Luge, Segway and Cable Cars.. oh my!

After a few not so successful attempts to utilize the Sentosa Fun pass thanks to rain we finally got a gorgeous day.  I scored our "fun pass" from the Singapore Groupon site.. yes they have Groupon here!!  The "fun pass" includes a Luge, Segway, and Cable car ride.  Clearly that was a deal I could not pass up. After we biked over to the resorts side of Sentosa we locked up our bikes and headed to the Luge.  The luge experience starts with a chair lift ride to the top.  The view was amazing, but it was dreadfully hot and we were actually excited to get off.  After a quick briefing on how the Luge works we were off.  I included a little video Nate took of the luge.  It was a lot of fun but quite a short little course.  I was just getting the hang of it when we reached the end.

Chairlift

View looking back down

  

















  Invigorated from our Luge run we headed for some Segway fun.  We were outfitted with helmets, knee, and elbow pads and once again got a quick tutorial on how the Segway worked.  They had a little course set up for the Segways and we headed out for our 2 loop ride.  I took the lead on the first loop however I quickly realized that I am not skilled on the Segway.  It just did not feel natural to me how you had to drive/steer the thing.  Nate however had no troubles with the Segway and zoomed ahead of me.  I can't say that I really enjoyed the Segway, although I was glad I got to try it.
  A bit overheated we spotted a 711 and headed in to take advantage of their air conditioning.  After a brief cool off we headed to the cable car.  The cable car had the most gorgeous views and was a good way to see everything.   We did the full loop from Resorts World up to the Jewel box and back.  Thankfully the cable cars were not overly hot.  We finished the day off with some McDonalds, because it was quite exciting to find a McDonalds on the resort world side then headed back on the bikes. 

Cool little art things on the way to the Cable Car

Oops didn't even know my hand
was in the sharks mouth

A bit hot in the cable car

 

Vivo city!

 

Weird little water show

Another look at Vivo.. strange looking
white building

Resorts World

Cool Dragon Fountain

Sweets and Pashminas!

We have almost hit the 4 month point.  I cannot say these 4 months have gone quickly as we have definitely encountered the challenges that are involved when you embark on the expat lifestyle. As one person put it it's like a 2 year camping trip.  Although we are not pitching a tent every night it is a bit strange to be living in a tiny apartment with nothing of your own.  I actually got super excited the other day when a package arrived from my sister and she used target bags as packing material.. ah Target how I miss you!!  Don't get me wrong the contents of the package were much better then the target shopping bag but it was just nice to see a piece of home.  My sister also sent a bunch of boxes of girl scout cookies which I ate 3 boxes in 4 days.  I admit it I am a sweet addict and if there is something sweet and delicious I will eat it!  Plus chocolate is super expensive here so I never buy it.. I was chocolate deprived.
  We also got a whole box of sweet deliciousness from my parents for Easter.  I was so excited I had to take a picture.  I will refrain from telling you how quickly I devoured the contents of this package, but lets just say Nate was impressed.

I had already eaten a bunch of jelly beans and peeps :)

Other then consuming mass quantities of candy I headed out to Arab Street/ Haji Lane the other day to check out this apparent hot spot for cute boutiques.  I didn't however realize it was a boutique shop for pashminas and other Indian garb.  All the stores had a person standing outside that tried to "talk you into the store" that drives me absolutely bonkers so I didn't go in and check anything out.  I find that they like to follow you around in the stores here.  I am big on having a "bubble" so if someone is standing directly behind me and following me around the store as I shop when it's empty I am outta there!  I was in China town the other day just looking in a store and every time I stopped and looked at anything the lady would go how much do you want to pay for that... and every time I said I wasn't interested she would throw out a price and if I tried to re-explain I wasn't interested the price would keep going down. 

Very empty MRT.. strange they are never empty

Arab Street with cool temple.. store right in front is called "Aladdin"

Rather impressive!

The shops.. from a distance

Haji Lane.. cool building.
Plus only place in Singapore I think you
will ever see Graffiti

Mission: Henderson Wave

  Nate headed off to Japan so I opted to do some exploring and my mission the "Henderson Wave."  It sounds a lot cooler then when I mention it's actually just a bridge, but since I happened to stumble across an article saying the "Henderson Wave" made it into the top places to see in with the ranks of Niagara falls I figured this is one bridge I had to see.  The bridge is in the Mt. Faber park and although I had tackled Mt. Faber previously on a monkey spotting mission, this time my mission was to find and video the bridge.  First mistake of my mission.. tackling the climb at one of the hottest points of the day..1:30 pm.  As soon as I got off the Sentosa bus I heard the rumbles of thunder and and felt a few sprinkles, but since that is an everyday occurrence in Singapore and the clouds didn't look menacing I figured I would give it a go.  The park was rather empty since I am guessing the heat and thunder scared most of the tourists off.  There were a bunch of locals that were out and of course wearing jeans, which I just don't understand since I was sweating away in a tank top and shorts.  After about 45 minutes I found the bridge.  It's a cool looking bridge but I don't think I would put it in the same category as Niagara falls, although I haven't actually been to Niagara falls so until then I will just have to assume I am correct.

  At the entrance of the bridge there was a sign that monkeys were spotted in the area.  I was rather excited because lets face it who doesn't get excited to see monkeys.  Sadly the only thing I spotted was a ridiculously large spider that I attempted to photograph, however it just doesn't do the thing justice.  After doing my own self photography I was back off down the mountain.  The journey back was a lot easier and it actually drizzled for a bit, which was refreshing until the sun popped out.

On the wave Bridge

The spider is in the middle.. hard to see

Henderson Wave Bridge

  I got back down the mountain and spotted the Sentosa bus at the bus interchange and realized it was either run in an attempt to catch it or wait 15 minutes for the next bus.  So I ran and thankfully made the bus although I felt a bit bad getting on the bus all sweaty, then again living in Singapore it's almost impossible not to be sweaty :P

Here is my video from the days adventure .. don't forget to turn up your volume

Coffee Group Ladies Update
The previous Wednesday we met up at the Tanglin Mall, which is down by Orchard road.  The mall is known for being more westernized and it actually had a Chilis!  We ate lunch and they had bottomless beverages.  This was very exciting since a typical diet coke here is $7 and you don't get free refills.  4 diet cokes and a chicken quesadilla later I was a happy and full lady.  After lunch we took a picture of all the ladies.  This was about the sixth picture we had taken as we all didn't like how we looked :)  Hannah suggested putting the hands on our hips to make our arms look skinnier however I think I took it too far!