singapore.

Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. What to say about Singapore? Where should I begin? SINGAPORE WAS AWESOME! I'm not sure if it was so awesome, because I have been living in a third world country for four months and Singapore took me back to the real world, with organization, variety, and diversity or it was just that wonderful. Let's just say, if I ever found a job in Singapore, I would move there immediately. BUT they would have to give me enough money to survive there, because sheesh coming from a place where you can get coffees, huge meals, and anything else you need for under $5 dollars, Singapore will burn a monstrous hole in your wallet. Anyways, we went with three friends to Singapore. Three awesome friends. Our friend drove us to Hat Yai, where we flew out to Singapore. Once we arrived, it was a breath of fresh air. Literally. No more stinky town for a few days. We easily found our wait to the MRT (train) and headed towards our hostels. Too bad I booked us at a different hostel than our friends, because unfortunately we didn't get to see them after the first night in Singapore. Our phones didn't work there and finding internet or devices to use the internet to email each other just caused problems of us just missing each other at meeting points or never making it. OH WELL. First thing on the list after arriving and checking in: EAT. We stayed in Chinatown, which was the cleanest Chinatown I had ever been to. It was also made for tourists. Souvenir stalls lined every street, but still it had lots of character. The first street we walked to we discovered a vegetarian restaurant, with signs in English, with people who spoke English. AH so wonderful. We scarfed down some vegetarian deliciousness and decided to carry on exploring.

Next we went to buy tickets to see Batman. We found Orchard Road, which is the main shopping street in Singapore, with mall after mall after mall, PLUS lots of Imax and movie theaters. We had to see a movie while we were in a mainly English speaking country. After we bought our tickets we explored Orchard Road finding western food around every corner. We were in heaven. We needed a break from rice and noodles. Every penny we spent on food was 110% worth it. We met up with our friends and watched Batman. It was good, but I was lost the whole movie, because obviously I had fallen asleep in the others. 

The next day, we woke up early for a morning run. We knew there were lots of parks around town, so we just looked at a map and picked the closest one and headed there. The park was full of hills and stairs. My favorite. That run killed me and I was sore and tired for the rest of the day. But I was in a country with malls literally back to back and around every corner, so I had to carry on and enjoy a day of shopping. I dragged Stephan to store after store mall after mall, and let me tell you, he is a trooper! He didn't complain once. He was on search for books and more books, but of course the books were SO over priced! But we would eventually find a "mall" full of used book stores. Stephan's heaven. So we each got to spend a little money on goodies for ourselves. Throughout our shopping adventures, we stuffed our faces with sandwiches, bread and more bread and coffee to keep us going. 

That night we explored along the river. There were beautiful views everywhere we turned. Singapore has such an amazing skyline. Unfortunately or fortunately it started pouring rain. We decided to stop in at one of the breweries along the river. We knew it was going to be expensive, but we were exhausted from the day of walking shopping around the city and exploring and eating so much bread. So we sat down watched the rain come down, people watched, and sipped on a beverage, an expensive one at that. But it was well worth it. We sat and chatted until the rain slowed down. Once it slowed, we escaped spending too much money at the brewery and kept walking and exploring. We found a place with tacos and quesadillas and had to chow down on that. We ate all of it in about .5 seconds. We eventually made our way to Little India. It was a neat part of the city, but we were so exhausted and had already had Indian food that day, that we decided to head to our hostel and call it a night. 

The rest of our time in Singapore was spent walking around, taking the MRT, exploring and most of all eating our way through the city. We also made lots and lots of pit stops at coffee shops. One of the highlights of the trip, and my favorite part, was ending up at Marina Bay for the National Day Parade (NDP). There were signs and security all over the bay, but we really had no idea what the NDP was. Once we walked up to the bay, there were people everywhere with cameras out. We decided we had to stay because something was going to happen. Come to find out it was Singapore's Independence Day. Was that great timing or what?! We got to watch people jump out of planes over the Bay, the Coast Guard did some really neat tricks on the water, we saw planes doing tricks in the sky, cannons were shot off, there was a free concert with the coolest music (contemporary Asian music with some traditional flare--that sounds weird but it was awesome!), and to end it there was the neatest firework show. To top the whole thing off we were in the middle of the most beautiful cityscape. It was wonderful and I will go back to Singapore one day. 

1. Chinatown lights. 2. Chinatown. 3. Singapore skyline view from Marina Bay 4. Cityscape through flowers. 5. Boy and a girl (getting someone to take that picture was so difficult). 6. NDP— the red in the sky are people. They jumped out of a helicopter and landed in the stadium next to the Bay. 7. Helicopters flying over carrying the Singapore flag. 8. Marina Bay Sands Resort (Yes, that is a resort with the ship looking thing on top) and the ArtScience Museum made to look like a lotus flower. The architecture is so neat in Singapore. 9. Night lights. 10. Resort and Museum again. Couldn’t get enough pictures of them. 11. Surrealist Newton—Dali’s homage to Newton. So cool finding a Dali sculpture. 12. Our free concert. 13. Firework finale to our Singapore adventure.