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  • Day 2

    Day 2: Singapore

    May 28, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Day 2: Singapore

    We met with our tour guide Anna this morning. She is a proud Chinese Singaporean, who has vast knowledge of the history and architecture of this amazing city.

    We started our tour with a Temple in Chinatown, where seamen preyed for safe passage when crossing the ocean to reach Singapore for the past hundred years. There is one very unique thing in this temple that you won’t find it anywhere else in the world. There is a figure on the beam that’s holding up the roof, it supposed to be a British person. Because when the British East India company colonized this city in 1800s, they were the much hated overlords of the common people. Having this British guy holding up the roof in a very uncomfortable position was a subtle way for the people to show their hatred.

    Food is super important for this city. Due to its diversity of different cultures, the food here are a wonderful fusion of many flavors. The best places to experience this are the many hawker centers in the city. We visited 4 of them today and tried 8 very different dishes. Oh my goodness, everything we ate tasted amazing!! I was so full at the end of the tour I had to cancel our dinner reservation for tonight.

    I don’t know if you have heard of a fruit call Durian. People call it the King of Fruit here. It’s famous for its bad smell when opened and unique tasty flavor. Under Anna’s guidance, we had the chance to try it out. We had to hold our noses before we put it in our mouths, and try eating it without smelling it first. Only after we took the first bit were we allowed to use our noses again. Well, I have to say the taste is indeed very interesting, I cannot even describe it because it tastes like nothing I had ever eating before. After I took the first bit, I didn’t experience any bad smell. I guess Anna’s advice really worked! Will I eat this fruit again? Maybe.

    Another very unique thing about Singapore is their public housing. 80% of people lives in public housing here, and they are the nicest apartment buildings in the city! Rich, Middle income and Poor people all living together at the same space. The only difference is that the rich people can afford to buy the unit and the poor people need to rent it. But the living conditions are exactly the same!! What a truly innovative way to offer equality among everyone!! Anna said we are going to learn more about the process more in our tomorrow’s tour. Can’t wait!

    By the way, the public housing apartment building picture I showed in the post has the 2 levels of outdoor gardens (one at middle and one on the top) in the building. They are the largest in-building gardens in the world!

    The more I learned about Singapore, the more I fell in love with it!

    The day ends with a wonderful music and light show at the Garden by the Bay Supertree Grove.
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