

OverEasy
01-06 One Fullerton, Singapore

Anerican Airlines 8399 | SIN-HND | 10:25 PM - 05:55 AM (Nov 16)
American Airlines 8478 | HND-DFW | (Nov 16) 10:55 AM - 07:25 PM
(Oct 16) American Airlines 1737 | DFW-MCO | 11:25 AM - 02:57 PM

Steps
16,729
Distance
12.37 KM
Flights Climbed
5
We finished packing our bags in the morning and checked out of the Park Regis and had them store the bags for the day. We caught the MRT to Botanic Gardens station and visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the site of an unused 60 acre plantation. The highlight of the visit was the extensive National Orchid Garden, with specimens of both native and hybrid orchids. We also strolled through the Ginger Garden and several other gardens during our visit.
After the Botanic Gardens, we headed back to the MRT to go to the Bayfront again to find the Merlion statue. The 28 foot tall Merlion is the official mascot of Singapore and designed to represent the lion seen supposedly seen by Prince Sang Nila Utama when he named the city Singapura (Lion City) in 11 AD. There are no lions native to Singapore and the Prince likely saw a wild boar. The lion head sits on the body of a fish, which is symbolic of Singapore's roots as a fishing village. The giant statue spouts a smooth line of water into the river before it. From the Merlion, we could see the Esplanade. Home to multiple performance spaces, the dome's spiky exterior earned it the name 'durian' in reference to its striking exterior reminiscent of the city's beloved tropical fruit. Its distinctive design is made up of two rounded glass domes fitted with over 7,000 triangular aluminium sunshades.
We were getting hungry and spied a restaurant that claimed to have Singapore's best burgers. J. R. had planned to head to a hawker market but Janie was enticed by the burgers at OverEasy. She tried the To Die For Burger, which she thought was very good. J. R. had the truffle burger and said that while it might be the best in Singapore, it wasn't the best he ever had.
The plan was to visit Fort Canning to learn more about the history of Singapore, but we had gotten a lot of that from our food tours. We were tired after several days of touring, so we went back to the Park Regis, where they gave us a key to the second floor outdoor pool area. There was a nice breeze blowing and the waterfall drowned out the sound of the traffic and we had a relaxing time reading and napping before claiming our luggage and changing for the flight home in the gym bathrooms.
We had a car pick us up at 6:15 for the Park Regis to take us to Changi Airport with the expectation of spending time in Jewel, the mall area at Terminal 1. Our driver dropped us off in the wrong place so we had to lug our bags over to Jewel for early check-in. The early check-in service was not working correctly though and they kept moving us from one lane to another. On top of that, JAL could only check J. R. in for the first leg. So we gave up and went back to Terminal 1. The agent was able to get J. R. checked in through Dallas but could not complete the full process. We decided not to walk back over to Jewel and just went through immigration and headed to the lounge for a drink and snacks.
Changi Airport is odd in that security is at the gate, so we had to leave the lounge early and go through the scanners to get into our gate. Boarding started a little late but we left on time. Our business class seats were not as nice as American, United and Delta as J. R. had to walk in front of Janie's seat to get to his.Janie's audio did not work either but since we planned to sleep, we didn't care much. We each got a little sleep before arriving at Tokyo Haneda by 6AM. We went first to the Sakura business lounge but since J. R.'s OneWorld status got him access to the First Class lounge, they sent us there. We found some seats in the corner and caught up on the news and our reading for five hours before we boarded our flight to Dallas, but not before burning off our remaining Suica card money on some chocolates. The JAL business class to Dallas was one of the best we have seen, with each seat being a private pod with lots of storage and a large TV and we were able to get some rest.
We arrived in Dallas and took the train to our terminal and the Admiral's Club. We went to our gate right before boarding and headed down the jetway. We waited there for some time as the gate agent and flight attendants argued because there was a maintenance issue and we should not have been sent for boarding. We had to go back to the terminal and wait while they "found a part" which turned out to be an exit row sign. We finally arrived in Orlando where our luggage had been sent on an earlier plane. We ordered an Uber and were greeted by Juan who grunted at us when we tried to confirm he was our ride. Things got worse as he pulled out in front of a police officer at an intersection and was pulled over. Here we learned Juan did not speak English and the officer was not happy. We finally got to our subdivision and Juan could not understand us when we told him to go to the visitor gate.