Singapore part 1

Kyle was suppose to leave on Friday, but his first jet broke, and the second one broke, so he had to stay another day and fly out to Singapore commercially. We were completely fine with getting an extra day with daddy, although I don't think he was too excited about not getting to fly. He left Saturday, and we were right on his heels leaving on Sunday.

We went to the first 2 hours of church before rushing back home to change and catch our train out of Misawa. We traveled with another friend/spouse from the squadron, Hannah, so that made things a little easier having an extra set of hands as we traveled down to Tokyo with luggage and kids. 

The first train ride was 20 mins to Hachinohe to catch the shikonsen AKA bullet train to Tokyo. I knew right then and there it was going to be a difficult trip cause Abby was super hyper and Connor was extremely needy. He needed to be held and she needed to be chased after. So with that said, Hannah and I decided I would take care of kids and she would take care of bags. 

We made it to Tokyo after about a 3.5 hour train ride (these trains are soooo fast cause it takes us about 8-9 hours to drive to Tokyo!) and caught the next train from Tokyo to Fussa where we would stay at Yokota AFB to catch our SpaceA flight the next morning to Singapore.

We finally made it to Fussa! I asked Hannah if I could have the food bag cause I wanted my wallet so I could by a drink as a reward for wrestling my monkeys all day. I will never forget the feeling I had when I saw Hannah reach for the bag, realize it was gone, then turn to me looking pale. She admitted she had left it accidentally in Tokyo. Trying not to panic, we called he Tokyo train station where they checked the train we were on and the lost and found section. Nothing. Now I started to panic!!!!!! My whole world... ID, credit cards, money, you name it!

We had no choice but to head to Yokota AFB and ask help from the security forces there. They were so helpful and helped me fill out a bunch of paperwork that was needed to pursue my lost wallet. The good news they said is that the people in Japan are very safe and honest. If they find it they usually will report it and turn it in because of their culture with not wanting to dishonor their family, etc. The bad news, now that my military ID was lost I wasn't able to catch a  SpaceA flight. Tired, emotional, frustrated, and angry we went to our hotel on base (it was almost 10 at night) so I could put the kids down for bed and cry it out. What a nightmare this trip was turning out to be.

The next morning, the morning we were planning on leaving for Singapore, we spent running around all over base canceling credit cards, linking bank accounts, getting new cards from the navy credit union on base, and getting a new military ID. I took the kids to the park to burn off some of their energy, and to help me blow off some steam. Luckily we didn't loose our passports, and we got all the paperwork and IDs required for us to catch the flight to Singapore the next day.

Tuesday morning came and we finally caught the hop to Singapore, FINALLY! It was a 7 hour flight so I tried to brace myself for another exhausting experience of trying to be a one woman circus to entertain my kids on the flight. A huge answer to prayers came the first 3 hours of the flight... both kids slept! They were so exhausted from the past couple of days that they just zonked out. 

It was the nicest flight I had ever been on, and did I mention FREE!?!?! I didn't pay a dime for all 3 of us and we had 2 full meals each, all the soda and King sized candy bars we wanted, were given tablets with various movies on them to watch during the flight, coloring books and crayons for Abby, and the nicest flight attendants that helped me wih the kids. Another perk was that there were only 17 people or so on the flight so we had plenty of space to "shake our wiggles out."

Our first day in Singapore the kids and I just walked around our hotel, took it easy, and waited for Kyle to get off of work. We stayed on orchard road which is the big shopping district of Singapore. I had plenty of stores to walk through and window shop, daydreaming of the day I could just swipe my credit card that had endless amounts of money to buy everything I wanted. It probably wasn't the best therapy for someone who just lost their wallet, lol.

The next day When Kyle came back from work we decided to check out the Muslim district in Singapore. I was a little hesitant at first, but then remembered that Singapore as a whole country is an Allie with us, and we were not the only tourists there. It was a fun area filled with lots of culture. I gave me an insight of that particular religion and the traditions that come a long with it. The mosque was beautiful and the buildings were very colorful. It kind of reminded me of the Disney movie Aladdin. The food smelled amazing and everyone was modestly dressed.

After exploring that area we decided to walk to the district right next door and get some dinner and check out the famous Bugis shopping street. It was so crowded and felt as if we were shuffling instead of walking. The stores however had amazing prices and I got a pair of converse shoes for only 18 Singaporean dollars~15 US dollars!! Unheard of! I had to contain my excitement, and left with only my pair of shoes even though I wanted to leave with bags and bags full of clothing and shoes. Sometimes it's hard to say no to a good deal... Says the lady with no wallet!!!

The next day while Kyle was at work the kids and I hiked up to the botanical gardens. The grounds and trails were beautiful and I felt like I was in a rainforest. We spent most of our time at the children's garden which included a splash pad for the kids. As soon as we got to the Splash pad it started pouring! I had no intentions of playing in the water with the kids and was just planning to sit back and relax, but after the tropical storm that lasted only 10 minutes or so, I was drenched. So I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and got in the water and played with the kids. It was so much fun that the kids passed out on the way back to our hotel. 

The next district we decided to visit was the Chinese, also referred to as "China town." Again, there was so much to see! We got to go inside a Buddhist temple, and see the blue tooth relic. We decided to eat there as well and had both phenomenal Thai and Chinese food. It was definitely a lot bigger and busier than the Muslim district. 

Next we were off to Little India. We decided to explore this district while Kyle was at work cause he is not the biggest fan of Indian food and the overall smell of it. After going through this section of Singapore I would have to say I agree with Kyle on the smell. It was by far the dirtiest and smelliest part of Singapore. At one point I was walking through a street market and was trying to figure out how I could plug my nose without actually plugging my nose and coming off as being rude. So I just would hold my breathe instead. I noticed that they all wear flowers and have some sort of fresh flowers hanging in their shops to help "mask" the smell. To be honest, it almost made it worse cause it just enhanced all the smells to me.

Besides that, it was a beautiful culture filled with color! Colorful buildings, dresses on the women, flowers, and temples. The kid's favorite part of little India (the part where they were actually awake) had to be the merry go round. My favorite part was just walking down the street hearing Indian music pouring out of every building. They truly are a lively and exciting people! Singapore certainly is a melting pot of so many cultures.