September 11

The five year anniversary of September 11 was marked in Singapore by a tribute in their newspaper, Straits Times, and an abundance of policemen, often groups of four or five, looking underworked but commanding attention (they were also on duty because of the World Bank meeting being held in the city at the moment). Sydnee and I started out our day full of plans: a cable car to the island, the Orchard Botanical Gardens, Teh Tahrik (the "pulled" tea), Satay (meat skewers, Malaysian style), back to Orchard road to pick up can't-do-withouts, and then a performance at the Esplande Theatre. We managed about half. Of course, the food and drink plans were non-negotiables, and we carried through with them at two different "hawker" food stalls. Both were very satisfying. Due to a torrential downpour (granted, it only lasted about 10 minutes) we scratched plans to do the cable car and gardens and got two much needed pedicures (Sydnee is about to see Blake, and my last pedicure's polish had faded severely due to the sand and surf and cheap nailpolish).
We got tickets for "Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress" and went back to the hostel to pack our bags get ready to leave (our flight left "that night" at 1 am). Just in time, we checked our backpacks at the cloak room and went to our "limited view" seats, which we were luckily able ot upgrade mid performance and really enjoyed the musical. We then took the MRT for $2 to the airport (cheapest city to get to the airport I've experienced yet). Changi Airport in Singapore is amazing! It has rest areas for layovers, a pool, malls, 24-hour food areas. According to sleepinairports.com it is THE best airport to have an overnight layover in. We, however, did not, and did our best to enjoy our hour before boarding.