Our last full day in Singapore, we didn’t do a lot of photo worthy stuff this day.

Lions are all over Singapore, The Lion City.

It was raining the day we tried to find a track. We found a covered track. It was nice, but not an official track like we were looking for.

Basically, just painted concrete lanes around the stadium. It was mostly covered so that’s why we picked it. Annika and I ate at a Popeye’s Chicken. I forgot my wallet, but I had a few dollars so we shared a combo meal.

Just a random photo of an Indian restaurant we ate at a few times.

We went to the aquarium today on Sentosa Island and walked around the area. Beautiful area – it reminds me a bit of Disney World, except it’s not a fake amusement park where 80% of your time is just standing in lines.

We got dropped off at The Hard Rock Hotel and walked through there. Another beautiful place. 

 

Aquarium 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking around Sentosa a little. Candy stores,  a few merlions, and cool sculptures.

 

In the evening we went to Botanic Gardens, which I thought would be pretty lame, be was one of the coolest spots in Singapore. It was getting dark, so not a lot of good pictures, but this is a really nice area.  Great spot for running, walking, picnics, and lots of grass. We don’t see a lot of grass fields in Cambodia, so this was a refreshing place.

 

 

We went to church with friends in Singapore.  They are also from our home church in Birmingham. After church they spent most of the day showing us around a few new places.  They also got us a great, inexpensive place (extremely rare in Singapore) to stay while there.

This is a hawker center – Singapore’s version of street food but centralized. Really good and inexpensive.  There are typically a dozen plus options at these.  

There are several ethnic enclaves around Singapore. We went through Kampong Glam, which is a Muslim community. Lots of restaurants, souvenir shops, and color everywhere.

 

Chinatown – not a lot of pictures here, but this was a cool area. Here we had the best Chinese food I’ve ever had.

 

Dog in Chinatown cooling off with his fans.

 

At the edge of Chinatown was an Hindu temple. They were about to have a Diwali event where participants do a fire walk.  You could see the heat coming from the fire on the other side of the wall.

 

Before leaving we walked around a little, looking for a candy store before going home.

 

ace day for me and Annika. Annika was doing a 5K and I was running a 10K.  Singapore is a very active city, which was nice to see.  Lots of great running spots throughout the city.

This is the start of a 50K race. See the flip flops? Several runners were wearing them.

Annika is just excited to run somewhere other than Siem Reap, which is not the best running spot.

Here she is finishing her race, she was the 2nd place female. The 5K race wasn’t chip timed, so she didn’t get a trophy and she was very disappointed

 

I had signed up for the 10K, but then lost 3 weeks with no running because of a pulled muscle (an audible snap) in my calf.  Thanks to Phaedra for photo evidence that I started the race. Can you spot me?

We walked 10+ miles on day 2 in Singapore, so we decided that day 3 would be less walking. We went to a mall and Annika found one of her favorite stores, Lush.  Not many interesting pictures today, but malls in Singapore are huge and very crowded.

There I am in the background… waiting… we went to Lush 3 times in Singapore.  Three times.

We found a taste of home, but Singapore priced! 

A sign along a mile relay race along the bay.  Good to see common sense out in public for all to see.

We went to Gardens By The Bay to the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome. Two huge indoor structures – both air conditioned – full of plants from around the world. Then we walked across to the mall attached to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and walked around Marina Bay to see the Merlion – the official mascot of Singapore.   Took a little walk to a hawker center, which is like street food corralled into a single area, for dinner before a light show over the water near the hotel. Then we drove through Little India decorated for Dewali on the way home. We probably walked 15 miles this day.

Flower Dome

 

Cloud Forest – Not too many pictures here.

Walking over to the mall at Marina Sands. Annika found a candy store – always a highlight of any trip for her.

Merlion Park

I forgot the details of the story, but at some point in Singapore’s history someone claimed to have seen a Merlion – mermaid + lion.  So the Merlion is the national mascot of Singapore.
 

Light Show at Marina Bay 

Dewali – India “Festival of Lights”. Lights were strung up over the road for about a mile.

Grab Food! We use Grab sometimes getting around Siem Reap. It’s an Uber/Lyft type of service for cars and tuk tuks in Cambodia.  But in Singapore, it can be used for cars, scooters, food, payments, and a few other things. We used Grab Food to order McDonald’s when we got home.  Faster and cheaper than going to get it yourself. It was delivered to our place by a lady on a little electric scooter. Food delivery is big business in Singapore, we were constantly seeing scooters, and moto’s delivering food.

 

Another visa expires, another cool trip.  Singapore is amazing.  A super small country that is much smaller than many US cities – smaller than NYC. Extremely modern, safe, clean.  I’ve never been more impressed with a big city than Singapore.

Day 1 we visited the zoo, which was really cool, and went back for the night safari, which was not as cool. But it’s a really nice zoo.

Bats having a snack. My favorite thing at the zoo.

Prairie Dogs – I think

Even the food at the zoo was great.

Singapore Zoo Night Safari – It was ok, but the daytime zoo was much better.