This Is Not Singapore

This is not the best of Singapore, but its the best I could do. In December we spent almost two weeks driving through New Zealand, then left behind our lovely RV and headed to Singapore.

It was Christmas Eve.

We wore our Santa hats on the plane. We checked into a lovely hotel close to Orchard Road and prepared our stockings for Santa.

I wish I had better pictures to share, but we had to switch gears and enjoy modern spectacles and man-made wonders after two weeks of majestic and unspoilt nature. The city was so dazzling, clean, and uncrowded I didn't know where to look. The Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the Garden on the Bay, the "Merlion!"

The Universal Studios amusement park.

The boys rode terrifying rides (with some reassurance from us at first) and then asked for more. We went to EVERY show. Philip even volunteered to stand in front of a hundred or so people and chat with Donkey at the comedy show. Nate followed immediately behind, and Donkey exclaimed "I thought I was seeing double!"

We spent an entire day roaming the botanical gardens, where we visited the Orchid Garden and finlly stumbled our way onto the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden. I SO wish Bangkok had a place like this. There was a playground, a maze, a sensory garden, treehouse, exhibits and more. It reminded me of the Heritage Gardens we used to frequent back on Cape Cod.

Our time in Singapore was brief, but so eye opening. And it would be so different from the places we are sent to live someday: the wealth was so apparent that the boys could count the high-end sports cars racing by them every minute. But my favorite trait of Singapore was the amount of green space within the city. It was a city for walking and roaming on foot, for lunching on the grass and stopping to smell the flowers. I would absolutely love an assignment here someday.

But our adventures weren't over yet. One more stop before landing back in Bangkok:

Bali