Exploring near the Hostel

I slept very well last night! The room is nice and cold and the blankets heavy and warm, my favourite :) I ate at the hostel, they offer a free breakfast. Breakfast consisted of toast, cereal, and eggs that you cook yourself on a little cooktop outside on the street. Basic but does the trick! Peanut butter and toast with eggs will keep you going for a while ;)

I was invited to explore a bit with the others but I wanted to just do things at my own pace for a bit so I declined and just wandered around for a bit. I ended up at Fort Canning Park, near my hostel which is a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. I read somewhere that Singapore is striving to become a "City in a Park" rather than a City with many parks, and they seem to be pretty successful. There are green spaces everywhere, and all the newer buildings have great public spaces at the base! They definitely value creating a dynamic, interactive city that engages people. It's quite refreshing. My first impressions were that Singapore is very similar to Vancouver, and that still holds true but it also has some aspects that remind me of Vegas, and the city seems to cater to entertainment in a way. With all the different sights to see that I'll describe more in later posts.. After the park I somehow ended up in a shopping mall after trying to figure out how to cross the street. I walked on an overpass and was spat out in a mall. So I explored a bit and I found a grocery store! Mission accomplished. I found much more reasonably priced beers, $16 for 6 of the cheapest ones from Thailand, and picked that up as well as a local beer, Tiger, because you always have to try the local beer! I found it funny that in the "ethnic" food aisle were items like Tostitos nacho cheese and chicken broth. Different definitions! Wine and hard alcohol is also ridiculously priced. Holy. $30 for a bottle that might be maximum $10 at home.

From the supermarket I wandered back to the Hostel and met up with Youngmin. We ventured to Chinatown to eat lunch. Chinatown is neat, it has lots of activity, tons of food, and Chinese decor. It didn't seem quite as big at Vancouver's Chinatown but it was still worth visiting! We ate a place called
Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle which is apparently fairly well known. And after eating I could tell why! Their BBQ pork was fantastic. Some of the best I've ever had! The chicken was average though. We waited about 30 minutes to get our food, and apparently that's a short wait. It was packed in there so I can't imagine what it looks like when it's really busy. So while waiting we wandered across the street to a department store and just browsed. We also explored the area a bit more, looking at all the souvenir shops and all the different foods. Very interesting! The only things I bought were the exciting objects of toothpaste and a notebook :p

After eating we wet back to the hostel briefly and then went to another shopping mall briefly before heading to Sentosa Island to spend the rest of the afternoon. The shopping is the same at home, maybe just a bit more expensive! All the same brands, and lots of very expensive brands. And there are malls EVeRYWHERE. A shoppers dream. Not for me! But I was happy to browse a bit :)

I'll talk about Sentosa in the next post.. This website only allows a maximum of 6 photos per post so I have to split them up!Read more