Spectacular Singapore!!

Please bear with me, I have never been on a 10 day vacation, so it will take me a few posts to fill you in on our holiday!

We flew into Singapore last Thursday from Beijing. The flight was 6 hours, and we didn't arrive until about 10:30pm. We found a taxi driver who was great - he told us all about Singapore and gave us some advice of places to visit while we were there. He also drove us around the area near our hotel so we could know where we could walk too. And yes, it costs us a little bit extra, but it was well worth it!!

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel in the Marina Bay area directly across the street from Raffles Hotel. It turned out to be a great location and the view from our balcony was beautiful of the city. When we travel in Asia, we almost always have to get two rooms. It is nice that Danny and I don't have to go to sleep when the little ones do, but it also adds up! The reaon we have to get two rooms is because most hotels have rooms with either a King bed or 2 twin beds!! Not going to work with our family! So, we spend a little more, have more space, and in the end enjoy ourselves a little bit more!! I was explaining to Ellie that when I was little, her grandma and grandpa tried to take myself and 3 siblings on vacation at least once a year, but we never had a lot of money. I told her that what typically happened was that we would all six squeeze into a room. Mom and dad would get a bed (although sometimes dad would get so annoyed with us that he would sleep in the van!!), T and I would share a bed and then Steph and Rob would fight it out on the floor!! It was quite comical and made for wonderful memories to share with my children!! Anyway, below are some pictures from our balcony...

Some of the things I loved about Singapore were that it was very compact, everything seemed very accessible and easy to get to, almost everyone spoke English (or at least a little!), tons of food options (delicious BBQ pork baozi - one of our favorites!), loads of shopping (even a Borders), and it was extremely clean!

On our first full day in Singapore we ventured off to Sentosa Island, a 20 minute cab ride away. We had a ball and it was so easy to get around. They have a free bus that takes you to each attraction area - again, the buses were clean and air conditioned which was good because it was hot out!!

We went to Underwater World first. In true Eensie form, he was asking to leave the moment he walked through the door. He had seen a peacock stutting it's stuff on the road, then a gentleman was holding a snake wanting people to pay to take a picture with it, and then to top it off, when we finally walked through the door, a stingray was jumping up the side of the pool. He cried off and on during our entire stay! El and Coop had a ton of fun feeding the fish and riding on a conveyor belt through a tunnel looking at the aquarium and the sea creatures! I had to carry my 40 some pound son the entire time!!

This picture definitely depicts Ethan's behavior throughout the aquarium - how can you be afraid of fish enclosed in glass???

Next we went to the beach for a quick walk and to get our feet wet. It was a small beach, but it was clean and the water was calm. The kids love playing in the sand wherever they are!!

Our next stop was to the luge, skyride, and skytower!! I'm not sure how Eensie can go on a luge ride down a mountain, but can't make it through an aquarium, but, he did it!! We put on our helmets and then Ellie got on her own luge, Coop and Danny rode one and Eens and I were together. Coop and Danny went so fast I don't even want to think about it. El was a little slow, so Eens and I stayed back with her - I couldn't leave her on a mountain. After we made it to the bottom of the mountain we took a sky ride back up! It offered a wonderful view of the city! Eens really wanted to ride the skytower next because there was a picture of a tiger on it (and he is so brave you know!!). We rode that up and once again saw a view of the city!!

If there is water, my children will find it!! Here is a fountain that they decided to get right into!! I'm not sure if they were supposed to or not, but they were hot, so they cooled off!! Of course, Coop was soaked by the end - that boy cannot stay standing!!

We still had one site left to see and that was the pink dolphins. We once again travelled by bus to the Dolphin Lagoon to see the dolphins. They have shows throughout the day, but we made it a quick look and see trip. As you can see, they were truly pink - Ellie was thrilled!!

We were all exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for a swim! Ellie refused to get in the pool for a bit so we witnessed a little 7 year old drama, but eventually we all had a fun time!! After swimming we went to one of the hundreds of shopping malls to find dinner! In this particular mall there was a hawker food court - there were about 20 different food vendors (all licensed!!) and you could choose whatever sounded good! Danny and I were all up for it, but the kids would have nothing to do with it. They have seen too many unsanitary food stalls in China! So, we went to a western restaurant and then Danny and I ate some BBQ pork baozi on our way out!! Our last stop for the day was to see the Fountain of Wealth light show. The fountain was cool, the light show was a bit disappointing - we waited for 15 minutes and it lasted about 3 minutes!!

We were ready for some serious sleep after our very busy day!!