Oct-ish, 2014: With Tyler heading off to Spain for 10 days, a perfect combination of heightened jealousy, and a fabulous friend's school being on term break resulted in a quick trip to Singapore. I boarded the bus at midnight and was off for my first (although relatively minor) solo traveling venture. Having worked all day, I was in dreamland for the majority of the trip, only to be awoken at 4:30am by a Bahasa yelling bus driver telling me to jump off the slowly moving bus (I can only assume that was the message). As the bus is not allowed to physically take passengers across the international boarder, we were all dumped on one side, herded through immigration and scurried to meet the still-moving bus on the other side (as they are also not allowed to park anywhere along the boarder). As there were about 100 blue buses blaring their horns and slowly creeping through the pickup area, I feel pretty lucky to have found my chariot on the other side! Still pretty dazed and confused, 10 minutes later, we were all told to again get off the bus. Totally disoriented, I tried to play it cool, and just stay on the heels of a woman I recognized from our bus.That strategy seemed to be working until we reached the lines separating Malaysians and 'Others'. I knew I was on my own if I didn't act fast. Tapping her on the shoulder I vaguely asked "What are we doing?" Puzzled, she looked at me and replied, "uhhh immigration...?" After a total Oprah 'Ah-ha' moment, I realized we were IN Singapore. Duh!
So classically, in the MaryTyler duo, I don't do my research. My dear ol' Ty does an amazing job filling in the blanks (quasi-importants such as visas, hotels, currency exchange, etc). After my foyer into 'doing it on my own' I learned two things; A simple Google search can provide a great heads-up, and when in doubt and if things don't make sense, just ask a stranger (or five)...just be wary of any grown-man still rocking the rat-tail.
After catching a few more winks at Amanda's and waking up to a beauty of a breakfast, we were prepped for a day at Universal Studios. So a little tidbit about Tyler and I's relationship; We were never taken by our respective families to Disney World, Universal Studios, etc. in Florida. A tragedy that is not lost on us, although time has continued to heal. Generally speaking, it's pretty common for Canadian families to make the trek down south at some point during the darkness of winter, however our families did not...or they went before our existence. Just one of the many ties that bind us ..until now. I would have felt badly about going without Tyler bbuutttt he was in Europe, so meh! Our day at the park was as expected; long-ish lines, over-the-top themed roller coasters and of course carnival food at its finest. Getting the impression from Amanda that the Singapore Universal Studios, although entertaining, is perhaps not all a large-scale theme park could be, I'm still looking forward to catching my 'white whale' in terms of theme parks...with Tyler of course ;)
Being the fine host she is, Amanda was happy to accommodate any sight-seeing request after leaving Sentosa. I asked to head to 'The Gardens by the Bay' as Ty and I had not previously ventured that way. To my amusement, Amanda's effortless knack for stumbling upon ideal situations took the cake for an amazing night out! We walked along the river checking out the Chinese lantern festival, crossing over to enjoy the light show in 'The Gardens'. The Gardens are a series of tree-like frames made to look like the Umbrella Acacia tree (or a bunch of alien spaceships coming in for landing). Growing out of each of the frames are plants with awesome amounts of twinkly lights creating the overall affect of a magical 'Midsummer's Night Dream-esque garden. We walked around for a long time, and headed up to the canopy walk for the light/music show. The cherry on top was the great vantage point we had when the fireworks started popping off! Closing out the night with some great butter chicken, Amanda sure knows how to treat a gal!
Fast forward 3 months: This past weekend I headed back to Singapore to attend a training course. Luckily (for my bank account) Amanda generously offered half of her double bed pro-bono. It was a real bonus to know that I was meeting Amanda each evening, who had great spots in mind for happy hour drinks and tasty food, making the most of the working-weekend. And in true Amanda form, we effortlessly stumbled upon Singapore's 50th birthday party; a giant street party down one of the city's main drags, Orchard Road. As always, I really enjoyed my time spent in Singapore. Although people often comment that Singapore is too organized, lacks culture and comes across as sterile, I can say with confidence that now again, I enjoy a little order, and good clean fun in my life (although the state of my closet would suggest otherwise).
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If you find yourself there, check out the butterfly garden in Changi Airport! |
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