Singapore day 3

Today was a rainy day. We woke knowing we planned to do a bike ride whenever it wasn’t raining, but then checked the weather to see that there was rain forecasted all day long. So we had a leisurely breakfast, played in the pool for a bit in the rain, then got ready to head out. Our pool play was a big game of get all the balls on the other team’s side: Jo & Mom vs. Ky, Sy, and Grandma. The littles won several times, but I must say that they had the high pool and Jo & I were below, so we had a much more difficult job!

I'm swimming in the rain, just swimming in the rain! What a glorious feeling...

We headed out by bike to the MRT and went just one station over. When we exited the train, it deposited us straight into… the mall! (#5)

This is just like at home... the children's play area of the 21st century! Enter store with mommy... mommy shops, kids play...with electronics while daddy and mommy got SIM cards so we can use our phones about. We had lunch at Pizza Hut. The sauce tasted surprisingly similar to home. 2 large pizzas and 8 drinks cost $85 – which is actually a good deal for a restaurant that’s not just a take-out stall.

After lunch, we visited the Lego store, then caught the shuttle bus over to another shopping area

to visit 3 big box stores: Giant (like a giant Walmart), Courts (like a giant Best Buy), and Ikea (like Ikea).

We had dinner at Ikea, but the menu choices were different. There was also a separate line for halal foods and a prayer room in the hallway with the phones, changing room, and restrooms. The little mock-houses at Ikea were totally catered to the homes here and items shown being used one way in the US are shown being used in different, more useful ways here. In the US, you just have to see what they fit in a 500sq.ft. home and imagine how that could apply to your house. But in Singapore, 80% of the population lives in HDB housing, so Ikea can use their exact floorplan to show what their house could look like – no need to imagine where you could use their ideas in your home – it is your home they’ve mocked up. Interesting…

We had quite an experience grocery shopping and then based on our purchases decided a taxi was in order because we had too much to manage a shuttle to the MRT to bicycles. Thankfully, we’d only taken 5 bikes to the MRT this morning, so 3 of us rode home in the taxi with the groceries and the others rode public transport and returned by bike.

 

I remember when we moved to Cypress, we had to add 10minutes to every drive because it took that long just to get to the freeway which in my mind was before the drive even started. Living with bikes and public transport would definitely take some getting used to and learning to gauge time (and adding time in case we missed a bus or something). But living in Singapore almost requires this because to purchase a car is a minimum of $250,000 and you have to bid for a lottery to even have the option.

We are so enjoying learning so many interesting things about the world outside our “normal”.