Asia Adventure:
October 16 - November 25, 2013

October 16-18, 2013: Flying from San Francisco to Singapore.

Click here to see the next part of the trip.

The threatened BART strike for Wednesday was postponed so the traffice we encountered on our mid-day drive to the airport was "normal". Hiro delivered TomD and Ron to the International Terminal where we met TomO.

The flights were uneventful but long: 13h30m to Hong Kong and 3h15m to Singapore. Short layover in HK.

This is Tom O in his "compartment". Mine was across the aisle. We were upstairs.

We arrived in Singapore at midnight. Ron went to terminal 1 to meet our flight and we went over to terminal 2. It took a while to find each other.

The taxi ride to our hotel took about 30 minutes. We have tiny rooms on the 5th floor. We are up early to start new day in SIN.

Singapore

Infamous Durian fruit being opened and the flesh put in these white trays.

How about a Durian shake?!?!?!

First supper ... seafood noodles

On the MRT subway

At the Bugis Center ... between Queen and Victoria Streets,

The old colonial Raffles Hotel

More Singapore

Today we bought 2-day tickets for the hop-on hop-off bus and started an exploration of the city.

Here we are on the topless upper level.

First hop-off was in the Little India neighborhood. (Muslim girls leaving their school.)

It is Happy Deepavali Day. We went into a Hindu temple. Many people were worshiping there. Saw candles burning, smelled incense and observed the rituals being performed.

We are struck by the stunning architecture of the buildings in Singapore.


Another stop was the Singapore Flyer. It is similar to the London Eye (but this is the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world.

Conservatories of the Garden by the Bay: The Flower Dome is the lower but larger of the twoand it replicates a mild, dry climate and features plants found in the Mediterranean and other semi-arid tropical regions. The Cloud Forest is higher but slightly smaller and it replicates the cool moist conditions found in tropical mountain regions.

The is the spectacular Marina Bay Sands hotel. There are 3 towers of hotel rooms topped by a huge, curved boat structure. We went to the "Sky Park" and could look over to the "hotel guests-only" area including a huge infinity swimming pool!

Leaving Singapore

This is a theater loving nicknamed tne"Durian"

One more shot of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Stall door sign

We went to the Gardens by the Bay and into the two huge conservatories: Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. The design and scale of these structures is amazing. And the plant collections were beautiful.

Baobab Tree (We saw trees like these in Zambia last hear.)


Ron on Tree Chair

Indoor waterfall over 100 feet tall

Collection of pitcher plants.

Walking through the clouds on these sky walks

Ron at the Lion Door.

Super Tree Grove outside the conservatories. One has a restaurant and bar at the top. All are lit up at night. There is an elevated Sky walk that goes between several of these trees.

Aboard tne Singapore River Cruise.

The name Singapore comes from a Sanskrit word meaning Lino City. The city symbol is 1/2 lion and 1/2 fish.

After the River Cruise we went to the Asian Civilisations Museum and toured the Devoition and Desire Cross-Cultural Art in Asia exhibit


On our way back to the hotel.

The Sim Lim Center is a 6 story building filled with stalls
selling all kinds of electronic gadgets, computers, cameras, cables, adapter, etc.

Our last dinner in Singapore: Korean babimbap in hot stone pots.