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| The Chinatown Point mall in Singapore contained more restaurants than apparel shops. |
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We’d traveled to Singapore for one week at the end of June 2016 with a plan to apply for visas for upcoming trips, which, for us, required in-person applications at the two embassies, including Thailand and Vietnam.
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Most food items contain starches, sugar, and grains.
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We’d hoped to apply for an Indonesian visa while in Singapore. Still, since the Thailand and Vietnam embassies required that we leave our documents with them for a few days, we ran out of time, ultimately figuring out the Indonesia extension once we arrived in Bali, which later worked fine.
Our upcoming Mekong River cruise was fast approaching making the Vietnam visa most important, followed by Thailand, where we planned to stay for 40 nights following the river cruise.
As it turned out, everything went as planned. We had the two most urgent visas in hand one week later by the time we left Singapore. We could have applied for the visas online, but we’d have had to send our passports to the embassies via snail mail.
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| Of course, we stopped to eyeball the sweets. Tom didn’t buy a thing. He’s always looking for donuts which few countries outside the US offer. |
When we first began traveling, we committed never to mail our passports to any visa service or embassy outside the US. If they were lost in the mail, we’d be in big trouble in a foreign country without our passports.
Subsequently, we had no choice but to go to Singapore, the country closest to Vietnam where we were headed next, knowing we’d enjoy the ultra-clean and safe country while handling the visa applications.
We stayed in a lovely boutique hotel in the center of downtown, close to restaurants and Chinatown, and each day we were able to get out and walk to check out the local flavor and restaurants. Taxis were reasonably priced and reliable, making getting around easy and pleasant.
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| The displays with menu options are meant to whet the appetite. |
We’d been to Singapore once before, earlier in 2016, when we disembarked a cruise to catch our flight to Bali. At that time, we were rushing and couldn’t explore. The one week we spent in June/July was ideal for sightseeing in the unique country.
Although we enjoyed our week there, we weren’t interested in returning for a more extended stay. Most of the country’s holiday homes consisted of high-rise buildings and apartments, which weren’t then, and aren’t now our ideal holiday/vacation home environment.
In May 2013, in Dubai, UAE, on another occasion, we experienced condo/ apartment-living in a high-rise building on the 47th floor (of 87 floors). Again, this is not an ideal scenario for our tastes. See our photos here.
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| There were several appealing sit-down restaurants in Chinatown Point. |
Over the years, at times, we’ve had no choice but to stay in condos when our options were limited based on availability and pricing. Preferably, as has been the case in the majority of situations in the past, we’ve stayed in houses.
I assure you, once we can leave Mumbai in many months to come, regardless of where we may go, we’d prefer a private house over other possible options. We’re longing for space!
Yesterday, when we disagreed about a tiny thing, I said, “I’ll go into the other room until you cool off.” Since I don’t like to argue and prefer to avoid confrontations, I’ve always used this tactic in the past as a simple means of avoiding a heated altercation.
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| Food, food, food, everywhere in Chinatown Point. Neither of us was hungry, so we decided to wait until dinner. |
We both laughed out loud when we both realized there was no other room for my usual escape. This returned us both to a positive state of mind when we could laugh over our peculiar situation, living in one room, 323 square feet, 30 square meters (including bathroom, closet, and hallway) for over 100 days so far.
It’s no wonder we both make an effort to get along so well! Over the years, we’ve stayed in small cabins on cruise ships and, most recently, a train with a considerably smaller space. Fortunately, we spent little time in the cabin during those periods other than to sleep, shower, and dress.
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| Many dishes are prepared with noodles which I don’t eat. |
Again, the hotel is entire. We noticed the rates for this hotel have increased by almost IND 747, US $10 a night, since we’d booked for July a week ago. From now on, we’ll check prices daily to see if we can again get the lowest possible prices for August. We’re accumulating lots of “free nights” through our Hotels.com rewards program (using the link on our site) and will use them soon.
Have a safe and fruitful day!
Photo from one year ago today, July 3, 2019:
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| While in Connemara, Ireland, one year ago, we learned how to recognize authentic scallops with the orange roe connection piece, which in itself is delicious! In markets and restaurants, “fake” scallops are often served that are “plugs” from other types of fish. For more, please click here. |