. He's been saying "I love Singapore" almost constantly since we stepped off the plane.

While Dad went to a doctor's appointment, the rest of us went swimming downstairs in the horizon pool and Dad joined us when he got home. Then we all got ready for the day and went to the Bugis St. Market, Singapore's largest outdoor market. We ate at the food court, where I had Dad pick our food, which I'll probably do most of the time. Nana can't eat a lot of things because she has to be extremely careful to not get anything with peanut in it...some of the food vendors literally don't believe that she's allergic and try to make her try something with peanuts in it! She's very cautious.

Dad picked 3 kinds of hor fun with rice noodles. I had prawns, Dad had chicken and Blake had prawn dumplings...all very yummy! Mom ate fish and chips...the fish was probably dory, which we also tried. It was breaded and fried and extremely good...I would prefer it every time over halibut. For dessert Dad got us a giant snow cone thing called Ice Ka Chong. It had about 6 flavors, sweet creamed corn on the top and red beans and aloe jellies in the bottom. Also we had an iced drink with longan and lychee fruits and clear and multicolored BB things that popped in your mouth like fish eggs but had no flavor. I didn't like those much. The clear ones blended in with the ice, so I eventually gave up trying to miss them...not possible...and at the fruits from the bottom, which were yummy.

Then we went across to the Parkview Square building, which houses business offices on all the upstairs floors, but the first floor is stunning inside. Sorry, I didn't get pics of the inside, but the courtyard is also incredible, so I did get pics of that. The building itself looks like the building in the The Shadow...the invisible one...like it's from the 40's. It's eye candy.


After that, we took the MRT over to Chinatown. We had ice cream: Durian, Mango and Sweetcorn. We also got some candies that were squishy and had marshmallowy insides. They had many different flavors...including durian, of course. I've also seen a durian fudge cake at the shopping mall. Enough people love that stuff that everything is flavored with it...like strawberry or cherry in the States. I think I've had my fill of trying durian flavored things...I just can't like it. I think I will still try a fresh one...just to make SURE how I feel about it and then I can be done. Burping up durian flavor is not great.

In Chinatown, we found some good sandals for Blake and threw his ratty flip-flops away. Woohooo! He was so glad to get out of those. Dad went to a meeting and we walked a little bit more in the market. Mom got me this AWESOME pair of silver and gold shoes that are so fabulous on my feet! Then we went over to Chinatown Square because Mom needed a Coke Light...so I told her it was okay to go to McDonald's for that. First we got pics outside. Mom got Blake and I Iced Milo, which is a thin chocolate drink...so of course we enjoyed that.


Then we went home in a taxi, which is the preferred mode of travel here. There are a lot of private cars, and Dad says there are more of them than taxis, but there are still so many taxis! And it seems like, if you're going to own a car in Singapore, you might as well own an expensive one. I haven't seen anything remotely junky.

After Dad came back from his meeting, Mom and I went grocery shopping at Cold Storage in the Great World City center. You can get a lot of American foods there, but of course it's spendy...shipping costs and all that. We got about 8 plastic bags full and it cost over $200 Sing. Before we shopped, we ate dinner at Cedele bakery. SOOOO YUMMY! We got a fruit braided bread and a rye sourdough. We ate curry pumpkin bisque with our rye sourdough...to die for!! Then Mom had salmon and I had portabello mushroom with risotto...the best risotto I've ever had. Also there, we got my birthday cake: two pieces of New York Cheesecake (which was my request), two of carrot cake (thankfully they don't put raisins in it) and two of chocolate truffle cake.

When we got home with the groceries, Blake and Dad were watching Treasure Planet, where Blake quickly fell asleep. Mom and I were sooo full from dinner that we waited til 10pm before we ate a piece of the chocolate truffle...and Dad snuck in for a couple bites too. It was delicious! Then Mom and I stayed up way too late looking at pictures on her computer and chatting. It was a fabulous day! Stay tuned...I'm planning on doing a blow-by-blow every day we're here. Don't plan on a ton of pictures...I prefer to take very few so I can actually enjoy what I'm experiencing. What you see is what I've got.