Singapore - Day 1 & 2

I was a little bit apprehensive about going on this trip. This would’ve been the longest flight I’d ever taken with L and the first time she would have to encounter jet-lag. But I needn’t have worried. She handled the flight like a champ, sleeping a good 7-8 hours of the 12 and the rest of the time, she was extremely pleasant. Jet-lag was likewise a breeze. The first night she slept around mid-night and then her day just adjusted.

The first day in Singapore got off at a bad start. L had been sick with an ear infection and I needed to get a refill for her antibiotics and make sure she was ok to go swimming. So I ended up running around between doctors and pharmacies and sadly, she can’t go swimming after all. Which is kind of a big deal because she’s been excited about it for ages. It doesn’t help that the place Hussein lives at has like 3 or 4 huge pools, so every time we’re going or coming, she looks at the pool and asks hopefully whether or not she could go in. Sadly, it’s still no.

The second day, was much better. So today we did a little bit of sightseeing. We went to the botanical garden, which is absolutely huge. I think we only saw like 20% of it before L got grouchy. She had been looking forward to seeing animals and wasn’t particularly impressed with the lone rooster I showed her. She would’ve maybe been more impressed with the lizard we saw scurrying across the path, had it stayed longer, but it didn’t.

After that we went home for a quick rest and a shower and then headed off to Gardens of the bay for the light show. The Gardens themselves are huge, with different themes from around the world. It would take hours and hours to cover all that ground. We walked around for around 2 hours until the light show started and lay down on the ground to watch. The theme today was the waltz and it was really quite nice. I think what I loved most about it was just the ability to lie down and just be for a few moments, not looking at the phones, not trying to take picture (I did take a couple though) and just be. Even L seemed to quiet down a little and lay down next to us looking up. When it arrived at the crescendo of the “Can-Can”, L got up and started clapping “Bravo! Bravo!”

There’s a few things that stand-out about Singapore at a first glance. Firstly, the heat and the humidity. One of the first things L said as we came out of the airport was, “the air is hot”. Secondly, it really feels like a melting pot of Asia. Everywhere signs are written in at least 3 languages and the people really are from everywhere. Thirdly, it is very clean, but honestly, for a country that is so clean, there are surprisingly very few trash cans on the street. Where are all the trash cans?! And finally, it’s bloody expensive.