The latter portion of the Asian segment of our trip was fantastic. We were able to visit Phi Phi island, swim with fish, sit on beautiful beaches, and I even managed to fall out of a Thai Longboat and bust up my knee and elbow. If that's the worst thing that happens to me on this trip, I'll consider myself pretty damn lucky. Also, Rachel got a nice kick out of my fall, so all is not lost.
Our last day in Thailand was almost a total washout. Luckily, we planned our indoor activities for the day - massage and a Thai cooking class. The massage was fantastic and the food we made at the cooking class was delicious. We were the only 2 who signed up for the class so we had the chef to ourselves and had the opportunity to make 4 different dishes (a papaya salad, chicken with cashews, coconut soup with chicken, and pad Thai with chicken). We managed through the chef's broken English and walked away absolutely stuffed.
Then came what will definitely be the longest and most strenuous day of our trip. We woke up in Thailand, grabbed an early breakfast, and left for the airport. We landed in Singapore shortly after 1pm, spent the day touring the city, and headed back to the airport (where I'm currently sitting) for a 1am flight to Switzerland. When we land, it will be 8am Swiss time and we'll spend 3 whirlwind days in Lucerne and Zurich.
Some quick observations on Singapore:
- Changi is the best airport in the world, hands down. Clean, modern, spacious, plenty of shopping and dining options, and short queues through immigration. To top it off, most of the airport staff is super friendly.
- The city is very clean and very rich. Singapore is superbly maintained, there are no homeless people, and it feels very safe. There is also a ton of luxury shopping, lots of rich businessmen, and ample fine dining selections. Singapore is regularly ranked as the most capitalist country in the world based on fiscal and social policies and has the 3rd highest GDP per capita in the world.
- The skyline is majestic and the architecture in the city is beautiful and diverse. It looks like a lot of the same architects who lent their efforts to building out London also took a turn in Singapore.
- Cabs don't stop if you hail them. Apparently, there are designated areas where you can hail a cab, but we couldn't find any. We had no fewer than 30 available cabs drive right by us as we tried to hail a ride to the airport.
- There's no traffic in Singapore even though it's one of the most densely populated countries on earth. Why? It costs $100K USD to buy a Camry, and you have to pay $40K USD for a Certificate of Entitlement just to have a car (think seat licenses in NFL stadiums). Btw, this is according to our cab driver - I have not independently verified this information.
Well, we're about to board the flight to Zurich and I'm dead tired so I'm signing off for the night. Thanks for reading. I'll see you in Europe.
Jeff
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