Southeast Asia has always been on my bucket list of places to visit and, with Singapore only an 8-hour flight away, we decided to plan a 2 week trip over Christmas and New Year’s.  Jeremy decided to join us from the states, along with a few mates from Sydney (Jack, Tim and Kenty).

Probably one of the most exciting parts of the trip was knowing that I could utilize the perks of the Qantas Club lounge with Rob.  I managed to convince him that we should arrive a good 3 hours before the flight so we could take full advantage of the unlimited food and beverages.   Turns out, we failed to get past the front door because we were flying ‘Scoot Airlines’ – the lowest cost airline available in the Australia-Asian market.  After being politely asked to leave, Rob quickly spat out, “OH OK – we’ll go grab our parents who have the correct airline tickets.”  Needless to say, we didn’t return.  But that sure didn’t stop us from enjoying the whole 3-hours in the Duty Free shop area.  We opened a bottle of wine and watched Santa makes his rounds with the kids.  Not a bad start to the holiday, I reckon 🙂

FUN FACTS ABOUT SINGAPORE:
– Bungee jumping is illegal.
– Chewing gum in public is illegal (which didn’t go over well for me).
– Failure to flush a public toilet after use may result in hefty fines.
– All cab drivers must be at least 30 years old, must be married and have no criminal record.
– The result? One of the lowest crime rates in the world to date!
– Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world (~683 sq kilometers or km2) and is the second most densely populated country in the world with about 6,430 people per km2 (for those of you from the US – the USA is about 15,000 times bigger in terms of size and has about 34 people per km2).
– Due to the dense population, the government restricts the number of private cars on the road. How? Buyers must purchase a “Certificate of Entitlement” which allows the owner to use the vehicle for up to 10 years. Price tag for certificate alone – let alone high gas prices and insurance? Equivalent to buying a Porsche Boxster in the US!!
– Foreigners make up 42% of the total population.
– Oh and… When they stamped out visas, Immigration made sure we were aware that drug trafficking is punishable by death… Alrighty then.