First lesson of the trip: Never (never!) fly with Tiger Airlines. After many lessons in patience and a bit of restless sleep at the Macau airport we finally took off for Singapore almost 12 hours behind schedule. Arriving in Singapore was refreshing and welcoming- not only did we get to stretch our legs, but there were purple flowers around the airport, candy handed out at customs, and even signs in English! We were quick to become fans of this country.
We stayed right off of Arab Street, and walked to Little India and Chinatown - Singapore truly is a diverse place! Along with being multicultural, it is often joked about as being a “fine” city- clean and orderly because of all of the rules and enforced fines.
Hawkers centers proved to be another main attraction of Singapore, with fifty or more vendors gathering at each center to serve fresh, cheap, and delicious dishes of every strange name unpronounceable. A BBQ stingray dish found down at the waterfront was probably my favorite, though I was enjoying being near the ocean so I may have been biased as well…
Other things that made me smile: On Saturday I joined the Singapore’s UPA Frisbee team for a bit of beach pick-up at Sentosa, and yes it was good to run and play and dive and score and get covered in sand :) And Sunday I got the chance to visit a church called New Creation, where we talked about the overwhelming grace of God and took communion. It was such an amazing feeling to be surrounded by people worshipping God while in another country, and just knowing that our God is worthy of all of our praises and all that we are and have! Our God is an awesome God.
Our flight back to Macau was far less eventful than our departure for which we were very grateful, and now things are more or less back to normal! Working and putzing around here in Macau :)
I’m sending much love, prayers and many hugs back to you all! <3 -Beth
pictures: Chinatown's Buddha Sacred Tooth Relic Temple, the Merlion (Singapore's mascot), street we stayed on and the Sultan Mosque, no durians allowed on the subway!, fun color at Clarke Quay
