After breakfast we had to catch our flight to Singapore. To be honest I was not excited about going to Singapore. But “B” really wanted to and we had read that seeing otters in the wild, or even in the city, was a high possibility so we were going. My seat got messed up by Singapore airlines and as a result I wasn’t siting near the rest of my family. I was back about 5 rows, and I got to sit next to a 2-year-old girl. The flight was a bit bumpy at first, but then was OK. The girl was fine person to sit next to. She kicked me a few times, but not hard. Her parents kept apologizing, but she wasn’t doing anything that bad, and I tried to assure them that everything was fine. For this flight I watched: John Wick 4 and The Fablemans. Both movies were good.
When we landed we spent some time in the airport. The Singapore Airport is considered the best in the world, and I get why that is. There is a section called “The Jewel”, and it has so much going on. There are gardens to walk through, loads of restaurants and shops, a massive indoor vortex waterfall that is hard to describe. It was so cool to see, and to see it at night like we did was even cooler since they light it up with changing colors. Had some fine dumpling dinner at the airport, but they charged us $1 per person for tap water. That was weird to us. In Singapore we weren’t able to find a reasonable Airbnb so we were staying at a hotel the entire time we were there. We chose the Furama City Center hotel since it was a good location, a reasonable price, and had a family room option that included a kitchenette in the room. Once we were in the room we found out that they don’t expect you to cook in the room. WHAT?! There was one very small pan, 3 forks, 3 spoon, and 3 plates (and a few cups). There was an ok sized fridge in the room and that was nice. But why call it a room with a kitchenette and not expect people to cook. I even asked at the front desk and they gave me a look like I was crazy about cooking in the room. We did end up cooking breakfast all but 1 day in the room, but it was in stages since the 1 pan was tiny. The room did have good views, and a HUGE soaking tub. Other than that not much to say about the hotel. Except the Wi-Fi sucked. And I mean really sucked. There was one spot in the entire place where my laptop could connect, and that was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Nowhere else would it connect. Phones did mildly better. I am not sure how this place operates with people that complain when things are right. I am not much of a complainer, but I wanted to complain about that (but I didn’t, not like they could have changed it).
For our first full day in Singapore we headed to the Southern Ridges area. This was after having breakfast to the hotel’s buffet. We decided to do this because we knew we wouldn’t have time to get to a grocery store our first night. Again a very good spread for a buffet. I ate way too much food that morning. This is a long walking area where you can experience different types of environments in one area. We caught a bus to the start of the walk and headed off. It was already warm and VERY humid so even after just a bus ride I was sweating pretty badly. It was a good day of walking. We went through the ridges and then the Henderson Wave which was a bridge that looks like a water wave. The views were pretty good. During this walk we went through a lot of rainforest type areas, and there were some wetland area as well. When we reached the end of this section we went into the public park at the end. We had lunch there. I had a pizza that was basically a thin crust cheese pizza and they pilled an entire salad worth of greens on it and some thinly sliced ham. Not what I as expecting. The sauce had a bit of a kick to it so it didn’t taste too bad. Then we wandered the park where they had lots of “mini” parks where individuals had designed small sections to their liking. It was interesting. It was a lot of walking and did I mention how humid it was. Then we caught a bus back to our hotel. This one was a double decker bus, so we sat up top and the girls loved it. And the truth is, I don’t remember dinner at all that evening.