Singapore

7:30 AM rolled around and I was actually awake and at breakfast before any of my friends! For all of you that know me....the early morning hours and breakfast don't work out too well! But as I was enjoying my breakfast, the MV Explorer was pulling into the beautiful harbor area! We could see skyscrapers, Hard Rock Cafe, monorail trains and another cruiseship docked in the harbor.

 

Once we cleared immigration and got off the ship, it literally felt like we were in an airport. There were little terminals for big cruise ships and there was advertising for Norweigen Cruise Lines everywhere! They were advertising for America like it was some exotic location. Pretty funny! I immediately noticed how clean and fresh everything was. The entire port area was spotless! Immigration took a while plus it felt longer than it actually was since we wanted to squeeze every ounce of fun out of the day and felt like the immigration officers were holding us up! When we finally made it through we didn't know what to do or where to go. The building that we were in was really large and had tons of stores in it and looked much like a mall. We finally found some other SAS'ers and made our way out a back entrance where we found a taxi. It probably wasn't the best entrance or first impression of Singapore, as we were walking through throngs of smokers. We got into a really nice cab which took us to Orchard Road. This is the main shopping area of Singapore. It is very similar to Michigan Avenue or Rodeo Drive. There is an interesting combination of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and cheap cell phone booths, electronics stores and restaurants. After realizing that we most likely wouldn't be going into these stores we checked out one of the shopping centers aka malls which have entrances like the stores do, right on Orchard Road. We walked around there for about 15 minutes and found.....STARBUCKS! Believe me I wanted an iced vanilla latte SO bad. But decided that I should probably enjoy the local food. We were hungry by this point and found what is known as a Hakerstall (sp?) center. These are basically food stands that are in permanent structures with some plastic tables and chairs around it. You sit at a table which has a number on it and then one person saves the table while the rest go look at the different foods. When you order the food you tell them your table number so they can deliver the food to you. We didnt realize this process until after we had ordered, but the way we did it worked just fine! The food was delicious and a little bit spicy! I also had a soda...had no idea what it was but found out it was Root Beer flavored....yuck!

 

 

After this, Stephani really wanted to go to Little India. I really didnt understand why considering we just came from India....but we went anyways. We took a taxi there and our driver was AWESOME. He said that Singappore has a large Indian population. We told him we had just come from India. Then he goes "OHHH so you know what they look like!!!" And then cracked up in a hysterical laugh. It was the best taxi ride yet! Little India was sooo much different than India! And a lot cleaner too! We walked around there for a while and ended up catching up with Kerry. She was starving so we stopped into this Indian restaurant and cured her desire for Indian food.

 

After that we went to the Singapore Botanic Garden. It was absolutely beautiful. There was an orchid garden, evolution garden, and many others! The whole place was so well cared for and there were many little water gardens too. It began pouring while we were walking around....the first time we've felt rain since Dominica. We then decided to go to the gift shop while the rain passed. We also ate at the little restaurant in the garden which had.....french fries!!! And the ketchup was really good....it tasted very tangy which was pretty cool! We needed to catch a taxi from there so they had this nifty little system where you press a button for a taxi which lights up a sign on the main road indicating that a taxi is needed. A taxi would come within 15 minutes. But sometimes people would cut us in line and take our taxi which was really weird and confusing. It was a pretty awesome and efficient system that they had though!

 

Next we went to a place called Holland Village (I think...) which had a bunch of stores and restaurants. It was fun to walk around but of course we were hungry again. So we stopped at another hakerstall place which was incredible! We stopped at this fruit stand which made juice from their fresh fruits. I had a pineapple, apple, watermelon combination which was absolutely incredible! And also got a slice of pineapple which was THE best pineapple I have ever had. We got a big bottle of Tiger beer to share as well. Tiger beer is award winning....but to me it tasted just like Coors Light....nothing special!

 

By this time it was late and we had to get a taxi back to the harbor. We needed two taxis for the majority of the day because there were five of us and only four could fit in each taxi. Unlike India, we actually have to wear seatbelts! And cramming 5 people into a car is illegal. So Kerry and Brittany got one cab and Me, Hannah, and Stephani got another. Except our driver was really old and couldn't hear. Instead of taking us to the Singapore Cruise Center, he took us to the River Cruise area and was trying to convince us this was the right place. We were so frustrated. At this point Brittany texted us wondering where we were. We finally got another cab and took it to the Cruise Center where we met up with Kerry and Brittany. They were in this grocery store which had....Tostitos and Queso imported from the US!!! Being the awesome Americans we are, and craving nachos more than ever, we paid and made our way back to the ship where we enjoyed a lovely dinner of plain pasta, chocolate cake roll, pineapple juice, tostito corn chips, queso and salsa. What a nutritious dinner! (Sorry mom!)

 

When we were walking back to our ship, a new cruise ship had pulled up next to ours and it is absolutely GINORMOUS compared to ours!!!! It looks incredibly nice in there!

 

Apparently many kids trated Singapore much like Mauritius and there were a bunch of kids coming onto the ship drunk. I heard a story from a guy who said Singapore immigration questioned him if all American college kids were this drunk and obnoxious all the time. They wanted to know if this really was a study abroad program or not. He quickly tried to reassure them that not all American kids are like this....not sure how much that worked. Immigration was definitely mad at many of our fellow students. It's so sad to leave such a bad impression of America on a country when we leave. I feel like I have a red stamp on my forehead screaming "American college student. Beware!" It's really annoying!

 

Overall Singapore was incredible! The architecture is breathtaking and even though its a city full of skyscrapers, they all look amazing and add some spark to the city. It's not a very claustrophobic city at all. The taxis are clean and the drivers are nice. People don't look at you crazy and thehy are very helpful. It's pretty easy to get around and everything is clean, the air quality is great and everything is well organized.

 

Some things I noticed about Singapore were that they are really into Montessori schools and advertise their preschools like they're colleges. The signs for preschools are huge and really nice! Apparently the school system here is one of the best in the world. People here also felt like they had a purpose. They weren't lazily napping on the sides of the streets or constantly bothering you. They seemed to be on a mission and had places to go! I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the city.

 

I guess that's all for now...it seems like I had more to say...Singapore was awesome and if given the opportunity, I would love to come back. There seems to be so much more to explore in this city!

 

No word yet on our mystery port!