Singapore day 1

We slept in til about 8:30, then had a delicious breakfast of pancakes (from USA) and bacon with milk (from Australia) and juice (from Malaysia). Almost everything in Singapore is imported because there is no room to farm on this little island. The main industries are tourism, shipping, IT, and finance. (anything that doesn’t require too much real estate!)

 

 

Mom gave us an orientation to the house. They rent a 4^th floor 3-bedroom apartment slightly larger than ours at home that would cost just over $1million to purchase! We had to know how to get in and out with elevators and levers and fobs to allow entrance and exit. She also shared some of the behaviors we’d need to modify to be polite here. It is impolite to show your mouth open, and to wear your backpack or talk or touch anyone on the MRT (though it’s crazy crowded!).

Grandpa took the kids swimming, then we had a quick lunch before we biked to the beach! We all have rented bikes and we rode them just south to the local beach. By the time we got there it had just started raining, so we sought shelter to wait out the storm.

It really is pouring behind us in this pic.
All along the beach, people were gathered in the various shelters just hanging out til the downpour was done. About 30 minutes later, the rain lightened and we continued our ride. On the way home, we located a restaurant to have dinner. We ordered drinks separately with choices of “lemon, chestnut, or barley” (we think, there was a strong Chinese accent going on). All the kids and men got lemon, which was a lemon-lime-ade but with a sweet and sour taste. Mom got “chestnut” which we never really identified the flavor of. I got “barley” which was actually just like horchata. Grandpa & Scott ordered for us by pictures and with a language barrier. The only thing we knew for sure was that one dish would be chicken. We ended up being able to identify (we think), chicken, pork, tofu, mince meat, prawns, noodles, “greens” (some vegetable), green beans and a familiar white rice. It was yummy and almost everyone was happy to eat and enjoyed the food. Sy did eat, but was hesitant to try new things. We kept telling him it was panda express (though it was not much like that at all). Everyone left with a full belly.

On the way home, it was dark, so we put lights on our bikes. There was significantly more traffic than when we left in the middle of the afternoon. Between the dark, the cars driving on the “wrong” side of the road, the wet, and cars not watching for cyclists, it was a bit of a dangerous ride. In fact, Kik hit a slick spot and bruised his tailbone. Then, 5 minutes later, he was almost hit by a car which was turning left – which he didn’t see coming from the “wrong” side. Thankfully, the driver saw him soon enough to slam on her brakes and stop about a foot from him. Then, 5minutes later, dear Sy hit a slick spot in the parking garage where we park the bikes and landed hard on his tailbone just before getting off. Ouch! I learned we need to pray before mounting these bikes. It was a super fun first day. Can’t wait to see what comes next!