Singa...rich

Hello! My goal is to do at least one post for each location of my travels. Tonight is only my second night in Singapore, although it happens to be my last as well. Esack and I arrived late from Auckland and we leave early tomorrow for shanghai so that left only two full days here. My first impressions of Singapore were very positive. It's hot and tropical, really close to the equator. It's clean and easy to navigate. Everyone speaks English and is helpful. It's safe and everything is cheap! I titled my post Singarich not because it's particularly over the top or anything, but really, it seems like most of the people here are wealthy. Im sure it doesn't help that one of the first things Esack and I did was go see art at the ritz-Carlton hotel. But anyway, the nice cars, well dressed people, plethora of banks, and sparkling streets all lend to an atmosphere of wealth. Unfortunately, it also lends itself to a resort-like, touristy vibe. Singapore in itself doesn't really have much local history, and it comes through. There doesn't seem to be much in terms of localness anyway. The whole city is representations of other cultures: Malay, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, and European. I'm sure Esack and I still stick out as tourists, but there are just as many white people here as everyone else. Everyone sort of looks like a tourist! I read online that the best place to get authentic Singaporean food is at the Chinese heritage center in Chinatown. Ok... I feel like Singapore has taken bits of other cultures, polished them up a bit, and then sewed them on to other cultures. It hasn't all quite blended together. I told Esack that this is what I imagine Dubai to be like. All this said, I really have enjoyed my two days here. I'm excited to go to shanghai and get a little terrified though. And Russia too. Scary. Will I miss the ease of Singapore in about a week? Most definitely.

 Esack and I are staying in an adorable hostel called pillows and toast, which has really comfy beds, free toast in the morning, friendly staff, air cnditioning, and a no shoe policy. I really like it here! We are staying just down the street for a street food center where we have eaten just about every meal. They have over a hundred stands and we've tried tons of new foods, like Rojak, fried bananas, popiah, sardine curry puffs, kachanga, and laksa. The most bizarre thing for sure was the kachanga, strawberry kachanga to be exact, which is a Chinese dessert. It cost about a dollar and twenty cents and is a huge bowl of shaved ice, with three different kinds of syrup on it, like an American snow cone, and then strawberry syrup over top. At first we were like ok, kinda sweet, not too bad. Then we dug down under the ice, and lo and behold, we discover spoonfuls of red beans and corn. Then we come up with three different kinds of gelatin treats, these white gelatin balls, red cubes, and black strips. It was SO bizarre. Haha Esack definitely liked it better than I did, but I think i was just psychologically confused. Taste wise, it really was pretty good. My strangest dessert experience to date.

 So the other way we have been spending our time and money is on the fresh juice! It's amahhhhhzing. There are the standards: orange, pineapple, mango. Apple, lime, mint, ginger, blah blah yum yum but then more unusual things like bitter gourd and honey, balonglong and sour plum. I wish I could try everything!

 We checked out the nightlife last night at a place called Clarke quay by the water and it was unbelievable! Full blown concerts going on next to each other, what seemed like hundreds of bars. So much live music, restaurants, everything. We ended up at a live blues bar and watched a pretty good band with a great guitarist cover al green, bb king, and lynyrd skynyrd. People watching was especially fun, particularly these two drunk guys who were just a hair away from moshing.

Then today, Esack and I spent most of our time at the botanic gardens where we walked around all afternoon and I took about 200 hundred pictures of orchids. For dinner we tried a new street food market which wasn't very good. I got very mediocre chicken biryani and Esack got decent nasi lemak. Disappointing, but then I got some good Indian tea, so no harm done! Ive also turned Esack on to the wonders of fresh coconuts, so we got those twice today. They're more expensive than in India, but sometimes tastier :) I have lots of pictures to upload and show you all, but unfortunately I can't do it from my iPad, somill wait until I can use esacks computer. Im sure I'll have plenty of time to do it during my two week stay in china. But look out for those soon!

 Love, Julia