Singapore

Well, hello there.

So before I even came to India, I knew I wanted to go to Singapore. India is good in that it is fairly centrally located to other countries in the Asia-Pac region that I want to visit. My original goal was to go over Thanksgiving weekend since I get the days off. However, Sana came and she wanted to go to. So last Sunday, we booked our flights for the upcoming Friday, and off we were!

The trip on the way there was great. I can understand why I paid almost $600 for an economy class flight - tons of leg room, wide selection of meals (if you pre-order them), and the service really is nice. We took a red eye in, leaving at 11:30pm and arriving at 6:30 am (local time). There was no one sitting next to me, and I had an aisle seat (also pre-selected) and even though I couldn't really lay down, I got in a few hours of deep sleep.

We get in, and the MRT system (trains) is awesome - very much like Spain. I learned a good lesson from Kara traveling in Spain and made sure I knew I to get around from the airport to the hotel via train (so much cheaper!) and all the other places that I wanted to visit. We cruise along on the train, taking in what sights we could, and even got to check in early at the hotel. We got a smoking room, but didn't really care since we figured we'd be out most of the day, trying to squeeze in a Singapore experience in two days.

We are dead tired, but shower and decide to head out at around 10am. It started raining, so we took a boat tour around the river to see some of the sights - The Merlion, various hotels, some really cool bridges, ect. The rain stopped, so we sat outside for a bit and then hopped off near one of the Raffles statues in the city.

All the while, I was beginning to feel worse and worse. At first I thought I was just sleepy, or boat sick, but we went to a local spot for lunch, and it hit me. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but my stomach was in knots, and I just felt the need to lie down. I parted ways with Sana and trudged back to hotel, feeling myself dieing along the way. And then it really hit.

Food poisoning. :(

I freaking got food poisoning in Singapore of all places! 4 weeks in India and not one major sickness, and here I am, in paradise, sick as a dog in my hotel room. :( So much for all the plans we had!! I ended up tossing and turning, trying to sleep, with various episodes of ickiness I'll leave you to wonder about. I'm blaming it either on the cheese sandwich I had at D Block or the KFC at the airport - either way, I am staying clear of both forever.

So after laying around for almost 8 hours, trying to recover for "just a bit" more, and a little Starbucks to help along the way, we went to the Night Safari and had a good time. Then we hit Orchard Road to check out the Christmas in the Tropics displays (like the windows at Macy's) and marvelled at all the stores I wouldn't shop at anyway - Louis, Prada, M.A.N.G.O. and yes, even Gap! :P

Sunday I had every intention of waking up early to make up for the almost 8 hours we lost the day before, but I snoozed my wake up call for church, and ended up going to a later mass. I picked St. Andrew's Cathedral since it was the closest one to the hotel. The church is beautiful - white marble, very clean. The mass starts, the organs are playing, the choir is singing, and I'm like "Now this is what I was missing! Organs! Who knew?" I read through the bulletin really quickly, and see something about the Anglican community, and I think "Oh, that's nice - all the churches support each other here".

They start going through all the prayers, and some things are a little different, and I just think, oh well, every church can do things slightly different. And then the sermon starts and I start thinking, "Um, is this a Catholic Church?". The preacher is talking some good stuff about introducing your friends to Christ and such, and then he starts interspersing "Amen" and "Hallelujah" in the middle of his speech and I'm like "NOPE! This is def not a Catholic Church!!!" I try demising a way to leave nicely, and then the preacher asked who in the Church was visiting... I'm not about to lie in a church, during mass, so I get up along with the other visitors and everyone starts clapping and I get a bunch of stuff and now I really feel like a fool.

After about 5 minutes, I suck it up and leave. It was almost an hour after the Mass started, and they weren't but halfway done! DEF not Catholic. So I mope back to the hotel, disappointed that I couldn't even find the right church to go to while I was here, but press forward. We hit Chinatown, three temples (Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim) and grab some Chicken Rice for lunch on Maxwell Road. We did a little shopping, and then hit the Raffles hotel for a mandatory Singapore Sling.

By then, it's almost 5:30 and we trudge back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and head to the airport. The Changi airport is nice too - lots of shops (where I picked up 1 bag of mint chocolate Hershey's for S$10! - WTF) and then queue to get on the plane back to Hyd.

The flight back was annoying - there was a family of 5 split between two rows, and I had an aisle seat again. I managed to watch the new X-Files movie (it was good), bits of the Dark Knight (I could watch it over and over again) and the first half of Mamma Mia! (which is an injustice to all things ABBA) but all throughout had various members of this family climbing over me to get to the next row over. Everyone on this flight was sick, sneezing and coughing, and of course, not covering their mouths when doing so. Gross.

I experienced rain for the first time in Hyd, and it was POURING! I can't imagine having a rickshaw or bike here during monsoon season! We got back to the hotel dead tired, caught some of The Soup (Talk Soup), which I am glad they have here now and hit my pillow sleeping.

I wish I had more time there, but did see everything I was supposed to (Thanks Patrick!). I would totally go back to see the more 'everyday' things, but we'll leave that for another time. I still have Japan and Australia on my list, so till then, thank you Singapore for bringing my life back in check, and for making me ever more anxious to return to Chicago.