Visiting Hannah and Greg, part 1: Singapore

Just after midnight on Oct. 5th we boarded a plane and took off to visit our friends Hannah and Greg in Singapore. We've been looking forward to this trip for about a year for two reasons, 1) We've never been to Asia and know very little about that part of the world; and 2) since they moved there we rarely get to see Hannah and Greg whom we love.

Placed there by/for Greg's job, they've been in the city/country for two years now.

Our trip lasted about 30 hours, and after arriving at 11pm local time, we were spent. But after getting into their apartment, Heather and Hannah had lots of catching up to do. Meanwhile, Greg showed me his favorite new video game. On his XBox 360, we started playing the Zombie killer mode on Call of Duty Black Ops. Hours later, at around 4am, we finally went to bed. The Zombies mode is addicting. You start out in a house, a few zombies come after you hungry for your flesh, you kill them, the next stage begins, a few more zombies come only to taste a second death dealt by Nathan and Greg. More zombies come each time and they get stronger. What can I say? I'm a sucker for zombie killing!

View from their apt on 26th floor 

After some much needed sleep, the next day we headed out to see some of the city. Our first stop was Arab street. Full of people and a big Mosque, Arab street provided us lunch at a quaint little Moroccan restaurant.

Busy street, not that many Arabs

Beautiful girls in front of a Singaporean Mosque 

Next we took a cab to China town and toured a Buddhist Temple.

You might say, Heather and Hannah look...Buddhacious! 

Heather and Hannah had to wear wraps around their legs so they didn't offend anyone with their hotness. 

In the end, Heather chose a green one

There were all kinds of rooms with information about Buddhist history, tradition, faith system and culture. There were sacred spaces and  Buddha statues all over, history or tradition was attached to everything we saw. It was really quite awe inspiring at times.

Top floor of the temple had an awesome garden

At one point, we were in what I call the holy of holies, a room with a sectioned off area where we couldn't go. In even the outer room, no pictures were allowed. It was like the shrine part or something. I'm really not sure, because as I was sitting in awe and reverence of this sacred Buddhist space, contemplating the Divine as Buddhists experience it, I started chuckling uncontrollably. Because, once I started thinking of it I couldn't stop. Like a little kid I was cracking up in the holy place. Very irreverent for this reverend. All I could picture were a bunch of flesh addict zombies tearing about the corner coming after us! And me having to thunder gun them all. That's the last time Greg keeps me up late playing zombies.

Hannah and I standing next to the main worship area

Outside the temple, we treated ourselves to an ice cream sandwich. Not like what you'd expect in the old US of A, this was a slab of ice cream and a regular piece of bread. Actually, it was weird rainbow flavored bread, but it was regular sliced bread. It was a little strange but still enjoyable.

To insure we'd be able to walk the next day, we called it quits and headed back to the apartment to learn how to play Settlers of Catan. I won!

We went out to the American Club to eat dinner, and as soon as we got back, jet lag set in. Heather and I went into our room just to put stuff down and take off shoes, etc., but ended up crashing hard and didn't move till the next morning. The 16-hour time difference was taking us down for the count.

Day 2 in Singapore:

After much needed sleep and a morning full of zombie slaying with Greg we ventured out to a place called Newton's in search of lunch. It's like an outdoor food mall. Dozen's of little food places lined the walls with all kinds of people jockeying to get us to eat from their establishment.

One of the strips at Newton's

 Luckily, Greg and Hannah knew what to do, because only on our second day, we were still a bit lost.

Our hosts

We ordered drinks from one place and food from another. Greg ordered an assortment of all kinds of delicious yummies. Luckily on the prawns they saw the potential tourist price scam coming before too late.

Our spread of food

One of the highlights of this trip was eating. Sometimes it was as if we went on an eating trip we gave so much attention to the authentic Asian cuisine. (In best Homer voice) Mmmmm.....nathan love Chinese fooood....

I believe we're both having some Mi Goreng in this pic

That afternoon consisted of some more slaying of zombies and another game of Settlers, in which I think Heather took first.  For dinner, it was kabobs grilled out by the pool.

At the pool side grill

Again, jet lag didn't let us stay up very late this evening either; however, none of us wanted to since we had to board a plane the next morning bound for Bali, Indonesia.

Pool area at night

Check back for pics of Bali, biking, snorkeling and Nathan catching his first wave on a surf board!

Soaking the dogs