I write to you today as a specially invited guest of the Sean Foley site to share with you all a wonderful tale of traveling thousands of miles across this great beautiful Earth to visit my uncle Sean and aunt Vivian in the Lion City. My name is Paul Duffin, and this is the story of my visit to Singapore.
Day 0: Traversing through Darkness
My travels officially began in Denver, Colorado, on a Thursday evening at 6 p.m., when I took off on the first leg of a round-the-world flight. It was just a fairly short Air Canada flight to Vancouver, BC. I almost didn't even get to be on that flight because they were overbooked, and they gave me a standby ticket. Thank the heavens that all was well in the world, and I was granted the privilege of travel that day! Later that night, I boarded a Boeing 787 straight from Vancouver to Singapore—a 16.5-hour marathon in economy class. I managed to sleep through about half of it, while the rest of the time, I kept busy studying and working, which made the hours fly right by! It was total darkness for the majority of it, though, since the sun had set around 4:30 in Denver and was just starting to rise again almost 24 hours later near Indonesia, making it my longest night ever, traversing across the Pacific Ocean in near total darkness!
Day 1: Far Flung Arrival
My 30th birthday began the moment I crossed over the international dateline the night before, but it wasn't until I had landed and gone through passport control that it really started to settle in that I was legally 30! Sean greeted me at the international arrivals section, and we quickly boarded the train into town and then went straight to the church as he had a morning meeting to catch. I took some of that time to wander around the neighborhood while the weather was still pretty good.
Later that afternoon, after they were all done with meetings, Sean, Vivian, and I got on the train and headed downtown to check out some cool sites. We went to the top of Marina Bay Sands, visited the Apple store, had ice cream for my birthday (and because it was toasty outside), and tried to take pictures with as many Christmas trees as possible, just because they looked so cool! We also had lunch at a local Asian food market where I tried some interesting noodle and chicken-type meals. Much of this first day was spent walking many miles around the downtown area, catching up on the latest family updates, commiserating about those crazy long 16-hour plane rides, and contemplating a future where certain modes of transport that are over 10x faster and more fun could make such long flights obsolete and unnecessary. There was no doubt I was completely and utterly exhausted and falling asleep on the train ride home by the late afternoon.
A Day of Impressions
One of my first impressions upon arriving in Singapore was how orderly and civilized everything was. It is definitely a first-world city surrounded by third-world neighbors. It wasn't necessarily as unrealistically spotless and clean as I might have imagined before I arrived, but you could definitely tell that the locals there take great care of their city and expect everyone to do the same, with a lot of large fines threatened for what may otherwise be considered minor infractions. Absolutely no eating or drinking on the buses, trains, sidewalks, or anywhere else other than a designated table, for example, which definitely required a change of mindset since I am used to eating random things in all kinds of places. There seemed to be plenty of foreign visitors around in the types of places I visited, so I wouldn't say I ever felt singled out, but I would imagine that most people could tell I was a foreigner on the spot.
Day 2: A Day of Rest
On Sunday, I attended the young single adult ward with Sean and Vivian, since that is the ward they are assigned to attend, and also because I am still technically a young single adult! We attended religious study sessions, sang in the ward choir, had a meal at the church, and it was just an all-around welcoming environment to be in, especially as they were just beginning to celebrate the Christmas holiday season. Afterwards, we went to visit the Singapore temple site, which they haven't even started building yet, and then headed to a nature reserve park on the north side of town closer to Malaysia. I was promised we would see monkeys roaming there, but alas, no monkeys were seen at that time in the wild. Perhaps that is a blessing though, as I've heard they can be quite aggressive! We finally came up to the pier that overlooks across the strait right into Johor Bahru, Malaysia. I did not have the time or permission from my work to make that international border crossing during the five days I was there, but it definitely had a different feel to it. At that point, we had wandered quite far around the city, so we ordered a rideshare back to home base and once again, I quickly called it a night.
Day 3: A Jolt of Energy
Monday was a busy day for Sean and Vivian, so off I went on my own adventures. The weather was very rainy and stormy, so I spent most of the day indoors at the science center, where I was able to get some cool Christmas presents and see some crazy shows, do a virtual reality tour in space, witness a guy getting shocked by synthetic lightning while sitting inside a cage as many children and adults watched (see embedded video), walk around the city, and do other random things to pass the time. Later that night, I was able to meet up with Sean and Vivian once again and go together to the Night Safari tour at the Singapore Zoo. The Singapore Zoo happened to be celebrating its 30th birthday too, just like me!
Day 4: Wonders of the Earth
On Tuesday morning, I took my first chance to go swimming in the giant pool. After about 20 minutes in there, I got thrown out because I was fully clothed, oops! Anyways, most of the day was spent at the zoo, going through the River Wonders portion. Every day I spent in Singapore on this trip had a fair amount of rain, so I couldn't complain that there was yet again more heavy rain that afternoon. But it was a great way to get in the vibe for the River Wonders, which wasn't exactly entirely indoors, but covered enough that I didn't get completely soaked. That is, of course, not until I decided to walk the 3 kilometers home from where the zoo bus dropped me off instead of taking the train, which, even with an umbrella, is a fantastic way to get soaked! This would be my last full night in Singapore, so we made it count by having a nice chicken and rice dinner at the local market and then going back home to play Sean's favorite games! Later that night, I, of course, had to video conference back home since I was in the middle of preparing to be endorsed for a pilot exam almost as soon as I returned from this crazy trip.
Day 5: Gardener City
Since Sean and Vivian were once again quite busy this last day, I headed downtown and spent most of the day at the Gardens by the Bay tourist attraction. There, I was able to go to the top of the tallest supertree and get the best views of the city skyline before they shut it down for weather. Then, I walked over to the Cloud Forest to take a nice long break from the crushing warm humidity and feel like I was in a cooler mountainous forest, learning about the great history and conservation efforts of the tropical mountain rainforests, such as the ones in Southeast Asia or in the Amazon. An awesome place to see that Sean had recommended, though they had never been to the top of the highest supertree as of then, so I was, of course, able to recommend it! Another awesome thing I got to do afterwards that they did not was to go to the top of the Singapore Flyer. One of the things my manager at work recommended when he heard I was going to Singapore was to try something called the "Singapore Sling," which I didn't know what that was at the time, but later found out it involved drinking an alcoholic beverage atop the Singapore Flyer. So instead, I skipped the alcohol part and went on the flyer, which was essentially a Ferris wheel-type contraption with enclosed capsules and takes 30 minutes to complete a full loop.
Epilogue: So Long and Farewell
This was, of course, the final day of my stop in Singapore, and all good things must come to an end so that other good things can start; that is just the way life goes. I met them at the church one last time, and together we went to the train station and said our farewells, knowing that it would not be very long at all until Sean and Vivian would complete their mission and return to the USA. This was not the end of the trip for me, as I would then fly on an Airbus A380 with Emirates direct to Dubai for a few days, and then later take an Air France flight home through Paris, thus completing my first full circumnavigation of the Earth. I hope I have inspired someone to schedule a last-minute trip to Singapore, and I very much appreciate that you have read this far. As a prize, here are a few more crazy pictures from my post-trip in Dubai, UAE. So long and farewell, friends!
