Week 4 - Haw Par Villa, Singapore Slings, & Night Safari

Hey everyone! So just wanted to do a quick update before my trip this weekend. Tuesday after work, Lisa and I went to this place called Haw Par Villa - the world's only Chinese mythology theme park. Unfortunately, the place is really run-down and is free to anyone to walk through it and see the statues and exhibits related to different stories. It was really neat to see a lot of the things, but it was kinda spooky since hardly anyone was there on a Tuesday afternoon. We then walked around Malay Village before heading to Badoque restaurant for dinner. Hidier and Zafeera have friends that own the restaurant, so they recommended we bring the group there for dinner. 9 of the ILAP people (out of 12) were able to go and the food was AMAZING! Especially the dessert - there's definitely a picture of that ice cream posted below. Wednesday, Lisa and I went to the Arab district and got some Teh Terik - it's just tea with evaporated milk, but it's really good! Then, the ILAP group met up and went to the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel to get the famous drink called a Singapore Sling. It's ridiculously overpriced ($27.05 including tax and service charge), but it's one of the signature things I think you have to do if you come to Singapore. It's where the drink originated and the bar itself is supposed to be one of the top in the world. Lots of famous people have gone there over the years, like Michael Jackson, Queen Elizabeth II, and Charlie Chaplin, to name a few. Thursday (today), Lisa and I had a farewell lunch for her with our group from work. Lisa leaves to head back to the U.S. on Saturday, so today was her last day of work. We then bought some groceries and cooked dinner as a thank-you for our host parents tonight. We made alfredo pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots, and blueberry muffins :-D. It was really good. Then, Zafeera was able to get Lisa and I free tickets to go to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo - it's open from 7:30-midnight and you can walk through trails to see lots of nocturnal animals, not to mention there's a show as well called Creatures of the Night. It was really cool! We even walked into a cage that had fruit bats flying around us - they were the biggest bats I've ever seen in my life (see pics). We then came home and made chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Off to bed - I leave for Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand, tomorrow!