Week 23

Singapore + Kuta (see below)

First up, Singapore!

First Moment Here: After a 10 hour overnight flight, we took an uber pool ride to the Yale-NUS (National University of Singapore) campus to meet our host, a guy Adam went to high school with who is now married with kids.  We settled in then headed to Little India via public transportation (one bus, two trains) to walk around and get a taste of India.  We had the spiciest food we’ve had on this trip thus far, Chelsea got henna, and we went to the really cool temple.  This day just went to show how far we’ve come in our travels!  

Funniest Thing We Did:  We went out for dinner and drinks in Holland Village with our hosts, Corinne and Chris, and after Lebanese food went for margaritas.  Corinne photobombed four asian girls taking a selfie, peace signs and all.

Craziest Thing We Did:  Try chicken feet.  We went to a really cool outdoor mall/grouping of hawker stands and got to sample a bunch of local foods…including chicken feet.

Best Thing We Did:  So hard to choose from all the amazing things we did in Singapore, between little India, Chinatown, the Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay and the light show on Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  All in all, we loved every second in Singapore and it was all made possible by our awesome hosts!  If I did have to choose, I’d go for the 12+ story cloud forest, encapsulated in glass looking out onto the city.  So many beautiful plants and flowers, a towering waterfall and two skywalks.  Such a cool experience.

Tastiest Thing We Did:  Again, hard to choose between the India, Afghani, and Chinese food but because it’s cool - we ate at a Michelin Star restaurant called Hawker Chan which had meals for $4.50 S$.  Amazing food at the right price.

Coolest thing we Learned:  Riding Singapore trains was amazing.  They are super clean ($500 fine for eating/drinking on the train) and people are very courteous.  There are tons of PSAs to make sure people offer their seats to the elderly, put their extra bags on the ground (so they don’t take up seats) and even speak in an appropriate volume.  The train routes reach everywhere you need to be and when mobs of people are headed into or out of the train station everyone politely “queues” up to ride JUST the left side of the escalator so that if someone walking (not standing) wants to pass on the right there is room.  Crazy to witness!

Biggest Surprise:  The amount of opulence for a tiny country of only 5 million people.  The downtown area is spectacular.  The hotels and shopping are over the top.  The gardens are amazing, better than our best.  And it leaves you wondering, who is it all for?  

Mystery Solved: We finally had to ask about the gum situation.  Turns out there is NO GUM in Singapore, it’s even on their list of things you cannot bring into the country.  This is one example of how they keep their country clean and in check.  Craziest thing ever!

Other Updates:

• We had a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel where they were originally invented to give women a fruity drink so they could join the men and drink in public.  This was 100 years ago but walking through the hotel felt like it was yesterday.  
• We got some great advice (from Corinne) to STAND IN LINES - where you inevitably find the best street food as well as people who will help you figure out what to order.  So we did, in Chinatown, twice.  And we ended up with two really cool experiences we never would have stumbled upon otherwise.  One was this pork jerky which Chinese people were buying in 50 pound bags and the other, a Michelin Star hawker stand.  Pretty cool.  We will definitely be adopting this practice!

​Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Next up, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Funniest Thing We Did: Never even walked out on the beach.  Though we were never more than 10 meters from it.

Craziest Thing We Did:  Roads in Indonesia are technically two lanes (one each direction) but the way they drive is one lane down the middle (for two way, passing traffic) and two small lanes on either side for motorbikes.  Makes for a lot of 'chicken' on our three hour drive across Bali to Tulamben for our ship wreck dive.

Best Thing We Did:  Diving the Liberty Wreck.  A 140’ WWII supply ship torpedoed by a Japanese sub, beached in northern Bali then pushed into the ocean by lava flow.  Super cool that Adam’s first three dive experiences were all world class.  The ship wreck was amazing; cannon and gun covered in coral, an anchor bigger than us, TONs of fish, fan coral, a green sea turtle, nudibranch, sweetlips, and all kinds of other amazing stuff.  We dove it twice and the fact that they were shore dives made it that much more interesting!

Coolest thing we Learned:  How to love a $10 a night hotel room (that includes “breakfast” for two).  Amazing how far we’ve come. And, also learned that when you’re in the $10 increment range, every $10 makes a difference.  Now we’re in a $30 room and it’s AMAZING!

Biggest Surprise:  How much I missed bath mats.  Our current hotel has two and I’m in heaven.

Mystery Solved: Not all McDonalds are created equal.  Though you may be able to have them deliver to you, when everybody else in line is ordering fried chicken at the counter, take that as a sign that the burgers are not living up to their glory.  Even the coke was flat.​

Other Updates:

• We watched the Super Bowl 51 from the Stadium Bar with a bunch of other expats.  Only 100,000 (or $7.47 per person to reserve a table which included breakfast and a drink!)  The bar was ready to host with a “Welcome to Texas” sign and cowboy boots at the entrance.  Super fun day!
• We met up with Louise - from Scotland, who we met in Fiji. Small world when you’re traveling!