Botanical Gardens

In the heart of Singapore are the Botanical Gardens. While they are not at the level of Buschard Gardens, in Victoria, BC, they are absolutely beautiful. Because the climate is so hot and humid, it is the perfect place to grow orchids-and grow orchids, they do! I think they are touted as having the largest public display of orchids.

As we walk through the gardens we were drenched in perspiration!

I do OK growing orchids at home, but once they stop blooming, I throw them out because I forget to water them over they year and they dry up. I really am better with silk plants. My sisters are both better with the green thumb thing and my dad was a natural gardener. He always had orchids, cactus, and bulb flowers blooming. Guess I missed out on the gardening chip just like the directional chip when God was handing out "talent chips."

Singapore- A City of Contrasts

Singapore is a city of contrasts. It is as modern and cosmopolitan as cities such as NYC or LA. High-rises create a beautiful skyline. Technology is everywhere. In the downtown area traffic is constant, loud, and very efficient. People are everywhere and dressed fashionably. High-end hotels drip with elegance. Cost of a meal is outrageous!

Then there is the real world. The working folks. There is no unemployment in Singapore. The government subsidizes much of the housing. Everyone works or they don't eat.  There is some sort of job for everyone. There is no welfare of any kind nor any shelters for homeless. There are drug rehab centers, but it isn't a big problem.

There are many of these outside eateries and shopping marts, each crammed with tourists looking for deals. Not many deals are found in Singapore, however. It is very expensive here. You can see the typical Asian style architecture in the foreground and in the back you can see a high-rise. This is still in a fairly well-to-do area just outside of the downtown area.

Farther away from the city, you see the poorer side of Singapore and yet, everyone is working, doing something. This is a typical street market - we saw no evidence of what we would call a supermarket. Everyone is by fresh fruits or vegetables or perhaps dried fish.

Check out the electrical wiring! Wires strung everywhere. It looked so unsafe and seemed to have no rhyme or reason.

The pictures were taken from a bus as we rode a Hop-on Hop-off bus one morning to get our bearings as we toured the city for 3 days before the cruise started. We used one of these busses in Bergan, Norway and Bath, England two years ago and they are the way to go if you want to get familiar with an area and then go back to see specific things. It is like $17 for 24 hours and for us we got two days out it since we started late the first morning.

Travel and the iPad

I recently got a new iPad2, giving Dan my original iPad. The purpose of this was so that we could get the G3 model and take it when we travel rather than lugging the laptop. This was the inauguration trip and I learned a few things that will help with future travel.

1. It is super light weight and you don't have to pull it out in the airport security line.
2. It is great to turn the G3 on for 30 days/2GB at a time and you can disable it every time you are around free WiFi, thus saving on the data. Otherwise you leave it in the WiFi mode and it's free.
3. We set up a special email account so we only had to check a few emails, thus cutting down on time that the cruise ship charged
4. Great way to back up pictures
5. Games are fun on a bigger screen than the phone
6. Reading books 

The negative I have learned is that the blogger program in the newer interactive version isn't supported by the iPad device, so I didn't think the message I wrote worked at all. Now I know it does. It just won't do pictures or an interactive things. I will have to go in an insert pictures at a later time.

NowI will be ready for the next adventure...which will be sooner than you think! We are taking an extended family get-away vacation to the river in Bull Head City and then to the Grand Canyon the end of March! Just a 5 day excursion with Margey, Tom, Beth, Heidi, Jay, me, and Dan and hopefully Joey. What a hoot.

So between now and then I will share highlights of the Far East.

Water Retention

Long air plane rides suck if you retain water. Seriously, if your ankles become kankles after 5 hours in the air, just imagine what they are like after 17 hours!! I wanted to be able to walk once we got to Singapore, so I took some advice from a very smart cookie (my sister) and invested in some serious support stockings. Not those knee sock things...I mean SERIOUS stockings. These things are THICK and go all the way up your thigh. They are by Jobst and they are WONDERFUL. You can get them in different thicknesses and I got the mild. They worked well, but the medium thickness might have been even better considering how much I swell. The first leg of the trip I did swell as we went to Hong Kong then on the Singapore. The return trip was Hong Kong direct and only 12 hours and I had minimal to no swelling.

I asked my Dr. what he thought about the knee high vs. the thigh high stockings and he suggested the higher ones. Well, he was right, my sister was right, so now I am passing along the tip. Invest in the support stockings with toes and you will get off the plane with ankles that flex and move and mostly water free.

Now that I know this, I hope we will continue to travel so I can get my money back from the $50 investment. Actually, it is was worth it for just this trip.

Singapore

Wow! Our group of 8 landed yesterday in Singapore and we hit the ground running. With Chinese New Year just ending, much of the city is still decorated in red, gold, and pink. We have seen several dragons, lots of tangerine trees, and golden Buddah statues. I cannot add pictures right now, but I will once I get home, so be patient please and check back in a month for updated postings. The city, like most cities, is a mix of cultures and new and old settlements. The climate is much like Hawaii in August but even muggier. It is full of skyscrapers and is a shopping Mecca. It is extremely clean and lush with trees and flowers. I have found nothing to buy as it is just too overwhelming and a statue of Buddah doesn't really excite me. There is every kind of Asian food available here in giant food malls or courts. Nothing like what we have in the US. For lunch today we had great sushi. So far the food has been good. We've done lots of walking and bus riding on the Hop on Hop off buses. Those buses are a great bargain and fantastic way to get your bearings and a sense of what to see more of. Tomorrow we may have a lot of rain, but we are planning to go to a botanical garden anyway. My ankles are still really swollen from the 18 hour plane ride and all this humidity. It makes walking hard, but I keep thinking that the more I walk the better the circulation and the sooner it will be gone. All the ladies on our trip seem to have the same issue. What is with these men? Dan still has those skinny stick legs and ankles! Posting may be very off and on, but I will do my best.

Man Shopping

I like shopping with Dan about as much as going to the dentist-I pretty much hate it!
Why? He goes to one store and tries on stuff then heads for another store to see if he can get it cheaper or if there are other choices. This goes on for several stops. Actually, it could go on for days. I pretty much have said "No" to any other clothes shopping trips with him.

So, now we find ourselves preparing for another trip (Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, & Hong Kong) and of course, it is to a place where we need a few new items. We have to be all covered because of the mosquitoes/malaria/Japanese Encephalitis.  I have my stuff already purchased, washed and folded ready to be packed. Dan just doesn't seem to have time to shop. Work, work, work. Well, we are running out of time and so I managed to get him to the local REI camping store for what I hoped would be one stop shopping.

And it was! We were in and out of the store in under an hour with a belt, 3 pairs of lightweight Columbia pants, 3 long sleeve Columbia shirts, and one short sleeve shirt... AMAZING.

Tonight we ran to the mall because the Walking Company was having a big sale and sure enough within 30 minutes he had selected and ordered a pair of Ecco walking shoes (because they were out in his size) to be delivered in a week or so. We leave in two weeks so there isn't much room for delays. They will replace his everyday work shoes that are just falling apart. We'll break them in on the trip.

Of course, I just had to pick up a pair of Clark's too. They were on sale 30% off! We will be doing a ton of walking, so I am excited to have these shoes and my trail shoes for bigger hikes.

My hope is that while we are in Singapore and Hong Kong (where I plan to do a lot of trinket shopping), Dan will keep this new attitude of swift decision making in mind. Of course, if he wants to go along and be my "pack mule" I could load his arms with packages...Now if he would just give me his credit card!!

Out of Gas

Really! We ran out of gas while driving him last night!!

I have never had this happen and I am glad it was Dan's car and Dan driving and I had no decisions to make. He was so calm, other than "How could I have missed that one." So we glided over into a convenient empty parking spot on Mission Blvd. (do you know how rare one of those is?). Then we walked the three blocks home, got my car and went for gas.

Did you know they don't give "loaner gas cans" any more? Well they don't. Actually, I never knew they did, because this activity does not fall under the "Princess Life." We got the gas, drove back to the car, and I watched Dan pour in the smelly gas. Then I drove away. Very strenuous work on my part, don't you think!

So now I know what to do if I ever run out of gas. I am glad that my car incessantly rings a bell to tell you you are out of gas and tells you how many miles you still have left before this ghastly event will happen.