Monday, June 10, 2013

Wandering Solo in the Lion City – Day 3

My last day in Singapore was spent reading Who Moved My Cheese at Book Kinokuniya, wandering around Orchard Road, Lucky Plaza Mall, Chinatown, a quick visit at Little India, and relaxing at the sights in Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands.
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Who Moved My Cheese?
Happy to be seeing books about Filipinos/Philippines in a Singapore bookstore.
Happy to be seeing books about Filipinos/Philippines in a Singapore bookstore
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Some few walks inside Ngee Ann City  and I found this happy place! Nice wooden toys at Plan Toys!
Happy Place! Nice wooden toys at Plan Toys!
I also had a taste of this peppermint ice cream wafer being sold along Orchard Road for just SGD1!
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And then off I went to Chinatown…
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I even had my first authentic Korean Ramen experience here for SGD3.80!
Kimchi Ramen Udon
Kimchi Ramen Udon
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Hawkers station along People’s Park in Chinatown
I also went inside this Buddhist Temple and Indian Temple just to have a view of what’s inside.
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And then there’s that posh-y cute restaurant across the street–Antoinette.
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After Chinatown, I decided to experience Little India so off I went there.
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A rainy afternoon at Little India
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I only spent a few minutes at Little India since it was raining hard and I couldn’t cross the street to go to Serangoon so I decided to just go Esplanade and wait for Char there. She, however, messaged me and asking if I could just meet her at Bayfront station so we could go to Gardens by the Bay together.
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I wasn’t able to take photos inside Marina Bay Sands, though, because my phone’s already dead by the time we got inside MBS.
Char’s also scheduled to go to the Philippines for a vacation so I took the same flight with her. Our flight’s scheduled at 1:30am, Wednesday, so after eating dinner at Texas Chicken, we headed back to Char’s pad to prepare for our flight back home.
My sojourn with Singapore was sweet and experience-full. I appreciate my friends living there who were really hospitable enough to make me feel at home and treated me to good food. I’m super thankful to Char for being such a wonderful and loving host :-)
It was an experience worth remembering over and over again. I never thought I could go around the streets of a foreign land all by myself but God’s very generous to let me experience it :D
Although I didn’t like the place prior to this trip, I came to appreciate Singapore’s government, the safety for solo travelers like me, the discipline of the people there, the not-so-polluted air and even their transit system. I would love to see the Philippines having that kind of discipline and clean government in the future.
Undoubtedly, Singapore is a really nice place but still, it’s no match with the Philippines when it comes to the warmth of the people, the happiness you can see in the faces of the people you meet along the way. The people in Singapore seemed to be so busy with their careers that they’re unmindful of the people around them. Even if Singapore is a greener pasture as compared to my country, I would still choose to live in the Philippines a million times more than there. I love the simplicity of life in my country and the way a family is being valued very much in the Philippines is incomparable.
Traversing the streets of Singapore would make you appreciate the modernity of life but traveling in the Philippines and experiencing its beaches and having a view of its natural resources could make you feel that indeed, God loves our country so much to bless us with these things. And for that I would say that it’s still a lot more fun in the Philippines!

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