What Shall I Do Today?

I feel as though I've really accomplished something--I've learned how to ride the buses! When I first arrived here, Bill told me that the MRT subway system was easy, but he found the bus system incomprehensible. Too hard for us mere Occidentals, in other words.

But yesterday, sitting in the hot sun, waiting for the free shuttle bus that never came, I studied the posted schedules and took the plunge when a #51 pulled up. I beeped my EZ Pass, no one yelled at me for doing it wrong, I didn't get lost and I managed to go all the way to where I wanted to go and got off at the right place. Success! At 69 cents per ride, it sure beats a $10 cab fare.

After reading my blog yesterday, my mom was shocked that I paid $185 for the silicone thingy collection. So for those who read it the same way, I meant $18 Singapore Dollars ("S"), not $185!

Bill came home early (9:30 am) yesterday and wasn't sleepy, so we embarked on another adventure--riding the Singapore Flyer, world's largest ferris wheel. It was expensive but very, very fun. We rode in a glassed in "capsule" about 8 x 20 feet in area. An audio guide and map legend explained what we were seeing in the 360 degree view, 165 metres above the ground at its apex. When we alighted, we walked through the mini rain forest exhibit and had a gelato to cool off.

Back at Great World City mall, I dragged Bill into a Japanese restaurant, were we ate multiple plates and bowls of great food and drank Sapporo beer to cool off. I kept ordering this and that (fabulous shrimp tempura!) until Bill protested that he really had to get to sleep. He got a solid 7 hours while I did my bus adventure described above. Then we met some of his co-workers for drinks out on the hotel patio--I got to meet the Chief Engineer, Dusty, and his lovely wife Tamoko, from Japan.

Now it's another day ahead. Tamoko and I have planned to meet up and do something together--maybe shopping, maybe dim sum, maybe showing her some of the places I have found to be interesting. She has not seen much of the city other than Orchard Road, and she is a tentative traveler, a little shy and hesitant to venture out.

By contrast, I have re-discovered my long ago adventurous self here--easy to do when the city is very safe, and the usual city crimes are almost non-existent due to the draconian punishments for such behaviors. Every day, I feel that I am stretching my boundaries and recapturing some of the curiosity I used to have when I traveled in my twenties.

Bill rolls his eyes and says, "I supposed there's no stopping you now..." By insisting that I come here and learn to be an explorer again, he may have created a globe-galavanting monster.