Jul 2006

Today was my last day in Singapore, and I had plenty planned.

I woke early, and went to Sentosa Island (the man-made beach in Singapore) with Kat and Hanyang. We got on the beach about 11am, and stayed till 1pm. It was perfect and so relaxing, although all the NTU (the other uni in Singapore) orientation camps were going on and kinda spoiled the atmosphere.

From there we went to lunch at Akber's uncles' restaurant on South Buona Vista Rd - right near NUS. It was sooo nice, although for the life of me I can't remember the name of the place. Kat, Akber or Hanyang - if you're reading this, comment with the name and I'll change it! THe food was great, and we eat so well - especially the Italian Prata and the Briyani - woah!

From there I rushed to the hostel - getting my 2nd taxi during my stay. I was meant to check out about 2pm, but didn't get there till half 3. As it turns out no one noticed! Ah well - I finally checked out at 4pm, sent lots of emails etc. and went to the movies. I think it's my staple 'what to do when bored' thing.

I ended up seeing 'Thank you for smoking' - which I can definitely recommend! Brilliant docu-drama, really intelligent film. It doesn' completely persuade you to adopt a position on the issues it raises, which is refreshing. Essentially its about a lobbyist for the tobacco industries - but I won't give any more away

I saw this film at the new Cathay complex down near Dhoby Ghaut MRT at one end of Orchard Rd, so I got the MRT back to Orchard and walked around Far East Plaza. The aim was to get my ear pierced, but I chickened out and decided that if I was going to get a 3rd piercing, I'd get it done properly without the gun.

So I compensated and bought Kaya and noe final mango ice-blended. It's a hard life sometimes!

And that was it! Kat, Hanyang, Yixian, Liling, Loo & Chye saw me off at the airport (thanks again Loo for the lift!) and I slept for 9hrs on the plane! That's a new record for me!

Day two in Singapore began similarly to Day 1 - except a little bit earlier I think. I seem to remember a similar thing happening at the start of 2005, when I was last here. Singapore is 2hrs behind Sydney, so waking at 9am is (in my mind at least) 11am. This means that I am more of a morning person here, which will come as a huge surprise to those of you who know me in Sydney!!

Today was more of a 'seeing old Singapore' day than a sightseeing-touristy one. I went back to NUS (National Uni of Singapore - where I studied last year) and Clementi and saw my mentor. It was great - not much has changed, except everything has. I no longer know the Uni like the back of my hand, although it didn't take long to work out where things were. The ice-blended (i.e. EasyWay) was still there, as was the Claypot stall at Arts Canteen. Thank god! I think I'd go crazy if I didn't have my claypot fix! Had lunch with Han Yang and Li Ling, friends of mine from Project Yun, which was fantastic. Li Ling spent last semester at UBC on exchange, so it was good to hear such a positive endorsement of the school I'm studying at in September.

At NUS I also bumped into my mentor from my exchange semester - Prof Teo - with whom I have booked dinner tomorrow night. Not too sure how I'm going to fit it all in, but hopefully if its hawker as requested it will be OK lor.

From NUS I went to the Old Ford Factory in Bukit Timah. It only opened in February this year, so it was brand new (you'll understand why soon!). This particular building holds a special significance to Singapore as it was the site where the British surrendered to the Japanese in WW2. As such they have turned it into a museum of the war and the Japanese occupation of Singapore (Feb 1942-1945). Pretty interesting stuff, although you can see similar at Changi. If you're in the area (i.e. visiting Bukit Timah) then go, otherwise, it's not really worth it.

Then back on a super-long bus past all the landed properties (Singlish for houses) and the prestigious JCs (Junior Colleges - i.e. Senior schools) - Chinese High, Nanyang JC, National JC etc. They are some of the few schools with good sports facilities - huge buildings too! As far as I know these places are more expensive than the local JCs, but they are really hard to get into - so sort of a cross between Sydney's selective and private schools. Seemingly most of my S'Porean friends went to 'good' JCs - showing that it takes a lot to get into NUS.

Anyways, I spent about half an hour on Orchard Rd shopping at HMV (bought some awesome Punk/Rock CDs: Saw Loser, AFI, Lostprophets and Muse) as well as my first Singaporean DVD - I Not Stupid. It's the prequel to the movie I saw on the plane and from what I've heard it is much better than the one I saw, so I'm definitely looking forward to it!

The end of the day was the second of our Yunner gatherings. This time to Boon Lay (the furthest west I've ever been in Singapore - pretty much the end of the island) to see Xinhuan's wedding videos and have dinner. It was a really nice night, and I got to say hi to Jingmei, Yao Dong, Yi Ning, Xinhuan, Lyna, as well as the others who I'd seen before - Chye, Han Yang, and Kat.

So now I'm back at the hostel ripping my CDs for the long flight tomorrow night. Spending most of tomorrow at Sentosa with Kat & Han Yang, which should be great.

Probably won't blog for a few days, until I'm settled in the UK, so till then, ciao!

Tris.

Woke up at the fairly respectable time of 9:30am after a long and cough-ridden night. Still getting over my cold (not the best after a long flight) and still can't hear properly. But enough of the negatives, I'm in Singapore after all!

I actually managed to spend the day as I had planned it - which is surprising considering I'm still recovering from jetlag and a cold and I expected a LOT out of myself. I visited Bugis for Dao Xiao Mian (Ban Mian homemade noodles), which were as excellent as I had expected them to be! No strange conversations with random people, however, which makes a change from last year!

Then I went all around that part of the City - visiting the Esplanade Theatres, City Hall, Singapore Art Museum (the only place with graffiti in all of Singapore!), Sim Lim (to stock up on electronics) and back to my hostel in Boon Keng.

Spent about 45 minutes relaxing in the aircon, then went out for makan with my Yunner mates from last year! We went to Upper Thomson Roti Prata - shit service, great food and really nice to catch up with them after so long. It's kinda obvious we have gone our separate ways, and my Aussie-English doesn't make it any easier for them to understand me, but it was great nonetheless. I'm still close to some of them, but now that most have full time jobs after graduating, I'm one of the few still studying. Even in Sydney there's a difference between students and workers, even if they are the same age!

Anyways, the big (!) event of yesterday was finding my MP3 player frozen and dead. Not even the 'reset' button would work. Was going to take it to the Samsung repair place on Orchard Rd, but I woke up this morning to find it working! Hurrah!! I just let the battery die and it reset itself.

Now I'm off to NUS and the old Japanese HQ! Should be fun!

Cheers,

Tris

Hi again,

As I'm sitting here with my laptop I thought I may as well write a quick blog to say yes, all is well, I'm here and safe.

The hostel I'm staying at, The Hive Backpackers , is fairly basic, but fully functional and surprisingly well located. It's in the town of Boon Keng, about a 10min MRT (subway) ride from the shopping street of Orchard Rd <http://wikitravel.org/en/Singapore> , and a further 10mins from the business centre of Singapore, City Hall/Raffles Place/Shenton Way. I have a 'cubby bed', which is essentially a dorm room with wider, thicker beds and a curtain cover for all beds. It's a pretty good idea. There's one (!) shower, one (!!) toilet, and two sinks, so they definitely aren't going for the whole 'flashpacker' look here. The photos on their website make it look a fair bit nicer than it actually is. For S$18 (A$15), however, it's pretty damn hard to beat.

Now I'm off to get another ear piercing, buy loads of electronics and eat Ban Mian . Wah lao, how I miss that stuff. It's essentially homemade noodles and it's sooo tasty! Anyway, I'll be sure to take a photo later today and post it for you.

Oh, and tonight is the big Yunners reunion - we're all going to Cheese Prata at NUS. Cheese Prata was our main after-clubbing jaunt from last year, so it will be great to head back there!

Cheers,

Tris.

PS: For photos of this leg of the trip, click here