Today we woke up around 10, checked out of our hotel, and went off to explore other parts of the city. We left with the intention of exploring the Colonial District, which we were told by our trusty guidebook has beautiful architecture. We got to the MRT stop about 20 minutes from our hotel, ate a quick breakfast, got back down to the MRT...and realized we had no idea where we were actually headed...and we didn't have our guidebook. Awesome!
After realizing we had no idea where the Colonial District actually was (and we didn't have any internet to find out where it was...) we decided to return back to the mall to purchase the dress I had seen yesterday :). We made our way back to the mall and found...another Chinese New Year performance at the mall! They LOVE celebrating Chinese New Year in and around malls! So we watched the performance for a few minutes before stopping to purchase my dress to wear to Meg and Kry's wedding upon our return!
Our next stop was lunch at the same mall - noodles and marinated chicken (yum!) and homemade iced green tea. I haven't had this much tea in soooooooo long! From there we headed to Marina Bay, close to where we had been yesterday, to check out Merlion Park!
Singapore is known as the Lion City because it is fabled that in 1299, while looking for a new capital for his country, a prince, Sang Nila Utama, discovered a lion where modern day Singapore is located. He named the city Singapura - "Singa" (lion) and "Pura" (city).
As a result, they have a big Merlion statue in a park aptly dubbed Merlion Park. After seeing the Merlion on literally EVERYTHING in all souviner shops, I figured we had to see it in person before we could REALLY cross off all the touristy things on our Singapore list :-p. We wandered for a while, following the signs (yay for signs in Asia!) to get to the park and take some pictures with the fabled Merlion:
Next it was time for us to head back to the hotel to make the trek to the airport for our flight to Bali, Indonesia!
We got a taxi from our hotel and had a lovely chat with our driver on our way to the airport. He told us a bit more about the history of Singapore and what it was like growing up in a developing country. He said it was amazing the leaps and bounds Singapore had made in the last 50 years and how, having been 13 when it became a country, he truly couldn't believe what it was today. Pretty cool to hear from his perspective :).
We arrived at the airport and saw the COOLEST art display. It was over 1,000 copper raindrops suspended from the ceiling which moved up and down in various patterns. It was seriously SO COOL. I wanted to buy it and put it in our (non-existent) house SO BADLY.
He definitely got Malaysian Ringit instead of Indonesian Rupie. Woops!!
It was pretty hilarious. The things you find comical when you're travelling :-p.
After fixing the money situation we decided to go out for a "fancy" dinner at a nice steak restaurant in the airport. Shockingly, the food was pretty amazing! What wasn't was the way you ordered your meals. You stood on a line outside of the restaurant until they were ready for you. You then ordered your food like you would at McDonald's and paid for everything, then sat down and they brought it to you. The problem was that, because it was a nicer restaurant, it took longer for tables to become available, so tons of people were just waiting in line to order. Not only that, but you couldn't order any extras at your table! Didn't order a drink at first order? Good luck getting one when you're seated! It was fairly bizarre. But hey - at least the food was good!
After that, we wandered into the duty free shop. Jon has been looking for bourbon literally most places we've been and really hasn't seen it (or has and it's been VERY expensive). He was pretty thrilled to find a bottle at duty free for cheaper than it goes in the states! I told him Happy Valentine's Day and to go ahead and purchase it (as long as he could make sure to pack it for our flights when he didn't finish it in Bali!!!) He was pretty stoked and happily made his purchase :).
We had another uneventful flight on our way to Bali, arriving around 11 pm. We took a taxi to our hotel (where the music was BUMPING for a Sunday night!) and it is DEFINITELY time for bed.
I've told Jon he's going to have a really hard time topping this Valentine's Day. Taking me to Bali?? Where are we going NEXT Valentine's Day?!?!?
Jess' highlight of the day: buying my dress!
Jon's highlight of the day: buying bourbon at the airport
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