A Summer to Remember Chpt. I

It’s funny how for the past 7 months or so, my life was pretty much uneventful. It would pretty much consist of outings with the family on the weekends and the occasional outing with friends. This however, changed recently. It all started with SINGAPORE. It was a rather impulsive trip planned by my sister and I to get the whole family on vacation, TOGETHER. This would be an incredible feat if it did happen, but with a little bit of Divine intervention, it all worked out in the end.

On the 17^th of July, we were off to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. Mind you, we took 3 different flights to get to Singapore due to some scheduling conflicts. My mom, brothers and younger sister and I were on the first flight bound for Singapore. My older sister and her husband came in on the 2^nd flight later in the afternoon and dad came in on the 3^rd flight late at night. This was due to the fact my brother-in-law was still up in the skies when we were ready to take off and dad had a treasure hunt to attend on an island not too far from home.

This would be my younger sister’s inaugural flight and she was rather excited. She was beaming from ear to ear with a smile which I think she found hard to contain. Oh well, I am not a child and yet I get excited before flying too. My younger brother was excited as well cause he had always wanted to go to Singapore. Well, his wish was to come true.

Upon arrival in Singapore, we headed to our hotel via the super-efficient MRT system Singapore has, checked in, freshened up and headed to the Singapore flyer. It would be my first time on it and I couldn’t wait to see the entire Singapore skyline. There weren’t many people there and we got on a ‘flight’ (as they call it) almost immediately. The Singapore skyline was indeed beautiful. So much development was happening in the already über-developed city. There were even some buildings which were never there the last time I visited last year. I was captivated. The view of both new and old buildings together in a mix was simply breathtaking. The ‘flight’ took approximately 30 minutes and then we had a delicious fried chicken lunch at Popeyes.

It started drizzling when we started walking over to the Marina Bay Sands. But it seemed like there was a Higher Power watching over us and the sun came out shining bright as ever. Marina Bay Sands seemed to have finished construction. The Singapore Art Science Museum is a marvel to look at and not to forget the stunning hotel itself which I reckon is the most beautiful hotel in the world. It was here where we met up with my sister and her husband.

A trip to Singapore wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the icon of the country, the Merlion. Hence we walked all the way there from the Marina Bay Sands. Some may think it is a crazy thing to do to walk under the hot sun but you see, Singapore has many of these things that Malaysia seems to get rid of whenever they have the chance: TREES. BIG GEORGEOUS GREEN LUCIOUS OLD TREES. Hence, despite having the sun over our heads, we barely felt it cause the trees pretty much brought down the temperature of the city. After several photo ops on the Olympic Walk and the Merlion, we headed to Orchard Road.

Orchard Road was supposed to happen much earlier than it should have but due to my sister’s delayed flight, it cut the trip short. We didn’t really mind cause we were to go shopping again on that Tuesday, before we left for home. Mom got herself some FitFlops while I got myself a pair of shorts from Esprit. My purchase was perhaps something I really needed cause I did not think I would last a day in Universal Studios in JEANS. Right after, we headed off to the Singapore Night Safari.

At the Safari, I know my family had a good time. We arrived just in time for a fire show (you know where people play with fire etc). Then we were off to the park itself. This trip was rather interesting. When we were there, we saw a (HUGE) flying squirrel glide from a tree, an even larger bat take a toilet break and another bat which was pretty large charge at my (older) sister. Good times I must say.

Dad called when we were almost over with the safari telling us he just landed. After wrapping up the tour of the park, we headed back to the hotel and met up with dad and went for supper. The next day was going to be superb: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS.