Singapore

We arrived in Singapore on September 6th via flight from Sandakan on Borneo to Johor Bharu, Malaysia. JB is just over the causeway from Singapore, but loads cheaper to fly into. We managed to pretty easily catch a bus and make our way to Michelle Morton's place on Club Street in a trendy part of the city-state.

Singapore was a welcome change in pace and convenience for us, especially because Michelle was kind enough to put us up at her place- "Hotel Michelle" for the five days we were there, R&Ring. She has a gorgeous flat full of every amenity a backpacker could need- plus a pool, and a gracious, fun group of friends! Thanks Michelle for your generosity, and for some good memories in Singapore.

On arrival, we dropped our stuff and swung by a friend's place for home-made lasagna and the end of a book club meeting. It felt odd to hang out with people who for once aren't in a transient, traveller's frame of mind- like a visit to the real world or something. Michelle and many of her friends are teachers at SAS, the Singapore American School. It seems to be a great gig, and they really love their work. Throughout the next few days, we enjoyed laundry, eating cereal(!) from a nearby grocery store, getting a haircut, swimming at the condo pool, and eating incredible chinese noodles from a street stall in Chinatown. Pretty exotic couple of days, huh? We also visited MRT stop "China Garden" to see the hundreds of lanterns that are lit in celebration of autumn/moon festival. They even had mermaids and polar bears!

Pictures below:

view of Singapore

Singapore fish and meat market

Megan in Chinatown

MRT platform

home for a few days

with some transplant Singaporeans at "The Screening Room" bar

lantern festival at China Garden

At the lantern festival, they had a "Wishing Tree" grove. They sell red and gold coins strung on ribbon for a nominal fee that is donated to a charity. You write a wish on the ribbon and toss it into a grove of trees. Apparently the tree it lands on tells you about your future. I didn't know this so I sort of aimed randomly and got the "prosperity tree." I guess the China gods don't know I'm unemployed, but that's encouraging for the future! Here it is:

writing the wish...

and throwing it...

at our favorite eating spot

We also felt compelled to do the quintessential Singapore tourist thing- grab a singapore sling cocktail at Raffles, the gorgeous hotel where it all started.

Raffles Hotel