singapore | day 2 …and out of office

I think I’ve done as much traveling these past 2 months as I’ve done in my entire life!  My parents have always worked 6 days a week (easily 10 hr days), so we never had any family vacations.  Occasionally, my aunt would take me along with her family to big bear, and once to San Francisco, but that was it.  I feel so blessed and still wake up every morning pinching myself.  Even as recent as 2 years ago, I never would’ve thought this was possible.  I’ll share more of that later.  With that said, I will be heading out of town tomorrow (for pleasure this time!) and will be back Sunday night.  I’ll respond to emails next week.

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Singapore day 2 involved a lot of walking and a lot of eating!  We started the morning off in Little India.

This is our attempt at a self portrait…

Singapore has a lot of shop homes, where they run stores at the bottom and live upstairs.  It’s interesting how they’re all built exactly the same.  They’re trying to revitalize some of the areas and give it new paint jobs.  One thing that stuck out to me in Singapore is all the interesting colors they like to paint their buildings with….

There were lots of Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, and mosques.  As we walked by the above temple, I noticed all these lovely flowers that street vendors were selling.  I had never seen them before.  The lady told me they’re lotus flowers.  My dad said that in Vietnam, they also fold the petals like that.

The highlight of day 2 was meeting up with Jasmin.  When we booked our trip, we only intended to go to Indonesia.  We debated whether we should visit another country on the way, and if so, which one.  Around the same time, I got a client inquiry from Jasmin.  They live in Singapore, but wanted to do an “engagement session” in LA.  I told her we may be able to meet up in Singapore and she wrote back this detailed email breaking down all the places to see.  She basically came up with a 3 day itinerary for us.   So she met us up on day 2 and took was on a walking tour of practically the whole city!

I chatted with Jasmin the rest of the day, so most of the following photos were taken by Jonathan.  Above is all different kinds of dried shrimp.

The Raffles Hotel is where the Singapore Sling was first created.  It’s kind of like a cosmo?  I didn’t like it, but I don’t like syrupy cocktails.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember the names of most of these places anymore.  Jasmin showed us SO many things!

A true ice cream sandwich!!

Left is the Singapore Opera House, aka The Durian.  Right is me spitting because my mint & chip ice cream taste like durian.  I think because the ice cream cart stores all of it’s ice cream together, the durian taste seeped into my mint chip ice cream.  not a good mix.  …and the “spit” is actually a statue/fountain of the Singapore mascot.

What I miss most about Singapore is the food, especially these refreshing desserts!  I was really craving one today since it was 104 degrees in LA!

Left is Chendo.  Shaved ice with brown sugar and some other stuff I don’t know/remember.  Right is shaved ice with aloe vera and other stuff I also don’t remember.  I love those little limes though!  The flavor is so refreshing on the shaved ice.

Then for dinner, we met up with Jasmin’s husband at a Hawker center.  The seafood in Singapore is phenomenal!

Left:  Chicken wings.  The flavor is so good!

Right:  Satay skewers.  Yum!!

Above:  Stingray!

And this last dish is our favorite dish from Singapore so far.  Salt Steamed Crab.  Booth #24, I think.

Thank you Jasmin for such a great tour!!  I look forward to seeing you two in 3 weeks!!!