Where has the time gone?! And the year?!

I never finished my Singapore posts, but now that the semester is over, I promise to try to do better!

My trip continued with visits to the National Museum, which was quite large and very empty. It was the two of us and the guards, actually. The tour starts with a film about the founding of Singapore as a nation, then is self-guided (I love places with headsets so you can listen to as much or as little as you want)for the rest of the time. I got some reasonably good pictures of the displays of Singapore history, despite the low level lighting.




















We went up the 37 metre tall Merlion at Sentosa, where you can view the city from the mouth. I'm actually in the mouth in the second photo. I'm much smaller than the tooth!












You also get a good view of an amazing fountain. It's a giant dragon and spouts water at unpredictable intervals from many different places.


















When we didn't walk, we got around town by using public transport. The busses, monorail, and metro were all clean and ran exactly on time. Clean may be an understatement for the metro. It gleamed! Littering, smoking, and durians were forbidden and the Dim Sum Dollies sang to you to let you know the train was coming. Amazing!













Logan and I spent one day in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. We walked to the bus station via an outdoor market, which was delightful. I wanted to try everything and the only disappointment was my inability to bring all the things home to Bulgaria.















At the station we purchased tickets for the short ride to the border. Once you get there, you get off the bus, go through customs, and re-board the bus for the short ride to town. All for a few Singapore dollars. We did a little (very little) sightseeing ,











did some shopping, ate lunch,








and headed back to Singapore via the same route.


On another day we headed out to the botanical garden. I really wanted to see the orchids, which are famous. here's the entry to the gardens.












And here are the flowers!






















Please note that there is a bird perched on the top of flower number four! It just flew right in and posed!

We ended the day with a picnic on the lawn at the bandshell. The Australian Girls' Choir was performing and we got to hear "Waltzing Matilda" and other favorites while we ate sushi (and regular picnic food).