Monday, June 13, 2022
So yesterday Bryan and Mike completed their first-ever triathlon in Amakusa, Kumamoto, Japan. After the race, we dropped Mike and Meg off at the airport and then headed home for a good night's rest. We woke up, loved on our puppies, and drove back to Nagasaki airport for our first international travel since arriving in Japan a year ago! (We have been here a year?! What?! Time flies!)
We checked in for our flight from Nagasaki to Tokyo and ate lunch at the airport. With all of our Japan travels, this was the first time the airport restaurants in Nagasaki have been opened for sit-down meals. Maybe Japan is finally headed towards opening those borders and welcoming more air travel! (fingers crossed, right?!)
We landed at Haneda airport in Tokyo to find a small gift attached to our suitcase! The Nagasaki airport baggers left us a new Nagasaki Vidro luggage tag and some stickers for our suitcase! Nagasaki is known for their "vidro" Portuguese-inspired hand-blown glass, pictured on the luggage tag.
The Japan Airlines sticker has the Japanese legendary "Amabie" pictured. After a little research, we learned that this mermaid-bird creature is from ancient Japanese mythology and appears during times of great harvests and epidemics (kid you not). Legend has it, if someone falls ill, one just has to draw a picture of Amabie, show it to those who are sick, and they will be healed.
COVID would have ended two years ago if we had only drawn this damn bird mermaid.
Either way, it may not have ended the pandemic, but the sticker and luggage tag were a nice surprise and reminder of how thoughtful Japanese people are! We freaking love living here!
Now for the fun part: Bryan and I booked the only flight from Nagasaki to Singapore offered today, so we didn't have much choice when given the (only) option to switch airports in Tokyo. With a 3+ hour layover, we knew we had time, but DANG. Lugging our giant suitcase and with cold chu hais in hand, we grabbed the direct train from Haneda airport to Narita airport and enjoyed our beverages over the hour and a half ride. I happily read more on my kindle, while Bryan got sports updates via Twitter.
Once we made it to Narita, we checked our suitcase and learned that our flight was delayed 2 hours, so we grabbed a quick dinner of Mcdonald's nuggets (hey, it was the only place open!) before going through security. We then headed to "our spot" to wait for our flight. You know you fly through Narita too often when you have your favorite spot in the airport to wait for your flight: comfy chairs right outside the only convenience store on the other side of security that sells chu hais. With our feet up, cold drinks in hand, and watching planes take off and land, we were happy as could be!
We boarded the flight at 7:45 pm to learn we would not be sitting together.... (Did we think to check our tickets prior to boarding? Nope.) Bryan took the row behind me and we settled in for the 7-hour flight to Singapore! Thankfully, we were able to pass things back and forth over my head throughout the flight. We made do!
After napping on the flight and enjoying the same movies that were offered on our Hawaii flight a month ago, we landed in Singapore at 2 am. Groggily we made our way through immigration and customs, where the guy told me they weren't stamping passports "because of COVID." *insert eye roll.*
So the only proof of our trip is the photos because our passports don't have Singapore stamps in them. Ugh. Bryan quickly told me to "get over it" as we collected our suitcase and wandered aimlessly through the massive airport trying to find the taxi pickup location. Eventually our half-asleep bodies found it and Bryan used his remaining brainpower to book us a Grab, the Asia-version of Uber.
Off to our first adventure: a capsule inn!
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
From my earliest research about Asian travels, I have wanted to stay at a capsule inn! Japan is notorious for its hostel-style capsule inns, but Bryan has always turned down the opportunity. When we saw how pricey Singapore hotels were, plus the fact that we were arriving at 2 am and simply needed a place to crash, he agreed to a single night. So I found us a space-themed capsule inn for our first night in Singapore! For $56, we stayed at the MET: A Space Pod where we rented a double-bed "capsule" with two USB plugs, a small TV, lockers in the hall for our luggage, and shared bathroom space with the other 20 capsules on the 4th-floor of the hostel.
Ignore the rough reflections of us in the mirror, but here's how Bryan really felt about my 3 am excitement:
This space-themed capsule inn was *interesting,* to say the least! With plastic walls, we tried our best to stay quiet when we checked in, but we know others had to have heard us. Bryan regretted booking the 4th floor, as we lugged our giant suitcase up the stairs, and then he was slightly worried our shoes would get stolen when we had to leave them in the stairwell overnight. (If you didn't know, a lot of Asian cultures leave their shoes at the door, as it's seen as very disrespectful to bring outside dirt into a person's home.)
The bathrooms were clean, but it was strange that the showers and toilets were in the stalls together, so your feet were soaked every time you went to the bathroom. The next morning we found the signage around the space pod to be quite comical and the setup to be pretty unique. We both agreed that this was a one-and-done hotel experience! We have stayed in a capsule inn, and it doesn't have to be done again! Checked the box- now take us to a real hotel!
The MET: A Space Pod hostel was kind enough to store our luggage for the day as we explored the Kampong Glam district in Singapore! We began by walking past the Sultan Mosque, built in honor of Sultan Hussein Shah, the first sultan of Singapore and the founder of Singapore. We really wanted to tour this mosque, but unfortunately, they are still closed for tourists due to the pandemic. We were able to see many Muslims enter the mosque though to pray.
With growling bellies, we headed to Tolido's Espresso Nook for breakfast, and it did not disappoint! Iced coffees, french toast, and hashbrowns with eggs started our mornings off well!
Then it was time to explore the area! Kampong Glam, centered around Arab Street, is known as Singapore’s Muslim Quarter and it is known for its unique 19th-century buildings, amazing Arabian food and shops that sell Turkish rugs, Arabian pottery and Middle eastern stained glass light fixtures. I was enthralled with the building murals that covered this part of the city!
Standing at a crosswalk in Kampong Glam, we noticed four police officers across the street headed in the same direction as us. As we got closer, we were stunned to see them carrying assault rifles and dressed in full riot gear...
We knew Singapore was strict- we were warned that you could be arrested for bringing chewing gum into the country, as it's illegal in Singapore- but we weren't expecting the cops to walk around the city in tactical gear. It was shocking and, frankly, a little scary. Eventually, these guys headed in a different direction than us, and we weren't sad to part ways.
Next up: Raffles Hotel!
Raffles Hotel opened in December 1887 with only ten rooms and boasted as Singapore's only hotel with electric lights and fans! Its hosted many famous guests over the years including Michael Jackson, Rudyard Kipling, John Wayne, and Charlie Chaplin! Stories say Rudyard Kipling wrote the first draft of The Jungle Book while staying at the Raffles Hotel!
When we say this place was fancy, it was fancy. We poor folk weren't even allowed to enter the hotel lobby to take photos; instead, we were shuffled around the side of the building to explore the grounds! Meg did well distracting the entry guards, I mean the front desk staff, so I could snap a picture of the lobby!
We did enjoy walking around the gardens and seeing the beauty from the outside of this hotel! I found a few children's picture books for sale in the gift shop and learned that "the last tiger of Singapore" was killed at this very hotel. Apparently, in 1902 a tiger escaped from a nearby traveling zoo and fled into the hotel. A hotel guest, armed with his gaming rifle, shot and killed the tiger before anyone was hurt.
I'm telling you, this hotel has an interesting history!
Along the edge of the hotel were all these little boutique shops, including a small whisky store. We popped in to see what was up. What's up was $10,000 bottles of whiskey!!! The one held in the hand sculpture? There are only approximately 500 in the world and Singapore's Raffles Hotel has eight on sale for nearly $100,000.
We left pretty quickly.
But the star of the Raffles Hotel was the Long Bar! In 1915, Raffles bartender invented the Singapore Sling cocktail in the Raffles hotel's Long Bar! Back in the early 1900s, women weren't permitted to drink alcohol, so this bartender created the drink to look like fruit punch so women could also enjoy it; it's been a hit for over 100 years now! This bar has been preserved in all its 1900 glory and continues to serve the original Singapore Sling! We felt like we traveled back in time until we received our bill. Yep, that's some modern drink prices.
Mike and I enjoyed the original Singapore Sling, while Bryan ordered the Raffles 1915 Gin Sling and Meg sipped on a Sakura Sling. Being the great friends that we are, we tried each other's drinks and agreed that all were tasty! Good drinks, great friends and some peanuts to snack on- what more could you ask for? (Bryan would say cheaper drinks.)
After time-traveling back to 2022, we left Raffles and made the hot and humid walk to the city's center! Nothing represents Singapore more than the Singapore Merlion fountain and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel! Located across the bay from each other, the Singapore Merlion fountain shoots cool, refreshing mist into the very hot and very humid air! Have I mentioned how hot and humid it is? Hitting upper 90s with a "feels like 110+," Singapore's rainy season is feeling more like if North Carolina was on fire. I mean, we were only 85 miles from the Equator, so what did I expect?!?
*not pictured: the back sweat, underboob sweat, and many, many forehead swipes attempting to keep the sweat from dripping in our eyes.*
As you can see in the last two pictures above, the 7/11 by the Merlion heard my wish and granted me a Southeast Asian apple cider!!!! Somersby Cider came in *clutch* on this trip! We found several flavors during this whole vacation and I tried every single one (multiple times, but who's counting?!) My happy face truly expressed my joy to find ciders, since I haven't found a single cider in Japan!!
The final picture shows our Grab (uber) driver waiting to pick us up right outside the Singapore Helix Bridge. Unfortunately, we didn't visit during the night when it is lit up beautifully, but this is another famous Instagram-worthy spot in Singapore!
We had our Grab driver drop us off back in the Kampong Glam district so we could do more exploring in the area now that things are opening up for the afternoon. This entire area was packed with unique shops selling all kinds of colorful fabrics and Arabian pottery, but what caught our attention was the smell of good food.
By this point, we have sweated out all spare liquid in our bodies and worked off our morning breakfast, so we headed to Zam Zam Restaurant for lunch! This place was PACKED! Luckily the staff saw us searching for a table, so they pulled together tables from different parts of the restaurant to accommodate us. Now, to figure out what to order.
We started with their vast drink menu, which we are pretty sure wasn't in English. I mean, we have gotten used to google translating Japanese menus, but here we were just googling one of 40 drink names to figure out what to try. I went with the Bandung Ice and Meg tried the Blueberry Lychee, making us the two girls with the colorful drinks. Meg's tasted like a melted Hawaiian Shaved Ice, while mine looked, and tasted, similar to Pepto Bismol. The boys stayed basic with "Kopi Cino Ice" (iced chai teas) so I puppy-eyed Bryan until he agreed to share a few sips with me.
When I had researched places to eat, Zam Zam was number one for trying Murtabak, a thin dough packet stuffed with minced meat and eggs, and Briyani, a rice dish made with Indian spices and some type of meat. Since we weren't sure if we would like either, we agreed the four of us would split one of each, so we order a Mutton Murtabak (the shop's number one seller) and a Chicken Briyani.
To say the food was amazing is an understatement. We absolutely demolished the food! Knowing that this restaurant has been here, on Arab Street, since 1908 serving their world-famous Singapore cuisine, I wasn't shocked by the quality of the food- I was shocked by the price! In total, these two giant plates that filled up the four of us, plus our drinks, cost us less than $20.
After ingesting what Mike called "the best meal he's had in Asia," we stepped outside to find an open-air window where we could watch the cooks make fresh Murtabak on a giant stone cooktop! These guys are pros!
Next up: Haji Lane. This indie street is filled with colorful buildings with botique shops and cool restaurants. We stopped in at Black Sheep and Company for the gang to get a beer and then hit up a cool, outdoor Mexican restaurant for some fresh guac and margaritas.
Then it was time to head to the airport! After 17.5 hours in Singapore, it was time to catch our next flight to the neighboring country of Malaysia!
After checking our suitcase, we wandered around the number one airport in the world to see what all the hype was about. And the hype was justified! Singapore Changi Airport has an indoor waterfall, called the Eternal Spring, and over 60,000 plants and 900 trees and palms in the Shiseido Forest Valley. This indoor garden space was massive and very tranquil. If you ever have a chance for a layover in Singapore, do it. If I must have a canceled flight, I would want it here- just look at all the art exhibits, children's play areas, and gardens you could explore with a long layover!
Here's a close-up of the Eternal Spring in action:
With a little time before our flight, we headed through security and found a quick bite. We planned to "scoot" across the border into Malaysia aboard our Scoot Airline flight at 7:30 pm, so we quickly grabbed a mix-mash of airport meals- Subway, pizza, and Chinese dumplings- to get us through the night!
Goodbye Singapore!
Little did we know how much worse our trip was about to get...
Stay tuned!
Katie
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