Reflecting on Singapore Part One

  We did several unique things in Singapore that are worth mentioning.  The first was a Night Safari.  It's incredible visiting a zoo in the dark.  Everything was lit as if it was a full moon and your eyes adjusted accordingly.  All the animals that are usually sleeping during the day are wide awake at night. 

  Universal Studios Singapore is a regular amusement park although only open since March of 2010.  The regular amusement park stuff to do.  The rides provided were fun although lines were incredible.  Not bad for one days worth of fun.  We were glad to get the advice to buy tickets in advance because they sold out before we got there.  From the amount of people that were there I believe it.

  Christmas Day proved to be a wet day.  We spent the majority of the day indoors playing a board game we discovered years ago called Catan.  If you don't know about it I would highly recommend looking into it.  Catan has provided a great time for everyone and we have all won at least one round.

  Christmas Night we spent walking around Orchard Road and taking in all the lights and sounds.  There were so many decorations it was beautiful.  There was caroling and dancing all around and several concerts.  It was truly a unique way to spend Christmas Day with thousands (yes, thousands) of others but fun nonetheless.  As only a tropical setting can provide, it poured on us on the way back to the hotel!  Somehow we all ended up laughing about it.

  The day after Christmas we decided to head for the harbor.  At the harbor we visited several sites including the landing area where Sir Raffles is believed to have landed in Singapore.   We found the Raffles Hotel and had a "Singapore Sling" at the Long Bar.  The Merlion statue that greets visitors of the harbor was also in the area.  The Merlion is the mascot of Singapore and is the head of a lion (derived from Singapores original name lion city) and the body of a fish (representing Singapores history as a fishing village). 

Jason strikes the same pose as Sir Raffles.

Merlion statue in the harbor.

Lisa and kids in front of Merlion statue.

    Galen spotted a floating soccer field.  We couldn't decipher which teams play there or why it was there, but we all agreed it was kind of a neat concept to play soccer over the water.

Galen in front of floating soccer field.

  David's big discovery is side-walk surfing!  The tropical climate means that it usually rains once a day making sidewalks perfect for this sport.  Building up some speed and then sliding to the end point.  I did try this a few times and it indeed proved to be some fun.  David was the expert by the time we left.

David sidewalk surfing!

Stay tuned for Reflecting on Singapore Part Two