I started my 40 day trip around South East Asia on Saturday morning.  I was so excited I couldn’t stop smiling after I finished my last class at ECC.  It didn’t seem like I really was leaving.  My kids were really sweet.  They all said how much they were going to miss me, and some of them gave me some cute little presents.

Anyways, on Saturday morning I took the airport bus out and caught my flight to Singapore.  Everything went really smoothly!  Singapore Airlines is really nice and they give you lots of food, have many movies to watch, and even serve Singapore Slings (for free)!  Customs in Singapore was the most organized and fastest I have ever seen.  I was on the subway heading to my hotel in Chinatown, within about 40 minutes of landing.

The subway dropped me off right by my hotel, so it worked out perfectly.  I got there at about 4:00, so I only had a few hours to wander around the Chinatown markets before meeting up with our group for dinner. 

I am doing an Intrepid Travel trip, so it is a small relaxed tour with a lot of free time to do your own thing away from the group.  Our leader basically said that she is there to take about all of the hassle and headaches, but we are free to do our own thing if we want.  My group is 7 women and 1 man, the leader is also a woman.  There is Stef from Germany, Aggy from Poland, Gary from Australia, Jane, Michelle, and Rachel from England, and me and Brit from the US.  (Brit is actually from Minnetonka, MN talk about a small world!)  Out group leader’s name is Jane.  She is very nice!  She is from England.

After we meet up at introduced ourselves a bit, we went to dinner at a tiny Thai restraunt.  It was really good food, and it made me really excited for Thailand.  After that I just had an early night (I only slept about 3 hours on Friday night).