Singapura.

I'm back from Asia!  I hardly even know where to begin...

It all began Tuesday morning at 5 AM when we got on the bus to go to the airport.  The flight was extremely uneventful (and by the way, Singapore Airlines is awesome).  We got to Singapore in the afternoon and the first thing we noticed was the INTENSE stifling humidity.  Seriously, it made Atlanta seem like nothing.  We had a little while to explore, so some of us wandered around the Arab district that was right next to our hotel.  It was awesome for me because Arabic is my second major and a lot of the signs and stuff were in Arabic, so I was loving it.  We had welcome drinks in the hotel bar at 5, and I got to try a drink called the Singapore Sling, which was really good.  For dinner we went to a little Arabic restaurant we had found earlier, and me and Erin split two really good dishes - one with chicken and one with lamb.  I LOVE their food.  And everything on the menu was written in Arabic too, so I was able to recognize some of the words.  AND we got to sit on cushions on the floor.  After dinner, me, Andria, and Alex wandered around the city for a little while and found an internet cafe.  That night we were going to go out with the group but we didn't feel like going anywhere we couldn't walk to, so several of us watched the Olympics and crashed earlyish, which was definitely needed.

Wednesday.  Really good hotel breakfast (with a lot of really interesting Asian food but I ended up with a pretty standard breakfast) then off to Deloitte (one of the Big 4 accounting firms) at 9.  They took us up to the boardroom and we listened to a couple presentations about the company and the tax code in Singapore.  Then they opened up the shades so we could see the view and it was definitely extremely impressive.  For lunch we went to a huge Asian food court type thing that made every mall food court I've seen look miniscule.  We just picked a place with a decent size line (so we could tell the food was good) and pointed at the food we wanted.  I don't know what exactly I ate, but I know it consisted of rice, meat, and vegetables and was really good.  Also got a juice drink of blended oranges and pineapple for dessert.  Yum.  After that we went to the US Embassy to listen to another presentation about Singapore and the security there was insanely tight.  That afternoon, we wandered around Little India, which was awesome.  Then me, Katie, and Erin went out to dinner with Andria and her uncle, who lives in Singapore.  We ate at an Indian restaurant and again, the food was fantastic (although pretty spicy and they couldn't bring the water enough for me!)  Wednesday night we went to a place called Clarke Quay, which was like an open air mall except with bars instead of stores.  We ended up having a ladies night because we found a bar having an actual ladies night, so only the girls could get free drinks.  It was a lot of fun and me and 3 of the girls ended up going to McDonalds afterwards for ice cream and venting.

Thursday.  Got up early to go to Sentosa Island off of Singapore.  Going there involved taking the public transportation system called the MRT as well as a ride in a cable car.  We actually couldn't get on the first train of the MRT because it was so full; I've never seen anything like it - there was literally no room to squeeze on there.  When we got to the island we basically just wandered around to see the sights and the beaches.  It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and I really didn't ever want to leave.  That afternoon we visited PSA (Port of Singapore Authority) to learn about how Singapore works as the biggest port in the world.  It was pretty interesting and they took us up to the 40th floor, so we were able to get some great pictures of the city afterward.  That night we went to a talk given by someone who used to work for CNBC about the herd mentality in finance, which I actually found really interesting (Mom and Dad thanks for teaching me about personal finance lol).  We ate there because they gave us some delicious Chinese food.  That night we tried to go to a bar that was on the 70th floor of a hotel and was supposed to have an amazing view of the city, but it was closed for renovation so we went to a different (really small) one for a while then came back and got room service.

Friday.  We had the entire morning free, so some of us went to a place called Bugis Street, which is the largest street shopping center in Singapore.  It's basically row and rows and rows of stalls selling all kinds of stuff (like clothes, shoes, accessories, food, etc) for really cheap.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  A bunch of us got dresses for $10 and Andria bought some of her favorite tropical fruit that you can't find in Australia or the US (she used to live in Sri Lanka) and let us try it and it was great.  That afternoon we toured the Tiger Beer brewery, which was interesting but so humid that it was hard to enjoy it.  But, the tour ended at the company tavern where we had free beer for upwards of an hour or so.  That night was a farewell dinner at a Spanish tapas restaurant, and once again, the food was sooo good (although there was way too much of it - which coming from me is really saying something lol).  Friday night pretty much the whole group went to a club called Ministry of Sound.  It's supposed to be amazing; there's only 3 in the world and some of the group reserved a booth on the upper floor so it was a lot of fun.  There was a main room with a revolving dance floor and another room with a dance floor in this huge cage thing that was just as crowded as the MRT.

Then Saturday was up early again to fly back to Perth (another uneventful flight) and we finally got back to Port Lodge around 5.  Today we went to see a real AFL footy game - Freo Dockers vs. St. Kilda Saints.  Freo got killed because they're not very good, but it was still fun.  We had second row seats, and it was actually a really big venue (34,000 people in attendance).  My friend sitting next to me actually got to catch and throw back the ball once when it flew into the stands.  It was ridiculously hot though; we were all reapplying sunscreen every quarter.  It's crazy that this is still their winter.  I can't even imagine what their summer must be like!

I think I'm done for now.  I know I'm forgetting things about Singapore, so if I think of anything else I'll add it.  Oh, and I've uploaded my Singapore pictures onto Picasa, so feel free to check them out!

<3