We're here!

Hi all!

We got into Singapore last night at 11:47pm Singapore time. We flew from Dallas to Tokyo and it took about 13 hours. We had left at 10:10am so no one really slept on the plane and when we landed, it was 1:00pm Tokyo time, but we felt like it was 11:10pm our time and we had been up since 6:00am (which is exceedingly early for each and every one of us!). The flight was unremarkable and long, but the saving grace was seat back entertainment. We had tv shows, movies, games, etc to entertain us and you could even play against other passengers. We were served lunch, snack and dinner.

When we got into Tokyo we were totally exhausted and running on fumes. They couldn't check us in for our Tokyo to Singapore connection in Dallas so we had to go to the Japan airlines counter and check in. It turns out that we couldn't check in because Chuck and Chase have the same names ... it took awhile and a supervisor to sort out. It didn't help that the air conditioning was just about non existent.

While I was getting all of that done, Cori and Caitlin checked out the bathroom and Cori came out saying "You can wash your butt. Hey, do you want to wash your butt?". I came over about that time and she took Kathryn and I straight into the bathroom. There were two airline employees in there and Cori came into the stall with me. She started pushing the button for the music and the flushing sound saying "it's rude for others to hear you pee Mom, push the buttons". Of course after that she got a big kick out of pushing the "wash bottom button" too.

We found our gate and laid down on the seats and slept for a little while in the airport.

When we boarded the next flight, we realized that there were several empty rows behind us so as soon as they closed the doors, we claimed them, stretched out and slept. It was about a 7 hour flight. I woke up just when the dinner cart was by my row and the lady asked if I wanted ketchup rice or curry vegetables. I was really out of it so I knew I must have heard her wrong. She showed me a picture and sure enough - rice with ketchup was being served!! I ordered the ketchup rice and it really was rice with ketchup with some scrambled egg on top. Super delicious! After dinner was served, they came by 6 times, 2 times for each type of tea they were serving. Green, black and english. When we were about 30 minutes from landing, they came by with ice cream that was like a pineapple sorbet kinda. It was so good and refreshing.

That was when Cori started to feel sick and run a fever. We got a cab when we got here and got her some panadol (tylenol) and went to bed. Our hotel has the smallest rooms you have ever seen (you will see as soon as we find a computer to upload them at). We reserved three rooms and each had a double bed, very small desk and chair and a tiny wardrobe. There really was about 18 inches on two sides of the bed to walk on and the other side of the bed was against the wall. When I took a shower this morning, the shower was so small that I couldn't shut the door...oh and we're paying $60 per room per night for this.

All night Cori's belly hurt, but then this morning she felt fine. We walked to a local place and had breakfast (everyone but Chase and Kathryn had prawn nee which is prawns and noodles in a broth). It was so good. Chase ordered prawn and pig tail soup. He liked it. Kathryn had plain noodles in broth and she loved it too. We all loved it but Cori so I walked her across the street and she got a chicken puff and chicken biscuit crackers for breakfast.

We then braved the bus (two buses actually - one a double decker which Cori called an English bus and was thrilled to sit upstairs) to the Singapore Flyer. The buses here charge by the distance you travel, not a flat fare so it is extremely difficult to determine how much to pay and then you have to have exact change. For those not familiar, the Singapore flyer is the largest ferris wheel in the world. I believe it's over 160 meters high. It was amazing and cost us $150 ...

After that, Cori's belly started hurting again so she and I hopped in a cab and came over to the hospital complex. We saw an ENT because we thought she had an ear infection, but she didn't. He gave us some medicine for the diarrhea and said she would be fine. She just has a little bug. I was relieved at the $117 bill which included her medicine. The staff here was amazing and we were seen within 10 minutes of walking in the door. They separate the people in the hospital by complaint and apparently no one else needed an ENT today because we went straight in. I am so glad we weren't needing x-rays because there seemed to be a bunch of people in that complaint area.

I'm in the international patient area of the Raffles hospital right now where they have free internet and Cori is alternating between playing on the other computer and laying on the couch. I'm waiting for her to finish her medicine before we get on our way back to the hotel for a little rest. Poor little thing. I guess if I could pick where she would have gotten sick, Singapore would have been it.

Everyone else is going to Sentosa park for the afternoon to ride zip lines, etc and we're going to take it easy at the hotel and then go grab some dinner later.

Hope all is well with everyone. I can't promise this much detail every time unless Cori continues to have to drink medicine dissolved in water that she doesn't like.

Kristen