An oasis in the middle of Southeast Asia –

Rejoice! We can brush our teeth with tap water, walk safely on the sidewalks and not have to worry about street food! Singapore provides peace within hectic Southeast Asia and hopefully provides inspiration for it’s neighbors. Although being the smallest country in the area (roughly half the size of L.A.), it boasts the highest GDP per capita, highest level of education and the lowest unemployment rates. That said it’s expensive. As our taxi driver explained, just the tax on purchasing a car is enough to buy a Porsche back in the States.

Singapore is a very walkable country with a great transit system. We went out on foot to explore their beautiful botanical gardens and…hunt some Pokemon!

Located within the Singapore Botanical Garden is the National Orchid museum.

There are over 1,000 species of orchids at the garden.

Continuing our trend of expensive drinks in really tall building, we went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel for a $20 beer.

At night, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Gardens by the Bay put on a light and music show.

For very cheap eats you head to the nearest hawker center. There are several of these open-air food centers in Singapore which provide all types of yummy ethnic food. And given that Singapore of food handling standards similar is Western countries, you can try anything without fear of food poisoning.

Kuala Lumpur and F1 –

There’s an unofficial rivalry between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore which is amusing to see as visitors to both cities. From mass transit, huge airports, tall buildings, urban light shows and even F1 tracks what Singapore has, KL matches.

The focus of our visit to KL was to watch the 16th Grand Prix in the 2016 Formula 1 season. Having followed Formula 1 on TV for the last 4 seasons it was awesome to see the cars and drivers up close.

The race was setup to be exciting as the top drivers, Rosenberg and Hamilton, were competing for the title and were neck and neck in overall points. A win here would be a deciding factor in the rest of the season for either driver. Unfortunately, the race did not go as planned for our preferred driver. Hamilton suffered a mechanical failure and was unable to finish the race with only 5 laps to win.

The energy in the stadium was electric. People were cheering for their countries, preferred teams and/or driver. Though, things got weird after the Australian driver won; some fans celebrated by stripping down to custom Malaysian flag budgie smugglers (as they are called in Australia). Shortly after, Isabelle saw the group being escorted into the back of a truck in handcuffs. We learned that they were sons of Australian politicians and were able to avoid serious jail time for insulting the country (BBC News). Note to self, respect the country laws you are visiting; oh, and call daddy for help.

KL has a number of great sights to see, but one caught my attention while on the metro. The last stop was called Batu Caves. Although its not the home of Bruce Wayne, it is an impressive limestone cave temple.