Singapore? SingaRICH.

The Halloween party other night: So many people came and so many people dressed up, it was great.  There were a lot of ship costumes, as well as a lot of pun-ny costumes.  We hung out, there was karaoke, and the bar stayed open 20 minutes later than usual.  It was good times all around.  I’ll have plenty of pictures to share.

That did mean it was a late night, though, and it was an early morning alarm for me in order to get passports out to students.  We’re in another country that requires that we carry around our passport and arrival/departure card at all times.  It’s frustrating, but I understand. 

Passports went relatively quickly because nobody was going through customs on the ship – we all have to do it in the cruise ship terminal., every single time we come or go. So as soon as we were free, I left the ship with a gaggle of people to go see the Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There is a Buddhist temple in Singapore that has what many followers believe to be THE Buddha’s tooth.  We went there and went up to the viewing room.  You can’t even go inside, you can just look in, and there is a large tv nearby that is showing a live shot of the tooth.  The setup was a little ridiculous, but the decoration and craftsmanship of the temple was absolutely stunning.  We went to the roof of the temple where the world’s largest Buddhist prayer wheel is located.  We spun the prayer well and paid our respects to the 10,000 Buddhas located on the roof.  Yes, 10,000.  I counted them all.  Just kidding.

We also stopped in the “other relic” museum where apparent relics of Buddha’s brain, liver, eye, nose, etc etc are located in these little teardrop cases.  I’m a little skeptical though. 

I did learn a lot about the Buddha, including the fact that he was 29 when he left his life of excess and his family to start on the path to enlightenment.  So, at 29 years old, Siddhartha had started his journey to becoming Buddha and starting a religion, and I, on the other hand, am counting the days until I can talk on the phone again.  So, we’re kind of the same.  Maybe I should just start a religion. 

After that, our group split up.  I went with the group that walked through the market in China Town.  We all had a little sticker shock after India – things are much much MUCH more expensive here.  During our cultural preport, we learned that a Toyota Camry costs about $100,000 dollars here.  US Dollars.  And we didn’t see any Camrys – we saw Lexus, Audi, BMW, etc.  Singapore and India might be diametric opposites.

We grabbed some lunch in China Town and had a funny experience.  Josh and Keri are both vegetarians and the restaurant name was Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant.  The menu said VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT but it was filled with fish, chicken, duck, etc.  The waitress kept saying “everything is vegetarian” and we just kind of laughed.   Their pineapple fried rice arrive and there were small cubes of what we’re pretty sure was chicken throughout.  Something there is lost in translation.

We had heard there were some dragon boat races near the river and we knew the subway stop, so we decided to figure out the subway system and go see the races.   The subway system is gorgeous – it’s clean, it’s fast, it’s efficient, it’s timely, and it’s cheap.  I’m in love.   Anyway, it was pretty easy to figure out and we got to our stop only to find out we’d missed the races.  So we went back on the subway and over to Arab Street, which we had heard was cool.  It was all right – there were a lot of fabric and clothing stores there, but everybody is waiting for Vietnam for clothing, so it wasn’t that exciting.  After Arab Street, our group split again, and Holly and I walked over to Little India, which Singapore did 100% correct: all of a sudden, everything got more crowded, more dirty, and more confusing.  We were definitely back in India.  We didn’t stay long and headed up to Orchard Road, which is kind of the “Downtown shopping area.” 

This is shopping like I’ve NEVER seen before.  The malls are massive and amazing and there are miles of them.  We walked for a bit and ended up at a bar for a snack and some Tiger beer.  We totally needed a rest, and this was the perfect spot for it.  Remember how I mentioned that things are expensive here?  Yeah.  For a small pitcher of beer and some potato wedges with chili crab dip, we paid about $30 US.  Ouch.  Alcohol is taxed pretty heavily here. 

We could’ve stayed for awhile, but we had planned to meet friends at the Botanical Gardens for a Halloween outdoor showing of “Dial M for Murder.”  The Botanical Gardens were beautiful and gigantic.  We made our way to the stage and, amazingly, found our friends.  The movie was pretty good, and it didn’t rain at all.  It was a great night, weather-wise (ignoring the 89% humidity of course) and I felt like I was in a movie myself.  I had a lot of “ship moments” today, where it hits me that I am on the other side of the world.  

The movie ended and we went off to find dinner.  We had a couple friends of friends of friends with us (who actually live in Singapore) and they took us on the bus to this part of town with all the food stalls that come to your table and you order from each of them.  It took us awhillleeee to get there, which was unfortunate because we were quite hungry (it was about 10pm).  We all sat down and had some more Tiger beer, some satay with onions & cucumbers and peanut sauce, and some roti. 

It was really fun to talk with Andre and Velda, who are both college students.  And it was great having them around to help us with the food vendors. 

After dinner it was almost midnight, which meant cabs were more expensive and the terminal closed all its doors.  Holly and I had a very aggravating experience trying to get back to the ship, but the important thing is that we did get back in the end.  Obviously. 

So today I think we’re going to go to the zoo!  And on-ship time is at 1700, so we’ll set sail at 1900.  I think we’re getting an hour back tonight.  I think.