Singapore

The first week of October is one of the big holidays in China. It is referred to as one of the two Golden Weeks (Chinese New Year is the other) and the official name is 国庆节 guóqìngjié. This is the National Holiday of China celebrating the the beginning of the PRC (People's Republic of China). For us, this means the ability to travel as both Andy and the kids have the week off. Granted for Andy, the holiday is not a full week off so there is some creative shifting of the work week by the government in order to get those 7 straight days. For example this year Andy got off Saturday, October 1st through Friday, October 7th. But then he (and everyone else in China) had to work the weekend of the 8th and the 9th. But it is hard to complain since we get traveling in the bargain. Over the last couple of years, we have used this time to explore various parts of China. But Andy's brother and wife who live in Japan are planning to move back to the States within the next year. We opted to use this chance to meet up with them. We met in Singapore and then traveled together to Malaysia.

One of the highlights of Singapore was the zoo. I feel like we are becoming zoo experts. And the Singapore Zoo is now one of our favorites. 

To say my boy is fond of maps is a vast understatement. The boy loves maps. Almost as much as he loves books. And that is saying something.

In the rainforest enclosure. At first we were fascinated watching the giant fruit bats. But before long these lemurs were showing off for us. One of the things that is amazing about this zoo is how interactive everything is. We were up close and personal with the animals.

And I was feeling just a little too close and personal with the lemurs. Especially as they started growling at each other behind my back. We only got this one shot of us here because I quickly moved to a bit more comfortable distance. Andy was teasing me, but really they were growling at each other behind my back. I think I was justified in my need for distance.

Throughout the zoo there were really fun statues. The kids wanted their pictures taken at every single one.

At the white bengal tiger exhibit there was this freaky-looking bug on the fence. Before long, we weren't even watching the tigers but this crazy bug. I got the great idea to blow on it. Don't ask me why. And then it sort of jumped-flew onto Andy's shirt. He was less than thrilled. And who was making fun of me for not wanting to be too close to the animals?

But to be fair, it was a really freaky bug. The kids decided that it looked like it was wearing boots on 4 of its 6 legs. Furry, white boots. At first when we saw it, we thought it was a piece of lint or trash. Until it started moving! Freaky bug.

I think of this as Tori's lotus-flower pose. This is what happens when your child attends Chinese school. . .

The whole clan

We were so humored by this. You could pay to have your photo taken in front of the chimpanzees. But the trainer was not happy with the arrangement of the chimps. I think because they kept moving and shifting. As we stood there watching, he rearranged them several times. And then in the end, it really looked about the same. 

Tori was keeping pace with the Pygmy hippo

On our second day in Singapore, we met up with some friends who also happened to be visiting at the same time. We met Daniel at the Ion Food Court. While there we also ran into another couple that we know from Suzhou. Somehow this happens to us a lot. Last year we bumped into friends at our hotel in Vietnam. The world is small.

After lunch we met up with Cynthia at the Botanical Gardens. Tori seems to have commandeered Aunt Cynthia's phone. We'll just hope she wasn't making a call.

Within the Botanical Gardens, there is a stunning Orchid Park. It was steamy hot (then again all of Singapore is), but oh-so-beautiful.

Just what am I looking at? Somehow I was not behaving for pictures. First the lemurs, now this. . .

But maybe I will just claim that I was looking at these amazing flowers. The girls kept saying, 

"Take a picture of this one." 

"Oh, this one is pretty!" 

Because they were all just overwhelmingly gorgeous. It was hard not to take pictures of every single one. 

And maybe we didn't get every one. But we came close. Such a marvelous part of creation.

The Singapore crew

Upon leaving the Orchid Park, we encountered this lady with her ridiculous dogs. Can you see their shoes? As Andy said, "she is way too serious and intense looking to be carting around such ridiculous creatures."

Normally, I try not to repeat myself but all that comes to mind is: ridiculous.

As we were leaving the Botanical Garden you could walk through this tunnel created by plants. Both Amree and I loved the way the roots felt.

We had just two days in Singapore and then it was on to Tioman Island in Malaysia. But while we were in the city, we sure packed it in!