Singapore

We finally arrived here, our first destination (just barely, though, as we are only staying 24 hours), after 26 hours of travel. Immigration and customs took about 10 minutes in Hong Kong, so we managed to catch an earlier connection to Singapore and arrive here about three hours earlier than planned. We then spent almost as much time trying to figure out the subway system to get to our hotel, which is located in the heart of Singapore's shopping district. The shopping, though, is not that different than what you'd see back home: the Gap, Borders, Swatch, Starbucks, and a McDonald's on every corner. And Singapore is EXPENSIVE. We spent the equivalent of $35 US on two (yes, TWO) drinks at the Raffles Hotel. Ouch.

The flight over was not as bad as we thought it would be. It helped that we were both completely exhausted, so we both slept about 10 hours of the 13-hour flight from SFO to Hong Kong. Arrived pretty fresh in Singapore around lunch time and spent the afternoon walking around the city, enjoying a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel (which is beautiful), and then cruising through the Singapore Art Museum. It's now about 9:00 p.m. (Friday) and we are ready for bed. Tomorrow's agenda is the Botanical Gardens, then we'll catch an afternoon flight to Phuket. So far, no news of cancellations on flights to Thailand, so I think we're good to go.

Our entire trip album is on Smugmug, but here are some highlights of the day.

The bathrooms at the Singapore Airport were beautiful!!


We were looking and feeling much more refreshed after we took hot showers and changed into clean clothes upon arriving in Singapore:

The Singapore Art Museum (which has free admission on Friday nights):

The Raffles Hotel, which is absolutely gorgeous. My pictures don't do it justice.

The Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, birthplace of the Singapore Sling (which is actually very tasty!):