Personal Tour Guide

Dear Mom and Dad,

We had a great day exploring today. All of us got a solid 12 hours of sleep, which we throughly needed. Our friend Jess put us in contact with a local named Helly, who is such a doll. It was seriously like having our own tour guide, and she worked us walking everywhere. We figured that we walked over ten miles.  Again, I am struggling to format the pictures, so they are a little out of order.

This first picture is us in our hostel, and we realized that our hostel is huge. There are two buildings with fifteen different dormitory style rooms. Each room has about 10 beds in them.

I finally ate traditional Singaporean cuisine. My meal is on the right, and Charlie's is on the left. I had soy chicken and noodles. Charlie and Andy had noodles, sprouts, and shark meat. Unfortunately, Andy put too many peppers in his meal and was dripping sweat by the end of it. His forehead looked like he had gotten a severe sunburn. It was quite funny to watch. Our meals were $4.00 each. 

Here's a picture of the boys and Helly. 

The next picture is of us in Chinatown. 

Behind us is the financial district. 

This is a picture of us in front of the theater. The shape of the building is a durian. Fun fact: durians are a fruit, which are forbidden in public due to their pungent smell and lawbreakers can be punished with a $250 fine. Fines here are very strict. For example, chewing gum is $500, petting pets $500, spitting $1,000, etc. 

This picture is of a nice hotel with cool terrances.  

More tourists pics.

This is a Merlion. Half mermaid and half lion.

The building behind is a hotel that costs $350 night for the most basic rooms. We plan on staying there the next time we visit Singapore.

The first Saturday of every month, they shut down the street for a street dance with live entertainment. 

So to meet up with Helly we had to find the "train,"  and it was no easy task. We walked around looking for a train and/or tracks above ground. After much confusion and asking a local, we finally made it to the subway...underground. It costs about $1.60 to go one way anywhere in the city. Their subway system was super easy to navigate once we realized it was underground. 

It cools down here at night  (with A.C. that is only turned on in the middle of the night). I was thankful to have my sleeping bag with me because I definitely needed it. 

Tomorrow, Helly is taking us to a small island, so we can go on a luge and hang out at the beach with a few  of her friends. 

Love,

The tourists