Night Safari

Dear Mom and Dad,

We visited Little India. Our meal was a traditional Indian dish, which was super spicy with curry. We definitely made the locals laugh as they watched us eat. I was the only one using a fork. Everyone uses their hand (right hand because they wipe their behinds with their left) to eat. I'm not sure what everything was, but the top right clump is chicken, and the bottom left clump is potatoes. They use the whole chicken as you can imagine. Charlie found a chicken head/neck in his meal. 

After eating such a spicy meal, I had to get ice cream.

We invested in a "selfie stick." It's a long pole that you can attach your camera to, to take selfies. Here are the boys practicing their selfies.

We went on a night safari and bought a package ticket for $64, which includes a trip to the zoo as well. We plan on visiting the zoo tomorrow. 

There aren't many pictures from the night because no flash photography was allowed. Disclaimer, the next pictures are rated PG - 13. Read on at your own risk.

Highlights from the trip include watching the tiger poop and...

And the elephant pee. Fun fact: the elephant penis is so long that it can almost touch the ground. His urine stream was as forceful as a firehose. Sorry for the too much information. Charlie's favorite animal is the otters, Andy's favorite is the lions, and my favorite animal is still Ellie. 

I finished my paper that means my master's class today! WHOOT WHOOT! When I get back to the states, I have two summer classes left and then my professional seminar in the fall, which means by the end of December (2015) I will have completed my Master's of Arts in Teaching. Mom, will you open my mail, and message me my grades for the three classes I took this semester? I'm hoping for two A's and one A-. Charlie also finished one of his 8-hour renewal credit classes yesterday. Today, he is working on his ethics course. Hopefully, he gets his done soon, so we can quit worrying about school. Andy is watching NatGeo and learning about lions, bullfighting, and alligators. 

Plans tonight are to meet Helly at 7 for "happy hour," and that will still be very expensive. They have "1 for 1" deals, which means "2 for 1" in the states. The beers are $20 each, so at that rate we are getting them for $10. What a steal....not. Most things are so pricy here except for eating at the local food shops. 

Love,

The animal lovers

P.S. Mom, I don't know the significance of the Merlions, so I'll ask Helly tonight and get back to you. 

A Day at the Beach

Dear Mom and Dad,

We had the best day at the beach. Once again, Helly out did herself showing us around. We spent the day hanging out on an island  named Sentosa. The first picture is of the end of the night. So far, this is my favorite christmas tree yet. 

Sentosa has a Universal Studio. We didn't actually go in; however, I don't think it's as nice as the one in the United States for the following reason: there is no Harry Potter World. 

This is a giant Merlion.

Helly used to work at the Luge ride, so she was able to get us free tickets. We raced twice and the first race I actually beat Andy. Charlie won both races, but I'll take a second and third place finish anytime. This picture is of us riding the lift up to the top. Andy thinks it was the first time he has been on a lift without snow.

The beach was great. It was sunny and super hot in the beginning. Don't worry moms, we all wore sunscreen. I was smart enough to put mine on before leaving the hostel. The boys struggled to keep theirs on because they were sweating so bad that it wouldn't soak in, which was okay because it started raining and storming while we were there. This sounds like it would be awful at the beach, but it was so hot that we didn't mind the cool down. Most people left due to the rain but not us. We could be wearing winter gear so hanging out in swimsuits in the rain was no big deal. Plus, we had wine. Everything is good when drinking wine. We definitely looked liked tourists.

Andy hanging out with all his friends. 

Taking cover under the tent.

When the lightening stopped, we were able to get back into the water. It felt like bath water. Technically, we were swimming in the South China Sea.

Today,  I am working on finishing my class...ONE paper left, and Charlie is working on his renewal credits. Andy is keeping us company with fun facts from the Internet. He is also looking at things for us to do during the rest of our time here. I think we might visit Little India in an hour. We are deciding whether to go to the zoo or take the night safari or both. Other suggestions to visit are a bird park and a botanical garden. Andy says he doesn't do birds and I don't know how excited I can get about looking at plants, so we will keep you updated with pictures and blog posts. 

Love, 

The bronzed beauties 

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

Long 24 hours

Dear mom and dad,

We started our journey on Wed. December 3rd. Charlie and I rode with my dad to Minneapolis where we had a four hour flight to LAX. Andy met us there and was happy to see that we actually got on our plane..like we were going to leave him. The pic of Charlie and I in Minneapolis is at the bottom of the blog. There is no way to move it up to the top, and I have tried unsuccessfully for two hours dinking around on the blog. The internet is NOT any better in Singapore than when we were in South America. 

Charlie and I are patiently waiting to board our plane.

The next blurry pic is of us waiting in LAX to board our flight to Guangzhou

 Four months living out of a little backpack. 

Our 15 hour flight wasn't too bad after we waited in the plane for two hours to actually take off. Andy was nervous about missing our connecting flight, but what can you do? We patiently watched movies until take off. Luckily we did NOT miss our flight :)

This was the four hour flight from Guangzhou. Tuckered little Andy needed more beauty rest.

I was surprised to learn that in Singapore they drive on the left hand side of the road. 

Oncce we arrived, Charlie and I scouted our the map to get our barrings. And by "Charlie and I," I mean Charlie scouted our the area while I pretended to know where we were. 

Andy and Charlie's first meal in Singapore was $4.00, which consisted of rice, chicken, sprouts, and pork. I was so cranky that I opted for a $12.00 personal pizza from Pizza Hut. 24 hours of traveling made me grumpy. Fun Fact: Even though we left Dec. 3rd and traveled for 24 hours, we arrived on Dec. 5th. Small time change that we are adjusting to.

Our hostel is dormitory style sleeping. I feel like I'm back at camp foster for Girl Scout camp, only it stinks of rotten feet, which is probably contributed solely from Andy and Charlie even though there are six other people in the room. 

Today the temperature was 98 degrees, so I hope you all staying warm! 

Let's hope for lots of rest! Tomorrow we will get pictures of all of us in Singapore. I'm not sure what's on our agenda other than we are staying here for six nights. We were going to decide a game plan for the week, but we are all too exhausted to function. When we got back to the hostel after exploring for two hours, it took all our energy to shower and lay down. I look forward to updating you later. 

Singapore seems amazing, and I can't wait to update you!

Love,

Three tuckered travelers