Down Under

It is hard for me to fathom that I am now in the last stop of my colossal trip! I had an enjoyable past few days in Singapore mostly relaxing and avoiding the intense heat and humidity. I took full advantage of my hostel's free gym access and worked out for a few hours each day. It felt great to use muscles that have been hibernating in recent months. My plan was to be exhausted for the latest long travel day (24 hours) but unfortunately my body was extremely sore! No worries though. Nothing a little pampering on Thai Airways couldn't fix. I actually managed to sleep for about 5 hours of the 9 hour flight from Bangkok to Melbourne.

A few final thoughts on Singapore. It was an incredibly clean and efficient city and had more shopping malls per capita than any other city/country/island in the world (I did not read this fact anywhere but am coming to an educated guess based on the mind-blowing number of malls). There was literally a mall at every intersection. It all added up to make the city feel a bit sterile. Without Thanksgiving as an invisible damn holding back the flood water that is Christmas commercialism, Singapore was filled with lights, trees, santas and Christmas music. It just didn't seem right in mid-November.

I just got ahold of two of my Australian friends living in Melbourne. I met them two summers ago in Prague when I was randomly assigned to their hostel room. I am meeting up with them tomorrow to see some of the city. Tonight or tomorrow my mission is to lock down my Tasmania and SCUBA plans for Australia. Once that is done, all I'll have to do is sit back and enjoy myself! I have become so accustomed to only dedicating half of myself to the place I am in while the other half is subconsciously beginning to formulate a plan for the next stop. It will be nice to dive into Australia 100%!