spunky little panda

Wanted to take a moment to post a quick update about what’s been going on with me in Southeast Asia! [note: I wrote this a few days ago but didn’t have time to post it so it’s a couple days off]

Today is the last of four days spent in Singapore, which has been our first stopping point, our gateway to Asia. I freaking loved Singapore! I think it will be very different from most of the other places we’ll go, which is very exciting and cool. I love how well the city is planned out, how clean and organized it is, and how the city incorporates so much green space into its landscape.

On our first day we walked around in the morning to get our bearings after taking a ride on the super-cramped MRT (subway) during the morning rush hour. The metro and busses could NOT be any easier, and the city is also super walkable, even if it is hot as hell!

After stopping to eat a bowl of congee (like savory porridge filled with everything from liver to prawns) and carrying our packs all over town we had developed a nice sweaty glow and were ready to check into our hostel. Singapore will probably be the most expensive place we go by far, as hotels are more like American prices (as opposed to the rest of SE Asia where we are hoping to spend the equivalent of $7-15 per night USD). So we are at this very basic hostel on the edge of Little India. It’s somewhat centrally located and close to a few metro stops, which is nice.

Our room the first night in the hostel was super teeny. We didn’t think we’d find a smaller room anywhere, until we switched to a cheaper room for the second night, which had bunk beds and was, amazingly, considerably smaller. The room also didn’t have a window so it felt like a coat closet!

Our first day was spent exploring the rest of Little India. I loved checking out the architecture and people-watching on the streets. At one point we smelled a pretty funky odor and we watched as an older man cracked open a few spiny Durian fruits right out on the street as other dudes sat eating the white, pungent insides. Unfortunately, neither of us were particularly inspired to give it a try.

One highlight of Little India was the Mustafa shopping centre, a 24-hour mall that has about five stories and everything you could ever need, relatively cheaply (for Singapore) and under one roof.

We lunched at a vegetarian cafe and headed back to the hostel for a quick nap. Four hours later, two groggy, jet-lagged travelers emerged from their hostel, but only barely. We walked about twenty minutes in the less oppressive heat of 10 pm, and found our way to Emerald Hill Road, a side-street made up of gorgeous old buildings that are almost Spanish in style. We drank giant glasses of Hoegarden at an ex-pat hangout called Ice Cold Beer and snacked on onion rings.

The second day, we went to the Singapore Zoo. The zoo here is world famous and it totally lived up to the hype. Several of the enclosures don’t have cages or other barriers between the animals and the humans and instead just have moats. Some animal exhibits don’t have any boundaries at all, such as the orangutans who are free to just swing from the trees directly above the visitors. We both commented on how several of the exhibits would never exist in the US. Highlights of the day included feeding giraffes (they are so gentle!!), watching elephants bathe and play in the water, and at the end of the day, getting “fish therapy” where little fish called Kangal Fish eat the dead skin off your feet. I had heard about this before and had never tried it until now! It felt like tiny, tickle-ish pinches all over my feet.

Afterwards, we went to the Old Airport Road hawker food center which is an outdoor food market with hundreds of individual vendors selling everything from alligator meat to turtle stew to black chicken. Singapore is largely known for these food centers and the cheap, authentic food found inside. It was foodie paradise and we ate a shit load, including chili crab, curry pastry puffs, and something called Rojak which I can’t even attempt to describe. We also drank fresh sugar cane juice and Tiger beer.

Today we were super excited to bid farewell to the hostel, and we decided it was time to splurge a bit. We ended up at the Park Hotel Clarke Quay, which is basically right on the Singapore River, which flows though the center of town.

After booking our hotel, we decided to walk to it and check it out. Instead, we found ourselves completely drawn in and mesmerized by the gorgeous beauty of the waterfront. I kept commenting how hilarious it was that we had spent most of our time so far in Little India and the surrounding areas, and hadn’t even looked at the some of the most beautiful parts of the city yet.

After checking out of the hostel, we had one final stop to make in little India: Indian FOOD! Despite our two days there we had yet to indulge. We went to Apolo Banana Leaf which is famous for their fish head curry, which was very tasty. I also ordered chicken tikka masala, which was super delicious and spicy and has jalapeño slices in it (which I hadn’t seen before). At this restaurant, they give you a banana leaf as a placemat (or at least that’s what I thought it was), but in place of a plate, they just scoop all your rice and food onto the banana leaf and you eat it off there. It was amazingly delicious.

From there, we took the train (by the way we are masters of the Singapore MRT by now) to Clarke Quay and found our way to our hotel. MAJOR UPGRADE. White terrycloth robes, slippers, a blow dryer, and a pool. I was in heaven!! Absolutely in heaven. We spent the rest of the day at the pool where I actually swam about 25 laps sans cap or goggles and cursed myself a bit for not swimming more regularly.

Then, I ditched Dylan and went shopping and I was in heaven all over again. Shopping in Singapore isn’t cheap, so i didn’t buy much, but I did love looking at everything they had and admiring the funky, unique designs that were like nothing I’d seen in the states.

Our last night in Singapore we went to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in Chinatown for dinner and went to the Marina Bay Sands casino to pretend that we were high rollers. I actually did pretty well at roulette for a while, but in the end only broke even.

Our last day it was incredibly hot and we were told that it was so warm and humid because it was about to rain. Almost immediately upon arriving at the airport, the skies opened up and began to dump rain onto the city. A perfect time to head to the beach! Our next stop: Phuket, Thailand for a one-night stopover and then to the island Koh Lanta for some beachy R&R.

Things are great, I’m safe and well, and I miss you all!