Tired but curious so we headed out to explore.

We are still a tired crew dealing with the jet lag.  At this point we are waking up between 4 and 5am and want to take long naps around 3pm.  That is when it really hits us that we are tired.  The kids have done really well but we have slipped and ended up taking 5 hour naps.  Not good when you are trying to get your body to adjust to the 14 hour time difference.  Anyway, we were still able to get out and explore our new home a little each day.  Here are some pictures of what we have been up to.

New Years Eve was our second day here and we just swam at the pool before taking the kids to try out a Hawker's Centre for the first time.  These are open air food courts where you get more local food that is usually cheap and very good.  There are a ton of stalls you can order from and they will bring the food to your table.  We went to the one in Newton that is well known for their seafood.  The kids loved the food we tried but they were tired and this place was crazy busy so it was a little rough.

Happy New Year!  Man, we look tired!

Day 3 was our first real outing and we chose to go to the Botanical Gardens which is beautiful and huge.  It seems like it is a more of a place people like to go and walk their dogs or just hang out for the day with their family and friends.  We have only seen a small section that included the children's garden so we will definitely be heading back.

Small lake we came upon with turtles and lots of ducks.

 

Mason thought it was cool he could almost reach out and touch these turtles that were looking for food.  Of course he scared them away in true boy fashion.

 

Cool path through some banana trees.

 

Haley thought these "fuzzy" flowers were cool.

 

Wish you could see how huge these lily pads actually are.  Atleast 3 feet in diameter.

 

Silly girls with the Calabash fruit tree.  These are mainly used to make musical instruments out of.

 

Day 4 we decided we should probably setup our bank account so Chris can get paid.  Yep, very important.  We headed down to a branch in Marina Bay where the Singapore flyer is as well as the Merlion and of course more shopping.  We weren't sure how it would go but it was pretty quick.  I got to check out some other families.  Apparently one did well at the casino as he was passing out $1000 bills.  He had atleast 30 or 40.  Maybe I should have tried to pretend I was one of his family members and stuck my hand out.  Ha!  Anyway, here are some pics from this day.

 







Standing outside of the shopping center looking into the bay.

 

The Merlion fountain

 

Silly kids!  You stand in a pod that is like a small room with some benches.  It takes approximately 32 minutes to go around once and they kick you off.  Nice views of the city and ocean.

 

All the ships waiting to come in and unload their goods.  There are a ton everywhere.

 

Another botanical garden call Garden by the Bay.  Those tree like strucktures are somewhat high up and one of them has a restuarant on top.

 

Another view of the Merlion

 

Of course there was a trampoline place there.  Mason had a great time.

 

Haley looks like a frog with her legs constantly up.  Ha!



 



After two pretty busy days with a lot of walking we thought we should take it easy so on Day 5 we decided to try out the fish spa.  I had heard of it and was very curious to try it out.  When you get there they wash your feet and then head you in to benches that have 3 different tanks in front of them.  One has small fish that are about an inch long, then the next were medium fish that were 2-3 inches long and then the big fish that seemed huge at 4-5 inches.  A couple were fat ones that you really could feel grabbing on.  At first it tickled a lot but eventually you got used to it and it was kinda like a small vibration that relaxed you.  Mason was not going to try it at all but Haley thought it was a lot of fun.  She even tried out the big ones!  We did this for about 30 minutes.

Going for it and putting our feet in the first tank of small fish.

 

They liked Haley's feet.

 

Mason watching as the medium fish chomped on Haley's feet.

 

I prefered the big ones.

 

Chris liked the medium ones.

 

After feeling refreshed we headed down the Chinatown. 

 

You can see the Hindu temple in this pic.

 

Mason and the souvenir he just had to have.  He saw it when we first hit the street and didn't realize he wanted it until we were blocks away.  Of course we had to go all the way back to get it.  Spoiled punk!!!

 

The kids and their henna tattoos.

 

Inside a gorgeous Bhuddist temple that supposedly has a tooth from Bhudda.  It was not viewable.

 



On our way back to our apartment Mason found this huge snail and like any boy he thought it was very cool.  Yes, we have to look for it every time we walk by.  ;)

 

Day 6 we decided to try out a local beach.  Sentosa beach has three different beach areas so we decided to go for Palawan beach since it was more for familys.  It was nice but not what I look for in a beach.  The water is murky and there are few waves.  I really didn't care to look out at all the ships so not my idea of a great view.  It was good to check out but I think we will explore some better beaches in Indonesia and Malaysia.  Mason did make a friend for the day so that was good.  There are also beach clubs and a small water park like place there so maybe we will go back.

 

There is a suspension bridge that you can walk across to get to the viewing areas but the kids were too worn out to go.  Maybe next time???

 

 

So far we have had a great time exploring and then of course hitting the pool at the apartment.  The weather has been pretty nice but when the sun is out it is HOT!  This is the cooler time of year due to monsoon season so I am a little scared of how hot it will be.  The humidity hasn't been too bad though either. 

 

Until next time.....