Singapore - Great island country - extremely clean

**** Added Editor's note - I just realized that some may believe Kristin's legs are in the close up shot on picture three since I show her dipping her feet in the tank in picture two from the top. The close up shot with fish all over them are in fact Adam's legs. I didn't want anyone to think Kristin quit shaving her legs over here in Asia. I regret any inconvenience or bad jokes which this may have caused Kristin. :) ******

I'm very glad we decided to come to Singapore as it's definitely a very unique country. This country was ruled by the British for 80 years following a rule of 40 years by the country of Malaysia. (It's only a 3 1/2 hour drive to Malaysia from Singapore.) In 1965 it gained its own independence and was recognized as its own little island country. The rules are quite strict (littering - fine of $1000, spitting - fine of $1000 and if you want to get whacked hard with a bamboo cane as a sentence from a judge, just try vandalizing something) but it is the cleanest city we have ever visited. It's also considered a botanical country as the trees, flowers and plants are well arranged everywhere. Picture New York city with no garbage, beggars, or intimidation and you have Singapore.

Anyone moving to Asia would find Singapore as one of the easiest transitions from the states. Many US companies are represented in Singapore. The financial district has Citi and HSBC skyscraper buildings. Walking down Orchard street you will find a dozen high end shopping malls. They say there are two hobbies in the country of Singapore - shopping and eating. We have had some excellent meals and all kinds of food - Italian, British, Chinese, Indian, etc. I believe this is the only country in Asia where one can drink the tap water which is nice. The national business language is English which is great, although it is all spoken with strong accents. We have also become very fond of the ice cream sandwiches you can buy off the street - Wall Brand. They have about every flavor you can think of (my personal favorite is peppermint chocolate chip and the kids and Kristin enjoy the Mocha Chip). There are a few that I wonder if they ever sell (yam, sweetcorn, etc).

We bought some travel passes here which I would recommend for anyone visiting. They cost our entire family of 5 about $35 each, and we rode the HIPPO buses all over town for several days. Included in the cost we also rode the world's largest travel wheel called the Singapore Flyer (ferris wheel type contraption which holds 30 people in each air conditioned capsule). At the top we could see as far as neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia. We also rode a bus that could drive from land directly into the river. I think the kids were a little embarrassed getting into the "Wacky Duck" bus/boat, but it was quite fun.

One of the highlights was a trip to a neighboring island called Sentosa. About 60% of the island is under construction as coming in 2010 is a Universal Studios. (I'm sure Mike Nash will be here in the future.) They are spending $30 US billion on the construction alone including their first casinos on the mainland. They say Singapore is in a slight recession, but you would never know by how many people are shopping and hauling bags out of the malls at all times of the day. On Sentosa Island, we did something very unique as we found ourselves in a foot reflexology spa. They washed our feet and then took us to what looked like a large fish tank. You placed your legs in the tank and hundreds or thousands of little fish swam up and started exfoliating your feet and legs. I believe they nibble on the microscopic skin cells on your legs and excrete some enzyme used in some skin creams. It took me 10 minutes to get my legs all the way in and to not laugh as this is NOT for the ticklish at heart. Kristin was the first to submerge her legs and to enjoy the "sensation". Anna and Lexi dipped their legs in the pool with smaller fish and loved it. While it seemed very funny to us, we all came out with very smooth feet, so whatever they do it works. They also provided a reflexology massage following the nibbling fish which left us leaving feeling great!

We are staying at a very nice hotel called the LeGrove Service Apartments which is only a walk from the famous Orchard avenue. While we were here, we attended the Singapore 1st ward and it was as large as our ward at home. I met a few executives working for companies such as Chevron, McDonald's, BP Medical (guy from Sandy, UT) and Goldman Sachs, to name a few. Very nice people and since this city is so close to the equator, again the weather is perfect with sunshine 12 hours a day.

One of our recommendations to anyone traveling to Singapore is to see the Night Safari. This is like a zoo of sorts, except it doesn't open until 6:3o pm. We rode in a tram at night and saw animals in their natural habitat, as they have acres and acres of open land. Anteaters, elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, hyenas....all with no cages. We also walked through a flying fox and fruit bat area and we found ourselves laughing and ducking the entire time. The flying fox is about the size of a cat or dog flying in the air. Not sure if the pictures show the size...but it was amazing. We also paid a couple of bucks as the kids wanted to hold some python snakes at the zoo. One was a reticulated python and the other was an albino python. They had fun, but Adam (our animal handling expert) actually got a little nervous as it went into an S pattern which he told us later is not a good thing.

We tried to visit the US embassy on our last day as we thought this would be a great learning or teaching moment for the kids. The taxi dropped us off and we were quickly informed they have a NO VISITOR policy for security reasons. Oh well, we grinned and got into the next taxi to take us back to Orchard avenue.

Deal of the week. As you know, some things can be found much cheaper in Asia. I thought I would mention our best deal of the week. This week it was no doubt an internet special that we found as we were searching for one way flights from Singapore to Bangkok. It is a 2 1/2 hour flight and we found one Maylasian airlines called Tiger Airlines and found airline tickets for one dollar. I thought it was a mistake and tried to book the flights. With taxes, airport fees and all country surcharges it added about $29 per ticket. Still, at $30 each, we found ourselves on a very nice jet and a quick flight back to Bangkok. We will be here for about a week before we leave for Cambodia. We found an excellent service apartment and have a nice 2 bedroom room on the 19th floor with an incredible view. It's located in the nice financial district which is near most of the embassies in Bangkok.

(Some of the pictures above include our visit to China town in Singapore where they had an electric light parade. We also enjoyed some watermelon which is yellow on the inside but tastes like the red ones we eat at home. Lexi's 12th birthday with a delicious brownie cheescake.