Food, Glorious Food!

SO! I have A LOT of blogging to catch up on, but to simplify things, I'll stick to breaking down each leg. After Phi Phi, the Scots and I continued on to Singapore (this all occurred about two weeks ago, but I promise I will fully catch up very soon!!!!).

Finding our inner panda at the Singapore Zoo

 After spending a night in Phuket - where we happened to meet some hilariously eccentric Londoners - we had one day to blow so we decided to go shopping. After walking from our hostel for about two minutes, a man saw that we were looking at a map, and asked if he could help us. We said we were looking for the shopping centre, and after showing us where it was, he offered to take us around Phuket for the day to visit the market, the jewellery factory, and the shopping centre - and the best part, it was only six bucks! We hesitantly said yes, and immediately when we saw his fancy four by four SUV, we knew there was a catch. I of course assumed we were going to be robbed that day, and quickly stuffed my money and credit card into a hidden pocket in my pants. After taking us to the jewellery factory, our guide whipped out a booklet and explained that he needed to take us to three jewellery shops to collect stamps, at which point he could get a free tank of gas. Although we had obviously been caught in a scam, it was a big 'aha' moment and frankly a giant sigh of relief. If that was the catch, we figured we weren't getting robbed that day. Being three backpackers up for just about anything, we decided to happily go with it, and ended up having a pretty good day driving around the city. That night we headed to the airport for Singapore. You know when you're traveling and you have those surreal moments where the situation seems so unlikely and random (I think I've mentioned this in a previous post)? Well, sitting on a plane with two Scottish girls that you met a couple weeks before - when you've barely flown with any of your close friends, let alone family - is pretty weird.

The girls and I in our temple-appropriate dress

 Before I delve into the details of Singapore, let me sum it up in one word: delicious. I was extremely lucky because Joanne had gone to university with a girl from Singapore, Rong, and she was unbelievably kind in being our tour guide for four days. First, she organized for a friend of hers to pick us up from the airport at one in the morning and take us to our hostel (who does that for strangers???). AMAZING. The next morning, she picked us up and drove us to a local food court. She sat us down, and began racing around, buying all kinds of Singaporean dishes for us to sample. Of course, when you think you've just had lunch in Singapore, it's still time for another meal, so she took us to a coffee shop to try iced coffee and kaya - some sort of coconut spread on toast and raw eggs that you just slurp down straight. We walked it off around Chinatown and went to our first temple. While it always kind of irks me women have to cover up and men don't, it was neat that they had wrap skirts and shawls at the temple entrance for us to use (this may be common but I've never seen it before). And of course, shortly after, it was time for dinner. For our first night, Rong took us to an Indian restaurant on the roof of a megastore (two city blocks for one store in Little India - complete chaos). After filling up we headed for our night out in an area called Clarke Quay. Everyone always goes on about how Singapore is so expensive, but we actually didn't really find that. As a tourist, the only thing that really followed that stereotype was the alcohol. Rong took us to a Latino bar with a live band. Amazing, until you buy one round of drinks for five people and the bill is over 100 dollars. That amazingness wore out quickly. Before we knew it, we ended up sitting on the bridge filled with other backpackers with a bottle of vodka and some sprite from 7-Eleven...Still, a great night out.

Night on the town with Rong and Jestyn

Chili crab!!!...Yummmmm.

  The following day we decided to get ourselves into all kinda of tourist traps, starting with Sentosa - a man-made island/amusement park attached to Singapore. Although it was pourng rain, we decided to stick it out anyway, and immediately bought ridiculous plastic ponchos. Instead of going crazy on their luge track, the waterpark, and Universal Studios, we settled for the aquarium, which seemed like a great way to blow some time so that we could at least say we did Sentosa. It wasn't actually that bad! I got picked as the volunteer for the dolphin and sea lion show (another add-on to our tourist trap theme), and we stared at some giant crabs for like twenty minutes! Exhilarating! We did, however, get lost on our way back to the hostel. Turns out there's, like, eleven exits from the subway station, and we took the wrong one. Just picture three white girls holding out a map wearing giant plastic ponchos in Little India. We got stared down by hoards of Indian men, and that's putting it lightly. Rong of course met up with us to take us out for another food filled night. We started with chili crab: two giant crabs drenched in chili and butter sauces with buns, fried rice, prawns, and vegetables. That was round one. Next we went to a food market and tried stingray, satays, one-armed crabs, cane juice and vegetables. I forgot to mention that Rong's boyfriend Jestyn was also an amazing tour guide; he definitely deserves some credit.

Walking in Singapore's billion-dollar Marina Bay Gardens

Late night prata

Next on our list of tourist traps was the zoo and night safari. For anyone who plans to go to Singapore, DO NOT miss the night safari. It's pretty much just a zoo at night, but wandering around paths through a zoo in the dark definitely brings out the inner child. The Singapore zoo is actually unbelievably impressive. As an animal lover, I usually hate zoos, but Singapore's seemed to have very reasonable habitats and you were able to forget about the concept of a zoo and just enjoy being around the animals.Funny, we went to a giant city and interacted with more animals than we had in our entire stay out of cities! For our last night of eating, Rong took us out for a late night prata: an Indian style fried pancake usually served with curry for dipping. Greasy, fatty, and very satisfying.
Before heading to the airport, we checked out Marina Bay Gardens - a billion dollar park in downtown Singapore. I also managed to see a photography exhibition; very inspiring and also necessary considering how slowly my graduation photography portfolio is coming along. Me traveling clearly does not equal productivity. Not surprising in the least... I also had a bit (actually a giant) hair disaster which started on this day and ended a week and four hair colours later... And of course, it wouldn't have been a day in Singapore without one last meal with Rong: pork rib soup with rice and chicken feet. Yum!
 After heading back to Thailand, we spent one more night in Phuket, and woke up first thing to head out on our next leg: the islands!