Day
38
Even
though sleeping in is quite difficult due to the heat, today I managed it
without any problem! I had a really chilled morning, sent a few life admin
emails and then got myself mentally prepared for the last instalment of
souvenir shopping. This time I decided to go to Little India and as it was Hari
Raya, as soon as I arrived there I became completely immersed in the spirit of
the area. People were either sat beneath the palm trees gossiping away or
forcing their way through the numerous market stalls and little shops. I was
swept away with this latter crowd as we shuffled through the bustling streets
together. I had fun testing out my bargaining skills and managed to stay
relatively firm (most of the time)! I say that, but I’m still not quite sure
how I was persuaded to buy not one, but two, full saris... They’re really
beautiful and it’s all about supporting the local economy, so it’s all great J
The
streets were packed everywhere today, but a friend and I decided to visit
Gardens by the Bay (the place with the gigantic ‘supertrees’), where the crowds
were slightly less overwhelming. We relaxed by the water with a sushi picnic
and then ventured into the ‘Cloud Forest’, one of the two domes in which a
rainforest environment is recreated. As with many things in Singapore, I’d
never seen anything like this place – a towering man made waterfall was lit up
by purple lights and surrounded by exotic plants and beautiful orchids (the national
flower of Singapore). There are numerous elevated walkways and bridges along
which we could observe all of this from above, and also see MBS from yet
another new perspective J Just
before the exit of the ‘Cloud Forest’ there is a big screen projection of the
kinds of changes which we can expect in the world with various temperature
increases of up to 5ᵒC. The small film was very powerful,
and rather frightening...
We
strolled through the centre, feeling the refreshing evening air flow swiftly
around us. We stopped to listen to some live music being played in honour of
Hari Raya: the traditional Malay songs were catchy, joyous and a real pleasure
to listen to (sometimes I actually prefer not understanding the language in
which songs are sung...) It was a peaceful and blissful evening after which I
returned home to unravel my bursting-with-colour saris.
Day
39
Happy
48th Birthday Singapore, and here’s to many more National Days ahead!
This
celebration called for another lie in, which I appreciated very much. However,
there’s only so much time I can spend in my room here, so I soon relocated to a
little cafe to continue my relaxation with a book.
Singaporeans
seem divided as to what to do for National Day – some want to go straight into
the centre to watch the parade and fireworks (which means getting trampled by
the crowds) and some prefer to stay away, or even to escape to Malaysia or
elsewhere. A friend had invited me along to a little house party where they
would be showing all the festivities on TV, and this seemed like a great
compromise! So I went along, met some more people (who were lovely but
sometimes switched to speaking Mandarin between themselves), was fed lots of
delicious food and saw all the National Day celebrations. The country puts a serious
amount of effort into the whole event and it really shows: from the military’s
precision, to the diversity of creative acts to the dazzling fireworks,
Singapore certainly has a lot to be proud of. I also watched them play Mahjong,
which is a Chinese gambling game. They tried to explain it to me but either I was
being stupid or it really is very complicated, because even after the
explanation I still felt totally clueless, so I stuck to observing.
As
it turned out, this little gathering was to celebrate the host’s brother’s 30th
Birthday, which I had no idea about until they passed me a card to sign for him
(not that I even knew his name!!) Before I knew it, we were all singing Happy
Birthday and posing for photos with all of his family and friends. It felt very
random, but I guess it just adds to the variety of my Singaporean adventures...
Day
40
Today
it was time to prove anyone who thinks that Singapore is 100% urban wrong!
Several of the Singaporeans who study in Cambridge and I spent the day in Pulau
Ubin, which is a small island off the East coast of Singapore (which belongs to
Singapore). In fact, according to official sources, Singapore consists of 63
islands; it’s just that some of them are veeery small.
We
started the day with Nasi Lemak, which is delicious coconut rice with fried
chicken and a fried egg (this is breakfast!!) and then took a little boat to
the island. The beauty of this island is that there are only a few registered
vehicles on it and no private cars can be brought on, so everyone cycles
around. We rented some bikes and went ahead with exploring the island. It was
covered in coconut trees, palm trees and other tropical vegetation, as well as
lakes, mangroves and traditional kampong (village) style dwellings. Both the
aesthetics and the feel of Pulau Ubin were a million miles away from those of the
city centre and other parts of mainland Singapore... We had to keep reminding
ourselves that we were still in Singapore!
We
saw a cosy little Chinese temple (Fo Shan Ting Da Bo Gong Temple J) and the German Girl Shrine before
stopping for some perfectly refreshing coconut juice (drunk straight from the
coconut) and tasty sea food. The bikes had no gears and were slightly rusty,
which along with the heat made cycling rather challenging, but our treat after
the cycle was... a fish spa! This was quite a surreal experience. When we first
dipped our feet in the fish pool, we couldn’t stop giggling and splashing
about, but I gradually got used to it and began to enjoy it. Some of the fish
were much bigger than we were expecting and we could see their mouths opening
and closing as though they were about to munch our feet up whole! So, I can’t
say that it was the most relaxing experience of my life, but it sure made my
feet smoother (especially the toes for some reason!)
We
returned to the mainland and found the perfect spot from which to do some cloud
watching, not because that’s our usual Saturday night hobby, but because the
sky and the sunset were truly beautiful. We then drove across the island to
taste ‘the best’ laksa in Singapore. Now, I hadn’t really bought into this
queuing up for ‘the best’ this and that, which is quite common practice for
many Singaporeans, until I tried this laksa (it’s a complex dish, but just to
give the non-Singaporeans a flavour, the main ingredients are noodles, prawns
and a curry-like sauce which in this case was coconut). Yum yum yum yum yum! I
can wholeheartedly say that it was worth a drive across town J
I
got home quite late, and after an exciting and very long day, I was feeling
quite ready to sleep. On the other hand, it was Saturday night! Soo I had a
quick revitalising shower and after a day in the wilderness, I headed into
civilization (Clarke Quay of course). I met my friends on the pre-drinking
bridge and I’m not quite sure how this happened but instead of going out, we
ended up staying on the bridge until 4.30am!! It was quite a bizarre but very
funny night, because I remember meeting people from Spain, the Netherlands,
Brazil, Australia, Malaysia (and probably elsewhere) and having very random and
entertaining conversations with them. Who knew that the bridge could be the
site of so much excitement!?
Day
41
Sleep
could wait – there were more people to meet and more things to do! In the
morning I met up with the wonderfully friendly girl who I’d met right at the
start of my trip who had jetted off to London for a month only a few days after
we met. We chilled by an indoor ice rink whilst exchanging experiences of
London and Singapore and sharing our plans for the future. It was a great way
to spend the morning for two true chatterboxes, and it certainly put me in the
mood to come home and to do some proper London exploring!
A
bit later I met my other local friend and we went for a mini hike in the
Southern Ridges. As I was waiting for her, a few girls from the Philippines
came up to me and asked to take a photo with me... Interesting - they gathered
around, all hugged me tightly and snap, snap, snap went the cameras. It made
them VERY happy, so I didn’t mind (and one of them now has the photo as her
Facebook cover photo!)
My
friend and I climbed many steps to the top of Mt Faber (which is apparently a
hill rather than a mountain) and then walked along the Henderson Waves, from
which the view of the Harbour Front is quite precious. This lovely friend had
previously worked at the cable car company which links Mt Faber to the island
of Sentosa, so she was magically able to get us free tickets for the cable car.
It was a great surprise and the view from the cable car was terrific in every
direction!
Later
that evening we wondered over to Keppel Bay, which is where all the private
yachts are moored. The serene atmosphere here was especially noticeable, and
formed an interesting paradox of being simultaneously exclusive and welcoming.
After
a fabulous Singaporean weekend, I couldn’t bring myself to start packing just
yet...
Day
42
Just
as I thought that work was coming to an end, I met with my boss and she asked
me to produce a presentation for tomorrow. That’s fine, I guess I can do that J I also tidied up all the documents
which I’ve produced during my time here and transferred them to the shared
folder – I really hope that some of the things will be useful to them!
At
about 5pm, I was in my own little world of work when I heard, ‘Sonya, can you
smell something?’ – quite an unusual office question!! It turns out that they’d
prepared a little leaving surprise for me, which was completely unexpected and
very thoughtful of them. We had some delicious office snacks (including some
amazing fig tarts) accompanied by fruit tea, and they presented me with one of
their office sustainability t-shirts wrapped into a scroll form. I’ve learnt
that how much you enjoy your work and the quality of work which you produce can
largely depend on the people who you’re working with, and I’m definitely going
to miss working with my colleagues from OES. I’ve been very lucky to have
worked with such interesting, diverse and supportive people in my first ever
office job.
Feeling
touched by the little office party, I headed home to do a bit of packing, which
is when I realised that I’ve accumulated many more things than I had on the way
here! Later that night I went into China Town and was very glad that I did,
because I absolutely love cities by night, and the lantern lit streets here gave
the area a very special feel which differed completely to the China Town I’d
seen by day. I also saw some sort of Hindu ceremony in one of the temples,
which looked very exciting (although I’ve yet to find out exactly what it was
for). After running several of my final errands, I walked towards Clarke Quay
and all was going smoothly until I randomly fell over (!?!) There was no one around,
but I found it very funny – I can’t even remember the last time in my life when
I fell over and grazed my knees!!
Anyway,
Clarke Quay was glorious as usual and I took many photos (both real and mental)
of the river and the colourful lights which brought the area to life with their
sparkle. The moon was also beautiful that night and after deciding that my knee
graze was worthy of an ice cream, I sat outside a bar called the Crazy Elephant
and relished my ice cream whilst listening to their wonderful live music. I
know that this place, as well as numerous others in Singapore, will stick with
me for many years to come.
Day
43
My
last day at work was a really busy and exciting one! First, their new intern
from Tokyo arrived today. They asked me to give him a tour of the building,
which brought back vivid memories of my first few days in Singapore. Only after
doing three rounds of the building did I manage to find the entrance to the
roof garden – I think that the Tokyo dude thought that I was a bit crazy, but I
was glad to go up there again (it’s a waste having a roof garden if no one ever
goes up there!)
At
10am I went to a meeting with some people from the healthy eating department to
discuss our healthy-eco-canteen proposal (and I actually contributed to the
meeting, yay!) After a lovely lunch, I was allowed to attend an NUS geography
lecture (their term had started yesterday – in the middle of August!) One of
the SAVE students who I’d made friend with kindly took me along to his lecture
on ‘Globalising Asian Cities’. It was really interesting and reminded me what
it’s like to be a student rather than an office worker J it also confirmed just how hard
students work here – whereas I’m used to relatively manageable 50 minute
lectures, this lecture was almost an epic two hours long!
Then
I went straight to a meeting with the people from the bookshop in which I’d
been working on designing a sustainability corner with green books, speakers
and workshops. Although it’s sad that I won’t be around to see the final
outcome, I was very glad to see that things were starting to take shape and
that the people from the bookshop seemed on board. Maybe I’ll have to fly back
for the sustainability workshop J And from there I parted with my colleagues, thanked
them for everything and said farewell for now. I hate goodbyes – I’ve got so
used to working here that it still feels like I’ll wonder straight back into my
mini office tomorrow...
Back
at my residence I met my friend for the most delicious avocado milkshakes ever.
Even though I’ll be seeing him in Cambridge, I still found saying goodbye quite
emotional... Then I continued on my round of farewells. I went into Clarke Quay
to see my main bunny hopper friend and to thank him for keeping me well
exercised, amongst other things. Finally, I met up with a few other friends,
including my number one ladies night girlie and a few brilliant people who I’ve
been out with several times. It really made me wish that I’d met these people
earlier in my trip, because it seemed way too soon to be parting...
We
went to a really funny stand up comedy night in which most of the comedians
based their jokes around local cultural stereotypes (of the Filipinos, the
Malays, the Chinese, the Indians, and so on). The fact that I understood most
of the references made me feel like I’d spent the last six weeks properly
immersed in Singaporean life!
By
the time I got home, there was no point sleeping – I still had packing to do
and as I had to leave at 4am to catch my plane, I was worried that I’d sleep
straight through and miss my flight if I went to sleep.
Which
seamlessly flows into Day 44...
I
finished packing, returned the spaceship key and then dragged a big suitcase, a
smaller bag, my rucksack (and of course my straw hat) through the crazy accommodation.
A big thank you to the lovely uncle who was guarding the residence and kept me
awake by chatting to me while I waited for my taxi. For non-Singaporeans: here,
as a sign of respect, everyone addresses all elderly people as ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty,’
and I had fully embraced this tradition by now.
I
have to say, driving past MBS on the way to Changi airport was pretty
emotional. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that view from the 57th
floor... In the airport I realised that I was rather hungry and here I showed
another sign of true Asian-ness: at 5am I ordered wanton noodle soup with
fishballs and chilli J
As
soon as I got on the plane to Dubai, I fell into a super deep sleep. A few
hours later, I woke up and watched ‘The Impossible,’ which is based on a true
story of a family surviving the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. It was very powerful
and I cried quite a lot (I really hope that it wasn’t too awkward for the
little boy sat next to me!)
My
five hour stay over at Dubai airport flew by surprisingly quickly. After the
usual perfume spraying and looking through all the duty free things which I’d
never buy, I kept relocating between different seating areas to keep things
varied. I finally settled down in the cosy Costa arm chairs and enjoyed their
snacks, which had a lovely Middle Eastern twist to them.
Before
I knew it, I was boarding the flight to Heathrow and I was already starting to
feel the British vibes. Despite how surprisingly at home I’ve felt in
Singapore, I sure have missed Europe, and especially my fabulous family and
friends!! I slept a bit on the plane, but mostly enjoyed making the most of my
window seat - I love window seats so much! It was so exciting flying over Iraq,
Afghanistan, Turkey and all the other countries. I saw the actual Tigris River
(I was simultaneously following our route on the map on the screen J) and endless deserts and
mountains... Hello there magnificent Geography!
So,
the journey was painless and actually quite enjoyable. I love flying, both when
going away and when returning home, which means that there are no excuses not
to come back to South East Asia – there are still so many countries which I absolutely
must explore!! But for now, I say a huge thank you to Singapore... For your
hospitality, for all the new experiences which you’ve given me, for the
incredible people which I’ve met here, for all the out-of-this-world food and
for a generally unforgettable six weeks. As I prepare to face severe avocado
milkshake withdrawal symptoms, I bid you farewell for now Singapore, and most
sincerely hope that our paths will cross again!
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