(no subject)
Today I woke up and found new people in my room, the 2 guys were from Canada and had just come from Thailand, where I was headed next. We talked a bit about our travels and then decided to go for lunch together. Jordan and Nathan both had some crazy stories about their trip to Thailand, they ended up spending a whole month there (I'm only planning on going for 2 weeks) and the one thing that they said I had to do was go to a full moon party (they're probably the 100th person whose mentioned this, so I will not miss it). Lunch was great but such a huge portion, I think I was eating for half an hour and barely dropped the level of my soup with noodles and veggies in it. They have this lime juice stuff that’s incredible, its like lemonade with a kick, so yummy. God just writing about it makes me want some food, maybe I shouldn’t always do this at night when I have my nacho cravings. Anyway after lunch we took the subway over to orchard street. The subway in Singapore is incredible and you can get almost anywhere with it. And they have this great system of putting money on a card, and you just swipe it at the station you get on and then swipe it when you get off, so the amount deducted is based on how much you travel. Oh and it can be used on buses too, so smart. Toronto really needs to improve their transit system. So yes we went to orchard street, which is basically 5th avenue on drugs! I mean store after store of Chanel, Gucci, Prada, and this is just what I saw when we exited the building. Everywhere I looked all I saw was luxury. During the National Day Rally Speech 2005, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that he would create more landmark buildings to create more fun in the district, partly to keep up with vibrant cities around the region. Orchard Road underwent a $40 million revamp in 2009, with the addition of new street lamps, planter boxes, urban green rooms, street tiling, and flower totem poles.
We quickly moved on before being drawn to the bright lights, and headed to the Botanical Gardens. It was free to go in, so I already liked them, haha. I believe we spent about 5 hours there? Oh wow, all I have to say is, I never thought I would be so impressed by looking at trees. I mean they are honestly like pieces of art here. There is so much beauty in the way they are planted and preserved and I feel like I have been exposed to a whole new level of botanics (is that a word). I took 100s of pictures and was amazed at how much captured my attention. Ok so a bit more info about them… The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 74-hectare (183-acre) botanical garden in Singapore. It is half the size of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew or around one-fifth the size of Central Park in New York. It is the only botanic garden in the world that opens from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight every single day of the year, and does not charge an admission fee, except for the National Orchid Garden. We were going to go into the orchid garden but wanted to have dinner and be back in time for midnight (they’re ringing in the Chinese new year!!!) so we decided to leave.
On the way back we stopped in central, I guess like a downtown area, for food. Ohhh found my postcard, its called the marina. The entire skyline was lit up and looked absolutely amazing, the building and the architecture in Singapore is really something to marvel at. I can’t remember the name of it, but there are these 3 building with a massive boat on top, and at night you just can’t take your eyes off it. And then right beside it is the Singapore flyer, a huge Ferris wheel which makes the London eye look like a baby. Cars whizzing by, people walking around, lights everywhere, it was so amazing! We decided to splurge and go up to a bar and enjoy the view, it was this really posh like place called ‘the prelude’. I had been warned about alcohol in Singapore, but I thought, how bad could it be. Haha, famous words always. My one little drink cost me $15. But oh did I get my moneys worth, we had amazing views of the city, and just sat there and marveled at what an extraordinary place it was. After drinks we walked back towards our place and went straight to china town for dinner. We had some amazing chicken satay with peanut sauce and some noodles. While eating we met some other Canadians, who were headed to Thailand in a few weeks. We exchanged stories we had heard about the full moon party and spoke of never remembering each others names. After dinner we headed back to our hostel where a whole new set of people had checked in. we decided we would all go out together and watch the new year being rung in. I also decided that I wasn’t going to wear my hat and would take my shaved (again) head for some air. All 6 of us headed out onto the street at about 11:35. It was absolutely packed with people and there was a buzz of excitement in the air. I saw some people giving me weird looks but I think for the most part no one cares too much, they look because its something different and then go on. The girls we met were from Zurich, we spoke about their work and what they planned to see during their holiday. At a minute to midnight we all had our drinks ready and cheered each other to a new year! This was my third new years being celebrated, and so far all those wishes are coming true at midnight we watched the fire works go down, took some pics, and drank some more. We decided it was a night to party and found a backpackers bar (no really that’s what it was called) and partied and drank till about 3 in the morning. After that it was off to a good nights sleep.
We quickly moved on before being drawn to the bright lights, and headed to the Botanical Gardens. It was free to go in, so I already liked them, haha. I believe we spent about 5 hours there? Oh wow, all I have to say is, I never thought I would be so impressed by looking at trees. I mean they are honestly like pieces of art here. There is so much beauty in the way they are planted and preserved and I feel like I have been exposed to a whole new level of botanics (is that a word). I took 100s of pictures and was amazed at how much captured my attention. Ok so a bit more info about them… The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 74-hectare (183-acre) botanical garden in Singapore. It is half the size of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew or around one-fifth the size of Central Park in New York. It is the only botanic garden in the world that opens from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight every single day of the year, and does not charge an admission fee, except for the National Orchid Garden. We were going to go into the orchid garden but wanted to have dinner and be back in time for midnight (they’re ringing in the Chinese new year!!!) so we decided to leave.
On the way back we stopped in central, I guess like a downtown area, for food. Ohhh found my postcard, its called the marina. The entire skyline was lit up and looked absolutely amazing, the building and the architecture in Singapore is really something to marvel at. I can’t remember the name of it, but there are these 3 building with a massive boat on top, and at night you just can’t take your eyes off it. And then right beside it is the Singapore flyer, a huge Ferris wheel which makes the London eye look like a baby. Cars whizzing by, people walking around, lights everywhere, it was so amazing! We decided to splurge and go up to a bar and enjoy the view, it was this really posh like place called ‘the prelude’. I had been warned about alcohol in Singapore, but I thought, how bad could it be. Haha, famous words always. My one little drink cost me $15. But oh did I get my moneys worth, we had amazing views of the city, and just sat there and marveled at what an extraordinary place it was. After drinks we walked back towards our place and went straight to china town for dinner. We had some amazing chicken satay with peanut sauce and some noodles. While eating we met some other Canadians, who were headed to Thailand in a few weeks. We exchanged stories we had heard about the full moon party and spoke of never remembering each others names. After dinner we headed back to our hostel where a whole new set of people had checked in. we decided we would all go out together and watch the new year being rung in. I also decided that I wasn’t going to wear my hat and would take my shaved (again) head for some air. All 6 of us headed out onto the street at about 11:35. It was absolutely packed with people and there was a buzz of excitement in the air. I saw some people giving me weird looks but I think for the most part no one cares too much, they look because its something different and then go on. The girls we met were from Zurich, we spoke about their work and what they planned to see during their holiday. At a minute to midnight we all had our drinks ready and cheered each other to a new year! This was my third new years being celebrated, and so far all those wishes are coming true at midnight we watched the fire works go down, took some pics, and drank some more. We decided it was a night to party and found a backpackers bar (no really that’s what it was called) and partied and drank till about 3 in the morning. After that it was off to a good nights sleep.