The H-Moon

Although United currently boasts one of the longest non-stop flights from LAX to Singapore, we elected to break up the long flight, by stopping off in Japan. We weren't entirely sure if we'd have another 7 hour flight in us after arriving, but ultimately decided it would be less stressful to just push on and not have to worry about going back to the airport the following day. We arrived in Singapore around midnight and took a taxi to our hotel, where we promptly collapsed.

After a night's sleep, we were recharged (at least temporarily) to go out and explore the city. We were about a mile and a half from the Gardens by the Bay attraction, which other than eating and shopping, is pretty much the only major thing to do in Singapore. Even TripAdvisor recognizes this fact and lists the MRT (the city's subway system) as one of the top things to do. By noon, we'd seen it all, including the Cloud Forest section of the park, which is an extra fee. It was quite hot and humid out, and Nicole was struggling with her shorts, which seemed to be a few sizes too big.

We walked aimlessly around the Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Resort and Shopping Center, but the stores were a bit high brow. Nicole was kind of looking for a belt so as to not accidentally moon someone (which is a crime punishable by caning presumably), but neither of us had the budget to buy a $1000 belt from a store like Versace. The Loft and the GAP certainly did not have a presence here. Singapore is kind of a crazy place. It's like the entire city was built in 2012. It's only in tucked away back streets, that a hint of old architecture seeps through. Everything else is just some kind of massive glass architectural wonder less than ten years old.

After recharging back at the hotel, we ventured out once again -- first for crepes at a French cafe nearby. Then we walked back to Gardens by the Bay because they light up all the fake trees at night. They also have a sort of light show that they do to music, but having been previously underwhelmed by such light shows, I didn't make it a point to sit around and wait for it to happen. The same could not be said about the hundreds of people that seemingly showed up out of nowhere to do just that.

Nicole and I kept walking to less traversed areas of the park to escape the crowds. We could still see the fake trees from a distance and could witness how one would periodically change colors or light up its branches every once in a while. It didn't seem like the kind of thing that was worth getting bumped into over and over again while simultaneously ruining 30 different selfies at any given moment.

We timed our exit from the gardens poorly and ended up in an ever growing mass of people who then merged with the crowds from the shopping center at Marina Bay Sands. Soon we felt very overwhelmed and the MRT kiosks would not accept credit card for a single ride and the line for taxis was about 100 people long. Luckily the line moved fairly quickly and we got dropped off near our hotel, where I grabbed a bowl of Hainanese Chicken Rice with Curry. I cleaned my plate and my sinuses before going back to the hotel to collapse once more.