Day 33- Macritchie Reservoir and Goodbye Singapore

Now, I am currently standing in the Singapore Airport in Terminal 2 at 2 am waiting for my 7:10 am flight to Bangkok. Luckily, internet is free of charge at this kiosk and I am already checked in for my flight with a nice window seat on one of my favorite airlines - Singapore Air (affiliated with Thai Airlines).
I arrived early tonight at 10 because York and his exchange student buddies from Singapore are off to Philippines today on a flight at 12, so I went along with them to say goodbye, and now I am here trying to get through the night without paying for accomadation.

Fortunately, today was a nice end for my Singapore trip. York and I woke up and got checked out of the hotel in the Little India neighborhood of Singapore and they were nice enough to let us leave our baggage for the day while we went out and saw our last sights.

First, we decided that we had to get some food, so off to Arab street we went. Everything in Singapore is overpriced, so even the Arab restaurants were charging $15 for lunch. Although that is in Sing dollars, it is still ridiculous and not worth it. We ended up settling on a restaurant that had a $16 lunch special that included some hummus, breads, and other things. Although it was decent, we ended up heading to McDonalds where we shoved our faces with chicken nuggets and curly fries covered in salt (we both are salt freaks, so the saltier the better).

I spent the next hour at the internet cafe while York ran around the city looking for a lock to lock up his Mac Book while he brings it on the remainder of his travels. He is still spending a month in Philippines, then a month in Australia, then time in India and Nepal before heading back to his home in Germany.

After he found his cord and I had checked my email, we decided to go to this place called Macritchie Reservoir. I had read about it in my Sinapore Lonely Planet and it looked really cool because there is supposed to be all of these wild animals like monkeys, snakes, lizards, and other things living in this area. I wasn't sure if I would actually see any of them, but I thought since it was free and close we should check it out since I never made it to the zoo here.

We hopped on the MRT (Singapore Subway) and took it to a stop on the Red North South Line called Bishan where we transferred to a bus (153 or 163) that took us right to the reservoir.

I was sooo happy, and loving it the minute I arrived. Tons of shirtless runners were returning from their workouts, couples were holding hands walking quietly, and families were having picnics at the beautiful park. There were trails telling us which paths were easy to difficult, and everything was easy to navigate. At least that is what we thought.....

Once on the trail, I was immediately satisfied when I saw a huge jungle like tree to climb that would be quite picture worthy.

"I am so glad to be traveling with only boys after today," York muttered as he clicked endless photos of me stuck up in the giant tree.

I knew he was getting annoyed with the constant picture taking and forced sightseeing, but it was our last day traveling together so I thought he could deal with it. Afterall, I did spend 2 days at a wakeboard cable park shooting videos of his backflips... What is so bad about a few photos at a park? hahahh (By a few photos I mean actually like a million!)

Anyway, just after I managed to clumsily get out of the tree we came upon a sight that excited me.

"OH MY GOD! Look York! Monkeys! Please, take a picture!" I begged as I tried to get close to the group of monkeys jumping around in the trees.

"It is just monkeys! This is not a jungle.. you need to go to a real jungle," He complained.

"Ok, whatever! Just shut up and take some photos of me and the monkeys,"I answered back to him as I tried to get closer to the group of monkeys.

"Get closer!"he barked to me.

Just as he said that one of the baby monkeys that I had been trying to get closer to ran at York. Although he thinks he is tough, the small baby monkey the size of a kitten startled him and he scurried away in fear causing me and a boy standing nearby to burst in to laughter at the sight of the grown man running from the baby monkey.

After the monkey photo shoot, we headed onto the trail trying to get going since it was already close to 6 and the park closes at 7. The trail was muddy and our flip flops were slashing mud all over the backs of our legs and Yorks shorts. We resorted to walking barefoot on the muddy trail, which seemed to be a good idea until parts of the trail became rocky and painful on our feet.

"Don't worry, it is just like a pedicure with a mud treatment included,"I encouraged him, although he was growing bored and annoyed from the painful trek.

We began bickering as usual until we came upon a sight that stopped us in our tracks. More MONKEYS! This was a big group of maybe 10 monkeys all blocking the path, with no way for us to get around them. Some were large(the size of a raccoon) and others were babies, but they all had sticks in their hands. The scene probably looked ridiculous as 2 adults came into this face off with the cute furry animals, but in my eyes they were evil scary gremlins with weapons.

We had no idea how to get around the monkeys, and York was not as brave as before due to his prior scare from the baby monkey, so we stood contemplating a plan until 2 runners came. Without hesitation, they ran right through the group of monkeys without making eye contact at them. How did they make it look so easy? I thought.

York leading the way, we broke through the pack of cute furry critters and continued on our way. We were both laughing at the fact that it was scary to us, and York even admitted that the nature walk was fun when it became dangerous. We thought that the danger was over and were in a hurry to get back to the city to grab dinner before dark.

Just as we were almost to the end of the trail, I saw something swimming in the water that looked like a giant snake or an alligator.

"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!!?!?!?!" I yelled to York, as I pointed at the creature approaching the edge of the reservoir.

We were both amazed at this disgusting creature swimming our way, and backed away from the edge of the path clicking photos of the gross animal. It was slithering/swimming with its head above the water and it's tongue going in and out, looking like some sort of evil monster. It looked at us, and then continued on swimming. We finally determined that this scary lizard was a Monitor. A Monitor is the type of lizard like a Komodo Dragon. The meat eating lizards that know how to swim and also can run quickly on land and attack their prey. Fortunately, this beast stayed in the water and didn't come after us, but it was quite a sight to see.

We both were pretty impressed by the giant lizard, and our little nature walk that York was bitching about actually turned out to be quite exciting for us.
We didn't have much time left after all the excitement, but we headed to Pizza Hut for our last meal. Although Pizza Hut is not fancy, it was a nice dinner for us with soup, fries, pasta, dessert, and drinks. We finished right on time and headed to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and arrived at the airport.

York's buddies arrived and we headed to Terminal 1 for the boys to catch their flights. They chatted and smoked outside the terminal and at 1130 got ready and head off to board the plane. York and I said our goodbyes and my 2 week travel buddy headed off for some needed quality time with the boys.

Even though we usually fight and bicker, even 5 minutes after he left I wondered what he was doing. It is strange how when you meet people traveling you can form instant bonds with them, and you feel like you have known them for years, even though it has only been days.

Now it seems as though my trip is a completely different trip. I am back on my own again. I have 7 days left on this 40 day backpacking journey. I never thought that in 33 days I would jump from Vietnam to Laos to Thailand to Cambodia to Singapore and meet people that I will never forget.

So a New Year, a new country! Off to Bangkok then to Koh Tao for a week learning to scuba dive. I am really excited to jump into a world under the sea and get my PADI (license for open water). One more week on my adventure.... I can't wait!

Day 32-View of Singapore from New Asia Bar

"What happened last night?" I asked York as we awoke around 9 am to the sounds of housekeeping knocking on the door at the Claremont Hotel in the Little India neighborhood.

"You passed out!" He laughed and told me the tales of our New Years Eve party of the night before.

York passes out nightly from drinking too much, or too fast, or drinking before he eats dinner, so he was quite proud of his success in staying strong the night before. I on the other hand, had the opposite experience, and drank too quickly without eating enough dinner and then made it to midnight and decided to sleep in the New Year. No embarrassing moments, no funny stories, but York said I just put my head on the table and napped while everyone drank along the waterfront near the Esplanade in Singapore.

I woke up feeling the effects of the gin and was in desperate need of food. 1030 was too late for breakfast, so York and I opted to try to sleep off the hangover and ended up waking up at 2pm. We were both feeling ok, and York was actually quite drunk until late in the day.

We decided to try to go to the food court that I had discovered near the waterfront for lunch. The weather was extremely hot and we were both feeling strange, but fortunately we made it to the food court in our hungover state.

This place has a great selection of food at reasonable prices. Chinese, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and even a Wendy's! We both were able to get some good food (I had lasagna and caesar salad and he had noodles) and then we decided we needed to head back to our corner room in the Claremont for some rest.

We layed down and watched Bruno and showered. Bruno was absolutely hilarious! It was even funnier because Bruno (a gay Austrian model) speaks similar to York. York speaks really good English, but has trouble with his TH sounds and they always end up sounding like F sounds. The W's are always V and the V's can be W's ... and watching Bruno and listening to "Vonderful" made my day! I have actually learned quite a bit of German in the last weeks traveling too!
Here is some of the German I have learned

How are you? - Ver gets deer?

I am good. - Mir gets gud.

Are you hungry? - Has due honga?

I am hungry. - Ich habe honga.

What shall we do? - Vas vollen vir ma hen?

Shut up! Hals Mal

That is big!- Das iz reisig!

Lets go! - Offgets

Wait - Valtey

No - Nine

After we finished our movie and were clean, I convinced York that we should go to the New Asia Bar, which is located on the 70th floor of the Swissotel. It is free to go there before 9 pm and has amazing views of the city, but very expensive food and drinks.

Since it is our actual last day together, he agreed because he knew that I really wanted to go there. We made it there by 730 and went up the high speed private elevator to the New Asia Bar.

Once inside, I was really impressed by the sparkling city below. Glittering lights of all colors were surrounding me. I ordered a chocolate vanilla martini and strawberries and set down to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere. Drinking me martini and taking it all in, I really felt happy to have come to Singapore. It is a classy city, and although expensive, worth the trip.

York enjoyed it there, but he doesn't like being surrounded by snobby rich people, so he was really ready to leave once I had finished my pricy cocktail.

From the top of the city at a martini bar in the sky down to a street food court fast food joint we went! New Asia Bar was followed up by a trip to Wendys where we devoured a double cheeseburger, fries, baked potato with sour cream, and a chocolate frosty.

I think that had to be a perfect evening for me and pretty much sums up my style. I enjoy the cheap fastfood just as much as the expensive classy dining, but one without the other would not fit for me. I need a bit of a balance in everything I do.

Stomachs full, we traveled back to the internet cafe so York could book his flights and I could update my blog. Our travels together will end tomorrow, and he will head to Philippines and I will head back to Bangkok.

When will we see eachother again?

"No one knows" - Yorks answer

Day 31-Botanical Garden again, Happy New Year!

We woke up in the dorm room at NUS (National University of Singapore) and I felt like I was back in university. Or maybe I felt even younger, because I was having to sneak around. Luckily, I am short and dress like a college student so it really doesn't matter too much.

Although the housing was cheap, it was really making me crazy. Staying so far away from the city center was a pain in the ass, and to get anywhere near I wanted to go required at least a 45 minute bus and MRT (subway) journey. I was really not enjoying the dorm time, even though the dorm itself was clean and it was not bad for accomadation.

Since York and I had been driving eachother crazy, we agreed that some time apart would be the best plan that day. We decided to head to the internet cafe and then go on our own seperate agendas for the day.

Since I had forgot my camera the day before, I decided to go on a run to the Botanical Gardens again. I had to take the 105 bus from Commonwealth subway station to the Botanical Gardens, but that was short and only took me about 10 minutes.


Arriving to the gardens alone, I was able to really take in all the beauty of my surroundings. Just as I was walking in a
nd looking at all the crazy trees covered in vines, I spotted a monkey sitting on one of the branches playing with a piece of styrafoam. I tried to get close to him and snap a photo, but unlike t
he turtles which swam right up to me the day before this guy was camera shy and dissapeared into the forest.



I joged around the lake and enjoyed looking at all of the wildlife that was hidden in the greenery.

I stopped and looked at all the cute turtles popping their heads out looking for food. I was amazed at all of the exotic birds that were feeding on insects along side the pond, and I am sure that if I knew more about birds I would have been really impressed.

I even saw some beautiful black swans swimming in the pond, and since they are a rare sight I found them to be even more beautiful than the white ones.

Time flew by, and before I knew it I had to get back to meet York. We were going to move our things into a hotel in the city for the next 2 nights, so we didn't have to make the long commute back and forth. I arrived 25 minutes late at 6:25, but he wasn't angry because he understood the unpredictability of traveling by public transport.

We packed up our backpacks, showered, and headed to the city to find the hotel. Unfortunately, everything takes longer than expected and York was really late for dinner plans. He was hungry and definitely scary at this point, so I was able to get ready within 5 minutes as to not further his grumpy attitude. Usually, I take at least an hour to find an outfit, do my hair, get my make up on and complete a look when I go out, but on this occasion I knew I had to hurry or we would spend our New Years seperately.

By this time it was already about 10 and York had missed dinner plans he had previously had with his friends. So instead, we just went to McDonalds and inhaled some food before going to a bar where his friend Khai (also the nice guy who let us stay at his dorm) would be spinning old school hip hop to ring in the new year.

We mixed gin into our drinks and walked quickly to the bar which was located on a street called Arab street, which is filled with cute restaurants with outside seating. Once there, we met Yorks friends (Yvonne, Carmen, Mahrti, etc) and sat down at a table outside and began drinking. I ordered an overpriced Singapore Sling, just so I could say that I have had a Singapore Sling in Singapore.

12 o clock came and went without too much fuss or celebration over it. The countdown was quiet and we barely even noticed it. Supposedly there were fireworks in the background, but I didn't see any of them.

This is where it starts to get fuzzy for me, because at this point I decided to mix Heineken with Gin. NOT SMART! I just remember talking to people, then getting in a taxi, and that is about all.

We made it to the waterfront near the Merlion, and I remember talking to York's friend Yohan slightly. Supposedly, this is the time I slept the New Year away and just put my head down.

Eventually, York and I made it back to our hotel in Little India neighborhood around 4 he says. By this time I was awake again and hungry, so we got noodles he says and ate them in record time.

Unfortunately or maybe it was a blessing in disguise, I have no photos to document any of the events because I had forgotten my camera. Oh well, I guess I don't need pictures of myself sleeping on a table to ring in 2010! hahahh

Anyway, it is 2010 and the start of a New Year! I wonder what lies ahead...

Day 30-Singapore Botanical Garden

This was a tough morning, but fortunately we had our Furama Hotel Buffet to look forward to. We made it down by 10:15, and were smart enough to bring the backpack and fill it with cheeses, pastries, and breads as we shoveled our faces with food. We quickly showered and packed our bags and then made our way to the MRT (Singapore subway). This by the way, was pure torture! The humid, sticky Singapore air was making us drenched in sweat and carrying our 20+ kg backpacks was definitely a workout that we didn't ask for.

By around 2, we had finally arrived at our final destination after walking, riding the MRT and then transfering to a bus, waiting again, and then riding a campus bus we made it to the student housing at NUS (National University of Singapore). Yorks friend had agreed to let us stay in his dorm because he was going to be at his parents house anyway, so we had a cheap place to stay for the rest of our trip.

We chatted with him for awhile and he was really cool and helpful in explaining the rules for us. I had to be in hiding and actually wasn't supposed to be there, so it felt quite strange for me since I am 26 now, and haven't been in a dorm room since I was 18 and just had started university.

With most of the afternoon gone, we didn't have much time to do anything, and I was getting really cranky. York has lived in Singapore for 6 months doing exchange studies, but for me this was part of my travels so I really wanted to see the sights and not waste my time. We flipped through the Lonely Planet and finally agreed to go to the Botanical Gardens.

It was a bit of a journey to get to the Botanical Gardens. Bus, then MRT, then we should have taken a bus again but I thought it would be faster to walk so off we went. I was in a supreme cranky mood as well! Hot sticky air, moving bags, traveling all day, and a hangover... and now walking in the sticky air to the Gardens. York was trying his best to make me happy, but I was just exhausted. Just as my crankiness was climaxing the rain started drizzling down on us.

"Do you really want to go to the Botanical Gardens?" York questioned to me.
"Of course! We haven't done anything! I didn't come to Singapore to not see anything!" I yelled back.

And off we tredged to the Botanical Gardens. If I wasn't yelling at him, he was yelling at me. Then we would apologize and walk in silence. It was one of those days when the silence was almost worse than the verbal fighting. Eventually, we made it to the gardens and the beauty of the place took the edge off of our battle, but only slightly.

The Botanical Garden was truly breathtaking though! The path entrance felt like I was walking into Jurassic Park or something. The entry way had a splashing waterfall, and every corner had some exotic flower or plant that I had never seen before. The actual park is completely huge with 52 acres, but we were short on time, so we were only able to walk around one of the ponds near the entrance.

When we got close to the pond, I was amazed by all the wildlife. Fish were coming to the edges in masses, and turtles kept popping their heads out and swimming over. I had no idea but there was an area where we could buy fish food, so the animals are expecting food when they see people near them.

After we left the Botanical Gardens, York had to go to the electronics market called Sim Lim to buy a LAN cord for his computer and then we were going to get some food. I was still cranky and we had been continuing on our silent battle for the most part of the day, so it was getting to be a dangerous time in the day. He suggested we go to a place called Food Republic to get some food.

In Singapore, the food courts are supposedly famous for great food, but that doesn't mean I like them. We arrived at Food Republic and it actually looked like there was some good food, but the place was crowded with Chinese people and families with no tables in sight. My eyes were tired, my body was sore, and the noise and lack of seating were driving me crazy.

"York, how about here" I suggested we eat at an Indian Restauarant in the center of Food Republic.

"WHAT!?!?! You want to eat here? You are crazy!" He barked in his German accent, completely shocked that after all our traveling I suggested we eat at an Indian restuarant.

We stormed out of the food court, in silence. Once we reached the street our fight proceeded, with each of us stating a point and then the other debating over how ridiculous the other was. We finally agreed to just go back to Clemente (the area we were staying in) and eat somewhere nearby.

Once we arrived we settled on a cheap sushi restaurant, and then headed back to the dorm to sleep. We both were still feeling angry and cranky, but at least we hadn't resorted to physical violence.

Day 29-Singapore Sights-Merlion etc.

It was a pleasant surprize when we woke up and went downstairs for breakfast. They had informed us that the breakfast was simply going to be a continental breakfast, but it was actually a lavish buffet! We piled on fruit, eggs, cheese, toast, meats and everything we could on to our plates and went to town. I was having a good time watching York complain about the lack of selection of french cheeses, even though he thinks he is just a "backpacker".

The enormous breakfast left us both in food coma for the afternoon. We were starting to enjoy our stay at the Furama Hotel and things were looking up, but it also made it much harder to get out and see the sights.

Finally, at about 4:30 we got out of the hotel and I decided to go on a run around the city while York went to the post office to mail things back home to Germany.

I decided to head up to a park I saw along the way and go from there. It was called Fort Canning, and was an old historical site. I am not too sure exactly on the history of the area, but it appeared to be occupied in th 1800s and had beautiful trails, buildings, an old cannon, and a small cemetary with most of the gravestones showing people had passed away around the 1860s. While I was running through this area, I was also impressed by the beautiful lush greenery and flowers everywhere. I kept feeling like I was in a rainforest and it felt really unreal!

I was truly starting to love Singapore! I realized that yes, Singapore is very hot and humid, but that is also the reason for it's lush greenery and clean air.

I made my way down to the waterfront and along the way took many pictures of the beautiful old buildings such as the Courthouse, and CityHall.
I finally found what I had been looking for though! The famous landmark of Singapore... The Merlion. It is a lion head on a mermaids body and shoots water out of it's mouth. It was alot bigger than I thought it would be and was really cool to see in person.

Day 28- Singapore... I am on the fence

Waking up in the shabby bunkbed with not even a sheet, I was eager to get out and transfer to the nicer hotel. We gathered our many bags, and made our way to the streets of Singapore to move to the Furama Riverfront Hotel. We got in a taxi and quickly arrived at the nicer hotel.

Even though we arrived at 12, they had our room ready for us and let us check in early. It was quite nice and we both were happy.... at first. Part of the reason we had wanted to stay at a nicer hotel in the first place was so York could use his laptop and take care of all the things he had to do. He had to book flights and talk to his family, so we thought the free internet and WIFI would have been handy, but little did we know the hotel had a $25 surcharge for usage.

Despite the bad news, we tried to make the best of it and he took me to China Town for lunch. It was masses of people eating various different noodles, dumplings and rice with drinks of lime juice and teas all in a dingy foodcourt. The food looked decent although the health standards of this place were equivalent to eating on the street with the rats circling my ankles in Bangkok. We eventually found a table in the middle and York ordered some sort of sweet and sour seafood medly, while I opted for a hot and sour soup and dumplings for $6 Sing dollars.

I tried to eat the food, but around me where people yelling and dropping plates and every person in sight seemed to have not showered in the last week. I am not usually that picky, but the sights around me made me lose my appetite and the grease filling my mouth made me sick. I gave up on the lunch after a few greasy dumplings and settled for a blueberry shake.

That evening, I went for a swim in the pool and continued on with my book about the Cambodian Girl. York had to organize his things to send back to Germany, so we each did our own things for awhile.

Before we headed out to dinner, I had to have a little stand off with hotel management about our internet issue. I didn't want York to even try to talk to them, because he just gets angry and his German accent just makes him sound abbrasive although that is not necessarily his intention. The guest services worker tried to offer us 30 minutes free internet use in their PC room, but after I finally talked to the head manager I was able to get us 24 hours of broadband use for free in our room.

We ended up heading back to Little India that night for dinner at a nice restaurant. The food was much better than our lunch had been, so we were both happy about that. We went back to the hotel and finished off our Smirnoff (purchased at the airport due to ridiculous Sing prices) and went to sleep.

Day 27-Expensive Singapore

Waking up in the hostel, we got ready and then ate our free breakfast of toast (York seriously ate about 8 pieces), and then used the internet to try to figure out our plans for the day. Since we were going to split finding accomadation, I searched on the computer for places to stay because York had already found our accomadation for the prior night and arranged a place for us to stay for the end of the week.

I found a great deal at a place for the 28th and 29th but we still had to find a place for that night. We were in a neighborhood called Little India, so we decided to just walk around and look for a place. We wandered around, and found quite a few hostels but everything was pretty expensive even though they weren't nice at all. Also, in Singapore the air is so humid that even the short walk around the Little India neighborhood left us covered in sweat.

Finally, we found a decent room in Little India, but by decent I mean barely sleepable. The room had bunkbeds and just enough room for us to set our things down. I was ok with it, but definitely not thrilled because we still had to pay $30 Sing dollars a night for this shabby closet aka room with it's lime green walls and rickety bunkbed.

For the rest of the afternoon, we walked around the city and looked at the sights. Singapore is really beautiful would be fabulous to spend time shopping there if you have the money and don't mind a super humid climate.

That evening I wanted to grab a drink and walk along the waterfront, but we had to go meet Yorks friend. His friend talked and talked and talked, almost driving me to complete insanity. Nice enough, but very young and lacking all social intelligence, he talked and didn't take the hint that we really didn't want to go to a "house party" with him.

We agreed to go to an Indian restaurant with him for dinner, which was also not the best. The food was decent and cheap, but I was pretty bummed because in such a beautiful city with beautiful restaurants and things to see, I really didn't want to eat cheap food in an alley way.

York felt bad for making me hang out with him friend, but explained that he tried to give him a hint although that wasn't working. We made our way back to our hotel in Little India and made drinks and drank them on the street before returning to our bunkbeds to call it a night.

Day 26-Goodbye Bangkok Hello Singapore