Reunion Time in Singapore

A visit to the US Embassy in Singapore

Greetings Family and Friends!

Today we are writing to you from Davao City, Philippines as we anticipate an early morning departure tomorrow for Guam, but it is high time we catch you up on recent events considering the fact that our last update was from Vietnam three weeks ago!

Following our rapid traversal of Vietnam from South to North, we caught a flight from Hanoi down to Singapore for a 2.5 day 'layover' which we spent with the legendary Jason Wong from Cambridge days of yore. The stay was short and sweet, but with Jason as our tour guide we saw more of the city than we originally thought feasible. Based out of our ABC Hostel abode in the Arab quarter of Singapore, we kept up a marathon of sightseeing with aid of multiple cups of coffee from the numerous US Embassies (aka: Starbucks) scattered throughout the city.

Smelly flowers at the Botanic Gardens

For starters, Jason escorted us out to MacRitchie Reservoir where we enjoyed a trail run through some of the dense jungle that permeates any undeveloped regions of the island. Although Jason and I saw a lizard over a meter long cross the road in front of us at one point, and the jungle was full of amazing plant-life, the true highlight of the run was the fact that Carol was able to join us for a small portion of the run without any knee problems or side-effects from the running (Praise God!).

Singapore reminds us to be kind to others

We also managed to fit in a stroll through the incredible Botanic Gardens of Singapore, which were just as enjoyable (and free) as described by our close friends almost 7 months ago in California. The fresh air, enormous trees, and quiet pathways made us forget that we were in the middle of a big city for a couple hours, and we marveled at rainforest, medicinal, fragrant, floral, and many other amazing plant-kind. We also enjoyed lunching in Singapore's China Town, and because we arrived on Jan 19th, China Town was in full swing getting ready for the Chinese New Year which was to be celebrated on the 30th.

Supertrees are the best!

Later that day, we walked down to the riverside for a late night street-food style dinner, and afterward enjoyed the immensely weird yet wonderful sight of the Supertree Grove (enormous illuminated steel structures that look like something Tim Burton might perhaps design for a Star Trek movie) in the Gardens by the Bay. The night came to a dramatic conclusion as we ran flat out through the station to just barely caught the very last MRT train around midnight back to Bugis and our hostel.

The final excitement of our stopover in Singapore was the fact that we almost didn't get to leave!!! It wasn't until we were checking in for our flight to Manila, Philipines that we were told that we needed to provide documentation proving that we would be leaving the Philippines within one month of our arrival. Singapore Airlines wouldn't let us get on the plane unless we had this documentation, but since we were planning to leave the Philippines on a standby flight, we had nothing to show them.

China Town winding up for the Year of the Horse

We were stuck, and time was running out for us as the check-in desk would close in less than 30 minutes. Mom and Dad to the Rescue!!! Carol's parents received a 3am wake-up call from us on our computer after Joe ran over a mile through the airport to find someone who could provide us with a wifi password, and despite a painfully bad phone connection Ann understood what we needed and provided us with a standby confirmation number for a flight out of Manila three weeks later. We were literally counting down the seconds to 6:30pm when the check-in desk would close, and Ann's email with the details arrived as the clock struck 6:29pm. So, not only did we get on the plane but we had a wonderful flight being thankful for Ann and Lee, watching documentaries about giant Humbolt Squids, and wondering what on Earth the Philippines held in store for us.

We look forward to updating you on our incredible experience in the Philippines soon,

- Joe