It’s fitting that the very last guests to visit Singapore before the move back to the US would be Raye’s brother Jack and sister-in-law Laurie. We had been encouraging a visit for some time and were thrilled when it finally happened! In fact, on May 2nd, the same day that we arrived back in Singapore after house hunting in California a second midnight trip was made to Changi to pick up the weary travelers.Paul took Monday off of work and we wasted no time seeing all that Singapore had to offer. Of course that included lunch at a hawker center in Chinatown. The owner of the stall where we got lunch was very proud of his food and sounded more like a gourmet chef than a hawker stall keeper. Jack and Laurie loved it and also loved lime juice which has become a universal favorite and one of the things we will miss the most!
Our tour of Chinatown included a visit to the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple and the wet market as well as mango shaved ice, the Hindu Temple and street shopping along Pagoda! Laurie scored some original water colors and was able to meet the artist!No trip to Singapore would be complete without a cruise down the Singapore River! It was a beautiful day to see the financial district, Fullerton Hotel, new integrated resort (i.e. casino), and Merlion from the water, followed by a wonderful tapas lunch along Clark Quay.
One night had to be set aside to visit the Night Safari. It’s a favorite of Raye and Paul and proved to be the same for Jack and Laurie. The bats and flying squirrels did not disappoint!Probably the favorite attraction was a stroll through the orchid garden in the Singapore Botanic Garden. A photographer’s delight indeed and Jack did not spare the disc space in his camera!! The best thing about that is that they now have dozens of souvenirs that didn’t take up suitcase space!
The other fun adventure was a trip to the Battle Box. Jack is a real history buff so this was fascinating! The Battle Box was a bunker that served as a British command post during WWII and is where the order to surrender to the Japanese was given. That difficult time in history was re-enacted with animated figures made to look like the officers that were present at the time.We have been so lucky to have made some wonderful friends over the last two years and two couples included Jack and Laurie in going away dinners for us. The first were our neighbors Scott and Carolinn Sheely who coincidentally have a house in Texas and were born and raised in Ohio.
The second amazing evening was at the home of our good friends Nazima and Nazeem Mohammed who very graciously invited all four of us for a terrific dinner. Paul’s going away gift was durian (a perfect present for him!) and mine was a book on Singapore. And Laurie got her chance to "dare the durian" and did OK for a first time encounter.The visit ended all too soon but we will always share the memory of it and that as the Master Card commercial says is priceless!!
