Hey guys,
When we arrived in Singapore we got kind of a “cultural shock”, since our hostel had way lower standards than the one in Sydney. Our room was about 2×2m small and didn’t have a window (but an air condition, which we really needed, considering the outside temperature being of about 30°C). Plus, after having a room with en suite we had to share three tiny toilets and showers with other people. In order to prevent getting claustrophobic, we left our hostel, to explore the area (Little India) around it and buy some water. Anyway, our expedition ended soon, due to the lack of interesting things to see for us and being very tired. Except our room being very small, the beds were comfortable and the air conditioning was pretty good at doing its job.
We set an alarm at eight the next morning, got some breakfast in the lobby and went to see the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and the Mariammam Temple. It was pretty impressive to listen to prayers which seemed to sing or hum their prayers during a mass. Furthermore, the style of the temples was very different from a Christian church, way more loud and colourful!
After visiting the temples, we walked around the Chinatown Market and bought some souvenirs. Afterwards we took a cap to Sentosa, were we had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. We came there to buy t-shirts, but unfortunately all the t-shirts had Sentosa written on them instead of Singapore. We walked around the island nevertheless and took very nice pictures of a great fountain, when it started to pour down. It wasn’t even rain anymore, it was literally like standing in a waterfall! Eventually, the rain stopped and we were able to get back to the city and to the Hard Rock Café Singapore, which had an offer, to get three shirts and the fourth one is for free! So we all got shirts and Monika even bought one for her boyfriend. Afterwards, we walked to the Botanic Gardens, which had an amazing orchid garden. Moreover, we saw giant fish and even a turtle in a lake! They all looked very hungry, I hope they got their dinner soon after we left. It was a little complicated to leave the park since it only had about four exits, but in the end we still made it to Victoria’s Secret, where I had planned to buy a bra. For some reason there are a few VS stores within a distance of 1km of each other, so we went to the wrong one first but quickly managed to find the one we were looking for. In the store, I went up to an assistant to ask for help but since her English wasn’t to good, she didn’t understand what I was asking for and picked out stuff I didn’t want to try on. I didn’t want to be rude, so I tried everything on anyway and looked for the stuff I wanted afterwards myself. The line at the check-out was quite long and I was a little disappointed, that they didn’t have a style of panty I wanted in my size but I was still very happy about my purchase.
On the next morning, Julian’s Mum surprised us by getting a room at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the famous one with the infinity pool! At first we were a bit shocked, when she told us, that we had to move out of our room by 11 that morning, thinking something went wrong with our booking, but when we got to our room, we were amazed by the beautiful view of the Gardens By The Bay, which we also visited that day. I really liked the giant greenhouse which had a very tall tower with plants from the rainforest growing on its sides. The way of a human made construction working together with nature or being overtaken by nature seemed pretty fascinating to me. The only problem was that the greenhouses where super cold on the inside compared to the outside temperature and I caught a bit of a cold. After walking through two exhibitions located in those greenhouses, we went to the giant metal trees, which are the symbol of the gardens and seemed to be quite famous. We bought a ticket to take an elevator up to a bridge connecting two of the trees 20 meters above ground. The view was amazing, but Monika and Julian where quite scared because of the height. But since you were only allowed to walk on the bridge for a maximum of 15 minutes, they didn’t have to suffer too long. When we were done, we decided to go to the roof top infinity pool to relax a bit, before going to the art gallery.
Unfortunately, the art gallery was about to close when we arrived, so we decided to eat something in the mall right beside it instead. We ordered some amaaaaazing fresh handmade dumplings and mixed our own dipping sauce with soy sauce, chillies and ginger. Once our stomachs were filled up with delicious food, we walked over the Helix Bridge, from where we had a beautiful view of the art gallery, the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore skyline. On the other side of the bridge we sat down at a set of stairs to watch the water and light show they do every night at eight and nine. Despite us being quite far away from the area with the water show, it was still pretty cool.
Afterwards, we went to the pool once more to take pictures in the dark and stayed until the pool area was closed for the night.
It was time to say goodbye to half a year of travelling the next morning. And I’m not gonna lie, I was quite sad about it. Someone came to our room to pick-up our luggage and moments later we sat in a taxi, taking us to the airport. I found it quite weird, that we only had to check-in ourselves and the luggage in the front of the terminal and the security check was right at the gate. Since some seats weren’t booked, we were given the possibility of choosing another seat, so we could use two seats at once, but we decided to stay in the seats we had booked. At some point I was kind of regretting that decision, watching some guy laying on the whole four seats in the middle aisle. Anyway, since the seat in front of me wasn’t taken I still had quite a bit of space for being on a plane.
We almost missed our second flight because we underestimated the size of the Dubai airport, but luckily we made it just in time. When we arrived in Germany, I was a little confused by something one of the police officers had said to me and felt like he was being rude but I guess he was just being less casual than people we have been around the last couple of months. I was super happy to see my friends and family again, but it also felt like I left a part of me in New Zealand. I’m definitely planning on going back after my apprenticeship, to visit our host families and maybe explore some areas we couldn’t because the weather was too bad.
I hope you enjoyed reading the story of my experience in New Zealand. To be honest, I haven’t really decided what to do with my blog now, but I will surely keep writing posts.
I hope you have a great day. Talk to you soon!
Yours, Jess
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