Singapore! The city-state so nice I visited it twice.

There was actually a reason for this trip though, and it was visa related. Somewhere along the chain of command my job was really dragging their feet in regards to my employment permit, and with my current visa expiring, I had to get out of the country. Due to the cheap flight in the aforementioned blog, Singapore was pretty much the best deal around. And with work chipping in (most) of the bill, how could I say no?

I could if I had known this guy on the flight had SUPER stinky feet. C'mon man. I know you could have been travelling a long time, but we live in a society here. It's only a 2 hour flight. He got in on our selfie, so if you're out there (French?) stinky feet guy, I'm sure you're alright. But like... keep your shoes on.

So Ella and I were off to Singapore for 5 days. I think we hit every place I went previously (that entry is here), plus a few more. When I was booking out hostel, I found one on sale in Little India. Turns out that was a great decision. We were in the heart of it, surrounded by amazing food for only about 30% more than a meal in Thailand. God, it just made me want to move to India. All delicious, amazing stuff. The thosai I was especially fond of, with it's sesame curry... stuff. Honestly I don't know what 80% of the stuff we ate was, except that it was a food journey my mouth is nostalgic for.

But we had business to attend to, so it was off to the Thai embassy to get a visa. However, the lady told me that they would not give me a VISA, as I have been in Thailand as a tourist waaaay too long. Truth, but usually they forget that sort of thing when money appears. She didn't budge, and would only grant me a short, transit-visa if I gave her proof of an outward ticket. So... darn? I had no choice to come back on a landing visa, and the agents at the airport did not care at all. I employed the time-honored foreigner tradition of answering "I don't know" or "I don't understand" to every question they asked. "You're too much trouble, have a visa, bada-bing bada-boom."

With Singapore being an expensive city, Ella and I planned to see it on a budget. And I'm proud to say we did not spend 1 cent on attractions except for $4 to see a museum. Which, Ella got in for $2 since she's a student. So rather than revisit the places we saw last time (and again, that expertly crafted entry is here), let's talk about the new places.






Ella has an interest in Arab culture and religious buildings, so we actually spent a lot of time hitting up churches and mosques. They ran the gambit, but the tiny little Masjid Abdul Gafoor, right around the corner from our hostel was my favorite. Very friendly, pretty place. The least favorite was the main, big mosque, the Sultan Mosque. We arrived late one night, and the man said sorry, they're doing prayers right now. But we can come back tomorrow morning to see it. So back tomorrow morning we went, and went in to look around. Then this rude fellow came out and told us the mosque was closed. The people sitting around inside suggested otherwise. I apologized and said the man last night said we could visit in the morning. He responded "He is not in charge here, I am in charge here, you must leave." Well. Okay then. Jerk. Your mosque isn't as pretty as the other one anyway.

But, I must definitely mention Haw Par Villa. This is the weirdest godamn place I may have ever been in my life. Although, Happyland in Myanmar comes close. Apparently Myanmar folks have a penchant for the weird, because this place was also a statue park set up by some Myanmar fellow. It had a bunch of bizarre stuff, like his car with a tigers head on the front. But the main star was his exhibition on the 10 layers of Chinese hell. Complete with Team-America like statues suffering all sorts of horrible fates, like their hearts being torn out, or crushed by giant stones. It was super morbid, so here's some photos.

The Art Museum has free admission on Friday, so that was also on the list. Normally not my thing, but free is my thing. The Singapore Art Museum was actually a lot better than most. The exhibitions were interesting, and not just weird for the sake of being weird. I also liked that they really showcased a lot of art from their schools there. Aside from proving that a 6 year old can draw better than I can, I really enjoyed what they came up with, and thought it was a lot more cool than like a Van Gogh or something. Did Van Gogh draw dinosaurs? Not to my knowledge. Maybe if he did he would be a lot cooler. Continuing the museum circuit, we hit up the very, very newly opened (just 2 months ago) Indian Heritage Museum. As it was so new, I never saw it on any guide but I imagine it will be soon. This was where we paid a total of $6 to get in, but it was really nice. It was full of interactive terminals, and it didn't take me long to notice that each terminal had a "kid mode" button on the bottom. Instead of reading about some Indian ship that took people to Singapore, you got to play a mini game where you had to load cargo and people. You can bet that was a lot more interesting! Well done, Singapore.





We (I) also made a point to hike Mt. Faber, the highest natural point in Singapore. It's actually not much of a hike, you can do it in about 30 minutes. I think it nearly killed Ella, though. After we went to Sentosa to swim on the beach. I think Thailand has really spoiled us. I never thought Thai beaches to be amazing, but geez they're a heck of a lot better than Sentosa. You'd think, as probably the most expensive real estate in the world, they could afford some nicer beaches. Something weird I did notice is that the water is very salty, much saltier than normal. I found it very easy to float there, so I guess it has that going for it.

Ella's student Noom suggested we rent a bike and go up East Coast park, so we did that the last day before heading to the airport. We got a bicycle built for two, and took it along Singapore's super cool Park Connectors. Basically Singapore is embarking on this project to link every green space on their island with special pedestrian/bicycle only paths. They're about half done, and it's really convenient. There's not many road crossings, and you get to see some back alleys of the Singapore outskirts. At a coffee shop we stopped at for lunch, they had "Pattaya" on the menu. Pattaya is a red-light city in Thailand near Bangkok, so I decided to try it out. It was chicken fried rice, wrapped in an omelette with sweet and sour sauce. I mean, it was good, but I have no idea why it was called Pattaya. I've never had that in Pattaya, nor ever seen that dish in Thailand. Still, right on.

And so ended the 2nd Singapore journey. I think most of the trip was spent eating to be honest. Ella and I both love Indian food, so getting our hotel there was a good decision. If you ever visit, I recommend it as well. The people are great, the food is better, and Singapore is still a wonderful city I always enjoy visiting. Speaking of food, here's a Chinese lady making some peanut cake! Which, Ella says is called "Doo doo cake". Some sense of humor, those Chinese.

I've officially become a boring person. I'm sorry. (apparently I'm also Canadian).

My days in general have been spent either working on my schoolwork, working on my work work, or some other sort of random task that rears its ugly head. I took on a project for Ella's friend to correct her thesis, which has surprisingly been an agonizingly long process. Ella's university claims their thesises (thesii?) need to adhere to APA style. I think their administrators were absent the day when they learned what APA style was. It's a weird blend of APA, MLA, and their own random nonsense thrown in. This makes it very frustrating, as every time it is submitted it comes back with some sort of error. And since they're not following APA, there's no way to really know before hand. Just kind of, keep submitting it and see what happens? Anyway, I'm pretty sure that project is done now.

We've had a few new visitors show up. Ella had a pal from China who left just as quickly as he appeared, but he did buy us Japanese curry. Which, if there's a faster way to get someone to like you, I don't know what it is. Zolta (I'm probably not spelling that right) was an odd sort of fellow, but affable enough. He worked at a bank, and loved getting pictures of banks and Thailand's multicolored ATMs. I mean hey, we all need a hobby right? I think the picture sums up his personality pretty well.

My school had a festival, which was for some random holiday I had never heard of. I was speaking to someone back home about it, and realizing I didn't know the purpose of it, googled it. The first result was my school's webpage talking about it. Right so, made up festival. Thais are good at coming up with an excuse to knock off for the day, so it seems this is as good as any. And this was no small festival. They had a haunted house that was downright terrifying. Random bloody doll parts strewn about, a student covered in red paint striking a meat cleaver on a block of wood, hands randomly jutting out of the wall and grabbing you... they really like scary stuff! Keep in mind that my school is also a grade school, so there were plenty of little kids who ran out crying. Yeah, that'll teach you kids! I'm sure there were some life scars made.

Over the weekends, we've been quite prolific at the meetups. These fun little events usually involve meeting at some sort of bar and drinking. They've been a blast, and have really opened up our circle of friends. One of my friends, Stefan, has a group on LINE (Asia's answer to Whatsapp or all those other thingies) that seems to grow in number on a regular basis. We had a night of karaoke, many nights of partying, and another trip to Koh Kret island, this time with new friend Francesco. Actually old friend for Ella, he's her student. Also a great guy, we rode bikes around the island and had many drinks at a place that will be unnamed. I was speaking with the owner about why he doesn't sell his stuff downtown. He says that Thailand's laws don't allow it, so he has to stay under the radar. So not only did we get some of the best beer in Asia (Have you ever had a Jackfruit Heffeweisen? It is delicious), we got to do it at an illegal brewery. And had $2 pizzas at the end of the day. If that's not a good day, I don't know what is.

So, future plans! Maybe the next update will be after the semester break in October. I have a bit of time off, and unfortunately have to do another, oh-my-god-I-hope-final, visa run. I found a really cheap (super cheap) flight to Singapore. It is my 2nd favorite city in the world (Whatup Taipei), so it sounds like a good place to go. And when I say cheap, I mean cheap. Less than $10. Why? Because Asia is great, and America never seems to have figured out that cheap flight stuff yet. Of course after airport fees it's not quite $10, but it's still the best deal going around.

Oh and there's this cat that is at the train station every morning. I started taking a picture of her every day, so I've amassed quite an album. Ella and I have named her Bing Bong after the Inside Out character (which, is that not the best movie ever?!)  Bing Bong is actually pretty apathetic to everything, as cats are. And I guess you especially have to be when a million people walk over you ever day. But someone is feeding her, and so she hangs around. So if you ever visit and happen to transfer at Makkasan - Petchaburi, give Bing Bong a hello. She will likely ignore you.