Day 15: The City of Singapore, Singapore! (Friday May 26th, 2023)

Last night I slept so poorly. One of the girls in my dorm was awake all night. I woke up to her at 11pm, 2am, 4am, 6am, etc. So by the time my alarm went off at 6:30, I didn't want to wake up. At the same time though, I wanted to be consistent with my morning routine. So I got up. I went to common room to do yoga - thinking that there would be A/C - but it wasn't on. Instead, all of the windows were open. It was "cooler" at 6:30am; however, it was still 84°F with 80% humidity and it felt like 95°F. 

It was supposed to thunderstorm around 11 so I wanted to get out early to see some sites before then. I debated taking rain coat with me, but figured that would just be too hot and sweaty to wear. 

I did some journaling and then a long yoga session followed by meditation. 

Afterwards, I walked to a store down the street to a grocery store. I wanted to get some bananas because the hostel provided a free breakfast, but it only consists of toast, jam, and peanut butter. So I figured bananas would be a good addition to make peanut butter banana toast.

But on my way, it started to pour! I guess the rain came early. I was still in my workout clothes and had just thrown on flip flops. But now I was walking so carefully to not slip on the sidewalks because they were mostly tile. I was trying to run from cover to cover. But everyone else has an umbrella. At this point, I knew I wouldn't wear a raincoat out. It was too hot and humid. So I picked up a $5 umbrella at the grocery store, along with iced coffee, and some snacks. 

Another thing I noticed on my walk was about crossing the street. One thing I had heard about Singapore is that it's illegal to jay-walk. But there are very few crosswalks. So you have to just walk across the street anyways. Which makes me paranoid and always checking for cops around. Cars also seem to have right of way if you do cross (even at intersections with cross walks). I'm not sure if they actually do or not, but they act like they do. You better move out of the way.

After I got back to the hostel, I made my breakfast of peanut butter banana toast. Then, I showered and got ready for the day. I left around 9:30 and headed to Little India. 

When I got there, it was already so hot. I could feel the swear dripping dowm my back. I passed a smoothie shop and decided to get a treat to cool down. Not that Singapore is the place I wanted to be treating myself, but I figured once is okay. It was so nice to have a cold drink in hand while exploring the streets of little India. 

I walked through the Little India Arcade which was an open air shipping center. Past Komala Villas, which is a vegetarian Indian restaurant that was highly recommended to me, and I can see why. The line was out the door and down the sidewalk at 10:30am. Past the house of Tan Teng Niah, which is an old colorfully painted house in the heart of little India. 

Last of all, I went to the Sri Veeramakaliammam Hindu Temple. As I walked by, I only intended to look from the outside, since I'm not Hindu. But as I looked closer, I noticed other visitors entering, and a sign that said "welcome" with the dress code. The shoulders and knees must be covered. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and a skirt, so I borrowed one of their long skirts that they had in a bin outside. I removed my shoes, and slowly walked inside to observe the various prayers and small ceremonies going on. It was interesting to see how other cultures and religions practice worship. I also noted that although we had to have our knees and shoulders covered, the priests(?) were topless. Most small ceremonies that I saw included putting your hand over a candle and waving the smoke towards your head. Then taking red paint and painting your forehead. I couldn't tell if this was a line or a dot, or maybe it varies. Women also took flowers for their hair. 

After the temple, I headed to Chinatown. It was 11:30, which was perfect timing for lunch. I first went to the People's Park Complex because it had been recommended to me that there was a good rooftop view of Chinatown. However, I couldn't find the roof. The only roof I did manage to find was just the 4th floor, which was shorter than the other buildings around. The first three or four floors were all stores and everything above that looked like apartments. But I didn't know how to get past the apartments as all of the stairs and elevators that I found only went as far as level three or four. So after wandering around for a bit, I gave up and decided to move on to find lunch. 

I went to the Chinatown Complex which is the largest food complex in Singapore. It's a giant multilevel open air food court. There were so many options, I didn't know what to choose. Except I knew I didn't want soup, it was too hot for that. I also wasn't feeling the most adventurous, so I also passed on the dishes with frog and chicken feet. Most dishes also seemed to be most carb heavy (rice or noodles) with protein, but very little to no vegetables. I finally landed on a place that looked like it had a good meeting goreng with chicken, egg, and loaded vegetables. This has become a common dish for me. 

After lunch, I continued on to the  Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. I got a sarong again to cover my knees, but this time, shoes were okay. 

I started on the first floor, which was the main temple hall. There were people praying and lighting candles and incense. The main hall also had about six monks reading from a book, with several tables of people following along. The reading almost sounded like a chant or a song. It was fluid and fast, yet mumbled. 

After the first floor, I went up to the second and third floors which were museums. The second floor was a museum containing artifacts about the construction of the temple and Chinatown in general. The third floor was a museum dedicated to Buddha. It was interesting to learn about the history of Buddhism, the temple, and Chinatown. Plus, these floors were air conditioned which was quite a nice break from the heat. 

Last of all, I went up to the fourth floor for the rooftop orchid garden. This was a simple garden, with a large wheel in the middle that people were spinning. It was later explained to me that people spin it three times for food luck. 

After the Buddha Temple, I continued on through Chinatown. I went past the Maxwell hawker food center, which is a popular open air food court. But since I had just ate, I didn't stop for any food. Instead, I continued on to the Singapore City Gallery. 

The first two floors are a free museum for the city's history of past, present, and future urban development and planning. It was interesting to learn about the various systems that Singapore has, how it has expanded, the maintenance of green spaces with so many people yet such a small land area, etc. I probably spent a good two hours here, and could have spent longer. 

By now, my phone was getting low on battery and I needed to figure out how to charge it. I had brought a portable charger with me, but it wasn't working. I was meeting the brother of a friend of mine who lives in Singapore (Michael) for dinner tonight. I needed enough battery to get directions to dinner and then back to my hostel afterwards. I had two options. I could either go all the way back to my hostel, which would be about two hours plus in travel time plus the cost of transit. Or, I could go back to Chinatown to try and find a cheap charger to buy. I didn't want to waste all of that time traveling to and from my hostel, so I opted for the latter and went back to Chinatown. 

On my way, I walked past the Thian Hock Keng temple, which was another Buddhist temple, but not as elaborate as the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. It was simple to walk around. But the. Secret, is the mural hiddon on the back wall, which is the largest in Singapore history. 

It was a dicey move making stops along my way, as now my phone was on 2%. Once I made it to a market in Chinatown, I found a "$1+" store which I figured would be perfect. I found a charger for $6.90 and went on my way. Next, I found a restaurant where I bought a tea and asked to charge my phone. Only the host already had a charger plugged in and ready to go behind the host stand, so now buying a charger felt useless. I charged it up to 30% - which I figured would be enough to get my through the night or until I could charge again with the charger that I bought - and went on my way. 

It was a little after 4:00 now, and I still wanted to see the main downtown area before going to dinner with Michael at 8:00. We were meeting near his apartment, which meant I would need to leave by 7:00 to make it in time. This gave me almost three hours to explore. I decided to walk from Chinatown down so that I could see sites along the way. 

My first stop was CapitaSpring tower because they have open viewing decks of this city, which were open 2:30-6:00, but closed on weekends. But once I arrived, they were closed for the day due to a fire drill that was going to happen. That was disappointing, but I continued on. 

From there, I went down to the Singapore river to walk along Boat Quay shop houses and restaurants. Then across the Elgin bridge to the opposite side of the river and down to the Cavenagh Bridge past the Fullerton Hotel. These were some of the most iconic sites of Singapore. 

After the Fullerton Hotel, I ended up at Merloin park. This is an icon of Singapore and has gorgeous views of the harbour. 

After Merloin Park, I walked around the bay and over the Helix Bridge. Here were beautiful sites of the Science Museum and Marina Bay Sands hotel. 

Around the hotel, was the famous Gardens by the Bay. I walked around enjoying the sites and beautiful greenery. They have a light show that happens every night which I wanted to see. But I would have to come back tomorrow since I was getting dinner with Michael. It was important to me to get dinner with him tonight, because he and his wife (and roommates) graciously offered for me to stay with them for a few days. So since we had never met before, I wanted to make sure I made a good impression! Especially since I would be going to their place tomorrow. 

It was about 6:30 by now, and although it was the last thing I wanted to do, I needed to charge my phone to get directions to the restaurant to meet Michael. My phone was completely dead by now. I couldn't find an outdoor or public electrical outlet to plug into, so I went into Starbucks. I ordered a snack ($5.80) and sat down to charge my phone. Only to find out, it still wouldn't charge. I figured by now it must be the chord that I have. 

So my only option, was to go back to my hostel to get my charger that I knew would work. It was 7:00 by now and I figured if I left right away, I could make it there by 7:45 to at least let Michael know I was running late. I had the address of the hostel and a paper map of the location and MRT subway system. I figured between these, I could find my way back without my phone. 

But I was wrong. It took me 1:30 to get back to my hostel. After getting off of the MRT subway, I took a wrong turn. None of the streets outside of the station aligned with what was on my map, so I had no idea where I was. I took a guess and went left. But it seemed too quiet and not quite right. So I asked a nice elderly gentleman where we were. Heading back past the MRT station, the streets still did not align with what was on my map. So I asked a couple - who has Google maps open on their phone - where we were. As a solo female traveler when asking people where I am, for directions, or showing any indication that I'm lost - it is all a gut check. The couple was very kind and turned out to also be going to the same street as my hostel! So I follows them. We parted ways and I got to my hostel around 8:30. I was horrified that I was so late for dinner with no way to contact Michael and had essentially ghosted him. What a terrible first impression. I plugged my phone in to charge and grabbed my laptop to head down to the common room for the wifi to message him right away. 

I told him what happened and we decided to meet halfway for dinner still, since we both still had to eat. We met at a dim sum place which was delicious! He knew exactly what to order and we shared lots of delicious plates. We had fried yam, rice roll ups with pork inside, spicy crab dip, vegetable dumplings, crab dumplings, etc. After dinner we went out separate ways.

By the time I got back to my hostel, it was about 11:00 and I was more than ready to go to sleep. I showered and went to bed. Tomorrow, I would sleep in.