Grief Trip: Travels of Healing: Last Legs of Asia: Koh Samui and Singapore

Our last two stops of our trip were amazing!

I has lucked out by booking a group outing on CruiseCritic.com with another group on the ship. At first I feared that we would be the "odd ones" in the group, because we were the youngest with kids. I even prepped the kids to be on their best behavior. They behaved impeccably!

We had to take a boat to the island.

Koh Samui is an island that is owned by Thailand and is beautiful! We got off the ship and immediately were greeted by the tour guide/driver. We took off into the town of Nathon and wended our way through the tiny streets. Our first stop: The Na Muang Waterfall.

Inside the tour van

The first thing we see is a baby elephant. Isabel, of course, is not going anywhere near this horrifying monstrosity, but CICI!! "I NEED TO FEED THE BABY ELEPHANT!!! Lol.

Afterwards we tromped up the hill to the decline to the waterfall. I was hoping we would be able to swim here, but the water looked...questionable. The view was gorgeous though.

The best part of this stop was a little grass hut that housed a soup lady. YES! A SOUP LADY! For the cost of $2.50, we each had a bowl of undetermined meat/noodles/foliage soup. It was delicious and EXACTLY what I wanted to experience in Southeast Asia.

Then we got back into the van and headed towards the Mummified Monk. I didn't wear sleeves, so I did not go inside out of respect, but Isabel was entranced by the monk. He apparently never decomposed and is now the man of the house at this temple. Chris and I questioned the sunglasses, but we think that they are in place because his eyes look freaky.

We then headed towards Grandmother and Grandfather Rock. I knew, going there, what it was. If you want to see, you can click here. Cici was able to quickly discern what we were looking at, but Isabel never figured it out. It was a beautiful seascape.

Our last stop was lunch on top of the mountain. We drove to a long upwards driveway and were asked to get out?!? Then a jeep vehicle arrived with a bed of benches to drive us up the steep incline. Somehow I ended up with the front seat.

When we arrived at the top, we found a gorgeous view, a lovely restaurant, The Jungle Club, full of plush couches and chairs, and A FIRE! There was actually a hillside fire taking off below the restaurant. The entire staff was at the edge creating a bucket brigade to put it out. Eeek!

I almost insisted that they take us back down the mountain, but we waited and they put it out. Whew! We ate a lovely lunch overlooking the harbor below. Afterwards we headed back to the ship and headed off towards Singapore.

Singapore:

Out last stop was Singapore, which I was very much looking forward to. I was excited about the food and the hotel we had booked, The Marina Bay Sands.

Immigration went much easier than expected and there was no delay getting out of the port. After a short line for a taxi, we were off!

Sad to leave our ship!

Happy to be in Singapore!

I was impressed the whole time in Singapore on how Western-friendly it was. The skyscrapers are unique in architecture. The streets are clean and beautiful!

We were dropped off at our amazing hotel and had to await check in. So off we went to the nearest food center.

In Singapore, they are well know for creating Food Centers instead of random street food vendors. Imagine a food court at the mall. Now multiply it by 10. THAT is a food center. It is all government regulated and inspected and has all of the local foods at extremely inexpensive prices.

My first food must: Hainanese Chicken Rice

The chicken heads indicate how "fresh" it is.

On TV, it looks like boiled chicken and rice. I'm like "what's the big deal?"

Well, you miss out on the sauce. They douse everything in the sauce and drain it off. It is delicious. Cici couldn't get enough of it! We also tried some "carrot cake" which does not have carrot, and is not cake...

Check! One food down!

When we arrived at the hotel, we got to check into our rooms, on the 38th floor. The girls were very impressed with their first express elevators. Up to our room in 15 seconds!

Our view was gorgeous! Our rooms were gorgeous! What a great score! These rooms were still cheaper than our NYC accommodations!

Then the pool... No words are needed.

Photobomber!

I was able to hit a few other food musts. I got to try the chili crabs. eh... The Sup Tulang. Awesome! And we also were able to hit the Mario Batali restaurant in the adjacent mall. Mazzo. Wonderful! Got to try Lardo for the first time. Like meat butter! Apparently all I cared about was food.

We also went to a night safari and an aviary with the girls. I felt that it was kinda stupid to go to these since we like in ORLANDO!!! HELLO!!!???

I think if you every have the chance to check our Singapore, you should take the chance. It is not all "law and order" like they show you on TV. Just don't so any drugs there.