Visa Run

Today we headed out to Singapore. We flew out of the brand new Bangkok airport. It was much nicer than the old airport, of course since it is new it had its bugs-so we left an hour past schedule. We flew on Thai Airlines, which as of right now is my favorite airline. There is about one flight attendant to every 25 people. They wore beautiful silk uniforms and everything was decorated beautifully. But by having so many staff on board- I had a hot washcloth to wash my hands and face with in the first 10min after take off. Then we were feed with in the first 30 min, all you wanted to drink (alcohol, sodas, tea, etc), and there was a pillow for everyone, and blankets for all who wanted one. They also made sure you had enough to drink the whole time. We got a movie with headphones for free. Now if you have been flying lately you will know that they nickel and dime you for everything these days so it was refreshing to just get what you needed or wanted. And no this flight we did not fly business class this was the wonderful service in economy seating. Ok enough with the free advertisement for Thai Airlines.

Once we got into Singapore we got a taxi to our new hotel called the Meritus Mandarin Hotel http://www.mandarin-singapore.com/accommodation/premier_room .htm and it is amazing. It is about $400 dollars a night for just the premier room. It has a lot nicer rooms than that. I loved our room because it came with those really nicer leather reclining massage chairs. Which is good since I am not getting my Thai massage every night here.

The city its self is so clean. It does have few strict rules- (the below are 1st offenses!)

1. No chewing non-prescription gum ($500/fine)
2. Not flushing a public toilet ($750/fine)
3. Swearing ($1000/fine)
4. Vandalism (fine to fix damage and public caning)
5. Homosexual acts (life in prison-doesn't this seem a little strange that all the men who like men get put in small cells together!)-Only men as of now Singapore doesn't acknowledge girl on girl action as being a bad thing.
6. Owning/taking/selling drugs (death)
7. Murder (death)

They do one execution a week! So we were on our best behavior. It was a nice change not having to worry about carrying a purse or walking late at night. There are no bad areas of town. We were thinking this would be a good place to move once kids are almost teens some day!