Honeymoon Part II: Singapore

Or Singapoh, as the locals call it. Okay, two things. One, I've never heard of anyone visiting Singapore while on their honeymoon. Two, I've never heard of anyone staying with friends while on their honeymoon. We did both, and I think it was possibly the best opportunity we'll ever have to visit this country, and we are both glad we did. Thanks to the Timms (Jesse, Jessi, and Olive), we had a nice place to stay and even a great tour guide (thanks brother Joe!).

Singapore is a city-state (which means it's an independent country). First impressions, it was big and clean, the landscaping was perfectly manicured along the freeways, and it didn't smell bad (remember we had just come from Thailand). It had skyscrapers in every direction and looked liked a big city you'd find in the States. When we walked around from the Timm residence, we meandered through the streets with little Olive (their 18-month old little girl), barefoot and keeping up with us. It seemed really relaxed, and obviously clean enough to let your 18-month old just go barefoot. When I asked Jesse if he ever felt unsafe, he laughed at me and said the locals are probably more scared of him than anything else. When the height of the average male is 5'7", I understood what he meant.

When you want to try real Singaporean food, you find yourself a hawker center. It's set up like a mini state fair (under a covered structure), actually now that I think about it, sort of like a crowded food court. You go from vendor to vendor, ordering all kinds of food that you can't pronounce, and telling them your table number. Then you go sit and wait for it all to be delivered. We let Jesse do the ordering which was fantastic, I felt like Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) with a local guide, otherwise we would have been clueless as to what to order. The spread was quite delicious, including grilled stingray, meat sticks, spicy meat stuffed pastry things (if I just said the name you'd have no idea what I was talking about, and I can't remember any of the names anyway), spinach stir fry, some noodle dish with egg and meat, chicken wings, and probably more. Nate tried sugar cane drink, I had beer. We shared this meal with the Timms and yet another friend from Waconia, Minnesota, Simon, who is also living in Singapore these days. The odds of 4 Waconia High School grads in Singapore all at the same time is basically non-existent, so we took pictures to prove it happened.

Left to right- Derek (a friend of the Timms), Simon, Jesse, me, Nate, Jessi, Olive,  Emily (Joe's gf), and Joe

This hawker center meal was the cheapest thing we did, because Singapore is EXPENSIVE. Let me give you an idea of just how expensive it is: a pint of Ben & Jerry's? $15! A 24-pack of beer? Upwards of $60 (and that's the cheap stuff). This is why we took up our friends' offer of staying with them!

The city itself is pretty cool. The mix of people was so interesting. It wasn't abnormal at all to see business men speaking perfect American English on their cell phones. It's a very international place, in fact, 42% of Singapore's residents are foreigners, including all of our friends. There seems to be a bit of animosity between the locals and foreigners because of this (awkward). We visited China Town, Little India (where I had my first Indian food ever and LOVED it), the downtown area along the river with boats and brightly colored buildings (kinda reminded me of Disneyland, a deserted Disneyland). Along the river walk we stopped for a Singapore Sling (had to), and wow that drink is dangerously delicious!

Singapore Sling on the river walk with Marina Bay Sands in background.

A visit to Singapore isn't complete without visiting the Merlion at the river. Yes, mer-lion, as in mer (meaning the sea) and lion. The Merlion definitely did not disappoint, we had a little too much fun with the photos.

This group of Malaysian men all photo bombed us at once!

Finally, we had to visit the Marina Bay Sands. You may have heard of this building, it looks like three big towers with a thin boat sitting across the top of it. It sits at the end of Singapore, so you can look out onto the sea where all the big cargo ships are hanging out, or you can turn around and see basically to Malaysia, all of Singapore spread out before you. There is a bar up top and also an infinity pool, for the craziest of the crazies. I don't think I would keep my lunch if I actually sat in it. Maybe this will give you an idea- it is 57 floors up (which feels more like 100), set on the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which OVERHANGS the north tower by 220 feet! As in, infinity pool, if you fell off the edge you'd fall into Singapore (not really, it's very safe, but that doesn't make me feel better). Needless to say, Nate took all the photos from up here :)

The Marina Bay Sands was actually an exhilarating end to our 3-day visit to Singapore, and the last thing we did before heading to the airport... for BALI!

To be continued...