If you're Malaysian and still haven't gotten the really lame joke, I suggest you get a CT scan :P That aside, it really was a mind blowing experience going to Singapore this year (18th Jan) because at my age, I paid attention to a whole different set of things. The last time I was in Singapore was 5 years ago and the only thing that I could remember was that I was always on the look out for pretty girls. My point is that my priority and focus has changed la for holidays now. Yes that's my point.
ANYWAYS..
Firstly, a big big thank you to Elvine Neo, Marcus Chew, and Lynn for the tour around Singapore. To Elvine and Marcus for their valiant efforts in keeping awake the whole day while showing me and my brother around Singapore. Also, a special thanks to Elvine for getting my new awesome Taylor 414ce for me and bro (just picked it from my cousin's place, he didn't buy it for me ok?*I wish :P*) And to Lynn, who managed to get her make up all done in the car, and still managed to tell me stuff about Singapore on the way to work.
So after coming back again after 5 years, Singapore has, if I may quote Russell Peters, BLASTED MY MIND. The moment I landed in the arrival terminal I told my brother that I was going to post on my blog "50 reasons why Singapore is great", which I am hoping to get done after this.
To start of the greatness of Singapore, I'll start with their very own Singapore bak kut teh. I must say that this was definitely a gastronomical treat/torture. Most Malaysians think that all Singapore foods are copied and changed a little by the Singaporeans. I suppose this could be one of the modified foods but I must say that it could be very well be an attractive alternative to bak kut teh. Now, for some of you people who don't know what bak kut teh is, or have heard and eaten and still don't know what it is, it's basically pork ribs in pork stock. Most Malaysians associate bak kut teh with pork ribs in black herbal pork soup and eaten with rice and yew cha kueh. All this is done similarly with Singapore's bak kut teh except one thing. Instead of herbs, Singaporeans put in a whole bag of pepper into their soup!! So the big difference here is that Singapore's bak kut teh is very very very peppery which I found to my own surprise, very good. The meat wasn't hard to pull of the bone and the food was complimented with an interesting tea that had a very sweet after taste.
Next up was Ion Orchard, Orchard Road's new shopping mall. A friend of mine said that Singapore has too many shopping malls. I now know why. Singapore really has too many shopping malls. Anyways, Ion was great. Apparently, the higher you go, the more expensive things get. A good guide would be if you're shopping with your friends, you might want to stick around B3 to B1. Level 1 and above, you've got to bring your parents :) Of course I went the whole 9 yards and went from the bottom to the top to window shop, obviously. Lunch was Singapore's bak chor mee at Ion's food court. I think that's how you spell it. It's translated to mean minced pork meat and mushrooms. That's what Marcus told me. Although I didn't see any mushrooms, it was uber good. There's a good mix of 4 different sauces including vinegar and chilli along with the noodles and the meat toppings went deliciously well with the noodles all except one; the dried fish. Apparently I'm supposed to eat that first before eating the noodles kinda like an appetiser before the main meal. Funny much?After lunch was a road trip around the major parts of Singapore city which included Singapore's CBD, the Sands resort and the very windy Marina Barrage.
Now I've been saving the mind blasting part for the last :D I found this to be the most jaw dropping, the most 'oooh-aaah' moments during the trip. Ok, so the mind blasting part were the schools. Be it primary, secondary or colleges, the schools in Singapore are big ass epic huge/gargantuan/colossal/go look at the thesaurus. The Paya Lebar Methodist Girl's School building was as big as KDU college. No joke. It could be that since Singapore doesn't have much land so the schools must be pretty big to accommodate all the kids. That's not the case. Check this link for the list of schools in Singapore.
Now this primary school was just the tip of the mind blast iceberg. Next up is Raffles Institution (RI). IF you're from Malaysia, you'll know that all schools have the same architecture. You have one block for the staff room, a few blocks for the classrooms, some blocks for the labs and etc. With that mentality, you'll never spot RI from a distance. That's because RI can pass as some sort of corporation HQ building. There's also the Australian International School which could pass off as a hotel. It's big very nicely designed. I didn't manage to see NUS but to top it all of was the School of the Arts (SOTA). Very very corporate building with a nice dressing of creeper plants. I am really sorry that I could not take any pictures as I did not have a good enough camera to take pictures on the move so to really get things in perspective, the reader needs to go to Singapore.
With all that's been seen and said, I know where I'm going for my next holiday.
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