Singapore

“To feel at home, stay at home. A foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It’s designed to make its own people comfortable”
-Clifton Fadiman

October 31, 2010
Welcome to Singapore! It was Halloween and we were most definitely scared. The ship spent the past few days scaring us into believing that 90 percent of us would get arrested in Singapore. We docked around 8 and were off the ship and through customs by 9, it was the fastest and most efficient country yet. As soon as we got through the cruise center we found the MRT (metro) and figured out how to get into the center of Singapore. 15 minutes later we were walking in front of Clark Quay, which is a place where there are dozens of bars, clubs, and restaurants. Loryn, Heidi, Shannon, and I spent some time exploring there were we met some Marines who at ( 10 am) were already starting to drank. I took the liberty to get to know that map of Singapore and we started exploring around this tiny Island. On our walk from Clark Quay to Little India we passed dozens of malls. Singapore is basically a shopper’s paradise. AND everything was so clean; it was pretty refreshing after India. We found ourselves at this outdoor market called Bugis Bazaar. This little bazaar was filled with absolutely everything you could imagine. It reminded me of the night markets in Taiwan. Every little stand was filled with everything from bubble tea to watches, clothes, and food. Once we left the insanity of Bugis Street we head out to find little India (we just couldn’t get enough of India) On the way we ran into a 7-story electronics store that is famous in Singapore. So we popped in for a few hours to look at everything. You could buy an IPOD shuffle for 10 dollars, its amazing how cheap electronics are in Asia. But soon enough we were in Little India and it was actually like we were in India the bazaar was selling everything exactly as we had seen it not even a week before in Chennai. We walked around for about an hour and figured that we would go check out the Raffles Hotel which is apparently famous, I had never heard of it before, but the invented the Singapore sling. On the way back to Clark Quay from the Raffles Hotel we passed many malls but one thing that caught all of our attention was this place called BreadTalk. It was a bakery that reminded me so much of Taiwan (again) but It was amazing. I got a loaf of garlic bread and an orange juice and before I knew it we were heading towards Clark Quay. Our intentions for going to Clark Quay were to find out if Ministry of Sound (a club) was open for Halloween. Two steps into the downtown area we were stopped by about 50 marines. (not a good idea) But before we knew it we were running through the MRT to get back to the ship and back out to the Quay to meet up with all of our new friends. The night was interesting we ended up meeting up with the marines and a ton of students from our ship and dancing all night It ended up being a great Halloween night.

November 1, 2010
After a crazy night out waking up early was not easy at all, but by 930 we were on the MRT and heading towards Clark Quay to start the day. After a fabulous iced coffee later we were heading towards Bugis Street again to check out the markets and collect a few things that we didn’t get the day before. We asked around and figured out that the best place to go shopping was Orchard Road so that’s where we went. In the metro station there was a mall, SINGAPORE IS CRAZY. But we finally went to another mall, this all sounds so ridiculous but I wish I was exaggerating. In this mall we found a much-needed grocery store for some snacks and toiletries for the boat. Before we knew it, it was getting close to 2 and our on ship time was an hour earlier so we had to get back to the Cruise Centre. 30 minutes later we got to the Harbor and through the intense customs.

REFLECTION;
Singapore is pretty much a Disneyland for Shoppers. Everything was extremely clean and the people were very friendly. Even though we had only two days there, I thought it was plenty seeing as the entire country is filled with malls. The craziest things I found were the laws, a country that doesn’t allow street begging, jay walking, chewing gum, or littering all of these things are great, but it is insane to see a nation that actually abides by all laws.