Sometimes you just gotta dance

Before my rather humbling food-poisoning experience, we had escaped for a weekend to Singapore to soak up more of the big city. It was even a little cooler than Penang, breezy and only about 80F. We first stayed in a little hotel in the old part of Chinatown, which as usual was humming with activity. 

We stumbled across a big market next to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum, and were inexorably drawn closer and closer to a large open plaza next to the temple by the twangy sounds of George Strait followed by Billy Ray Cyrus. Wait, country music?? In Singapore?? It first felt like gimmick for Levi's to sell more jeans or a communal celebration of the latest Idol winner, but as we peered through the crowd a little slice of West Texas popped up...Singaporean Cowboys and Cowgirls line dancing to their hearts' content! This guy's giant belt buckle was the best accessory of the day, that and his utter and total concentration to kick some line-dancing butt.

We also tried a local ice cream treat -- a sort-of ice cream cone, but instead of a hard cone it was a piece of soft, sweet white bread. Despite the seemingly odd texture pairing and potential for the bread to stick to the roof of your mouth, it was pretty tasty.

In addition to hours and hours of wandering around Chinatown (where we found the most incredible French bistro Le Carillon De L' Angelus) and then Little India and Arab Street (our new favorite place in the city), we hit 2 major attractions: the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands.

From a capsule we had all to ourselves, the Flyer offered insane views of the harbor, her buildings and hundreds of ships. At the Sands, we took a brief tour through the casino (boring and strangely quiet) before heading up to the sky deck for evening martinis. Even better views from that swank locale.