Life Adventures

So, I spent a few days in Singapore washing clothes, and then it was off to the Philippines.
Quite the tour’d been planned for us once we got there. I have several friends living there, so once again, we were royally welcomed upon arriving at the airport.
Next morning, we headed from the island Iloilo to Boracay–by bus. The place is absolutely gorgeous. We were staying right on the beach and just loved it! We spent the second day there tooling around the island. I got to go snorkeling along the reef, and it was absolutely gorgeous. In fact, they told us it was the first good day for snorkeling they’d had in about 2 weeks! We then did some spelunking towards some ocean caves, and then proceeded to make begin making ourselves black (some other more red) by laying out on the beach.
Took our bus back to Iloilo and next day headed to Mambucal on Negros Occidental. This is a awesome resort too. It has some natural hot springs and waterfalls and “healthy” mud. So we chilled in our little bungalow, soaked in the dipper pool (a very hot spring), covered ourselves in mud, hiked to waterfalls, marvelled over fruit bats, and ate lots of good food.
Then it was back to Iloilo, where day fourteen’s flight adventure happened–stay posted–this was definitely the adventure of a lifetime . . .
Enjoy the pics!

So, Day 3 was in Singapore! Very fun–mostly shopping! We went to an extremely large bookstore that’s in a mall. I could’ve stayed there for hours and spent my entire budget, but, alas, I began to get hungry. We found a cool place that serves meals on a sizzling hot plate, and ate that. Then decided more shopping was necessary. We lost Josie who claimed she had laundry to do, but May and I continued forward. One of my missions is to try cheesecake in an effort to determine which is best. Cheesecake number 2 was a brownie cheesecake–extremely rich, but not too cheesy–we’ll see how it rates with others. I found some Teva’s–my favorite flip flop–on sale and bought some for others too. Then in the basement we were bombarded by sales. Got some super comfortable slip-ons. After continually being tempted by the mall, we decided we should go where our dollar could go farther–Chinatown.

Having already been there once, I was now prepared to shop. I got ALLLLL the presents for my family! Yeah!! Now, I just have to get them to America. I also pick up some more cute flip flops for 3 Singporean dollars and 2 watches for 2.90! We tried some other local cuisine and ended up eating dinner around 8:30 p.m. at a Thai restaurant. Wandered home and started packing for Penang.

Went on a bus/MRT adventure in trying to get to the airport. My hosts had carefully explained to me several times how to get there, making sure I understood all the connections and loop holes. I was a little nervous, but confident I could manage. I arrived at the airport safe and sound. Apparently, Wednesday was airport survey day–I had 2 different ladies give me a survey about the airport and Singapore and such. The second lady gave me a free luggage tag, so that was cool.

I arrived in Penang around noon, checked-in to my hotel, napped, and then set out on a walking adventure. I’m pretty sure I walked all around Georgetown–the city I’m staying in. My feet at the end of the day were filthy. Georgetown and Penang used to be a British colony, so there’s lots of history here and a real mixture of cultures, religions, and such. It’s been fun to see all the different people–Westerners, Indians, Chinese, Muslim . . .

After my walk I figured I’d go to this beach resort place called Batu Ferangghi–they were supposed to have some cool night shops and food. Not being exactly sure how to use the buses, I found the bus station, asked for directions, and got a bus headed to my destination–a good 50 minutes away by bus. After a few stops, a Muslim girl, her sister and mom got on the bus. The girl sat next to me. She couldn’t speak English, but she knew a few words and I played peek-a-boo with her 4-year-old sister during most of the trip. It’s funny how people on buses become friends.

Wandered around the shops, ate some food at a hawker station–good chicken masala and naan. Took a taxi back where my Chinese proved useful again since his English wasn’t so great and Chinese was his first language.

Few hours, I’ll be headed off for lunch with my cousin that I haven’t seen in FOREVER! Literally! More adventures await!

So, I left Changchun around 3 p.m. and arrived in Singapore at 5 a.m. the next day. I was just a bit tired. My friends met me at the airport, and our adventure began! I’m staying with my friend’s brother who’s been great and just bent over backwards to make sure I feel welcome. Sunday involved going to church, me taking a long nap and going out to eat for dinner at Jumbo Seafood where I had some awesome Chili Crab and Black Pepper Crab which is apparentely Singapore’s unofficial “national dish.” We then sauntered over to The Coffee Bean and drank some really great coffee and just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful weather! I got home around midnight ready to sleep.

Monday: Got up at 8 or so, piddled around and finally left the house at 10 a.m., on my own and ready to visit Little India. I was armed with my walking guide and ready for it all. Little India was great! Very much what I’d anticipated. I bought some really pretty clothes for really nice prices and just enjoyed all the culture there. I wandered up and down all of the stalls selling more bangle bracelets than I could possibly even begin to shake a stick at! I stop for about 3 minutes and got a henna tattoo on my wrist and kept wandering. I ate lunch there at a popular restaurant called Komalas–I don’t remember the name of what I ate, but it was good, and in Indian style, I ate it all with my fingers. After lunch, I wandered around a bit more and finally bought some gulam jamun–cream cheese balls in a honey syrup–YUMMMM!

Then I headed to Chinatown–it was almost like coming home. Everyone’s revving up for the New Year celebration, and I pleased several of the salespeople when I broke out my Chinese! By this time, my feet were getting a bit tired–I hadn’t worn the right shoes for walking, and I was ready to head back.

I met my friends at the MRT station–a very nice transit system–and we then went to eat. We sampled pretty much all of the hokker (street vendor-type) delicacies. I was determined that if I’m going to wear flip flops every day, I must have pretty toes, so we found a place, sat back and got our pedicures! Now I’ve uploaded my photos and am ready for bed. See ya’ll tomorrow!