Things started on the 7th, when I woke up and finished packing. I headed down to Yokohama for a quick McDonald's lunch before grabbing the bus to Narita. I crashed for a bit on the bus and woke up about halfway through. It's pretty different to look at the the way there during the day... it definitely wasn't as desolate as it was when I first got to Japan (stupid rainy weather). At Narita, I was definitely surprised at how fast they just scanned my passport, printed my boarding pass, and checked my luggage in. I also had a minor freak out when I realized that the airport attendants spoke much better English than I gave them credit for... lol. Anyhow, I had a few hours to kill, so I checked out the mini-mall in the Departure terminal. I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...
Well, let me explain. When I would arrive at Changi International Airport, it would be a bit past midnight. From there, Mai, Lyly, and Linh wouldn't arrive until around 4:00 PM... so I had 16 hours (about) to kill. HP7 was a guaranteed 3-4 hour time sink, so I figured it was worth the investment. I bored myself some more around Narita (I bought some of the "premium" mochi that I've seen at Queen's Isetan at Yokohama Station... the Raspberry Mille Feuille one was freaking amazing!) and then eventually boarded the plane.
On the plane, I sat next to a nice older couple visiting their son and grandchildren in Singapore. They pretty much zonked out after an hour or two, but so did I. The plane was relatively uneventful. I watched a few movies, mostly in English and was served some decent food. JAL's dining service is nice and all but ANA's is much better. The food quality is more palatable (but who am I really to complain about airplane food). We arrived at Changi maybe twenty minutes earlier than expected. Whoo.
Customs was relatively quiet, as expected for several minutes before midnight, so I zoomed through. Duty-free was closed, but I didn't really care. I exchanged a bunch of Japanese yen for Singapore dollars, and got pretty shocked at the exchange rate, but in the long run, still killer. I got my luggage from the carousel and then asked the tourism people where the best place to zone out in Changi which would be in the other terminal. I headed over, saw a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and basically killed time. I had a tea latte, practiced kanji, read Harry Potter, semi-napped (very carefully, of course), played Bejeweled... I exhausted myself in sitting around doing nothing.
Eventually, at the glorious hours of 8 and 9, I called the Hangout Hotel (and in retrospect, it is a hostel, but whatever) to see if I could drop off my luggage while I waited for Mai, Lyly, and Linh to arrive. They said yes, so I hailed a taxi and had to direct him a bit to get there (good thing I GMap'd it in advance). I dropped off the stuff and basically walked down to Orchard Road.
It's the main "shopping avenue" in Singapore, much like Fifth Avenue. It's not so bad, but getting out and onto the street was killer. The humidity was absurd and the general heat was definitely what I wasn't used to (Yokohama was freezing). I definitely hate the humidity :P
Either way, I walked all the way down to the Tanglin Mall (it's literally all the way down Orchard Road) to have Chili's. I went there because dagnabbit, I wanted Chili's and didn't want to have to inflict it on my cousins. I had lovely Chicken Crispers and a Strawberry Lemonade. It hit the freaking spot. From there, I did a bunch of window shopping, saw a Sony Ericsson Satio in person, grabbed some Starbucks, some Orange Julius (I missed that too), and just caroused around the area until it was time to head back to the Hotel to meet up with Mai, Lyly, and Linh.
When I got there, I was waiting around for a bit, and then miraculously, Mai came down (I believe to find out about the internet) and we were joyously reunited. I went up with them to the room, unpacked a bit, and b.s.'d until it was time for dinner. Mai and Lyly had to go to a mixer for the wedding guests at Boat Quay. Linh and I grabbed some Korean BBQ (焼肉) a bit down the street. It was good quality meat but dayyyuuuum was the kimchi soup too spicy. It had an amazing pudding for dessert. We met back up with Mai and Lyly, who were mostly done. Lyly hadn't eaten much so we were looking out for a place to snack before heading back in.
We stopped at Tsubaki, Kyoto Bar and Restaurant... which I found extremely ironic considering that Japanese was what I was coming from. I cringed, like you would not believe, when the hostess, a middle aged Caucasian woman, said "Konnichiwa" to me. I had to resist pointing up at the fairly late night sky and saying "No. Not 'Konnichiwa'. It's dark. 'Konbanwa'." But I didn't :D Anyhow, we sat down and had some drinks. Eventually, we were trying to figure out something sweet to drink and I asked the bartender in Japanese, and he was pretty surprised. I explained the situation and he served us deliciousness :) Afterward, we just joked a bit in Japanese, where Mai poked me and told me to tell her what I was saying.
I was pretty happy... I could actually speak Japanese outside of a Japan setting :D That definitely made my night. We finished up our drinks and went back to the Hotel. Mai and Lyly had Wen and Mark's wedding the following day and Linh and I were going to go to Wild Wild Wet, a water park.
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The following morning, we woke up late and ambled down to breakfast served by the Hotel. They had some nice eggs and toast. God! Free toast and butter. That's amazing! Either way, we finished up eating and got directions to the water park. We took the train down and then enjoyed ourselves. It was relatively uncrowded, but sorry that there are no pictures! I didn't want to drag a camera around for good reason. The best ride in the park lay at the top of a three tier stairwell or so. The ride is to be done in pairs, carrying up a double seater float (it's dang heavy, just so you know). From there, you get on and slide down one end of a V, and gravity pushes you straight back up the other side of the V, swinging down 'til you stop. It was super exhilarating. Linh and I must've done it four or five times.
Eventually, we got hungry and had some more Korean, this time a Galbi lunch set. Afterward, we grabbed some dessert and headed back to the Hotel. When we got back, Mai and Lyly had already returned. They were just killing time before they went out to the reception. Everyone took some naps.
When I got up, I wrote a note to Linh and explored the subway system a bit, just to see how different it was from Japan's. The speaker system is annoying, even more tiresome than the constant Japanese reminders. Signs everywhere are in at least two to three languages. There's no courtesy seat, and courtesy seems to be vastly lower than it is in the Japanese system of public transit. It's also sweaty, and despite being air conditioned, doesn't really help as much as it could.
I came back to the Hotel and Linh and I grabbed a short dinner. I had some BBQ Wings while Linh had a pasta. We got back and slept. Eventually Mai and Lyly came back :P
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The next morning, I woke up feeling like hell. It must've heat exhaustion or something, but my body ached. I had a severe headache, and walking was just tiring. But I carried on. I had a lot of juice and water at breakfast before we headed off to Sentosa Island for the day. All of us got on trains, followed directions and ended up on the island resort. We lay on a beach for -hours- while everyone rested, tanned, slept. I recovered a bit just laying under the umbrella.
At Sentosa, we went to the aquarium, Underwater World... and quite frankly, there were so many people there, and I was in a fairly bad mood still, that it was just annoying. Plus, after CAS and Monterey Bay, there aren't that many aquariums that awe me... even if I still like going to them. While we were there, we went and watched the dolphin and seal performance, where we met up with a bunch of the wedding party and Mai's (former?) coworkers.
We rounded ourselves up and headed out back to the hotel for a bit to rest before going to eat Chili Crab and meet up with Mark and Wen at Brewerkz. The nap at Hangout did me massive amounts of good, but I guess sleeping for most of the day did. I was energized and ready to get rolling. We went out to Clarke Quay, the opposite side of the more touristy Boat Quay (where we had eaten two nights prior), to have some Chili Crab at Jumbo. It was so so so so so good and spicy.
After that, we headed across the inlet and went over to Brewerkz to hang out with more of the wedding party. Apparently, Mark and Wen were going to do their honeymoon around Chinese New Year (to take advantage of extra days off) in Japan. I offered them friendly advice :) Man, the oatmeal stout there was also freaking amazing. After that, we walked around a bit more and ended up under this massive outdoor canopy covered shop area. We sat down at a venue called Highlander with Vinod and kicked back for a bit before heading back to the hotel.
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The next morning, we skipped the Hotel breakfast and went to the Takashimaya department store (awesome in Japan, especially their basement groceries and food markets :3) to have some dim sum. Man! It's been a long time since I had dim sum... and it was super Chinese and delicious. I had to order a bit in Chinese so they'd understand me, but it's cool. I like using my skills :D
Moving on (almost waddling), we met up with Vinod to take the Duck Tour and the Singapore Flyer (the largest wheel in the world, by the way). The Duck Tour was a pretty lame one as it covered maybe a third of Singapore. The speaker was fine, but the water part of the trip didn't do much except go by the Merlion (which is cool!).
But after that, we went on the Singapore Flyer, which was insanely cool. We were in a large cabin with a 360 view of the city and an audio guide (free!) that explained where things were as we passed by them. It was extremely informative... and would've been really cool at the beginning of the trip. Nonetheless, awesome. It didn't feel as impressive as the Minato Mirai Cosmo Clock, though. It might be because the MM21 wheel overlooks Yokohama's towers and has a view of Tokyo, where Singapore isn't as high rise just yet.
We departed the Flyer and cruised around Chinatown for a little bit before meeting back up with Candice, Mai's elegantly dressed friend. We went to Takashimaya and went around the food area there... where I sadly forgot the word for taiyaki and just called it a dang fish-yaki (which it is). Lots of nice little eats, including Leonides chocolates. Yum! We left the department store and went to a big food hawker center, where it's a bunch of street food. The chicken wings were delicious, the stingray was too spicy, and the lemon tea was thankful considering the absurd heat of Singapore, even at night. We went back to Clarke Quay afterward, making jokes and telling stories. We had a bit of dessert under the canopy area and then had drinks at Clinic. I don't have the pictures (Mai and Lyly do, I'm sure), but this bar is hospital themed. The "lounge seats" are sick beds, and the table with chairs is a table with wheel chairs. Mai and I split a drink served in an IV pack... pretty zany. It was dang cool.
We headed back home and rested before our last real day in Singapore (I studied kanji a bit... curse you squiggly characters).
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For our last day, we were going to do the Night Safari, but that was at night, so during the day, we shopped. We went to the Bugis Street Shops, which are basically a bunch of outdoor (but covered) stalls selling various quality (some good some.. questionable) goods. I bought a bunch of macarons around Singapore for me (so sue me), and we just walked along Orchard Road since Mai, Lyly, and Linh hadn't seen much of it.
We came back to the hotel to rest before the Night Safari. Before long, we got in a passenger van and went off to the Night Safari. We saw a small show with animals being surprisingly disobedient, but go figure. And then we went on the big tram ride. I think Safari West really spoiled us, because it was nice and all, but Safari West was waayyyy cooler. And also had more animals :D
After the tram we went to eat. Linh and I had lamb-burgers, which were super delicious. When we had finished eating, we went on the walking path, and Mai is a freaking wuss :) She got scared at anything moving in the darkness, but it was super fun. By the time we had managed to get through unscathed, Mai and I did the fish spa, where little tiny fish eat at the dead skin on your feet for a few minutes. Oh my god does it tickle. Mai and I couldn't stand to do it for much longer and I was just cracking up and crying of laughter by the time we were done. My feet, were however, wonderfully soft and tender afterward. We hitched a taxi back home, and got ready to fly out the next morning.
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Mai and Lyly left first at an ungodly hour in the morning, and then later at a less-but-still-ungodly hour, Linh and I took a cab back to Changi, where we had breakfast and I flew out first. The plane back, was amazingly empty. I had an aisle seat (specifically reserved), but I also had the window and the center seat. I laid out and slept, and watched movies. 引き出しの中のラブレター was amazingly sad and tender... and I got a fair amount of it :) Overall, an amazing trip with lots of good eats, new sights, and new experiences. Thanks Mai, Lyly, and Linh :)
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