(no subject)
I woke up quite late today, and really had no clue what to do with myself. Some new people had checked into my room and we went through the usual routine. Name exchange, location exchange, travel history exchange, travel plans exchange, and then the small talk. Its funny but this happens with every travel I meet, its just the way it goes. anyway this one guy who i spoke to told me he was there alone that day before he met his girlfriend at night. We decided since we both had no plans perhaps it would be fun to check out sentosa island. The weather was decent and it was on the to do list anyway. For the life of me I cant remember his name, but he seemed like a nice enough guy to spend the day with.
We took the subway to the correct stop and then were hit with a 2 hour wait to take the external line to the island. While in that line, about an hour in I realized that I needed to have a separate ticket, one which I didn’t possess. The woman in front of me heard my panic and was quick to come to my rescue. She worked for the government and had this special pass that gives you access everywhere, her daughter was supposed to join her that day but had decided to sleep in (my kind of girl) so her mom would let me use the pass in all the pay points to get through! I cannot believe how nice and generous she was, and she refused to take any money from me. We had a nice discussion about taxes and the state of the economy while we waited. The Economist Intelligence Unit in its "Quality-of-Life Index" ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and eleventh overall in the world. Before independence in 1965, Singapore had a GDP per capita of $511, the third highest in East Asia at the time. After independence, foreign direct investment and a state-led drive for industrialization based on plans by former Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee and Albert Winsemius created a modern economy. After a contraction of -6.8% in the 4th quarter of 2009, Singapore claimed the title of fastest-growing economy in the world, with GDP growth of 14.5% for the year 2010.
Once on the subway it was very quick to the actual island. There are only 4 stops and I didn't think I had enough time to explore them all. so we went to the last stop which was the island. we decided first and foremost we needed to grab some food because we had had nothing to eat all day. we found this cute little restaurant with a private beach and decided to order the cheapest thing on the menu, pizza. when we called the waiter over to order he told us we had to pass for the sun loungers we were sitting in because they were VIP. I took a picture of the sign which I honestly didn't notice till after. the loungers were 20 dollars just to sit in, and then the tables behind them cost a bit less, and the sad benches in the back were free. haha, we had a nice laugh about our financial situation and walked back to the benches. I would love to say that the pizza was worth it but it was covered with massive mushrooms. ugh! oh well, love the cheese and appreciate the food, haha. we walked along the beach for about an hour swapping travel stories. as much as i want to say i was having a great time, i couldn't get over the hoards of Indian men in this island. they were in groups ranging from 5 to 20 and every single one stopped and stared. and this is the staring i have a problem with, its the undressing you with your eyes, dirty smirk on face, and very soon a connection to my foot. I'm the type of person who cant stand it and will not look away or look down shyly like so many stupid girls do. i challenge their look and meet it square in the face and normally they look away. but there was juts no winning this battle, there were literally 100s of them. were there boats coming here from India or something... after awhile even my friend noticed and asked me why so many men were staring at me. sigh. time to leave. we took the tram back and made our way to the hostel. he had to leave right away to meet his gf and i thanked him for spending the day with me. i grabbed some snacks and headed to the attic to watch some TV. wedding crashers was on so i sat down and got comfortable. i met this girl named Courtney who had joined me for the movie, we talked for awhile about our travels and then decided to spend the day together tomorrow. the best thing about hostels is all the great people you get the chance to meet. and i think since this was my first country alone i was appreciating it that much more
We took the subway to the correct stop and then were hit with a 2 hour wait to take the external line to the island. While in that line, about an hour in I realized that I needed to have a separate ticket, one which I didn’t possess. The woman in front of me heard my panic and was quick to come to my rescue. She worked for the government and had this special pass that gives you access everywhere, her daughter was supposed to join her that day but had decided to sleep in (my kind of girl) so her mom would let me use the pass in all the pay points to get through! I cannot believe how nice and generous she was, and she refused to take any money from me. We had a nice discussion about taxes and the state of the economy while we waited. The Economist Intelligence Unit in its "Quality-of-Life Index" ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and eleventh overall in the world. Before independence in 1965, Singapore had a GDP per capita of $511, the third highest in East Asia at the time. After independence, foreign direct investment and a state-led drive for industrialization based on plans by former Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee and Albert Winsemius created a modern economy. After a contraction of -6.8% in the 4th quarter of 2009, Singapore claimed the title of fastest-growing economy in the world, with GDP growth of 14.5% for the year 2010.
Once on the subway it was very quick to the actual island. There are only 4 stops and I didn't think I had enough time to explore them all. so we went to the last stop which was the island. we decided first and foremost we needed to grab some food because we had had nothing to eat all day. we found this cute little restaurant with a private beach and decided to order the cheapest thing on the menu, pizza. when we called the waiter over to order he told us we had to pass for the sun loungers we were sitting in because they were VIP. I took a picture of the sign which I honestly didn't notice till after. the loungers were 20 dollars just to sit in, and then the tables behind them cost a bit less, and the sad benches in the back were free. haha, we had a nice laugh about our financial situation and walked back to the benches. I would love to say that the pizza was worth it but it was covered with massive mushrooms. ugh! oh well, love the cheese and appreciate the food, haha. we walked along the beach for about an hour swapping travel stories. as much as i want to say i was having a great time, i couldn't get over the hoards of Indian men in this island. they were in groups ranging from 5 to 20 and every single one stopped and stared. and this is the staring i have a problem with, its the undressing you with your eyes, dirty smirk on face, and very soon a connection to my foot. I'm the type of person who cant stand it and will not look away or look down shyly like so many stupid girls do. i challenge their look and meet it square in the face and normally they look away. but there was juts no winning this battle, there were literally 100s of them. were there boats coming here from India or something... after awhile even my friend noticed and asked me why so many men were staring at me. sigh. time to leave. we took the tram back and made our way to the hostel. he had to leave right away to meet his gf and i thanked him for spending the day with me. i grabbed some snacks and headed to the attic to watch some TV. wedding crashers was on so i sat down and got comfortable. i met this girl named Courtney who had joined me for the movie, we talked for awhile about our travels and then decided to spend the day together tomorrow. the best thing about hostels is all the great people you get the chance to meet. and i think since this was my first country alone i was appreciating it that much more