Singapore!

So my last two days in Vietnam were spent back in Ho Chi Min City! Those of you who are on facebook, know I did a little back alley purse shopping. I also got some cheap DVDS (2 for $1) including 7 seasons of Dexter (for $7) and 5 seasons of True Blood ($7). These purchases made my duty day a lot more enjoyable!!! We ate lunch at Pho 2000 which was DELICIOUS! President Clinton ate there (probably once) and his picture was everywhere! It was delicious. I got noodles in broth with chicken. YUMMMM!

 Bill Clinton (sorry it's fuzzy - iphone zoom isn't great!)

I went out to dinner one night with a lovely woman who was a former UVA grad. She relocated to Vietnam 18 years ago and never left. She was gracious and fun and I enjoyed talking with her. Her restaurant (in which she is a co-owner) had AMAZING food and wine. It was nice. After we went out. We found an awesome party at the top of the Sheraton hotel with a great cover band but the drinks were too expensive. We ended up on backpackers alley, sitting on the sidewalk watching the nightlife (and lots of students) go by. It was a great night. The last day, Craig and I went out to finish shopping and got some really good pizza for lunch (sometimes you need a break from Asian food!), and then it was gangway duty and bye bye Vietnam! That evening we had a bbque on the pool deck! It was a lot of fun and the macaroni and cheese was on point!

On a side note, my chopstick skills are improving… very slowly but improving.

Not much happened in the two days at sea between Vietnam and Singapore. On the first day in Singapore, I was on 24 hour duty so I hung back on the ship. Got some job applications out, helped out with an open house, caught up with my parents and ryan, and watched a little tv. It’s nice to have some time on the ship almost alone to recoop once in awhile. :)

Singapore is very clean, very new, and very strict. There are a lot of laws with very harsh penalties. Gum is not allowed and the minimum fine for having/chewing it was $1000! I got up early on the 21st and headed to the Singapore Zoo with Craig. The zoo is an open air zoo. This means a bunch of the animals (not the predatory ones or the ones that are endangered) are in the zoo with little to no fences or glass. The monkeys “are trained” to wander around the zoo. We heard this on the bus on the way there, but didn’t know just what that meant until we ran into a monkey in the trees next to the entrance.. When we grabbed our cameras and zoomed in, the monkey charged at us and stopped RIGHT at the edge of the fence.. I could touch him if I wanted too! (I didn’t). We saw white tigers, baboons, kangaroos, pandas… it was great. We only had 3 hours. Luckily Craig goes to zoos the same way I do… easily distracted by the animals. We barely made it a third of the way through the incredible zoo before the bus was getting ready to leave. We spent almost 30 minutes at the baboons and another 20 watching the mama kangaroo and the joey in her pouch. ADORABLE. When I left all I could say was “I hope one of my kids is obsessed with animals so I can take them there” :)

Sorry for the photo line -- I'm out of internet minutes after posting my China blog so I'm working on the RD computer! 

 There were tons of school trips at the zoo and the kids were SCREAMING when they saw an animal! :)

This guy taught me the true meaning of an open air zoo... When i took his photo of him in the trees he ran at me, and came right in my face!

 

This guy was a descendent from the dinosaurs.... not surprisingly. He was so creepy big.

Hewwo!

 

There were soooo many baboons!

 We watched the baboons for at least 30 minutes. There were so many and the kids were playing and the mamas were keeping them in check by pulling their tails. There were some eating, some running around. A lot just having a good time. There was so much going on, it was mostly hilarious!

 No exhibit has ever made me laugh as hard as this poor man painting. I was DYING

 

Craig and I went to see the pandas!

 

 

I wish I got a better picture of the red panda... that was cool! 

  

 

 Otters were posing for photos! 

 hewwwwo friends!

 White Tigers!

  

 

Hippo! See him?

Kangaroos!

 See the baby?

 Feeding time.

 My camera ran out of battery halfway through. After the zoo, we went to Chinatown for postcards and some shopping before heading back to work! I couldn’t find a post office, so Singapore postcards will be mailed from Burma (boo my streak is broken!). Just not enough time in Singapore! :)