Singapore

Sunday (Aug. 14) there was no need for an alarm. I had been up most of the night, running around for last minute packing. Plus the anxiety and excitement did not allow for too restful of sleep.   After a tearful goodbyes Paige, Ashley, and I boarded the plane for the great unknown.  Our 14-hour flight was thankfully uneventful.   Then after 2 hours in Tokyo we hopped on a 7-hour ride to Singapore.   We landed around 11:30pm, and soon found ourselves wandering around with all of our luggage on carts looking for the Pastor who was supposed to pick us up.   We called, no answer.  We called again, no answer. We began to get a little nervous.  We called again, no answer.  By now we were starting to brainstorm other options of getting to our place of stay.  Finally, we got in touch with him through Facebook and his lovely wife came in and greeted us with a smile.

            Originally, we were told that we would sleep on mattresses on the church’s floor.  But last Sabbath, Cynthia (a local church member) came up and offered her extra room.   So we have been blessed to stay in her home, and visit with her and her family. 

Tuesday, Aug 16, 2016:  

The entire purpose of staying in Singapore for several days was because we had to acquire a visa for Indonesia.  So we got up early that morning to go to the Expeditor.  Auntie Cynthia gave us a map, and showed us the way to the near by MRT/subway station.  Off we went to conquer this new way of transportation (new for me).  We had to make a transfer to another train and we pulled out our map double checking where we needed to go.  A man turned around and asked where we were going, and simply said, “follow me,” as the crowd poured out of the train.  So we eagerly rushed after him.  He asked us a few simple questions, pointed at the correct train.  We thanked him and jumped aboard. Eventually, we found the Expeditor’s office and nervously handed over all of our documents.   Again, we found ourselves on the street corner twisting and turning our map.    Another gentleman walked up and asked if we needed help.  He graciously showed us the easiest way and gave us advice on what to see before we left.

            After several more trains we came to the famous Gardens by the Bay.  They have 2 massive domes.  The Flower Dome was filled with beautiful flowers and plants from all around the world.  They had everything from small succulents and flowers the size of my pinky nail to massive olive trees, cacti, and date palms.  It’s hard to put into words the immense beauty and the vivid colors that surrounded you.  It was almost overloading to the senses all the bright colors, and lovely smells.  Perhaps that is what the Garden of Eden was like.  

            By about 2pm, we left the refreshing dome and went to another part of town for some local food.  There were about 48 different tiny food stalls all smashed together on what looked like an abandon parking garage.  (I promise it was not as sketchy as it may sound and none of us got sick!)  We found an Indian stall and ordered some amazing food!!

            After eating, we walked through Chinatown and caught a train to the Expeditor’s office to see if the Visa process was complete. Praise God it was!  We were met on the street by his courier who handed us our passports with the appropriate visa’s inside. 

We left his office and scurried over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  At the top of this particular hotel, there’s what looks like a massive cruise ship, which has an observation deck.  This Hotel is also famous for having one of the largest infinity pools that overlooks the Singapore skyline.  The view from up there was phenomenal!!  We could see almost all of Downtown Singapore, from the massive cargo ships anchored out at sea and the tiny sailboats cruising the bay, to the Merlion and the capitol building.  We sat up there for quite a while watching the sun sink lower and lower.   Eventually, we all began to feel extremely tired and I even started nodding off.   But our day was not done yet, so we exited the hotel and made our way back to the Gardens.  We visited the Cloud Forest dome, which had a 50 or 60-foot waterfall on a mountain of plants and flowers.  By the time we left the Gardens by the Bay it was completely dark out. However, as we walked to the train station we never felt nervous or as if we had put ourselves in a dangerous situation. 

            We finally made it home all exhausted, but come to find out Auntie Cynthia had texted us an hour before saying she was not home to let us in.  And of course as soon as we read the message the phone died. We now had no way of contacting our host family.   We tried the door to see if by chance anyone was home to buzz us in but didn’t get a response. So we sat down on some benches near the front door.  As I sat there I would suddenly feel my head drop and would jerk myself awake.  Over and over this happened, until I finally laid my head in my hands and slept with odd dreams of what we had done that day.  I wish I could say this was the strangest place I’ve slept but I’ve fallen asleep in some weird places.  Just when I was about to give in completely to my exhaustion and totally lay on the sidewalk, Ashley tried the door one more time and it worked!!  We then promptly learned that we had originally mistyped the code, and unnecessarily spent a good amount of time sleeping on benches.  But it’s a memory that will make us laugh!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016:

            After such a long and exhausting day on Tuesday, we slept in a little that morning.  We decided that we wanted to see the National History Museum, and we were not disappointed!  We had lunch as a food court, and then walked over to the Raffles Hotel.  Such a gorgeous building!  It was interesting to try and imagine what this grand hotel looked like in it’s hay-day.

            We then made our way over to the iconic Merlion.  It was refreshing to sit in the mist of the fountain and look out over the harbor.  We sat and talked until we decided we wanted to run over to the Fountain of Wealth.  It was only fitting that we saw 2 Lamborghini’s, several Porsche’s (a multitude of other nice cars), and everyone dressed to the nines.  Personally, I think the Merlion is a prettier fountain but I’m glad we made time to see the other.

            We bustled back home and our host family graciously took us to diner at an authentic Thai restaurant.   The food was so good, and us girls tried durian sauce for the first time.  I don’t think I will need to try it again.

Thursday, August 18, 2016:

            It is now Thursday morning; today we are scheduled to leave lovely Singapore around 5:30pm (Singapore time) and meet up with the Boyd family.  They are the Pastor’s family that will basically be our host family while in West Papua. But before we leave we are going to cram as much in this morning as we can.  The plan is to get over to Sentosa Island for a few hours and just enjoy the beaches, or whatever there is to see on the island.  

I’ll try to be more faithful about posting pictures and blogging, but I hope you enjoyed reading this as much I have living it!!