Bali Day 3, and then back to Singapore! Also, lots of ice cream.

Our third day in Bali was beach day! I had insisted on a beach day, because I love the beach and also I got no beach all summer and in fact almost no sun all summer. Alaska remains possibly the most amazing place I've ever been and I am so glad I spent five months there, but the weather was definitely the worst part.

Anyway, in the morning we got up and put on bathing suits and sunscreen (which I was super slapdash about, as we will see later) and went to the beach! And walked along the wonderful warm water for about half a mile and then walked back, and rented lounge chairs and lounged, and I helped Cheryl grade a bunch of papers.

Bali!

Beach!

Everything good!

We had to check out of the hotel by 11, so it was only a couple hours before we had to head back. But we checked out, left our stuff with management, and then went and got lunch at a beachfront restaurant. This involved delicious alcoholic drinks, lots of water (you have to order your water in Bali because the tap water is nonpotable), and gado gado for me.

Gado gado

and

some fancy drink with Bailey's and other delicious shit

We did a little shopping after lunch - Cheryl was looking for some clothing items for a costume for her upcoming dance show. It was meltingly hot (Singapore feels positively balmy after Bali!), so I grabbed an iced coffee and gelato. Then we picked up our stuff from the hotel (they lock the door at 5 and we were flying out that night) and took it with us back to the beach, where we remained, becoming utterly sandy (or at least I did :p), until we ate a leisurely fried rice dinner nearby and then were picked up by Gede's driver friend and taken to the airport to fly back to Singapore. I also realized around this point that I had burned/tanned in totally bizarre patterns, including in one spot on one thigh, in a diagonal line across my chest, and with narrow pale strips along my stomach and down my back, because despite applying sunscreen three times that day I was clearly super mediocre with each application. I was definitely coated in sunscreen, sand, sweat, salt, and dust all the way home. But so happy! :D

Happy sandy Bali beach Sho!

Whoops :p

...and it turns out I had a lot less to say in this post than I realized! I guess I should post about the two days I've spent in Singapore since then, then, too.

Well, yesterday - my first day back after Bali - I was tired and had shit to get done, so I took a day in. I did laundry, retyped an old transcription because half of it had gone missing (boo), booked a hostel and a rental car for Honolulu, answered emails, chilled out. Didn't leave Cheryl's place until I left to meet her for dinner around a quarter to five. We went to one of her favorite restaurants, which was delicious (peppered pastrami/cheddar/mushroom burger on house-made walnut bun, yummmmmmm) and also pretty inexpensive for Singapore, and then to a classy ice cream joint, where we shared a sundae (chocolate hazelnut ice cream, peanut butter ice cream with real peanut butter chunks, Bailey's-and-bourbon ice cream, Bailey's syrup, caramel sauce, chocolate balls, oreo chunks, whipped cream, and a waffle-cone straw!). And then we went home!

YAAAAAAAASSSSSS

And today I went to the Gardens by the Bay. This place is super awesome and extensive, with lots of different garden spaces. You have to buy a ticket to get into the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest Dome, but it is totally worth it because those spaces are educational and beautiful. I took about eight million pictures in the Flower Dome, which is a dry cooled space and features gardens based around the five global temperate zones (California [yay!], South Africa, the Mediterranean, Australia, and I forget the other one but I'll find out when I look at my pictures to post them on facebook). Also there is a Christmas village in the center. Singapore loves Christmas. In sort of a weird way. I think I have mentioned this before. I also really enjoyed walking through the Cloud Forest Dome, which is a moist cooled space. It not only includes cloud forest foliage, but also a crystal cave and also a basement level where you watch an excellent five minute movie about global warming and see educational panels on what the Gardens by the Bay have going on in terms of sustainability (it is super extensive, btw).

picture number one of eight million

California garden!

Apparently usually there are poppies,

but I didn't see any today.

Wrong "season"?

Cloud Forest Dome waterfall!

You also go behind it on several of the levels!

Mist is everywhere!

Anyway, I also spent a bunch of time in the gift store, had a lovely solo lunch (penne with mushroom cream sauce - all the food there is super Western - and a nice mocha), wandered around the free outdoor gardens (various Singapore heritage gardens, including Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Colonial gardens, which makes sense since those are the four major populations of Singapore and the four official languages are Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and English; and nature-focused gardens [ha, that sounds like a tautology] including a tree garden, and I forget the others :p), and then went to meet Cheryl at school. I got to see her classroom, mark some assignments for her, and meet one of her coworkers (who was AWESOME and I totally want to be her friend) and a couple of her kids.

The we went and grabbed dinner at a mini hawker market in a mall at the Serangoon MRT station (have I mentioned that Singapore is like the king of indoor subway-connected malls? It's like Montreal to the max. As far as I can tell, Singapore = upscale malls + nature preserves/gardens. At least the tourist/expat areas!) - Cheryl got this neat thing that I forget what it's called but it's basically a sort of pancake with cheese in it, and also an avocado drink that I tried and sort of liked but was sort of taste-buddedly confused by, and I got fish ball noodle soup, which was bland but fine, and then we got ice cream (hm. do I have a pattern here? do I plan my vacations around dessert? have I perhaps bought ice cream or gelato at least four times or possibly five if I'm forgetting one in the week I've been abroad? am I planning to go to a tea/gelato/macaron cafe tomorrow? no comment...) and then we bought cupcakes for later and then we went home and here I am!

Maybe tomorrow I'll post all my pictures, now that I'm caught up on the glob! :)