Today wasn't that interesting. We slept in for a bit since most of my roomates had the day off work today. I went for a quick dip in the pool, showered and went to work. Jessica is better again so she joined me at work. We had a lot to catch up on. For lunch, we found another new place and had soup. I had a curry mee (curry soup with 2 types of noodles, fish balls, tofu, and slivers of chicken). It was spicy but a good lunch and very cheap $2 and it was made fresh.
After work, I came home and had to go to Pizza Hut to pick up Pizza. We had a nice supper in and worked on our group paper which is due on the last day here. We have to present our paper on Wednesday. I also have to write a personal reflection of my experience here. Hopefully I will do well and pass the class- I'm sure I will.
Tomorrow, Mr. Christopher is taking us on another food adventure. We are also taking Rhonda and Chez along. Chez is a former Uof:L faculty of arts dean who went on this trip once, fell in love, and has lived here ever since. He is a pretty interesting guy and is very passionate about post secondary and this country. I will have to limit my food intake as I will be eating a lot for supper tomorrow night.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Singapore day 2
I'll continue where I ended by blog on Saturday.
We hung out at the hostel for a little while before walking to a hotel where we got picked up by the night safari bus. The night safari is at the Singapore Zoo. We had the option to walk around the zoo in the dark, take a train around the zoo and watch a few shows. Unfortunately, it was a holiday weekend and a saturday night so it was super busy. To avoid the lines, we decided to eat first. We had a deliciously expensive hamburger which was well needed for some! Then we got in line for the bus that took us around the zoo, there was one in english and one in Japanese. Once on the bus, we saw the animals, but since it was dark and night time, it was hard to spot them and most animals were either eating or sleeping. I did like that there were no cages and it looked pretty natural. Some animals were even walking around loose with texas gates in between exhibits. But near the end, we discovered that there were electric fences everywhere. It took about 40 minutes to go around and it was alright but I wasn't that impressed. Also probably because there were so many people and they were all trying to walk in my bubble, I wanted to get out of there. After the zoo, we took a bus back to the city and went to the night market. The night market in KL is open until at least 11 but this one closed down at 10 so we didn't get to see much. It was also very crowded and I found it quite expensive too.
So the best place to go after a long day of being a tourist in Singapore is to drink a bottle of water and go to bed- that's exactly what I did!
On Sunday, we slept in a bit and had another breakfast at the Hostel. We had tickets for the Singapore Flyer (a huge ferris wheel) so we went there. It was neat to see the whole city from hundreds of meters in the sky. You could even have dinner in one of the capsules and go around twice for an extra fee, pretty cool! After the flyer, we went back to the SunTec mall/towers for some shopping and lunch. Since the Singapore Dollar is almost at par with the Canadian dollar, everything seemed quite expensive, and once again- it was very busy everywhere! We treated ourselves to a delicious salad for lunch. Salad is a treat for us since we always have either rice or noodles- no vegetables so it was delicious! We shopped some more but were soon shopped out. A nice walk outside is what was needed next. We walked back to the flyer and went along the Marina bay for some pictures. Then we walked to the Merlion along the bay which is one of Singapore's icons. Furthermore, we found a historic part of the city along the financial district. We taxi'd back to the hostel to get our bags and wait for the bus to take us back to Kuala Lumpur. We were upgraded from First class to Executive class so it was very nice. Unfortunatly- the air conditioning was on full power the whole time so we were all icicles when we got back. The trip was supposed to take 5 hours but it took us 7 hours because of traffic jams. We were so happy to be "home" again at 2 in the morning and to get in our warm, clean beds.
We hung out at the hostel for a little while before walking to a hotel where we got picked up by the night safari bus. The night safari is at the Singapore Zoo. We had the option to walk around the zoo in the dark, take a train around the zoo and watch a few shows. Unfortunately, it was a holiday weekend and a saturday night so it was super busy. To avoid the lines, we decided to eat first. We had a deliciously expensive hamburger which was well needed for some! Then we got in line for the bus that took us around the zoo, there was one in english and one in Japanese. Once on the bus, we saw the animals, but since it was dark and night time, it was hard to spot them and most animals were either eating or sleeping. I did like that there were no cages and it looked pretty natural. Some animals were even walking around loose with texas gates in between exhibits. But near the end, we discovered that there were electric fences everywhere. It took about 40 minutes to go around and it was alright but I wasn't that impressed. Also probably because there were so many people and they were all trying to walk in my bubble, I wanted to get out of there. After the zoo, we took a bus back to the city and went to the night market. The night market in KL is open until at least 11 but this one closed down at 10 so we didn't get to see much. It was also very crowded and I found it quite expensive too.
So the best place to go after a long day of being a tourist in Singapore is to drink a bottle of water and go to bed- that's exactly what I did!
On Sunday, we slept in a bit and had another breakfast at the Hostel. We had tickets for the Singapore Flyer (a huge ferris wheel) so we went there. It was neat to see the whole city from hundreds of meters in the sky. You could even have dinner in one of the capsules and go around twice for an extra fee, pretty cool! After the flyer, we went back to the SunTec mall/towers for some shopping and lunch. Since the Singapore Dollar is almost at par with the Canadian dollar, everything seemed quite expensive, and once again- it was very busy everywhere! We treated ourselves to a delicious salad for lunch. Salad is a treat for us since we always have either rice or noodles- no vegetables so it was delicious! We shopped some more but were soon shopped out. A nice walk outside is what was needed next. We walked back to the flyer and went along the Marina bay for some pictures. Then we walked to the Merlion along the bay which is one of Singapore's icons. Furthermore, we found a historic part of the city along the financial district. We taxi'd back to the hostel to get our bags and wait for the bus to take us back to Kuala Lumpur. We were upgraded from First class to Executive class so it was very nice. Unfortunatly- the air conditioning was on full power the whole time so we were all icicles when we got back. The trip was supposed to take 5 hours but it took us 7 hours because of traffic jams. We were so happy to be "home" again at 2 in the morning and to get in our warm, clean beds.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Singapore- The NYC of South East Asia
I just noticed that I have not blogged since Wednesday so it is high time to update you on what's been happening. On Thursday, Alisha and I went out to Changkat Buhkit Bintang (a street of pubs/clubs with lots of travellers and expats). Unfortunatly, it was raining so it was not as busy as it usually is. We had a great night with the locals.
Terrence gave me Friday off because I would only be at the office for 3 hours because of our early bus departure time. I slept in, packed, changed some money and at 4:30, we (my 3 female roomates and I) were seated in the Coach bus to Singapore. The bus was really comfortable and the seats went down a lot so that we could sleep, it was dark out any ways and there were only palm trees to see on the side of the road. We got a bottle of water and a snack for the ride. We also stopped twice on the way- one bathroom break and one supper break. When we got to the end of Malaysia, we had to get out of the bus, go into customs and they stamped our passports to say that we are leaving Malaysia. This was a pretty fast and easy process. Then we got on the bus again, drove across the bridge and arrived in Singapore. Here we had to get off the bus again with our luggage and go through the Singaporean Customs. We had to fill in a card and go through a security check. The security girls were very nice and I had a friendly conversation with them. They didn't really check our bags at the security check because we had lots of liquids, foods, and other things with us that would otherwise cause us to have to open our bags. Everyone was allowed to stay in Singapore for 30 days but I get to stay for 90 because I am a Dutch Citizen, haha! We got back on the bus again, drove for a couple more minutes to our drop off location and the journey was over. Then we had to find our way to the Hostel we booked. This sounds easier than it was. After waiting for over 30 minutes for a taxi (it was rush hour at 10pm!), we started walking. We had one set of directions but no wifi so we didn't really know where we were going. After flagging a taxi down on a highway, we made it to the hostel. At this point, everyone was tired and grumpy and all we wanted to do was shower and go to bed. The four of us are in a 6-bed shared room. There was one other guy with us from India. That was our first night in Singapore.
On Saturday (today), we woke up and had a free breakfast at the hotel. They had toast, eggs, drinks and banana's- all I needed was there! It was raining a lot in the morning so we had to come up with a plan in case the rain did not stop. Thankfully, it did and we were good to go! We hopped in a taxi and went to "Orchard Road". This is like the New York of Singapore. The street was lined with exclusive stores and malls. We had our hands on our wallets and just window shopped. It was also nice to see a lot of white people and not as many religious ones with their head coverings. The weather is 99% humidity and very hot so I had to drink a lot of water to balance out the amount of sweat that poured out of me.
When we had seen enough here, we got another Taxi to the Singapore Botanical Garden. This was absolutely beautiful. They also house the largest collection of orchids in the world. We walked around the gardens, saw some interesting flowers and animals, and even walked through a jungle! It was very cool. Then we got into another Taxi (we are getting the hang of flagging taxi's down and they are very reasonably priced because everything is located pretty close together in Singapore) and went to see the Raffels Hotel. This is another Singaporean trademark. It is a very exclusive hotel but doesn't actually have any rooms, it only has executive suites, about 100 of them.
After we saw this, we walked along the road some more and noticed the "hop on, hop off" busses. We decided to go on one to get a guided tour of the city. While inquiring about this, we actually got tickets to go one a bus/boat duck tour. The bus drove around the city and our guide told us many interesting facts about what we were seeing. This bus also went into the water and we saw the city from the other side. It was very educational and we all enjoyed ourselves. By this time, it was late in the afternoon. We walked to the Coach office where we will take a bus back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow to see if we could leave our bags there for the day so we wouldn't have to drag them around the city with us all day. Unfortunately, this was not possible. Then we got another taxi back to the hostel to freshen up and have some down time. Tonight we are going on a night safari!
This is a really long post but I want to be able to remember everything so I have to write it down. Singapore is a beautiful city and I am so glad that I decided to spend the weekend here!
Terrence gave me Friday off because I would only be at the office for 3 hours because of our early bus departure time. I slept in, packed, changed some money and at 4:30, we (my 3 female roomates and I) were seated in the Coach bus to Singapore. The bus was really comfortable and the seats went down a lot so that we could sleep, it was dark out any ways and there were only palm trees to see on the side of the road. We got a bottle of water and a snack for the ride. We also stopped twice on the way- one bathroom break and one supper break. When we got to the end of Malaysia, we had to get out of the bus, go into customs and they stamped our passports to say that we are leaving Malaysia. This was a pretty fast and easy process. Then we got on the bus again, drove across the bridge and arrived in Singapore. Here we had to get off the bus again with our luggage and go through the Singaporean Customs. We had to fill in a card and go through a security check. The security girls were very nice and I had a friendly conversation with them. They didn't really check our bags at the security check because we had lots of liquids, foods, and other things with us that would otherwise cause us to have to open our bags. Everyone was allowed to stay in Singapore for 30 days but I get to stay for 90 because I am a Dutch Citizen, haha! We got back on the bus again, drove for a couple more minutes to our drop off location and the journey was over. Then we had to find our way to the Hostel we booked. This sounds easier than it was. After waiting for over 30 minutes for a taxi (it was rush hour at 10pm!), we started walking. We had one set of directions but no wifi so we didn't really know where we were going. After flagging a taxi down on a highway, we made it to the hostel. At this point, everyone was tired and grumpy and all we wanted to do was shower and go to bed. The four of us are in a 6-bed shared room. There was one other guy with us from India. That was our first night in Singapore.
On Saturday (today), we woke up and had a free breakfast at the hotel. They had toast, eggs, drinks and banana's- all I needed was there! It was raining a lot in the morning so we had to come up with a plan in case the rain did not stop. Thankfully, it did and we were good to go! We hopped in a taxi and went to "Orchard Road". This is like the New York of Singapore. The street was lined with exclusive stores and malls. We had our hands on our wallets and just window shopped. It was also nice to see a lot of white people and not as many religious ones with their head coverings. The weather is 99% humidity and very hot so I had to drink a lot of water to balance out the amount of sweat that poured out of me.
When we had seen enough here, we got another Taxi to the Singapore Botanical Garden. This was absolutely beautiful. They also house the largest collection of orchids in the world. We walked around the gardens, saw some interesting flowers and animals, and even walked through a jungle! It was very cool. Then we got into another Taxi (we are getting the hang of flagging taxi's down and they are very reasonably priced because everything is located pretty close together in Singapore) and went to see the Raffels Hotel. This is another Singaporean trademark. It is a very exclusive hotel but doesn't actually have any rooms, it only has executive suites, about 100 of them.
After we saw this, we walked along the road some more and noticed the "hop on, hop off" busses. We decided to go on one to get a guided tour of the city. While inquiring about this, we actually got tickets to go one a bus/boat duck tour. The bus drove around the city and our guide told us many interesting facts about what we were seeing. This bus also went into the water and we saw the city from the other side. It was very educational and we all enjoyed ourselves. By this time, it was late in the afternoon. We walked to the Coach office where we will take a bus back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow to see if we could leave our bags there for the day so we wouldn't have to drag them around the city with us all day. Unfortunately, this was not possible. Then we got another taxi back to the hostel to freshen up and have some down time. Tonight we are going on a night safari!
This is a really long post but I want to be able to remember everything so I have to write it down. Singapore is a beautiful city and I am so glad that I decided to spend the weekend here!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Rain, Rain, and some SUN!
We stayed up till very late last night trying to book a hostel for Singapore. Finally, at about 1:30 we booked one. So this morning, I needed sleep! I woke up and it was pooring outside. Everything was soaked and there were puddles in the grass. It didn't look like it would stop either. I went to work with my raincoat and umbrella but my feet still got very wet. I stopped by the McDonalds before I got to work to clean my feet and dry up a little bit. I made Jessica go to the doctor today because she was feeling worse. Turns out that she has tonsillitis. She's now on antibiotics and has to take the rest of the week off. Looks like I'll be travelling by myself for a couple more days.
After work, we had another lecture. This time our guest speaker was a second generation Malaysian who's wife and kid live in Canada while he works in a University here. The talk was not very interesting because we were all tired and found it hard to focus and keep our eyes open. When the seminar was over, we booked our bus tickets to Singapore. We should be all set to go now. Hopefully it's not going to break the bank because I got us a cheap hostel!
The only bus we could get on Friday would leave at 4:30pm which is when I'm still at work. I talked to my manager, Terrence, about it and he suggested I just take the whole day off rather than coming in for 3 hours! I love my manager, he's so understanding.
Ps: I got to level 13 on the game on my phone today. I have no one to talk to on lunch breaks so I just play my game!! :D
After work, we had another lecture. This time our guest speaker was a second generation Malaysian who's wife and kid live in Canada while he works in a University here. The talk was not very interesting because we were all tired and found it hard to focus and keep our eyes open. When the seminar was over, we booked our bus tickets to Singapore. We should be all set to go now. Hopefully it's not going to break the bank because I got us a cheap hostel!
The only bus we could get on Friday would leave at 4:30pm which is when I'm still at work. I talked to my manager, Terrence, about it and he suggested I just take the whole day off rather than coming in for 3 hours! I love my manager, he's so understanding.
Ps: I got to level 13 on the game on my phone today. I have no one to talk to on lunch breaks so I just play my game!! :D
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Starbucks and Pinot Grigio!
Well today started off great! I woke up early, and went to starbucks to read my book. It was just lovely. I then walked to work by myself because my coworker was sick today. I walked a little bit faster than normal because it seemed like everyone was following me. Luckily I made it to work and back safely. Work was just normal. I worked on our group paper for this class and did some more research on Singapore. After work, Tristin and I took the train to the Pavilion. This is a huge shopping mall (450ish stores) pretty close to our apartment. Tristin was getting a little homesick so she needed some retail therapy. We enjoyed a wonderful Italian meal together. It was very fancy and we thought we were splurging but when the bill came, we only spent about $17 CAD each which is quite cheap! I enjoyed a great glass of wine (well the glass was not full :( ...) Then we walked around some more, enjoyed watching the tourists, had some gelato and took the train back home. It was a great night together. We have found out that it is really hard to do things together with the whole room at night so splitting up is much easier.
Today was another dark and cooler day. It was also very windy and the sky was filled with a lot of smog. I cannot wait to breath in the clean Alberta air when I get home. These last couple weeks are going to fly by. There are still so many things we/I want to do. I looked up a list of the top 10 tourist attractions in KL and I already did 8 of them. The only two left are the bird park and the butterfly park but those are not on my list.
Here are some pictures of the day!
Today was another dark and cooler day. It was also very windy and the sky was filled with a lot of smog. I cannot wait to breath in the clean Alberta air when I get home. These last couple weeks are going to fly by. There are still so many things we/I want to do. I looked up a list of the top 10 tourist attractions in KL and I already did 8 of them. The only two left are the bird park and the butterfly park but those are not on my list.
Here are some pictures of the day!
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| Add caption |
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| Pavilion Mall |
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| Cool store- notice the clocks on the wall and interesting side tables |
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| Spinach Ravioli |
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| haha |
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