Adventures in Singapore, part I

Hello from Singapore! It never ceases to amaze me just how different Singapore is from Japan – for one thing, the weather! Singapore is just south of the equator, so it’s hot all year long. Imagine leaving a country with highs in the low 50s and arriving at a country where the temperature is never much lower than 75. That’s one huge difference. Also, dealing with constant 94% humidity and a lack of air-conditioning almost everywhere (including my friend Katie’s dorm room) takes a bit of getting used to! There are distinct advantages to being in Singapore, though. My current favorite is the fruit juice! Fresh fruit can be had year-round here, so all of the juices are made fresh (ie, to-order). I had pineapple juice for breakfast yesterday morning and it was fantastic. It tastes so much better when it’s fresh. And fruit juice can be gotten everywhere! It’s awesome.

My flight to Singapore was pretty nice – I had an entire row to myself! I even got a bit of sleep, which was good because I landed around midnight Singapore time (1 AM Japan time!). So I did some catching up and went to bed as soon as we got to Katie’s dorm.

Speaking of which, it’s huge! It’s a 30-building complex, and there are other dorms, too! Somehow they still have trouble housing everyone that wants to go to the National University of Singapore (NUS). O.o

Where all have I been so far? A lot of places! We started yesterday morning with 3 of Katie’s friends and headed to Little India. Mainly, there were a lot of shopping spots and a lot of little restaurants. We started at Mustafa, an enormous shopping mall that has pretty much everything, from Western goods to Japanese snacks to gorgeous sari fabrics and Bollywood movies. Our next stop was lunch at an Indian chain fast food place. I ordered some sort of onion crepe thing called a dosai with naan, which was a little spicy but pretty good!

After a bit more shopping (and a stop for fruit juice!), Katie and I split off and headed for Chinatown (yep, we got the international experience yesterday!). Chinatown and Little India are similar in that they are both full of shops and places to eat. Chinatown is probably my favorite of the two, though, because it’s so pretty!

I also had ice kachang there, a common Singaporean treat! It’s very strange. Take jello, then add lychees, a weird Asian fruit, and red beans (ie the Japanese treat). Then top it with shaved ice, add 3 flavors of syrup and condensed milk, and then top it with canned corn. O.0 It’s really odd. XD I kinda liked it though!

Plus, there’s a temple there! We went inside – it’s a temple that houses one of Buddha’s teeth, as well as his sacred relics. The story goes that when Buddha’s body was cremated, instead of forming ashes crystals formed, signifying his purity. They have a lot of different relics (brain, heart, etc.) housed in one area and his tooth in another. The temple was so opulent and gorgeous! Really a cool place.

After the temple tour, we had dinner at one of the many little restaurant stalls. I had chicken and rice, a common dish and one of Singapore’s famous! It was delicious.

Afterwards, Katie took me to one of her favorite places in Singapore – Marina Bay. And after dark, I could see why! As you can see, it’s all lit up and gorgeous. The area is named after the Marina Bay Sands, the resort with what looks like a cruise ship on top. It also has a mall and a casino. XD Have some more pictures of the skyline!

My other favorite part of the area was the DNA bridge – it looks just like a double helix! And on the ground are little light-up letters that are (mostly) paired correctly! The DNA geek in me was a very happy camper. :3 The lookout points were hairpin loops, too! So very cool.

Today was no less busy! Our first stop was Clarke Quay, a festive area close to Marina Bay that’s full of bars and swanky restaurants. We started by taking a Hippo boat tour of the bay area. More pretty buildings. :)

Our next stop was the statue of Sir Raffles, founder of Singapore. Singapore is one of the few places that actually embraced the introduction of a foreign power. As an example, here’s the inscription on the statue. “On this historic site, Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles…first landed in Singapore, and with genius and perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis.” XD

Next stop, the Asian Civilizations Museum. They just opened an African exhibit, and this weekend they were having an open house so we got in for free! They had a lot of cool stuff there; I love Asian sculptures from all of those cultures because they’re so beautiful and intricate.

For lunch, we ate at a hawker center. They’re really common in Singapore! They are basically a bunch of little food stalls all under one roof, surrounding tons of tables. You can go and pick out whatever you want and then eat it there. It’s like an enormous food court. I ended up cheating a bit and getting Italian food (instead of Singaporean), but I did get dragonfruit juice! Both were tasty.

After lunch, we went over to the Chinese gardens. They're huge, and really pretty. I liked getting to see the pagodas and such, and there was even a Zodiac statue garden.

The garden was cool, but Katie's favorite part was the turtle museum. Basically, a guy made a turtle rescue that is record-setting and has thousands of turtles! And you can feed them and touch them and all sorts of things. It's sort of silly, but that's okay.

Tonight for dinner I went out with a bunch of Katie's friends, and we had seafood! It was really a family-style dinner, so we ordered a bunch of plates of food and had a bit of everything. I had chili crab (a Singapore special), barbecue pork, steamed buns, and even stingray! It just tastes like flaky white fish. :) It was all delicious!

And now it's bedtime...we've been rushing around all day for the past 2 days so I need a rest. I hope your weekend is going well!