Short time in Singapore

Singapore Album

We knew that Singapore was suppose to be a major metropolis but arriving from the thai tropics was a small culture shock. It was incredible how close the city resembled any average American center city. Our first few hours in Singapore were spent dealing with the most inept cab driver I have ever met. We showed him the address of the hostel we would be staying in and he nodded in a manner that gave us the notion that we had nothing to worry about and because of past asian cab driver experiences we were a little hesitant about just hoping in any ol’ cab. Well after 40 minutes of driving what was suppose to be a 20 minute drive we realized this driver was an idiot. After stopping and asking another driver and even a pedestrian for directions Kristine and I decided to take action and use what information we had gathered about our hostel and guide this jerk. We finally arrived at our hostel after yelling directions at him and after telling him the fare that read on the meter wasn’t even close to what we would pay, we got our bags and said goodbye to Stupid. (This flight was our latest, so after the cab ride we were dropped off on the door step of our hostel at about 2am. So that’s the reason for all the name calling, just in case you were wondering.)

The next few days we explored the major attraction of Singapore: Sentosa Island. The park was set up a lot like Bush Gardens, with an

aquarium, beach and walkways lined with gardens. After heading over to the aquarium and hand feeding the sea turtles we booked two dives, one with the sharks and one with a dugong. Singapore is one of the only places in the world you have the opportunity to dive with a dugong, which is affectionately know as the “sea cow”. Gracie, as they called her, was friendly and very easy to feed, she ate right out of your hand and had a nose that felt just like a cow would if you feed it grass. The only difference was Gracie didn’t have any teeth so if she took a big bite it just felt strange. The sharks were black and white reef tip sharks and leopard sharks. We only petted the reef tip sharks but we actually got to hold the leopard sharks. They were passive enough that you could grab them by the tail as they swam by and pull them back to you holding them like you would a big dog, without legs. We also got to feed the eagle rays. There was a small amount of trickery involved as not to create a small amount of chaos. The eagle rays enjoyed there food and would swarm to feed so they have you hide the food until the rays are within arms reach and then you pretty much stuff the food into their mouths. We didn’t dive very deep and it was in an aquarium but all in all we enjoyed the interaction with the sharks and Gracie.

There was one last very interesting thing that Singapore had to offer. Their strict legal system. They had signs posted for outrageous fines for spitting, jaywalking and death to drug trafficers. I guess it works because we felt safe everywhere we went and the city was spotless.