Now, normally I wouldn't have been so frustrated with Asia by this point, but the stress (and perhaps loneliness) of Micha's dengue fever were getting the better of me, my travel-loving self is ashamed to admit. And since his symptoms weren't particularly improving yet, I once again left him at the hostel to explore all by my lonesome.
I have zero Starbucks shame in Asia, where good coffee is a rarity
All the lights, for pedestrians and cars, had countdown times. Genius!
I thought this was the worst street name ever until I came upon Raper Street in Sydney...
Side note: In case you weren't aware, Singapore, being so very tiny, has absolutely absurd hostel/hotel room prices, as all overly populated small (area-wise) cities do. So one of the main motivating factors prompting us not to have stayed longer was the fact that the price of any (itsy bitsy) double room severely broke our budget (that and the fact that Singapore is so teeny tiny, there's not terribly much to do). So we ended up staying in a dorm in a fun hostel our one night there and found it to be a blessing in disguise that we hadn't stayed longer since high fever + non-air conditioned (during the day), loud dorm room = least enjoyable thing ever. (Poor buddy)
As for my solo adventure, I figured that, when in Singapore, head to a mall! Which this Valley girl was more than happy to oblige. I headed straight to Orchard Road after getting Micha settled in the air conditioned lobby with water, a tonic water, the computer, and some emergency cash, and very likely could have stayed there for days. It is a magnificent street chock full of shopping malls, one more gigantic and high tech than the next.
My tween self had basically died and gone to heaven. The Ion mall was easily my favorite - yup, I have a favorite - as it had 1) two Crate & Barrels (I so miss that store when in Germany...), 2) gorgeous landscaping inside, particulary using my favorite German named geigen feige tree (I am crazy plant lady after all), and 3) the most genius mall directories ever, which were no ordinary mall directories: they were touchscreens that you used to pick the store you wanted to go to and it would then show you, step by step, how to get there from where you were currently standing! I definitely embarassed myself in front of a group of Singaporean teenagers by taking entirely too many dorky pictures of a mall directory.
Since we were staying in Little India, I'd been hoping that Micha would get better enough to at least head out to dinner with me so that we could enjoy a delicious, spicy Indian meal together, but that proved entirely too optimistic for the indefatigable dengue. I'm still somewhat kicking myself that I didn't have any Indian food while there (seriously, self, seriously??) but I had another mission in mind, entitled "drink a fancy cocktail on an even fancier rooftop bar."
So after checking in with sicky again, I eagerly subwayed it over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which I'd been looking forward to for quite a while indeed.(though in my head, I wouldn't be drinking alone...). More specifically, I made my way to the Ku Dé Ta bar on top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. See, the hotel offers amazing views of the city from the very top - and it even has an infinity pool! which I was very disheartened to find out only guests can use - but the ride up costs $20 (Singapore dollars). However, if you're clever, you find out that you can go up for free to the next higher level where the bar/restaurant is on the condition that you buy a drink, which costs $25 on average. Few choices in life make it that easy for you, am I right?
I ended up having the most luxurious, slightly-exotic-but-slightly-comforting-and-familiar aperol cocktail while admiring the view, taking too many pictures while trying (and failing) not to look too touristy, and wishing I didn't have to drink at such an awesome place all alone (mostly for fear of looking like a total lush or old Miss Lonelyhearts).
The final ingredient in the Singapore Sawa was prosecco, but of course!
A water light show in front of the massive mall surrounding the hotel rounded out my night in Singapore, and this show put the (somewhat lame) Harbour Light Parade in Hong Kong to shame in just the first few minutes. There were laser lights from all directions, countless fountains synched to the music, and even video holograms projected onto the fountains (which were kind of creepy, to be honest). It was just Disneyland-esque enough to make me love it, and that without the pushy crowds. Win win!
Cool, yet rather creepy child hologram on the water
Next time I go to Singapore (and I'd like to simply for the shopping and infinity pool alone!), I would really like to do so with someone else by my side, though.
(But! Micha quickly got better once we left Singapore and got to Bali, so no worries, there is an end to my whining about wandering around alone! :)
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