Sentosa: Asia's Playground!

For the first time since I got to Singapore we actually set an alarm!  We had big plans for the day, as we had bought a Groupon for Sentosa, an island off the coast of an island!  This is an enormous island filled with lots of touristy things to do, Universal Studios Singapore, for example.  We got a Groupon which included Underwater World, the Dolphin Lagoon, Lunch, and a Skyride/Luge.  Pretty great stuff!  There was one small catch however, we had to pick up the tickets from a travel agency on Orchard Street, about an hour walk from where we were.  Oh well!  We put on our walking shoes and headed out.  After a stop for a Slurpee, a stop for getting lost, and a stop to admire all the shopping on Orchard Street we proceeded to our travel agency and picked up the tickets! 

After grabbing the tickets we headed to the island!  We walked across the boardwalk to get to the island which only cost 1 dollar, instead of the 4 it would cost to take a bus!  Go saving money! Once on the island we headed in the direction of where Underwater World would be....unfortunately I go us hopelessly lost for about an hour.  So we wondered around not really sure what was going on! But eventually we found a hotel shuttle which took us to a bus station which brought us to Underwater World!  

Underwater world was not quite what I expected.  After all the luxury that I had seen on the island, it was a little disappointing when we first walked in, nevertheless I strive to have a good time wherever I go and thought I was going to MAKE it fun!

The coolest parts were:

Petting the Stingrays!

Feeding the Fish!

OTTERS!  (Are always the best part...)

The Underwater Tunnel!

I have to say this was probably the best part of the entire Underwater World.  I have always wanted to go through one of those underwater tunnels where the fish swim all around you and it was totally amazing!  We ended up going through the whole thing three times cause it was just so AWESOME!

Red Bellied Gecko 

Lots of Fish!

Shark Hanging Out on The Tunnel

WOW!

Before we headed to the Dolphin Lagoon we went and got our free lunch.  Which was disappointing.  We got a burger (small and microwaved) and 6 chicken fingers.  No Fries and a smaller drink that was usually given.  Pretty cheap all the way around and we were DEFINITELY still hungry, but we had lots more to do before dinner! Next we headed to the Dolphin Lagoon where there was a dolphin and sea lion show.  This consisted of the typical dolphin tricks, jumps, hoops, balls, etc.  And sea lions doing some pretty cool stuff.  It was all pretty cool until I got picked out of the audience to help wake up a sleeping sea lion, then it became AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

New Best Friends

Giving My Friend a Wake Up Massage!

After the amazing show that I was a part of, we headed to a smaller island of the coast of an island, which was the Southernmost Point on Continental Asia.  Although how an island off the coast of an island off the coast of an island off the coast of Asia is still part of continental Asia is beyond me!

Rammy Ram on the Southernmost Point of Asia

Looking Out Further South!

We then headed to the skyride/luge.  Now the Skyride was really just a chairlift, something I am intimately  familiar with.  So definitely nothing to be wow-ed by.  But the luge was pretty cool.  It was something I had seen in New Zealand where you go up a hill and then ride down really fast in these little go-cart like things.  And I had a blast!  Tons of fun, although quite short, but TOTALLY worth it!

Chairlift, with Luge on Bottom (Pretty Niffty!)

After all that we were done, a good 8 hour day!  We were exhausted so we hopped on the MRT and headed back to our hostel.  Stopped there quickly for some water and then off for a well deserved dinner at our favorite food court!  We ended up with Mee Gorang, Watermelon Juice, and our favorite Dumplings!  All in all delicious!  Tomorrow it is off to Malaysia!  Wish us luck!

Watermelon Juice and DELICIOUS Mee Gorang

Absolutely AMAZING Dumplings and 12 for 5 dollars not too bad!!!  Definitely Going to Miss These!

Singapore: The Island of the Merlion

I arrived in Singapore early morning (read 10:30) and I was lucky enough to have someone pick me up at the airport.  Joel had gotten here the day before and was nice enough to help me find our hostel so I wouldn't get completely lost in this new city (country (Continent!)).  The first thing I noticed as I got out of the Metro was the wall of air that hits you.  A thick and sticky air.  It is almost like walking through a solid wall.  Clearly the humidity here is high!  It was like being in the DC summer again!  Luckily I had some experience with this, but I was not thrilled!  Anyway we dropped my stuff off at the hostel and headed to lunch.

Yummy Lunch my First Day!

A Smoothie as Well ( I wanted Guava, but somehow got Kiwi.....Still not sure about the confusion)

Our Amazing Food Court

 After our delicious lunch we headed back to hostel, where I shamelessly admit that I took a nap.  After that we headed back to the food court and had a delicious dinner! And then a nice walk to the water, but only quite short because I was pretty tired!  Back to the hostel where I fell asleep and for the first time in a while slept till 9 the next morning!

On our second day in Singapore we headed out to explore the city for a while.  A late start of course, it was so HOT!  But we headed over to the Marina Sands and some of the other sights that were well known in this amazing city

The Gardens

Marine Sands Hotel 

Rammy Ram on the Double Helix Bridge

After walking around for a while we headed to a shopping center, which was ENORMOUS!  I can definitely see why this city is so well known for shopping.  There was so much shopping around everywhere! But we headed to the shopping center food court where we scrapped up some delicious pork soup lunch!

Delicious Lunch!

After Lunch we headed to the Gardens to take a look around.  Although it was pretty warm so we only wandered for a while, but soon we retreated to the shade where we could read in the gardens in peace and quiet!

Green Everywhere!

The Famous Singapore Flyer!

The Merlion!  (Half Mermaid/ Half Lion)  Singapore is Famous for This!

  After wandering we headed to the train station because we were headed to the night safari!  An night time zoo.  Where all the animals are nocturnal (or some of them)  and you get to wander around and see them during their feeding time!  After taking a train and a bus, made me feel like a local, we got to this crazy zoo.

Our New Nocturnal Friend

The Famour Merlion

The Famous Fire Show at the Night Safari

This is Where the Nocturnal Animal Show Was Held

After the two shows we walked around for about an hour and a half looking at all the amazing animals in the night.  It was definitely a cool experience.  Then we jumped on the tram and took about an hour ride around the zoo where we saw lots of other cool animals.  One of the coolest was the hippo which was HUGE!  I didn't know how big they were!  We then headed back to the city and the hostel for another beautiful night of sleep! 

Our third day in Singapore we slept in!  Which was glorious!  But after a long breakfast at the hostel, where we met some lovely backpackers, one of who had contracted Dengue Fever in Malaysia (Uh Oh, better wear that mosquito repellent!) we headed to our room to plan the next couple days.  We finally bought the bus trip to Malaysia and bought a Groupon for our adventures tomorrow! But around 3 o'clock we headed out to get some dumplings for a late lunch and then walk around the city.  We grabbed a Slurpee from 7-11 which was amazing in the heat and walked around.  We ended up in Little India which was pretty cool!  

Little India was just Lots of Stores!

In the Mustafa Center You Could Buy Anything!  Including Material for Saris

Lots of Temples!

Really Amazing Statues!

Then back to the hostel for some R and R and dinner at our nice food court for dinner!  Tomorrow is going to be a nice day!  Last full day in Singapore is tomorrow!

Mulga's Tour (Day 4 and 5) Alice Springs to Darwin!

I woke up early again this morning (I am feeling like this is a trend) and jumped into the bus.  This, although part of the tour I booked, was a separate tour with a new bus, new people, and a new tour guide.  Luckily some of the people from my last group were in this one as well so it wasn't starting completely again!  But today promised to be a LONG day as we were driving around 900km!  And tomorrow was about 600KM.  Lots of bus time!

I mainly slept throughout the day but we did have a couple stops along the way.  Our first stop was Wycliffe Wells, a gas station/ RV Park that is famous for aliens landings.  Lots of random things at this stop!  There was an article hanging on the wall that claimed that aliens had landed on Uluru and had created humans there.  And that was how humanity came to be.  And the aliens kept coming back near Uluru to check up on their creation....Pretty wacky stuff!

Welcome to the UFO Centre of Australia!

Rammy Ram Made Some New Friends!

After meeting and learning all about aliens we headed to the Devil's Marbles.  This was a really cool (Read ONLY cool) stop that we had on our way to our beds that night.  Lots of rocks in really weird positions.  Something about erosion and rain made them that way.  Can't remember as I was probably sleeping when he explained it ( I did this A LOT on the bus!)

WOW Rocks!

This Tour Was ALL About Rocks....

Ooops....Broke this one....

After the Devil's Marbles we didn't really stop till we got to our nice motel for the night.  A place called Daly Waters Pub.  This was a country oasis in the middle of nowhere.  The pub was EXPENSIVE, apparently the most expensive beer in Australia, but totally worth it as you bought a beer, went to sit outside on the patio and listened to some old country musician twanging away on his guitar.  Pretty much heaven for me!

After a BBQ dinner I went to bed, because shocker, tomorrow was going to be another early morning!

Another 5:30 am wake up and into the bus!  This was it though, final day on the bus and more importantly final day in Australia!  Crazy, 7 or so months and I was finally at the end of it!  I had to make sure I made the most of it!

We started the day by stopping at a hot springs, after driving for a couple hours and finally watching the sun come up!

Our Natural Oasis for the Morning!

After the hot springs we hopped back into the car and drove for a couple more hours.  Watching the outback turn into more of a rain forest.  Around noon we stopped at Catherine which is the third largest city in the Northern Territories (read not that big) for lunch.  Here I loaded up on important nutritional snacks for the night (I was planning on staying in the airport for the night!).  After that we hopped back in the bus and headed to our last stop.  A beautiful waterfall for an afternoon dip.

Swimming in this Water was AMAZING!

Our Last Stop in Australia!

What a great way to spend the last day!  After our nice cooling dip, back in the bus we went.  Four more hours and we were in Darwin.  On our way though we had to go through a bush fire, which turned the sky black and the sun red!  It was pretty crazy driving down the Aussie Highway and being surrounded by fire on both sides!  But luckily we made it through safe and sound! 

After arriving in Darwin we all headed to dinner for some well deserved beers and steak!  My new friends won some free pitchers of beer, which they were more than willing to share!  At around 11 pm  I caught the shuttle to the airport, my flight was at 7am so I thought it would be a great way to save some money!  I was well stocked with movies, internet, and lots of food and Cola.  Little did I know when I arrived I would run into a friend from the first part of this trip who was also staying the night.  We ended up talking till about 2 30 am and then taking a quick nap.  Now it's off to Singapore and my Asia adventure!  Best of Luck Australia it's been a BLAST!

Mulga's Outback Tour (Day 3)

Today we were woken up well before the sunrise, eat breakfast and headed off to watch the sunRISE on Uluru.  It was pretty amazing, albeit early and a little chilly.  But nothing I wasn't used to!

What An Amazing Sunrise!

Even Rammy Ram Enjoyed It!

The Sky Was Enormous!

After watching the sunrise we headed to the base of Uluru for a quick talk from our guide, Chris.  He was worked with the Aboriginal people and learned a lot about their culture and bush food along the way.  He spent a while explaining lots about the importance of Uluru as well as some of the plants and their uses. After that we headed around for a walk about Uluru.  This was another 8km about, but luckily it was completely flat this time, so pretty easy going! 

Some of the Paintings Done by the Aboriginal Peoples

Water is one of the MOST Important Resources for the People Here, So this Was a Sacred Area

Walking Around Uluru

Who Knew It Had So Many Holes in It?

After our walk we jumped back in the bus and headed to Alice Springs for this leg of the trip was DONE!  Only about 500km or 5 hours in the bus and we made it back to our hostel.  But it is not over yet!  We headed down to the bar for some dinner as a group and last beers together.  After dinner came dancing and before I knew it it was already 12:30!  I had to head off to bed because once again I was up early the next day to head off to Darwin!  Only 4 hours of sleep!!!

Mulga's Outback Tour (Day 2)

I woke up this morning to the sun rise in the outback.  Just stunning.  There is something really magical that comes with being awoken by the sun.  Very natural and peaceful.  Much better than hearing an alarm blast at who knows when!  We quickly took camp apart and had a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon before heading on the road again to Uluru.  Our first stop of the day was the Uluru Information Center or Visitor Center.  Here there was lots of information about the Aboriginal People who live in this area as well as their culture and expectations of us as visitors.  Uluru is interesting because it is co-owned by the Aboriginal and the Australian Government.  So they way it works is that recently the Australian Government gave back the land that Uluru lies on to the Traditional Owners, who then leased it back to the Government to allow use for tourism.  But there is still a council which consists of 6 Traditional Owners, three men and three women, and 2 non-Traditional Owners.  Pretty cool stuff!

After this we headed to Kata Tjuta another rock formation nearby which is actually larger, but less famous.  And officially considered two rocks since erosion has split it.  Here we stopped for lunch and then embarked on yet another hike (I seriously was not expecting all this hiking and I LOVED it!)

Another 8 KM hike 

Very Red Rocks!

Rammy Ram and I Made It!

One of the Amazing Views!

Kata Tjuta From Afar

After battling the elements (read HEAT)  and the black flies (read MOST ANNOYING THINGS EVER!) we got back to the bus and headed off to see the sunset on Uluru.  Pretty excited for this!

Rammy Ram Making Sure His Eyes are Protected From the Sun!

The Changing Color was Pretty Amazing!

Kata Tjuta From Afar

Loving the View!

One Final Shot Before the Night Comes!

After our amazing sunset we headed to our camp site.  This one was different from where we were yesterday.  A little busy (somewhere where all the tourists buses go at night near Uluru)  but we still managed to have a good time.  Between Camel Burgers and Kangaroo Carpaccio, marshmallows and dance parties, and of course a good old campfire we had a blast.  But tomorrow is another early morning so off to bed under the stars we went!