March 25th, 2024
I can’t believe I’ve already spent one week in Singapore! I think because I’m planning on so many weekend trips, the whole time in Singapore feels so much shorter, so I’m really trying to maximize what free time I have in Singapore. And what do I do in my free time? Eat! I really enjoy exploring all the different hawker centers or mall food courts and seeing which stalls are Michelin rated, which have the best prices, and making notes of what food I have eaten and what I still need to. As much as I window shop in the hundreds of designer stores in the endless number of malls here, I do the same with every food court I see. I’ve had some really good food for cheap here (especially in Malaysia which I’ll explain soon), and here are some Singapore highlights of mine: Hainanese chicken rice, pepper beef rice, Jollibee, martabak, taiyaki and obanyaki, kueh ko see, butter chicken, scallion pancakes, bandung, I could go on and on. And obviously I got more boba! I’m honestly really enjoying tracking all the meal ratings like I said I was going to, it’s helping me not repeat food which is one goal of mine.
In Singapore, I started checking off some of the major things you’re supposed to see here. I saw the water light show at the Marina Bay Sands with my roommate, which was cool but we basically got waterboarded by the wind spraying the water back in our faces. After that, we went to a light show at the Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay. The light show was themed to opera music, and it was just mesmerizing. When you looked straight up at the lights, it was like you were stargazing and the lights were just stars dancing. I definitely want to see the new themes for the shows that come out every month. We also went to the botanic gardens on a later day. The gardens are huge! I can see why it takes people four plus hours to explore everything. Everything we saw was very beautiful, I love walking around gardens like that so I was very happy and will return to see more. I am a sucker for greenery which is part of the reason I really like Singapore. The best part is we saw two giant lizards fighting each other, it was crazy, like they were really wrestling and throwing each other around in the street.
I never thought I would be the type of person to take a casual day trip to another country, but I guess I am now. On Sunday, I went to Malaysia for a day with some friends, and wow I love Malaysia! Well, maybe I love the conversion rate in Malaysia. Everything is so inexpensive, I got so much delicious food and snacks that would literally be one US dollar. I got a huge bowl of sashimi don for literally $8, a gel mani pedi for $35, and my favorite boba, Gong Cha, for $3. They’re not doing it like that in America for sure. I can see why Singaporeans grocery shop in Malaysia. We also got McDonalds which is one of my guilty pleasures, I love seeing what each country has at their own fast food chains. And I literally had the best thing from McDonald’s ever, it was a breakfast wrap and it’s really high up there in my food rankings, bit embarrassing for me. I am already planning a full on spa day for myself in Malaysia before I leave here, I can’t pass up an $8 haircut! Anwyays, Zia Jian, until next week!
PS: My mom impulsively bought a puppy and brought it back home, so I thought I would share photos of my new puppy, Cosmo!
