First Day in Singapore

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Singapore! Arrived at Changi Airport with Bill and Alexis at 3 in the morning of Monday, June 4th. From the taxi window it is too dark to see much, but from the temp (81º) and humidity (81%)  outside at this time of night, it promises to be a tropical place. I slept a lot on the flights (we departed mid-day on  Saturday!), so I am up and ready to go even though it is 6am and still pitch dark. Bill and Lex, well it looks like they are going to do much of their sleeping today!

The taxi drove us 40 minutes across the island to our condo/apartment complex. We have a two-bedroom apartment in one of four 15-storey towers called Dover Parkview. We were instructed to call a number from the airport upon arrival so that someone would come over to let us into the building, and sure enough a sleepy young man named 'John' was sitting on the front steps ready to take us upstairs and show us into the apartment. It took a bit over an hour to go through all the essentials with John, such as setting up the wireless connection, the phone, the door key cards, some apartment policies regarding use of the facilities and a complete inventory walk-through (i.e., Living/Dining Area: "Sofa set, door bell, standing lamp, air-con with remote control, iron and ironing board, television, ceiling light, dining table," etc....)

It was about 5:30am when he left, and Bill and Lex went off to sleep. I wasn't tired and wanted to stay up to see the sunrise but about an hour later, it still being pitch dark, I gave up and decided to pass the time sleeping for a bit. At 8:30 I woke up to the sound of a tropical downpour that lasted about 10 minutes and I decided to go out exploring. So, leaving a note as to my intended return, I set out to explore the condo grounds and also go out scouting for a nearby market.

The humidity is pretty intense, but amazingly it isn't bothering me so much. Maybe because in the two days we've been here there hasn't really been any intense sun, so the temps are only in the low 80ºs. Since it is kind of like a greenhouse, plants and flowers thrive everywhere. There are huge trees lining  every street and these trees are hosts to huge ferns, orchids and all sorts of epiphytes hanging along the branches. The many street overpasses are landscaped in beautiful light lavender bougainvillea clipped into long rectangular hedges. It is very Hawaii-like.

I came back in around 11am and made a lot of noise so Bill and Lex would wake up and we could go out to get some food! We ate lunch at an informal outdoor place across the street and then down the block went to a small market to buy food to have at home. We then decided to accompany Bill over to the university to check out where he will be working: Nan Yang Technological University -NTU.