Of course, besides the plant nursery, Ben would love the place where you can buy all sorts of fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats! He went by himself the first time (I was prepping for my classes), and he came back with $15 worth of fruits that we had never tried before! We also pretty much ate all the fruit in one sitting. We had rambutan, lychees, custard apple, mangosteen (my fave!), dragon fruit, and water apple. We didn’t venture to try durian (though I did have a durian dessert!). He took me back to the Tiong Bahru wet market a few days later and I loved looking at all the different things they were selling. Totally different from our farmers markets for sure!

It was so humid and steamy that once I took my camera out snap some pictures, my lens was completely covered in fog. That’s why that first picture looks somewhat cloudy, and I had to keep wiping the fog away to take more pictures!

While in Singapore, Ben wanted to check out their plant nurseries. Of course, right?! If was far off the beaten path, and not really a tourist thing to do, but it was worth it. Besides the Bloesem team, our friend Abby was our tour guide in Singapore (she goes to grad school in CA, but was home for the summer), so we were really able to get the inside scoop on this special country. She helped us navigate around and took us to the plant nursery.

Ben was in search for a particular citrus tree that is illegal in California, while he didn’t find it in Singapore, we did find a lot of interesting fruit trees we had never heard of before. I was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over a lot of the other plants I had never seen before, and I was so wishing that customs would just let me walk right through with all these plants in my arms. I did jot down a few names in hopes of tracking them down here somewhere, so my wish still could come true somehow.

In these photos you see some of the touristy things we did in Singapore…

Gardens by the Bay: Such an expansive garden and there was no way we would be able to cover it all, but we walked around until the heat and our legs told us we had enough. Ben really enjoyed the fruit tree section of it and was reading up all he could, and he would look up additional info on his phone to find out more! There were so many plants I wanted to bring home, and The Supertree Grove is so cool. I wanted to walk across the suspension bridge, but after Cloud Forest, Ben was not up to being so far up from the ground.

Cloud Forest Dome: This was this amazing (air conditioned) indoor conservatory with lots of beautiful greenery and a man-made waterfall. You go all the way to the top and walk down, but Ben was freaking out because you can see through the walkway that leads you down (and you’re pretty high up), so he was walking as fast as he can. You can totally see his nervous face in the picture; he was freaking out so much that I started freaking out.

Singapore Flyer: This is Singapore’s version of the London Eye. We went to go see it (and think about riding it), but once we got close, that was good enough for Ben. The thought of being trapped in that thing for 30 minutes was making him uncomfortable. HA! We made a deal though, we would skip out on the flyer, but we would go to the Skypark at Marina Bay Sands (the towers that look like it has a ship on the top) to see the view. He agreed, so I was happy with that deal.

We also took a tour on the river (thank you to one of you for the suggestion!), and I’m so glad we did that because we learned a lot about the history of this beautiful country. I enjoyed hearing about the how this was once a bustling seaport, how the British came to conquer, and the influence they had in developing this country. I loved imagining what it might have been like here long ago.

I still have so much to share about this wonderful sunny island; Singapore is so rich in beauty, diversity, and deliciousness, that’s it’s just not possible to contain in one post.

There’s so much to share about my trip to Singapore that I don’t even know where to start. I’ll try to break it up so you don’t get too much at once, but there were so many good memories made, friendships formed, delicious food devoured, and many places explored that I honestly don’t know where to start, so I’m starting with the airport… ha!

Ben and I haven’t flown out of the country since our honeymoon to Fiji (though we but did go on a cruise to Mexico a few years ago), so we were kind of anxious about the long flight and what to expect. My idea of being comfortable is a long loose dress, so that’s what I chose to wear (there and back), I had my denim shirt for when it got cool in the plane, wore glasses (switched out contact for glasses right before boarding), and went minimal make-up (just eyebrows filled and lipgloss). Also, pretty much the whole trip I tried to adapt the #messyhairdontcare attitude because my hair just didn’t know what to do in the humidity! My best hair day was the day we left.

Leaving the girls was kind of hard (Soul had such a sad face!) since this was our longest trip away from them (previous to this would be this SF trip for four days), but we are so thankful that my parents were able to get the week off to be with them, and the bookend weekends were spent with Uncle John and Auntie Linda. Once there, I didn’t really get homesick nor did I get separation anxiety from the girls, but towards the end of our week, I found myself looking at pictures of the girls on my phone more and more. We did manage to FaceTime once, but I was always texting with the BFF to see how they were doing.

We had a layover in Tokyo going to and from Singapore, so we grabbed sushi both times. Now, I don’t know how great their sushi is compared to actually being in Tokyo, but hey, it’s as close as we were going to get for now, so why not?! The first time was just a ready made take away pack of sashimi, but on the way home we had a longer layover, so we actually sat at the sushi bar and had fun ordering things we’ve never tried. I’m sure the airport sushi prices are hiked up, but we figured this was going to our anniversary dinner “out,” so we splurged a little. Our anniversary isn’t until this Wednesday, but we kind of made the trip our way to celebrate it, just like we did with our New Mexico hike last year.

Well, the flights didn’t end up being too bad, I slept all the way to Tokyo (11 hours) and most of the leg to Singapore (7 hours), and felt well rested when I got there. On the way home was a bit more challenging to sleep from Tokyo to LAX, but we were energized knowing we were going to see the girls really soon. We also took sleeping pills to help manage sleep times (to get our bodies adjusted to the time in Singapore), so that helped a bit, at least for me, I definitely got more sleep than Ben. He still can’t believe how much I slept.

Normally, I’ve been sharing a “Camp Home” project on Mondays, but last week I didn’t want to do any projects, so that will have to wait until another day this week. The girls were asking me all week, “When can we do projects again?” so that’s what today is for.

Our time here in Singapore is coming to an end soon. We miss the girls and can’t wait to see them, but we will definitely miss this unique country. I think a lot of people (other countries) could learn a thing or two from this place.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

I’m very thankful and so honored for this opportunity to be here in Singapore, meet Singaporeans, and get to work with the Bloesem team! It’s really been such an awesome visit!

Um, s’mores cake?! Yes, please!

I want to make these plant hangers!

My favorite dessert I’ve had this week is ondeh ondeh and I wish I could bring a whole bunch back with me. I may have to try my hand at this recipe.

I’ve been sharing snaps of my trip on instagram here (#sevendaysinsingapore). We’ve been so in awe of everything, and once I get home, I will have massive photo filled posts to share from everything we saw and ate (oh the food!) in Singapore. Get ready…

Coincidentally, the BFF and I had planned to go on a double date this past Sunday, which happened to also be National Best Friend Day! I had no clue there was such a day until that morning while checking instagram, so I guess it was appropriate that we had something planned that afternoon. We went out for sushi at Kanpai and oh. my. gosh. It’s the best sushi I (and Ben) have ever had! The scallops and uni were my fave, and the ramen was awe-mazing, I’ve been craving it everyday since!

Linda and I met while I was working at the Gap (I worked here throughout college and met Ben here too!), and she was a new hire. It was an instant friendship and we discovered she was the Korean version of me, and I was the Filipino version of her. We’re both pretty square, went to the same college and had the same major, went to the same hair stylist, and all these other random (and strange) things that were oddly similar. After that, we started planning all our classes together, then we went off to study abroad together, and we were pretty much inseparable. All our roommates would joke that we were RubyandLinda, with no space between our names. We’ve helped each other through break ups from our previous boyfriends, and all the highs from getting romanced by our new boyfriends to engagements and weddings, and so on. There are also things we never imagined we’d face now that we’re “grown-up” and we’ve just gotten closer as the years go by, and our friendship has become even more Christ-centered, though we still do often talk about useless things like shopping. We’ve only had 1 official fight from over 10 years of friendship, and our husbands think we talk way too loud when we’re together. Funny thing is our husbands are so much alike too; we say they’re wanna-be BFFs. Linda and John are like a second set of parents to my girls, and sometimes I think they prefer them over us. At least I know Soul does, and she says it’s because Auntie Linda doesn’t get mad. HA! The other day, I was hugging Soul and asked, “Who do you look like?” She said, “You and Auntie Linda.” Clearly, Auntie Linda is quite loved.

I’m thankful for the best friendship Ben and I share with Linda (and John). We do a lot of sharing each others joys and bearing each other’s burdens and they’ve taught me so much about generosity and selflessness. Anyway, when we’re together we’re still as silly as we were back in college, except now our jokes are about needing rogaine for women and neck cream. Thanks BFF (and John) for the wonderful lunch date!!! I’ve been craving scallops and ramen everyday since!  

I had a best friend contest on my instagram a couple weeks back (see here), and I loved reading all the wonderful things people were sharing about their BFFs. I think we should let the ones we love know why it is we appreciate them so much. On Sunday, at our church family gathering, I was convicted on how much I need to love and pray for those who annoy me (less than a handful of people came to my mind). It’s easy to love people we like, but we also ought to love people we don’t like so much too. I was totally convicted.

By the way, we tried to get John and Ben to jump for a picture too, but they weren’t too keen on that idea. I guess it would be weird to have them jumping together. LOL.

on me: shirt, vintage from mikasa su casa. patchwork boyfriend jeans, old navy. shoes, kohl’s (3 years ago). bag, thrifted.