You Can Tell When the End of Your Trip Is Near

family, happiness, health related issues, lessons learned, Teaching and Education, travel 2 Minutes

My wife, son, and I have been blessed to spend the last ten weeks in Singapore as part of a teaching opportunity I had with a group of Villanova students.

We go home this weekend, and we are trying to make the most of our last couple of days here by jamming in as much as we can. We had originally planned to do some traveling to Vietnam this week, but because of the coronavirus, we decided to stay in Singapore, which seems to be about the safest place one could be during this crisis.

Since we are not sure when we will be back in this part of the world again, we’re trying to create some memories that hopefully will last us until the next time we visit.

So here’s an example of what we have done in the past 24 hours:

  • watch the sunrise
  • have breakfast (teh and kaya toast) at our favorite cafe where it’s just us and a bunch of locals. and they know our order by now…
  • revisit  Gardens by the Bay (highly recommend)
  • have one more really good and really cheap Indian meal
  • walk around Marina Bay Sands mall again
  • ride subway and bus as much as possible; we have to use up as much credit on our cards as we can 🙂 I can’t imagine a nicer public transit system anywhere in the world
  • watch the sunset
  • pay for everything with loose change since the local money changer will only change bills, not coins. the other day we went to the grocery store and I fed over $15 worth of coins into the checkout machine while the line behind me kept getting bigger and bigger…
  • go for a late-night swim in the rooftop pool
  • go for late-night dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant
  • stop at our favorite corner cafe for a couple of Tiger beers (it’s the same place we have breakfast, and once again it’s just us and a bunch of locals)

Tomorrow we plan to have pizza at a great local pizza shop, and then relax with a couple of beers sitting by the rooftop pool. It seems like the perfect way to spend our last night at our apartment.

Our flight leaves early (2:00 am) Sunday morning, but we plan to go to the airport fairly early in the evening on Saturday because it is the most amazing airport you will ever see. There is the world’s largest indoor waterfall, indoor gardens, beautiful artwork, an adult playground, a rooftop pool, and a modern upscale mall attached to the airport – to name just a few of the features. We actually spent an afternoon at the airport a couple of weeks ago just to walk around and explore the amazing facility.

This has been a wonderful opportunity, and we have fallen in love with the country of Singapore and its people.

Hopefully, we get to make our way back here again.

*image from Time Out

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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41 thoughts on “You Can Tell When the End of Your Trip Is Near”

    1. the airport perfectly represents what Singapore is trying to achieve across the whole country. it is wonderful to see such development. I hope no more travel bans, well at least not until Monday 🙂

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  4. Stop blogging and go enjoy! Your list sounds fabulous and I wish you and your family a safe trip home and lots of great memories to savour. What a great experience Jim!!! Is Villanova hiring 🙂

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    1. thanks, Shelley! We seem so busy during the day, that is why most night I am up blogging until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning! And I think I was lucky to get into academia when I did; it seems as if more and more colleges, Villanova included, seem to prefer to hire adjuncts instead of tenure-track faculty…

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      3. haha, you got that right. And are you sure you want to come back at this time? You might be better off staying for a bit. Something to think about if you can. It’s going to get worse in the US for sure.

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  10. Sounds like such a fantastic experience and great ways to spend your time! Wow! What an airport, pictures please? Love waterfalls! Safe travels back! Have you found a “talking chicken” in your travels at all? 🙂

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  12. Heh. Yeah, you have to use up all your coins when you purchase, or they’ll be souvenirs in your pockets – at least until you ever return there any time soon.

    Have fun, and stay safe.

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  15. Safe travels..sound like an amazing trip..I am glad you were able to experience that ..learning and seeing new cultures can be life changing ❤️

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