Sweatin it up in Singapore

Trip Start Sep 08, 2007
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Trip End Apr 30, 2008


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Flag of Singapore  ,
Sunday, March 9, 2008

After the rather gruesome flight to Singapore (I'm NEVER flying hungover again!) I stumbled into the airport and found myself in town far too early to check into my hostel.  So I checked into one of their napping stations instead (thank god for Singaporean service!) and slept away the morning.  Then I headed off to the hostel and relaxed for most of that day, with a little wandering around the area - I was staying in the Arab quarter of the city.  That night I was able to meet up with Ewa, a friend of mine from McGill who was on exchange there.  We wandered around the waterfront area and ended up getting a few beers and drinking on one of the bridges - I know it's weird, in a city that taxes the crap out of beer at bars so you don't drink, you're still allowed to drink in public!  It was great to see Ewa - and so surreal to be meeting up with a good friend on the other side of the world!

The next day I met up with a British guy (yeah, ANOTHER Brit, but this time it was a little more tame) and we went to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. The gardens were amazing - so green and alive right in the middle of the city Botanical Gardens
Botanical Gardens
 .  Now I must also say that this city is HUMID!  Hence my entry title - I literally must have sweat off like 15 pounds (well probably not, but I feel like I deserve to have done!).  We wandered around there for a couple hours, hitting up the Orchid Garden (soooo nice - I wish I knew more about flowers so I could have appreciated it more) and then headed back to the hostel to freshen up (I showered like 3 times a day in this city) and then grabbed dinner on the waterfront - total tourist trap, but the views were nice and the food was actually quite decent, if outrageously expensive.  We also met up with his friend who was coming in, and then had a bunch of beers back at the hostel - a rather nice place actually, and especially because it had A/C!!

Next day, after much sleeping in, we went down and toured Chinatown - GREAT food, super cheap and so much fun to watch all the people coming and going!  We walked from there up to the Musuem of Asian Civiliziations, one of Singapore's most well-known museums.  It was great, NOT just because of the air conditioning, but also all the exhibits on Asian history.  It's such a unique perspective that one rarely gets back home, and so it was very interesting to get a glimpse into a history so little is known about in the West.  Then we headed to the Raffles Hotel for the mandatory Singapore Sling - this is where the drink was invented.  Then I met up again with Ewa for a FAB dinner in Little India -  SOOOO much fun seeing here there!  The two of us then went to an ex-Pat hangout and saw some great live music - we were joined by two of her exchange buddies.  The band was really great!  It was headed by a girl lead and she did some great stuff of her own as well as some good covers - including a rather interesting version of I will survive (about a man showing up with a rather less-than-advertised package) and a rocked-up version of 2-Become-1 (I KNOW there are other Spice Girls fans that know that tune!).  Although she didn't play ANY of our requests (and not for lack of trying, I think Ewa went up there half a dozen times!), we still had a blast! (Thanks Ewa!!!).

My last day I slept in a bit, had some breaky and then headed to the airport - next stop: Kuala Lumpur!
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sisterhillier
sisterhillier on Mar 10, 2008 at 09:08PM

holy moly
How do you know people EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

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