here, but I really enjoyed the city and I want to come back. I wish
we could have spent a night here!
As soon as we got off the ship, we knew Singapore was going to be very
different from all of our other ports. The cruise terminal dock in
Singapore looks like a very nice airport terminal! There were TVs,
moving walkways and Starbucks was one of the first stores we saw.
Very different from our port in India! Surprisingly, I was able to
resist Starbucks. I went with my friends Brynn, Meg and Sara to just
walk around and explore Singapore. Our first stop was Chinatown.
Singapore's Chinatown was pretty similar to the Chinatown in New York
City. We found a local coffee shop here that was much cheaper than
Starbucks, and had a mini coffee museum in the back. It was really
cute! It was pretty funny, we actually didn't do anything related to
China in Chinatown. We saw a very elaborately decorated Hindu temple
and for lunch we went to an Indian restaurant! It was a very cool
place, because it was an all-you-can-eat buffet run by volunteers, and
at the end you simply paid whatever you wanted to. It was very
delicious, we enjoyed one last taste of India!
After lunch, we decided to head to the colonial district. Here the
buildings were a bit bigger and more modern than in Chinatown, I think
this was more of a business district. We went to the Singapore Art
Museum, and it was only $5 to go with a student ID. The museum had a
lot of modern and contemporary art by Asian artists, and it was very
cool! We also talked to some workers for awhile, and they were very
impressed by the SAS program. One of the coolest exhibits was a
tunnel with pages from books taped everywhere, that lead into a little
room with a writer's desk and all his notes and books. I was very
impressed with all the different art here and how nice all the workers
were. After the art museum, we went to the famous Raffles Hotel.
Raffles was the British man who founded Singapore, and the hotel
considered one of Singapore's most famous landmarks. Its bar is
famous for having all sorts of famous people come drink Singapore
Slings here over the years. It was a very pretty and fancy hotel. We
wandered around for awhile, but unfortunately Singapore Slings cost
$30 here - so no imitating famous people in the lobby!
Brynn had a friend living in Singapore now, and we were going to meet
her for dinner at a restaurant on Arab Street. We decided to head to
Arab Street a little early and have a nice snack before dinner. We
got on a bus that we thought went directly to Arab Street.
Unfortunately, the bus did not go to Arab Street at all! We got off
when we figured this out, but it worked out because we found a very
yummy snack place right where the bus dropped us off. We got pastries
and boba tea, and it was delicious! After our snack, we then took the
metro to Arab Street. When we got off the subway we heard a loud
crack of thunder and then it was a torrential downpour! We ran from
the subway through the pouring rain to the restaurant, which luckily
was pretty easy to find. We found Brynn's friend and had a really
yummy dinner! After dinner Meg and I did quick souvenir shopping and
then we all went out for gelato. After gelato, it was time to get
back to the boat. This was a shame, because Arab Street was really
starting to come alive! I think it would be a great place to go at
night, because there were many restaurants with everyone out on the
patios. I wanted to stay so badly!
We only had an hour to get back to the ship, spend our remaining
Singaporean dollars, and go through immigrations again! The terminal
was full of SAS students running around, trying to make it back to the
ship. For the second time, I clocked in right at on-ship time! I
didn't get any dock time good, so that's good. I'm simply maximizing
my time in port!
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