February 16 -- Free Day in Singapore

This is a day to do as we please in Singapore. No officially organized activities. Therefore, after breakfast, Patrise and I headed out to the S.E.A. Aquarium. (If you are curious and want to know, the S.E.A. is an acronym for Southeast Asia.) We had a pleasant taxi ride over to the aquarium and a great conversation with our taxi driver. We asked her if she was from Singapore. She replied "yes", then informed us that only Singaporean citizens are allowed to drive taxis. This reinforces several things Jeremy told us yesterday, which indicates the Singapore regulates so much about its economy, including its labor markets, in ways to favor the country and its citizens. Since 40% of the workers are not citizens, I suppose this is a way to guarantee maximum employment.

On the way to the S.E.A. Aquarium, we passed one of the ports. It was huge and a great reminder that so much of the country's economy depends upon an active, vibrant port and maritime sector. Here are some port photos.

And now here are several photos from our aquarium visit. (Oh no, please don't show us the cute fish pictures! Well, if I have come halfway around the world to get these pictures, you folks on the other side of the world must suffer to view some cute fish pictures. Lucky for you, I am not showing all of them. HAH!)

Alright, end of the cute fish pics!

Now, after the aquarium visit, we took a taxi to the Amoy Food Court Hawkers Centre. We have been told and read that the hawkers' food courts are a must experience stop, when visiting Singapore. This one was full of food stalls of Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and other cuisines. This is our lunch pitstop. After having our heads spun by the numerous choices, we decided to experience food cultures were are totally unacquainted with; and so, we decided one of us, Patrise, would order Indonesian, and the other of us, Doug, would order Malaysian. Then, we would exchange samples.

We were fortunate to sit by two young Singaporean women, who explained some things about the foods we were eating, about the vendors -- turns out that the side-by-side food stalls we ordered from are run by a mother and daughter. They also explained why food vendors do not provide napkins -- we also experienced this when eating at the Night Safari last night -- and explained to us how to find a taxi to return to our hotel. Here are some photos of the food court centre, our meals, and the two women, Emma and Jura, who were so hospitable. (Emma and Jura, if you're reading this, thanks for everything today!!)

(Photos of stalls in the Amoy Centre Hawkers Market)

(Bottom row, last picture shows Emma [right] and Jura [left] who treated us so well.)

As written earlier, we returned to our hotel. We did so by walking from the hawkers' centre to a main street not far away. We asked a security guard in front of the Allianz Center, where we might find a taxi stand. He told us to go inside to the concierge desk and the woman there would call one for us. Indeed she did. We waited for less than five minutes and then our taxi pulled up. We rode back to the hotel.

(Views from the Allianz Tower, where we waited for a taxi after lunch.)

At the hotel we chilled, literally and figuratively for the afternoon, reading a book (Patrise) and watching a movie (Doug), until it was time to go out for the evening. When 7pm arrived, we left the hotel to go to the light show at the Gardens by the Bay. We enjoyed sitting in the park environment and watching the lights (even though we had a limited view, because we were outside the park. Here are some photos of what we saw.

After the light show, we took a taxi ride to a Jumbo's restaurant -- there are several of them in Singapore -- to get the famous "chili crab", a dish that is a Singaporean original. Our tour hostess, Sheila Cartlidge swears by it. When we got to the restaurant, the wait was 45 minutes, so we decided to get a to go order (which took almost 30 minutes anyway), then we returned to the hotel to eat our chili crab dinner. Despite the name, it is not a (spicy) hot dish; it is more like a sweet and spicy dish. However you characterize it though, it was some good eating -- and messy, because you eat it with your fingers. We both loved the flavor, but Patrise did not like the mess. I loved the flavor and the mess; it brought out the little kid in me. Here are some taxi ride photos and pictures of eating Singapore chili crab in our hotel room.

And then we went to sleep, knowing tomorrow would be our last morning in Singapore, before boarding the cruise ship.