48 Hours in Singapore

On Sunday, March 31 I flew from New York City to Salt Lake City. A great friend of ours was getting married and Kevin was acting as the Best Man. Kevin arrived in Salt Lake on Thursday so it was wonderful to see him again! I arrived around 12:30pm and Kyle (the groom) and Kevin picked me up. We took the scenic route, through downtown Salt Lake, to the hotel and Kevin and relaxed for a little while before walking to Kyle’s house for a spaghetti Easter meal. We arrived late and didn’t end up eating, but Kevin and Kyle got in a couple rounds of pool before we left to meet Megan and Staci (great friends of ours from home). We all went to The Olive Garden to eat dinner and Kevin and I went back to the hotel around 8pm. I was absolutely exhausted, so we called it an early night.

Kevin let me sleep in until about 9:30 on Monday morning and then we were on the go. We dropped off some decorations at the wedding venue and then picked up Megan and Staci to go climbing. I spectated while the three of them bouldered. We left the gym around 3pm and went back to the hotel to shower and change. We met Kyle and his wife-to-be at a nearby grocery store for a quick champagne toast (no alcohol was allowed on the premises of the wedding site) and then drove to the wedding site. I briefly helped with whatever odds and ends needed to be done before leaving to pick up Megan and Staci, since they were so nice to lend Kevin and I their rental car. The wedding was beautiful and we were so happy to be there to support Kyle. He didn’t have very many friends and family that were able to travel from Colorado, so we were so glad to be there for him. The wedding ended around 10pm and we stayed to help clean up the venue. We invited Megan and Staci to come back to our hotel for a while and they stayed until about 11:30pm. I started to feel really sick and came down with a fever. Kevin was so wonderful and packed my bags for me so I could sleep.

We decorated the car with climbing chalk and water!

Megan, Staci, Kevin, Kyle, Jamie and I. 

We woke up around 7:30am on Tuesday morning and I still felt pretty crummy. We left the hotel around 9am and went to the airport to fly to Singapore. Traveling when you do not feel good is no fun at all, but having to travel for 30 hours really sucks! We flew from Salt Lake to Portland to Tokyo to Singapore. I was able to eat some soup in Portland and started to feel a little better. We had an exit row from Portland to Tokyo so it was nice to have a little extra space! By the time we got to Tokyo I was feeling much better! We had a 2-hour layover in Tokyo so we spent some time in the lounge and then flew to Singapore. On this flight, we each had three seats to ourselves and were able to lie down and get some quality rest! We arrived in Singapore around 1:30am on Thursday morning. We were able to get a sandwich from Quizno’s before we left the airport and arrived at our hotel around 3am. It was a very long and exhausting day!

We woke up around 10:30am on Thursday morning and decided to walk over to Chinatown for lunch. We did a little bit of shopping and then found a restaurant where Kevin could have some authentic Singapore Chili Crab. It was so much food but as usual Kevin made a significant dent! It started to rain around 2pm so we went back to the hotel and rested for the remainder of the day.

2lbs of Singapore Chili Crab

We woke up around 7:30am on Friday morning and went down to the lobby for breakfast. The hotel had a complimentary buffet and it was delicious! A great way to start the day! We took a taxi to the ship but ended up at the wrong port. Apparently there was a new cruise port in Singapore, but we were not made aware of this fact. Fortunately the 2 ports were not too far from each other and we got to the ship around 10am. We went back to the hotel around 1pm and changed to go out exploring. We ate some pho for lunch and then took the Metro to see the Merlion. The Merlion is a fountain near the marina that is half fish, half lion. It has become the “mascot” of Singapore and little figurines can be found all over the city. It was ridiculously hot and humid out so we decided to go do some book shopping at the Harbourfront Mall. Unfortunately when we got to the mall we realized that the bookshop had closed since our last visit. We ended up going back to the hotel and relaxing. We fell asleep around 7pm and woke up around 10:30pm to go to the airport. Our flight left Singapore at 1:30am on Saturday morning. We flew from Singapore to Tokyo to Chicago to Newark. We traveled for 32 hours to get to Newark and we were so glad to finally get to our hotel! We traveled a total of 62 hours to and from Singapore and spent a grand total of 48 hours in Singapore itself. It was a quick trip, but we made the best of it!

The Merlion

Having some fun with the Merlion...

...and again!

We got to the hotel in New Jersey around 6:30pm on Saturday night. We were exhausted so we ordered some room service and called it a night.

We arranged for a late checkout on Sunday morning and went to the ship around 9am. We had a hard time getting on the ship because our names were not on the boarding list. We waited about an hour to get clearance to board and were finished working around 1pm. We rested in the hotel room until about 3pm and then went to the airport. I flew home, First Class the whole way, and Kevin flew to Germany for a week. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we enjoyed our time together!

The Statue of Liberty and Manhattan backdrop as seen from the ship.