Singapore...

We went to Singapore last week. We flew down on Wednesday evening for a baseball tournament with the KL All Stars...our first baseball tournament and our first trip to Singapore! Needless to say, it was a fun trip - although we didn't get to do much besides play baseball.

Singapore is clean, safe and very well-organized. I noticed it right away when we disembarked and made our way through customs and over to grab a cab. There was a nice, orderly line and attendants were flagging cabs and helping you load your stuff so the next person could get a cab as quickly as possible.

Now, the cabbies made me laugh. I swear every single one of them had to tell me that I would be safe walking around at 3 a.m. by myself because there is no crime (or extremely little crime). First off, I can't tell you the last time I saw 3 a.m. Secondly, did you not notice the two little munchkins traveling with me? This was not some big, wild party weekend.

They would then proceed to ask where we were from and when we told them we live in Kuala Lumpur, well, you'd think I currently live in the middle of a prison yard. "Oh, so unsafe." or "Oh, no...so much crime." or "Wow! I won't even visit there.

WAIT! This prison yard looks a lot like Crossfit!

I'm not oblivious to the crime here in KL, but I just don't feel it's as terrible as they made it out to be.

Anyways, baseball was really our focus for the few days we were there, but we did manage to see a few things. We made it to Orchard Road (although it was daytime - so I did not get to experience all the fabulousness of the awesome Christmas displays.) Lots of shopping on Orchard Road...so we had to hit a mall and buy a few things. The malls have some great decorations and the kids had managed to con us into "Build A Bear." (I seriously need my kids to outgrow the stuffed animal stage - every vacation we lug home some new stuffed creature.)

Saturday night we grabbed a late dinner down at the riverfront with some other team parents. I loved the atmosphere down there, but found the restaurants to all be quiet pricey. (Well, Singapore is pricey anyways...) When we were heading back to our hotel, there were tons of young people (to me that's anyone under the age of 30) hanging out in small groups on the sidewalks drinking. Vodka and orange juice seemed to be the drink of choice (liters of Grey Goose were abundant) and plastic cups were being shared by many. Just fun...no one at the bars really...just sitting on the sidewalks chatting and drinking. 

Sunday we were free before we flew home so we took the boys over to Sentosa Island. Universal Studios is here, but we didn't have time (or energy) for that so we did some of the smaller attractions - luge ride, 4D movie experiences and the gondola. The boys had fun...and really can't wait to go back to hit Universal.

Some of the boys

Ready to luge!

Heading back up after some luge fun!

Gondola time!

And, as if this whirlwind weekend couldn't get any better...we get to the airport and there is a whole SpongeBob display set up! WHAT!? SpongeBob! Boy heaven!

The boys with Patrick

The boys with SpongeBob

Now...the boys were lucky. For every 100 Sing dollars spent in the duty-free zone - you could get a SpongeBob stuffed animal for 3 Sing dollars. Yeah...a quick trip to the Pandora store and then to the duty-free liquor shop and we knocked that out in no time!

You bought your stuffed animals at the Chum Bucket! Yup! The Chum Bucket!

More photo opps!

And then it was time to fly home! We're already trying to figure out when we can get back to Singapore...the boys have their hearts set on staying on Sentosa Island and hitting Universal. (I better start saving my money now!)