Last Saturday, each of us spent the day with a local, as homestays were canceled due to fears of swine flu. No kidding. I spent the day with Nadiah, and our group combined with two of her friends, Amir and Raya, and we formed one large group touring the Tampines region of Singapore, which is about as far away from NUS as one can get on the island. We started the day with a little delay, as most of us had been out for an epic evening the night before :) By the way, Players has nothing on Zirca. Anyways, once the entire group arrived, we headed off to this beautiful park on the coast, put our feet in the water, and played on the playground, which was far more creative than any playground I've been to in the States.
Then we went to Pizza Hut for lunch, which is actually quite the classy affair in Singapore. It's also halal here, which means its prepared in a way that is acceptable to Muslims. And it was really good :) We ended the day at Mind Cafe, where you can play board games, and dinner at a hawker stand place frequented by locals.
Wednesday night, we went out to Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar, which my father would have died over. It might be better than Godiva :)
One thing I've observed here in Singapore is that all the natives seem to do is shop and eat! There are so many restaurants and malls EVERYWHERE. But with subsidized housing and no need for a car, what else is one to spend their money on?
This past weekend was spent in Melaka, Malaysia, an epic weekend to say the least. We left early Friday morning, and drove to the southern most point of continent. We had lunch at a small fishing village, which was, as one person put it, "my own personal hell," considering my deep aversion to seafood.
Saturday, we went on a walking tour of Melaka with Professor Emmanuel, who is our professor for the Malayisan history section of our class. We saw many of the historical aspects of Melaka, like the only surviving entrance to the city from when it was a citadel, and churches built by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonists. We spent the evenings in the Jonker Street night market, which is at the heart of Malay culture and society. We even witnessed a line dance to American music. It was hilarious.
I believe this one was to Toby Keith :)
Sunday was the reckoning day, however. We left the hotel at 8am, and traveled about 30 minutes outside of Melaka to the edge of a mangrove swamp, where we strapped on our helmets and began the 15 mile tour of the forest. It was pretty difficult, and I'm quite sore today, however, it was a lot of fun. Mountain biking in a Malaysian forest is definitely one thing I thought I'd never be able to say I've done, but now I can! We then had lunch, and headed back to Singapore.
It's hard to believe that my time in Singapore is coming to a close. I only have about a week here, and then we move on to Thailand for four weeks. I'm expecting Thailand to be a much bigger culture shock than Singapore, but I'm also excited to see the country.
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