I heard this quote the other day, "curiosity is our search for life's little secrets" and it stuck with me. While studying abroad, I think curiosity quite often gets the best of exchange students as there is so much to learn, experience, and soak up...and you never know what's out there till you go find it.
Anyways, I wanted to share some highlights from the time that Carter came from Hawaii to visit me here in Singapore. I was looking forward to this time all semester long! Quite unfortunately, I fell sick with the stomach flu only a few hours after he arrived and it lasted through our Vietnam trip, in which Carter also endured the same sickness...so our first 3 days in Singapore were rather lame, but we did get out and do some exploring, and then upon returning from Vietnam, we had a few days to continue on. For anyone visiting Singapore for only a few days, these are the places I suggest you visit!
I had quite an adventure in Indonesia arriving back in Singapore only the evening before Carter was to arrive. I had just enough time to do some laundry and try to wash that awful smell of sulfur out of my clothes and to get everything in order to take a taxi to the airport at 4:30am! Here in Singapore, the MRT does not open up until 6am and closes sometime between 11-12pm, dependent upon the line. Therefore, any travel done between midnight and 6am is monopolized by the Taxi industry, whom takes full advantage of being the sole means of transportation. Between those hours, they charge the meter + 50%, a $5 airport charge, as well as a $3 reservation fee....needless to say, taking a Taxi is not a cheap option. It cost me SG$46 just to get to the airport! So I got to the airport and anxiously waited for my dear love to walk through the arrival gates. (Just for the record of those who may not know, Carter and I got married last November). I saw him first as he walked across the alley ways to get to his baggage claim but he did not look my way. Once he got his bag, then he came hurriedly through baggage declarations and almost ran into my arms...glorious moments. From the airport, we headed down the long corridors to the MRT station. Here, we use EZ Link Cards, which are prepaid cards that you scan and have access to the MRT. You also have the choice of buying single one-way tickets. Because the service desk was not yet open to purchase Carter his own EZ Link card, we got him a one-way ticket to Bugis. At Bugis, we got off because I like the food exchange there and wanted us to get breakfast, but they were under construction and many of the shops were temporarily closed. So here we got Carter an EZ Link card (it costs SG$5 for the card, plus a mandatory SG$10 travel credit; but it is cheaper than buying single tickets). We took the MRT all the way to Holland Village, a little over an hour ride, so that we could get BreadTalk. We did get BreadTalk as well as a noodle+egg breakfast and Milo from the hawker center. | |
We went into one of the mall entrances where the Somerset MRT station is in search of food. There are a TON of options here, I think there may have been 2+ floors dedicated to food. We got foccacia bread and this yummy sandwich at a Swiss Bakery which was incredibly good and quite a change from the standard noodles and rice that I had been eating everyday! After a while, we took the MRT home, it takes about an hour+ to get back to Dover and then walk from Dover to the dorms. Vietnam! The next day, I had class all day long and group meetings in between. Carter was a trooper and stayed in the BIZ School the whole entire day, waiting to say hi to me during all my breaks. Not until after 8:30pm did we get home. We packed our things into two small backpacks and got ready for our trip to Vietnam. We left the next day (Friday) to Hanoi, Vietnam which is in the North and had a great trip, despite the rainy cold and feeling like junk. To read about our trip and to see pictures, click here! We returned to Singapore on Tuesday evening. Bright and early Wednesday morning, I went to class and then Carter and I walked to One North, just one MRT stop away from Kent Ridge in search of a recommended cafe for us to sit and work. I had to study really hard for my product brand management final on Thursday. The cafe we went to is called Jimmy Monkeys...and we were actually quite surprised. It was a cute cafe with a modern feel yet totally a small kine coffee shop. However, it was a small kine coffee shop with big kine prices! We decided to stay and enjoy the environment...it would be a good memory. Carter and I shared a tiny tiny macchiato and a really yummy Hulk Sandwich made of avocados on toast. We stayed there for a few hours while I studied away! Thursday, I again studied all day and had class from 5-8 and then my final from 8-10pm. That was a big check off the list...first final done and over! The monkeys were relatively free roaming; the birds were pretty sweet. There was also a really cool reptiles kingdom with lots of mortifying snakes as well as alligators, lizards and all other kinds of the sort. There are so many funny stories that I wish to tell from the zoo....for instance, when we were looking at the baboons, what in the world is wrong with their butts? It looks like there are ample layers of large growths. We were also highly amazed at the cheetah videos...the cheetah itself was beautiful but it just laid there without any emotion. The lions were cool..and the polar bear too! Everything was completely worthwhile and totally worth going. Oh man, there is too much to remember. I highly recommend going to the zoo for those that have the chance! And be sure to get a map and follow it closely so that you don't miss any parts! The zoo is HUGE! Oh and I cannot forget, we found a critter at the zoo that voluntarily made the zoo its home... On our last day together in Singapore, we went to Harbour Front to Sentosa Island to visit the Aquarium. First we stopped at Subway in Vivo City (the largest mall in Singapore) and got hot breakfast sandwiches and coffee to kick off our day. Before I even begin with our adventures at the aquarium, it is an absolute must-see and will be worth every penny...which by the way costs SG$38 per person and this one does not offer any Singporean/Student discounts.This aquarium is one of the largest oceanariums in the world and was so cool!! After being first mesmerized by the largest fish tank I have EVER seen, you proceed to walk through a glass tunnel through the fish tank where fish of all kinds and stingrays are swimming past you. Once you get though, there is another huge fish tank, this one taking the shape of a huge pillar filled with beautiful colors of coral and numerous types of smaller fish. On the last stretch of the aquarium, there is another tunnel that you walk through and the tank surrounding this one is full of sharks..different kinds and many of them! Absolutely amazing. We spent several hours here looking at all of the water life...ranging from jelly fish to eels to sharks to stingrays to octopus to squid to so many different kinds of fish that I cannot even count. There were no boring moments ...there were even 4 very active dolphins!! | By Wednesday, I was feeling better enough to go to my Strategic Business Management class while Carter enjoyed the prospects of our Biz School while working on his own schoolwork. After class, we went to the Botanical Gardens and walked from there to Orchard Road for a few hours. The gardens were significantly different than when I had gone a few weeks prior, many of the orchids were not in bloom. We did manage to find a monitor lizard digging around and a really huge, creepy spider. We walked all through the gardens, a good couple miles until we ended up at Orchard Road. Orchard Road is one of the well-known rich and luxury streets and as one of the biggest shopping streets. Here, I had heard of the stand-alone uncles with their ice cream carts that serve literal ice cream sandwiches for SG$1. We found one...and then we found another..both of which we got ice cream at! After my final, Carter and I only had 2 last days together here in Singapore yet so much to do and see! On Friday, we headed up to the zoo bright and early. First, we stopped at the Fair Price grocery store in Kent Ridge MRT to grab some food for breakfast and as a snack for later. We scored with a hearty milk and cookies (welcome to college), and mixed berry juice and plums for later. To get to the zoo from Kent Ridge, you can take the Circle Line MRT up to Bishan and then transfer to the North South Line one stop to Ang Mo Kio. At Ang Mo Kio, you walk to the bus station following all of the signs for the bus to the zoo, I think it was the 183 bus. It is about a half hour bus ride to the zoo from there. We were SO EXCITED to go to the zoo. I had been saving this top Singaporean attraction for when Carter came. (PS- for students on exchange, you can get a 15% discount when you show your IC card). We spent a good 6 hours at the zoo enjoying the openness. All of the animals were so active...it was definitely the coolest zoo experience I have ever seen. There was a lot of really cool animals there...I think my favorite was the white tiger. After the zoo, we took the MRT downtown to Marina Bay Sands. We walked around the Esplanade, by Raffles Hall, and then behind the central business district (CBD) to the 'old' town. I had never been over here before. There is a river that runs through with an old bridge system and a long bridge of bars and restaurants. We walked behind there along the path for a ways until we found an old side street to take. We found a little Thai restaurant and sat in and ordered dinner. We had green curry and pineapple fried rice. |
After being completely awed at the aquarium, we walked down to Sentosa beach only for a moment and then returned back to Vivo City. We went to Giant, the largest grocery store that I know of and bought a few avocados, tomatoes, and chips to make guacamole. We headed back to Kent Ridge and then we had a very nice picnic out on the green, reflecting on our last few days and all our adventures and sipping on bubble tea. Later that evening, we got Yong Tau Foo for dinner from the canteen and prepared for Carter to leave. We boarded the MRT at Dover just around 9pm and arrived at the airport at 10:30pm. We said a dreadful goodbye but with the recollection of great memories and only 6 weeks until I would be back in Hawaii. |