Singapore/Malaysia Day 17: Last day

December 7, 2010
Singapore Day 17: Last day

And so arrived our last full day in Singapore. We leave tomorrow to head back to San Francisco. I started the day by walking to Bugis Station with Jess - word had it that you could shave off a bit of time off the morning commute by walking to Bugis Station and catching the train there instead of going to Dhoby Ghaut and transferring lines. We thought we'd give it a shot for my last day there. We saw a big sign that said "Largest street market!" and it seemed a good place to come back to in the evening.

We got to work and Betty, the awesomest person in the software group, made us Macadamia Nut Butter Tarts!!!!!!!!!! They were soooooooooooo good! That was really awesome of her and we loved them. They were so good!

We met with Nigel for our last lunch there and headed "back to where we started" - Crystal Jade at Chiangi Airport Terminal 3!!! Nigel ordered some different stuff for us this time, and it was all fantastic. We got sweet and sour fish which was probably one of my favourite dishes of the entire trip. Amazing!! We got the same beef dish as last time, and the desserts were all amazing too. Mmm. We then headed back to work to teach our last 2 classes, and then we were done!! We wrapped it up, and said goodbye to lots of people. It was sad to see everyone off, but we had such a great time there and no doubt we'll see those people again. Great times.

After finishing our last goodbyes to all of our friends at work, we took off to Bugis and wandered there in the outdoor market for a bit. It was very hot, so we went to some of the smaller stalls outside of the official mall area. I found funny Hello Kitty nodding cats and got that for myself, and found a gift for Matt Lausch and Kim Lausch for their new home.

And then we found Durian!!! Fresh!!! It was so cool, there was a big truck with a bunch of Durians on it and it smelled terrible. Matt said, "Do you smell that? It smells like garbage? That's durian." It really did smell quite bad. But we were so excited to get a chance to try it as we hadn't seen it anywhere, since you can't transport it on the subway or anywhere, really. I bet we wouldn't have been allowed to take it into our hotel, either. So we tried that and got a small package of pieces cut up for $2. It was pretty weird and definitely tasted like onions/turkey dinner/meatloaf. Wow. We had a taste and then chucked out the rest, giggling at the experience.

Matt and I then walked back to the hotel, and called Jess but she wasn't back yet. We weren't sure what to do for dinner, and wandered around on the streets near our place. We returned our MRT cards and got refunds for the remaining money on them, and then settled on a place called Mad Jack, which was an Australian-themed restaurant. I got a Turkey-Bacon Burger, never seen one of those before! That was fun and a regular kind of meal before our flight the next day.

We booked an early-morning cab with the hotel and packed up our bags. Man, I bought a LOT of gifts!!!!!! This was the case in Japan too... so many gifts. :) I eventually got it all in there and packed the important items safely, surrounded by clothes. Most importantly, I was concerned about the 2 Lion Marionettes, and I got them into a shoebox which seemed safe. After packing for an hour, I took a nice walk with Matt at 11:00 to cool down for a little bit. I then got back to my room, finished packing the last few remaining items, and showered, ready for bed by 12:30. That would give me a solid 4 hrs sleep before getting up for the flight!