Today was Angie’s last day in Singapore. For breakfast, we went to a near by Toast Box, which is a popular breakfast chain here in Singapore. At Toast Box, we enjoyed a bowl of laksa, some toast (obviously), cake, and coffee.

Visiting Orchard Road

After breakfast, we caught the train to Orchard Road, a famous shopping road in Singapore. Once again, the weather was hot so we tried to spend as much time as possible inside the many shopping complexes on the road. I feel like every time we exited a shopping centre, it felt as if the sliding doors did not even open due to the sudden change in temperature from the cool air conditioning inside to the outside heat. This was my second time visiting Orchard Road, the first time was around 2 years ago when I first visited Singapore and had chili crab on Orchard Road. It felt different this time since everything was Christmas theme. There was Christmas music playing as well as Christmas trees and other decorations. Angie and I enjoyed some, mostly window, shopping as we browsed through the many malls. So many shops are on the road that it’s difficult to avoid getting lost.

We later went to get some cold desserts from a small Chinese dessert store. I had a lemon iced tea, and Angie had a small durian dessert. After this, we decided to go visit Fort Canning but when we arrived it was too hot, so we just took a few photos in the military tunnel before returning to our hotel to prepare for Angie’s departure.

Chicken Rice

After returning our shopping to our bags in the hotel, we decided to get one last meal together which was boneless chicken rice, a popular dish in Singapore originating from Hainan. From my friend’s recommendation, we went to a store called Boon Tong Kee. The meal we refreshing, with the chicken being served cold in a slightly sweet, slightly sour sauce with chicken-flavoured rice. We also had some fried tofu which was nice.

After sitting in the hotel lobby for a little while writing my blog, it was time for us both to depart. We took a Grab together to the new hotel, and I sadly said goodbye to Angie as she would be continuing to the airport. Angie and I had a nice time together for the last few days in Singapore, and I look forward to our next trip together in a few weeks in Korea and China.

Starting my study tour

After arriving at my new hotel, which is the Paradox Hotel, I checked in and visited my new room meeting my roommate for the first time. We chatted for a while before heading back down to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the group to go have our welcome meal together. In total, the tour has just over 20 students from a variety of backgrounds and degrees.

We headed to dinner by bus, and on the bus ride, the guide was telling us some interesting things about Singapore which I was not aware of. One of these was that in many of the new developments in Singapore, the buildings do not have their own air conditioning system, but rather they subscribe to a service that pumps cold water under the building to cool the buildings. This water is cooled at a central location for all the buildings that subscribe to the system. Another interesting thing I learned, was that there are certain benefits, tax or otherwise that incentivize buildings to include certain aspects of sustainable development. This is the reason why the buildings have gardens that are visible from the outside.

Welcome dinner

At dinner, we enjoyed quite a fancy 5 course meal paid for by the tour. It was a good icebreaker, allowing us to meet each other and have some conversations. The view from the restaurant was also very impressive being in a tall tower within the financial district of Singapore. After dinner, we took the bus back and since it was already quite late, went to bed.