Singapore

After a day spent madly packing, Stephen dropped me off at the Christchurch airport and put me on my way. Off to Singapore.

30 minutes waiting in the airport.

11 hours on a plane.

And I landed in Singapore. The airport is absolutely filled with plants. Palm trees, shrubs, orchids, they even have a butterfly room, which is an indoor conservatory filled with butterflies. But I had no time for these things, I was anxious to see if my family were meeting me at the gate or not (something I had failed to establish pre-departure).

They were there. Everyone was there in fact. John, James, Jeff and Lay See swept me up and welcomed me to Singapore. We wandered down the airport (apparently local Singaporeans come to the airport often for meals as the airport restaurants are really good) and off to the car. As soon as I stepped out of the building I was struck by the solid mass of hot, humid air. But thankfully the car was air conditioned. This was certainly something I would have to get used to.

We drove between palm lined lanes, weaving in amongst ribbons of cement heading off in a thousand different directions. Amazingly, for a country/city so developed there is an astonishing amount of greenery. Between staring out the window and being talked at a million miles a minute by the two boys, we somehow made it to their apartment in the Tampines (pronounced Tamp-innies). And I was straight into the swimming pool. Lay See made some dinner with Tessie, their maid and the boys and Jeff and I went swimming. Dinner was traditional Chinese plates with rice. So yummy. And before I was allowed to fall into bed I had to play some Wii with both John and James. I felt so welcome here, it was wonderful.

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The next day I went out for breakfast with Jeff and Lay See after dropping John off for his Malaysian school trip this week. We went to a market nearby Lay See's school (and her mother's place). I was sweating just sitting at the table and this was at 6am. I was a little leery as to how well I would adapt to all this heat and humidity.

After breakfast it was back home and Jeff went off to work. I had no idea what I would do. So I looked at a map and decided I should try going down town using the bus and MRT systems. Tessie gave me some tips and I went on my way. It was amazingly easy to use and soon I was downtown in amongst the sky high buildings and sticky air of Singapore.