It's Sunday morning now and we are adjusting our internal time clocks. We arrived home on Friday afternoon and we were all in bed by 6:30pm and got a good 11 hours of sleep. But Saturday night the kids & I were asleep by 7:00pm but awake by 2:30am! Andrew managed to stay awake until 9:00pm and he was still wide awake at 2:30am! Hopefully by tomorrow we will be adjusted since we have to get back to work and school.

Reese was saying all day Saturday she wants to go back to Singapore. She even said, "I don't want to live in Georgia anymore, I want to live in Singapore." When I asked her why she said, "I love Singapore and it's warm there too." It's cold in Georgia, like freezing temperature 30 degrees Farenheit so our bodies have to adjust from the 90 degree days back to freezing.

Thanks for following our blog! This trip was an awesome experience for us. Thanks to Andrew's parents John & Val for helping us get there and to Amy & Dinesh for all they did for us in Singapore. They made our stay so comfortbale and organized so many things to do and provided so much food for us. And thanks to all the friends we met in Singapore who made us feel right at home and showed us so much hospitality.

This was the sea show on Centosa Island, they used water, fire and lasers for this show and it was pretty cool.

The port is close to the island area so it was amazing to see the large number of boats so close. It makes the water a little oily though.

The kids loved the waterslide at the resort we went to on Wednesday which was on an island named Centosa off Singapore. It is a beach resort island with tons of things to do that includes a luge, zip line, trapeze, etc. We just spent the day by the pool and then had drinks, dinner and a show in the evening.

After dinner we did sparklers on the beach and the kids loved this too. On our last day, Thursday we spent the day packing and visiting at Amy & Dinesh's home. Several friends came to visit and say goodbye to us. We left at 11:30pm and the kids slept a good portion of that plane ride to Tokyo (we got there at 7am). We rented a day room (kind of a mini hotel room in the airport) for $29 that had 2 twin beds and a bathroom. We all took a short nap and showered since we had a few hours at the airport. Then the killer plane ride back to Chicago (there is no way adults can get comfortable unless they are in business or first class).

On Monday, we went to the Bird Park and saw various exotic and beautiful birds. As you can see, I was skeptical about the birds walking all over me. Didn't bother Andrew to have them crawling up his arm and on his head! A friend named Arthur went with us, we met him about a month ago when he was in Atlanta for business. The day was hot but the sun wasn't out too strong so it was manageable.

That night we went to the Night Safari and saw tigers, lions, bats, lizards, and other animals. Because it was dark none of the pictures showed up except for the one we took at the gate. Interesting experience as it was dark but they did have some lights to see the animals. The walkways were dark and you could hear animals but not always see them. On the tram ride it was amazing how close we were to the elephants and rhinos. It looked like they were right next to us and worried me kept wondering how they could be so close and how safe it was. We found out later when someone took a photo with a flash and the large male elephant with huge tusks started to take some steps towards us that they could charge us. They drove the tram faster and warned whoever used that flash that it could disturb the animal and he could attack us. Interesting. Some friends came with us who are originally from Chicago area and are in this part of the world now.

On Friday & Saturday we were in Malaysia and went to the city Kuala Lumpur. It is about a 4 1/2 hour drive one-way so we took a road trip. We took a picture at a rest stop in Malaysia and that's the bottom picture. The trip was all greenery and we saw palm plantations and rubber trees.

When we got to the city, we saw the Petrosan Twin Towers which are the tallest twin buildings with a sky bridge between the 2. It also has a huge shopping mall with fountains outside surrounding and a childrens water play area. I was surprised to see Christmas is so huge in a Muslim country! They had a center court of Christmas display and there were lines of people taking pictures. We were amazed how crowded the shopping mall was and the traffic in the city too, but the kids are on a month long holiday so it was even busier. A Muslim woman in headdress wanted to take a picture of her son with my kids (but it turned out a little blurry). She was so kind and even offered the kids some cake that she bought in the mall and Reese ate a piece and said it was the best cake ever.

We went up into the skybridge and you can see the picture that shows the supports to the bridge. There is no cost to go up but there is a line (they call a queue) that starts in the morning as they only allow so many people on the bridge at one time for architectural purposes. I think the number is 20 people at one time so they give you a ticket for a timeslot. It was amazing how many people were waiting (Amy & I waited a couple hours for an afternoon time).

Our hotel had a view of the top of the twin towers and they were beautiful all lit up at night. Now we're back in Singapore on Sunday and thinking about taking a river tour this afternoon on a boat (the river goes through downtown Singapore). And tonight we've been invited to a barbecue at a friend of Amy's. She is an American woman whose husband was transferred here. We understand the ex-patriots (as they call them) live in a community together near the American school so it will be interesting to see that tonight.

We went on Wednesday to the Swissotel downtown Singapore for High Tea. It's so much more than tea, it had an elaborate buffet of a variety of foods and a view that couldn't be topped. It is on the top story (70th floor) of the hotel with panoramic views of Singapore and you could see Malaysia and Indonesia if the weather was a little clearer.

If you notice in the 2nd picture that shows the amount of people that live in Singapore. Each building is called a block and in the States we would call them condos but that is how the majority live and you can see the amount of blocks in that picture out in one direction only. It's amazing to see how many there are from the 70th floor. And you can see in picture 3 the amount of boats waiting to get into port. And for my co-workers in the first photo in where the Infor Singapore office is. I didn't go visit but my sister-in-law told me that is where it is based on the address.

In the picture is Dinesh' sister Letha who went with us along with my sister-in-law Amy.

We went to the Singapore Zoo on Tuesday and it was the best zoo we've ever seen! There aren't the same boundaries as in the States and it was amazing because the animals were so close. A lemur came right up to us, bats (aka flying foxes) flew over us and their wingspan can be 5 feet wide, we rode on an elephant, and the orangutans were swinging in vines and trees over the walkway right over our head. We actually experienced one that decided to urinate and thank goodness we weren't right underneath but a poor girl did get hit with it. They cleaned it up right away but what if he decided to just come right down? Also saw white tigers and they too seemed so close.

On Monday we went to Orchard Road and took the bus & train on the trip into the downtown area of Singapore. Orchard Road is like a Michigan Ave surrounded by upscale shops, restaurants and really a tourist attraction.

Amy & Dinesh have been playing it safe with authentic foods and we've had chicken wings and pizza for dinner the last 2 nights. So Monday night we had an authentic meal with Dinesh's family. They were so hospitable and we ate fish curry, noodles with egg and shrimp, spicy lamb, spring rolls and something that is like a tortilla pancake (I forget the real names of them). I actually liked the meal and that's saying a lot for a picky eater like me. Andrew tried a couple of things and wasn't as daring... The kids ate the pancake thing with sugar and they had chocolate ice cream for them too (can't go wrong with ice cream right?)