As the days pass here, and it’s still averaging in the mid-30’s (with today being particularly disgusting as the rain came pouring down), summer is noticeably over with the beginning of work. Sadly I’m stuck subbing for my friend at his junior high school, with long days of doing NOTHING. At times like these, I like to reminisce over the good times from the summer.
After going to Sendai and doing the summer camp, I jetted off to Singapore to meet up with my friends whom I greatly missed! Tim, whose parents live there, had kindly offered to house Aaliya, Sety (2 friends from imperial) and I there. First of all, the house, paid for by the father’s work, was a palace. I used the swimming pool as frequently as I could!
Everyone had told me two things about Singapore – it’s clean (why was this always the first thing to come up?) and 7 days is too long there. Au contraire my friend!
I arrived a day before the two girls, so Tim and I headed out to the zoo, which was huge and surprisingly well done. I’m a sceptic when it comes to zoo keeping, but I was impressed. The night zoo, which we visited with everyone, was pretty good too. Some enclosures were a little too small for my liking though.
The aquarium, over by the beaches, had some cool animals, but I was a little disappointed by its size. Oh well, can’t have everything right!
Once the girls arrived, most activities revolved around shopping – visiting little India with its cheap Mustafa center and AMAZING curries, tasting some typical Singaporean-Malay breakfasts, going around the high-end malls of Orchard Road, visiting Chinatown with all its tacky souvenirs, and going to the Ramadan markets which were crammed with amazing food stalls.
I have to admit, my favourite part of Singapore is the old colonial quarters. I seem to really like the colonial architecture, and sipping on a drink at Raffles hotel makes you feel at the height of sophistication. The marina bay and the river side are also great places to sit back and relax on a nice sunny day – most of which will see some rain as it gets almost the same amount of rainfall as the Amazon!!
One surprising thing about Singapore is that going out for a drink is really expensive! I mean, London high-end prices! I don’t know why, but it may be heavily taxed for religious reasons. This is just suspicion though.
It was a whirlwind trip of laughs, great FOOD and interesting cultural mixes. Tim’s parents were great too, treating us to a feast of chilli crab on our second-to-last night.
