Thoughts about Singapore

Before we got there, everyone seemed to repeat the same thing: it was an awesome place to live, work and visit. We were pretty anxious to see what people were talking about. It was lovely, but very much like any other major city. I did the Many Faces of Singapore SAS trip which consisted of a trip to Little India, Malay town and China Town. Well, Little India wasn't that fascinating since we just came from the real deal and I have not yet even recovered from the craziness of that country. Malay town was highly influenced by the Arab and Muslim community, and Chinatown was okay...but we are going to the real Chinatown pretty soon. So, after a while we got to the point where we were trying to figure out what was unique or simply Singaporian. Don't get me wrong, I loved Singapore. I brought a key chain and some other things. But it is indeed a melting pot, and the Malaysian, Indian and Chinese population has certainly influenced the structure and makeup of the city/country. It was incredibly clean and indeed, very orderly.

Ps. Me and Meg aka Margaret ditched our trip since and got our noses pierced in Little India. Mary was supposed to do it with us but chickened out. We wanted to do it in actual India but worried about the cleanliness. She went first and sorta jumped when the woman used the piercing gun. We all gasped but it was fine. THe lady got to me and told me I couldn't move and that freaked me out since I didn't want to ruin anything but I couldn't stop myself from shaking. It suddenly didn't seem like the smartest choice haha. But anyhow, concentrated really hard, she pierced my nose and according to them I didn't move (or probably not as much as Meg) but the shock brought natural tears to my eyes. She handed us a tissue and I felt like my nose was running which it wasn't. My eyes calmed down but down I had to get used to what felt like a gigantic object on my nose. I couldn't seem to ignore it because it felt like my nose had grew in size and the stud seemed like the first thing people would notice when they saw me (which now in retrospect, is actually hidden and most people assumed that I had the piercing all along, and simply am now donning a stud). Anyway, we ended up getting back to the bus before the other folks and we (lauren, myself, Meg and Mary) ended up signing off the trip in Chinatown. We did some browsing around...and end up splitting up...

Can I mention how delicious food in Singapore was? is? it is true. there are sooo many malls and shopping venues that our taxi driver wasn't kidding when he said it is the Singaporian pasttime to eat and shop. They are a consumer-friendly nation.... with that being said, I was happy I loved it but got back to the ship on time. As usual there were folks who underestimated the wait period and tried to get more shopping and things in.... as my roommate Mandy relayed to me, she was in line with about 200 SAS'ers who all were trying to beat the clock. She got dock time as I am sure the rest of them did. SHe was hoping that there was power in numbers... I almost believed what she did since it seemed insane that they would all get it... but sure enough. 0-15 minutes late is 3 hours of dock time and that's what she got. She swiped her ID about 3 minutes after on ship time which sucked for her, but there were folks who essentially got 6-24 hours of dock time depending on their placement in the long long line. I don't really sympathize with anyone who gets back late because we are warned and we know the deal. You push it, you pay the price. I'm all about necessary discipline. But I will certainly add Singapore to my list of places to revisit. It is worth a week's visit for sure =)