Better late than never, right? (Cambodia and Thailand)

It has been a little over four months since I visited Cambodia and Thailand, so I decided it was finally time to write about it. Shortly after I returned from this trip, my mom visited me, finals happened, and my computer decided to stop working. So armed with a new computer (and a bit more time on my hands), below is about my time in the two countries.

Since I was traveling on a budget, it was quite a bit cheaper to fly through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia onto Siem Reap, Cambodia, than it was for a direct flight to Siem Reap from Singapore. The only caveat was an eight hour overnight layover in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I arrived in Malaysia at 11pm, with my flight to Cambodia leaving at 7am the next morning, I found a booth at a nearby restaurant to sleep on for the night. I quickly found that with lights, vacuums, and paranoia about my belongings being stolen while I slept, getting a good night’s sleep would be difficult. I was able to sleep for a little under an hour. The time dragged on, but I eventually was boarding my flight for Cambodia the next morning.

I arrived in Siem Reap at 8am, so I knew it was going to be a long day if I wasn’t able to sleep. I was picked at the airport by a tuk tuk, and was on my way to my hotel.

The Tuk Tuk that I rode around in for three days.

I was able to check into my hotel when I arrived, so I was able to take a couple hour nap to keep me going for the rest of the day. After the nap, I walked through downtown Siem Reap, and I was able to check out the vendors/resteraunts.

Pineapple, chicken, and rice for lunch.

After strolling around for the day, I went back to the hotel to set up my trip for the next day to the Angkor Archeological Park. After I finished that, I went back into Siem Reap to again, check out the vendors. 

Nutella pancake/crepe!

Whiskey anyone?

The famous Pub Street.

After a couple of hours walking around town, I called it a night. The next day I would be visiting the main attraction of Cambodia, and arguable the top in South East Asia, Angkor Wat.

For those reading that don’t know, Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world, and was the capitol of the Khmer Empire, the largest pre-industrial urban center in the world. At its peak, the Khmer Empire ruled over portions of modern day Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in addition to Cambodia.

After being picked up around 8am, I was off to explore.

Bas Reliefs within the temple. These carvings depicted battles throughout the history of the empire.

The intricacies of the carvings were incredible.

Looking outward from the entrance of the temple.

The moat surrounding the temple.

After exploring Angkor Wat, I visited the next temple, Bayon. Built in the late 12th century, Bayon was equally impressive. My favorite part about this temple was the uniqueness of it. Nowhere in the park could you find anything resembling Bayon.

Rubble on the outside of the temple.

Following Bayon, we visited Ta Prohm, the temple where the film ‘Tomb Raider’ was filmed. This temple was also unique in it’s own way, where the site has been left relatively untouched since the 12th century.

After the first three temples, we visited the smaller, less visited temples.

The extremely steep steps that replace the older, even steeper steps.

Just like having my mom with me.

Pit stop for a snack, $1 pineapples.

After exploring for the day in 100+ degree weather, I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. The next day was more of the same temples, so for the sake of the length of this post, I’ll skip to my final day in Cambodia.

The morning of the day I was heading to Bangkok, I woke up at 5:00am to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. One of the most sought after experiences in the world, I was thrilled to enjoy it.

Enjoying the sunrise with my closest friends.

After the sunrise, I went back to my hotel to cleanup and leave for Bangkok. Out of all the places I have been to in my life, I would easily say Cambodia was my favorite place. The people were so friendly; the sights second to none. Before returning to Singapore, I stayed in Bangkok for two nights.

I flew into Bangkok around 6pm, then I took a cab from the airport to the hotel I was staying at. I was staying two minutes away from Khao San Road in Bangkok, which in my opinion, is the mini Times Square of Thailand.

10 baht ($0.30) meat kabobs.

Coconut ice cream in a half coconut!

After walking around Khao San Road for a couple hours, I returned to the hotel to get some sleep for the night.

My first morning in Bangkok I visited the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was the home of the King of Siam (later named Thailand) from 1782-1925.

Paintings in the hallways of the palace.

After leaving the Grand Palace, I visited Wat Pho, home to a 150 foot long reclining Buddha statue.

After Wat Pho, I crossed the Chao Phraya river to visit another temple in Wat Arun.

The boat I boarded to cross the river. It also cost a whopping 2 baht ($0.06).

Unfortunately, Wat Arun was under construction to restore the upper portion of the temple, so I was only able to climb to the first level.

Due to the scaffolding, I wasn’t able to get many pictures I liked, which explains the only two I posted. After Wat Arun, I walked to Chinatown.

Found some Mormons, which made me feel right at home.

Vendors in Chinatown.

Stopped to grab some coffee in Chinatown. This honestly was one of the best iced lattes I’ve ever had.

After Chinatown, I walked back to Khao San Road to enjoy my final night in Thailand.

Pad Thai vendor.

After walking around Khao San and purchasing a few things then having the aforementioned pad thai, I headed back to the hotel and called it a night. My final day in Bangkok I visited the MBK Center, a mall that houses over 2,000 shops, in Bangkok so I could be closer to the airport when it came time to leave. After wandering through the mall for an hour or so, I headed to the airport, back home to Singapore. This trip was one that I did alone. Traveling alone in a foreign country sounds frightening, but I honestly loved it. I brought along Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5, which now happens to be my favorite book. If anyone is looking for a new book to read, it is certainly one I would recommend. I’ll be writing my final thoughts on Singapore in a future post (I promise there won’t be as long of a wait between this and my next post), so stay watch for that if it interests you. Overall, this was probably my favorite vacation that I’ve ever been on. Although I wasn’t there for long, Cambodia and Thailand will always be places that I will recommend for anyone to visit.

As always, thanks for reading!

Universal Studios Singapore, Gardens by the Bay, & Pulau Ubin

After papers, midterms, and classes, I am back to writing. Almost all of the work that I’ve had this semester was piled into the past two weeks, and that means no updating my blog. But it’s over, so I can update you all on what I’ve been doing lately.

After Mckenna and I got back from Bali, we went to Universal Studios over the weekend. We entered Universal right when it opened, and got to ride most of the ‘big’ rides without having to wait in line. The theme park is quite small, so it doesn’t take long to walk through the whole park. But the rides are fun, and that’s what matters. We got a fast pass for five of the rides, so we were able to ride our favorite rides multiple times throughout the day.

The Universal Studios around the world have different castles, and Singapore’s castle is Far Far Away from Shrek!

Gingy even made a special appearance.

Not the gumdrop buttons!

Rumor has it you might be able to find real dinosaurs in here…

After we left Universal, we went to a nearby restaurant by the park to make our own pancakes!

After the pancakes we called it a day, and headed home.

The next week we went to Gardens by the Bay, and loved what we found. 

Gardens by the Bay has two greenhouses, but one of them was closed. so we were only able to see the Cloud Forest. The Cloud Forest is an indoor dome that is supposed to mimic rain forests at higher altitudes (around 2000 meters), so this was pretty cool to see.

Tallest indoor waterfall in the world.

After visiting the Cloud Forest, we left to go to the Sky Trees.

View from the catwalk.

Part of the light show that the park puts on.

After visiting the Gardens by the Bay, we called it a night, because we were heading to Pulau Ubin the next day.

Pulau Ubin is a smaller island off of the north east of Singapore, and it has been left relatively untouched since Singapore gained independence in 1965. The island gives you a sense of what Singapore looked like 50 years ago, and really puts into perspective the amount of change that the country has experienced over the last half-century.

To get to the island, you take a 10 minute boat right from the main island.

To get around the island, you can rent a bike for the day. The bikes definitely are not the best bikes in the world, but they were manageable.

The island is also home to wild boar!

The boardwalk on the island.

A lake next to an old quarry.

One of the places to take a break and have a drink.

After Pulau Ubin, Mckenna left to go back home two days later. Although I was sad to see her leave, I am so happy that we were able to spend two months together here.

Tomorrow I am leaving to go to Cambodia to check out the Angkor temples, then I will be traveling to Bangkok, Thailand for a few days. After I get back, my mom is visiting me a week later, then finals begin to start after she leaves. Time is going by extremely fast, but I’m trying to take advantage of the last few weeks that I have here. I’ll try to post about my trip to Cambodia and Thailand soon after I get back, so keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for reading!

Bali Part 2

Aaaand here’s part two. Sorry it took me a little longer than expected, but here is the second half of my Bali adventure!

After the monkey forest in the morning, Mckenna and I were picked up by a driver, and we made our way to Amed! Amed is a small fishing town on the north east coast of Bali. Ubud is the place where tourists go to get away from other tourists, Amed is even less touristy, and more of a local town. After a three hour drive to get there, including another stop at a coffee plantation, we arrived.

Someone got a little sleepy on the way to Amed.

Amed Beach, with Mt. Agung, the tallest volcano in Bali, in the background.

We got into Amed at around 4:30, so we decided to walk around the town for a little bit, then grab dinner.

Food was even cheaper in Amed. A meal was about $5, and you can’t beat the views. After dinner we went back to the place we were staying, and planned for the next day.

The next day we went to Tulamben, a town about 20 minutes away from Amed, to go snorkeling at the USAT Liberty Shipwreck site. Since this was my first time snorkeling, I thought it was awesome. We got to see so many different kinds of fish (puffer fish, angel fish, clown fish, and so many more), as well as coral growing on the the ship. Unfortunately since we were in the water and didn’t have a waterproof case for our phones, I wasn’t able to get any pictures.

After a long day of snorkeling and hanging out at the beach, we went to dinner at one of the fancier places in Amed called Sail. While we were in the room getting ready to go to dinner, a nasty storm came through Amed, and knocked down a couple of trees, one of which fell on the main power lines. This knocked out the power for all of Amed, and the power didn’t come back until the next morning. We got to Sail as the sun was beginning to set, so as the night went on, it progressively got darker, to the point where the chefs cooking the food had to have someone hold a light over them so they could cook. It was actually a pretty cool dining experience, because the only light was from the candle at our table. The food was delicious too, so it all worked out.

The next morning we hired a driver for the day, and made our way to the south eastern part of Bali. The main place we were going to was Virgin Beach, but along the way we stopped at the Amlapura Market, which is a traditional market in Bali. All kinds of fruits, rices, and many other things could be found here.

A few of the different kinds of fruits.

The knives that farmers use in the fields.

The women in Bali carry things on their heads like this, and as it turns out, it is pretty difficult.

I had been looking for a rice hat to take back home, and they could be found just about everywhere we went in Bali. I decided to buy one here because it was pretty cheap, and I liked the one that I bought the most. After buying my hat, I wore it around for most of the time we were at the market. When we got back to the car to head towards the beach, Mckenna found a bunch of spiders inside the hat. If you know me well, you know that I HATE spiders. So while I was wearing the hat around the market, I had a bunch of spiders on my head. This was quite a terrifying experience for me, something that I hope never happens again. Besides the spider part, the market was really cool, and we also got Hawaiian shirts, which will make an appearance later in this post.

Trying on the spider infested hats…

Before knowing spiders were on my head.

After a short walk from where cars can’t go any further, we arrived at the beach! The beach was beautiful, and I will let the pictures do the talking.

We also did some snorkeling here, but again, I wasn’t able to get any pictures.

After spending most of the day at the beach, we went went out for dinner for our last night in Amed. We wore the shirts that we bought at the market, and had to get a picture as tourists with them.

We decided to eat at a Warung, which is a small family owned restaurant. It was nice to just hangout at the beach for dinner, and relax before we headed to Nusa Dua for our last day.

A pina colada, banana milkshake, two main dishes, and dessert for $11.

We left for Nusa Dua at 8am, and stopped along the way at  the Tirta Gangga Water Palace. You can read more about the palace here.

After we made it to Nusa Dua, we checked into the Marriott that we were staying in. (Thank you to Mckenna’s dad Doug for letting us use his points for a room!) After we checked in, we headed to the beach to eat lunch.

We didn’t do much in Nusa Dua since it’s kind of far from the things to see in the southern part of Bali, plus the weather wasn’t great, so we just took it easy and walked around the beach and the surrounding areas. Later that night after dinner we walked by a couple street vendors and Mckenna negotiated for her first time in Bali!

After sealing the deal.

Our flight left in the morning the next day, so we said farewell to Bali. It was such a fun trip, and I am so happy that we were able to travel together.

And that’s it for Bali!

Mckenna and I recently went to Universal Studios in Singapore, so keep an eye out for that post! As always, thanks for reading!

Bali Part 1

Hi everyone! I’m back from Bali, and in class again. Since I spent a week in Bali and have a lot to share, I’m splitting up my trip into two posts. This post will be about my time in Ubud, with my second post being about my stay in Amed. With Chinese New Year occurring two days before the first weekend of break, I got an even longer break since CNY is a public holiday in Singapore. This worked out perfectly for Mckenna too, because she was able to get time off work so we could travel together. Mckenna also has a blog about her travels, and you should definitely check it out (mckennabird.wordpress.com)!

We flew from Singapore with a connecting flight in Jakarta, to Bali. We had a 2.5 hour layover in Jakarta which sounds like a long time, but we needed every minute of it. Getting off the flight from Singapore, we had to get a travel visa which was $35, then we went to ask where to go for our next flight. We asked the airport information desk, and we were directed to the wrong terminal. The airport is set up pretty poorly, mainly because you have to take a bus in between terminals, and no one really has any idea what’s going on. After getting to our terminal to depart for Bali, we stopped to eat, then went to board. When we went to board, the gate that we were at had a different destination than Bali on the sign above the service desk. (This sounds like the plot to Home Alone 2) It turned out to be the right plane however, so we were on our way to Bali!

Flying into Bali.

After getting into Bali at 5, we arrived in our hotel in Ubud at 6:30. Ubud is about 20 miles north of the airport, and this is one of the popular places that people go to get away from the crowds in southern Bali.

First night at the hotel.

View from the hotel.

The hotel that we stayed at was right next to a rice field, so it was a pretty quiet place to stay, just outside of downtown Ubud. Our first day in Bali, we decided to explore around Ubud, so we visited a rice terrace and a coffee plantation to the north of Ubud. We visited the coffee plantation first. At the coffee plantation, we were able to see various plants that are grown in Bali, and we got to see the coffee making process. Bali is known for it’s Kopi Luwak (click here if you don’t know what it is…), so we got to see the process of that too.

Feeding a civet an arabica bean.

Beans after the civet poops them out…

After the coffee is roasted it’s ground using this wood stick.

Final product.

After seeing this process, we were given a sample tray of the teas and coffees that the plantation makes, and we purchased a cup of Kopi Luwak for $5.

The various teas and coffees we sampled.

Kopi Luwak.

The Kopi Luwak was actually very good. When I drink coffee, I usually put a ton of cream, sugar, milk, all the above) in it to make it taste better, and take away from the acidity of it. The coffee was full of flavor, but the acidity of it had vanished. It makes a great cup of coffee, and should be tried if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

After the coffee plantation, we went to a rice field just a couple minutes away. The field was breathtaking, and the pictures below just don’t do it justice.

The bridge that we crossed to walk around the terraces.

(Mckenna’s picture not mine)

View of the town where the fields were located.

The weather was getting poor, so this is where we turned back. But it never ended.

After visiting the terraces and the coffee plantation, we visited downtown Ubud for a bit, but went back to the hotel fairly early since we had to be up at 1:30am for a sunrise hike!

We were picked up at 2am to make our way to the base of Mt. Batur. Mt. Batur is an active volcano in Bali, it is 5,633 feet above sea level, which is pretty impressive since we weren’t far from the coast. We stopped to have breakfast which was sticky black rice porridge with coconut milk and carrot cake. (Perfect meal for a hike)

Breakfast.

I don’t have any pictures on the way up since it was still dark when we reached the summit, but I took plenty at the top and on the way down.

View from the summit.

Coffee at the top!

We also got breakfast at the top, which consisted of hard boiled eggs cooked by the volcanic steam, and toast.

Lava fields from the eruption of 1968.

The way down was much easier than the way up.

A temple at the base of the mountain.

We made it to the top at around 5:30, and got down around 8:30. We also made it back in time to get breakfast at our hotel, so it was quite a long morning for us. After a nap, we visited the city, and then called it a day. The next day we were leaving for our next destination at 1pm, so we got up early and visited the Ubud Monkey Forest. We got to the forest just after it had opened, which was a great time because there were quite a bit of tourists in the forest by the time we left.

The one and only time my iPhone camera has failed me. But it was such a cute baby monkey I had to post it.

The monkeys will take just about anything from you. (Another one of Mckenna’s photos)

The local dentist.

Mckenna and I brought two bananas into the park to give to the monkeys, which did not turn out well as I had envisioned. I had one in my pocket, and had two monkeys on me digging in each pocket, with one reaching for my phone. They will take anything that they can get from you, but it was fun to walk around all the monkeys. The sanctuary has about 600 monkeys, and none of them are caged, which I also was a fan of.

That’s all I have for this post! I’ll hopefully post my second half of the trip soon, but I have a pretty busy couple of weeks ahead of me with midterms, papers, and Mckenna leaving. But I will try to post the other half in a week or so, so bear with me! Thanks for reading!

Greetings from Malaysia!

As I promised last week, here’s my post about my weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

My friend Wilko and I left for Malaysia on Saturday morning, and returned on Monday, which is more than enough time to check out everything that KL has to offer. After getting off the plane, we had to take a train downtown since the airport is conveniently *sarcasm* located about 35 miles south of the city. After a pretty drive through the Malaysian countryside, we arrived at KL Station, which is the main gate for all local trains. Being tourists and also a little naive, Wilko and I decided to walk to Chinatown, instead of taking a taxi. Not knowing where we were going, we aimlessly walked around the southern part of the city while getting to see a couple attractions that we probably would not have seen without taking our walk. Malaysia is similar to Singapore in weather, so once we arrived to Chinatown, we were both covered in sweat.

Chinatown was really cool for me, mainly because I had never been to a market that sold counterfeit items. There are endless outdoor shops to visit in Chinatown, and sellers will not stop haggling you until you enter their shop.

Chinatown.

Wilko and I did buy a few things at these shops, and I thought that negotiating was pretty fun, so we found ourselves returning to Chinatown multiple times during the trip. After walking around Chinatown for a bit, we agreed that wandering around KL wasn’t the best idea, so we decided to buy tickets for a sightseeing tour. The tour (which only costs $12), is a must if you’re touring KL, because it takes you around to most of the main sights, while being much cheaper than relying on a taxi everywhere you go.

One of the stops along the tour, the Malaysian National Palace.

The Ministry of Information building, which was erected in 1897.

The tallest twin towers in the world, the Petronas Towers.

After riding the bus around town for a while, Wilko and I visited the observation deck at the Kuala Lumpur Tower.

KL Tower.

View of KL from the top of the tower.

After visiting the tower we checked into the hotel, went to grab dinner, then called a night.

We started our next day with a visit to Little India.

Little India.

Little India in KL was rather small, and didn’t compare to Singapore’s Little India. I was told that it was recently relocated which explains the size, but I was still unimpressed. After Little India, we visited arguably the most popular attraction in Malaysia, the Batu Caves.

At the base of the 140 foot tall statue.

The surrounding mountain is filled with these macaques.

Inside the caves.

I also made a new friend on the way down.

The caves themselves were awesome. They’re believed to have formed more than 400 million years ago, and was definitely the coolest cave I’ve ever been in (Sorry Cave of the Winds). We were visiting during Thaipusam, which is a large Hindu festival that takes place every year. There were people in abundance in and around the cave, so it was extremely dirty when we were there, which definitely took away some of the sanctity of the temple. But overall the caves were incredible, and you have to see them for yourself while in KL.

After the caves we went back to the Petronas Towers to see them at night, and they are beautiful.

On our final day, we got to visit the Thean Hou Temple, Buddhist Temple, located on the outskirts of KL. It was not one of the stops along the bus tour, but it was more than worth it to take a car to get there.

Thean Hou Temple.

Inside the prayer room.

Ceiling art inside the prayer room.

The fortune that I received. Sorry Mckenna, looks like we need to find other people…

View from the temple.

Last picture of the temple I promise.

Visiting this temple was probably my favorite part of the trip. It was so peaceful, well-maintained, and so intricate that it definitely was the coolest temple I’ve seen in Asia. After the temple we went back to Chinatown to pass the time, then we headed to the airport to fly back to Singapore. The trip was awesome, partly because it was the first place outside of Singapore that I have visited so far, and it was all about $200 total (including airfare and accommodation).

Farewell KL.

Chinese New Year and my spring break are coming up, so Mckenna and I are taking a week long trip to Bali, Indonesia which we leave for in a couple days. I will post about that of course once I get back, but this is all I have for now.

Thanks for reading!

Sentosa, Singapore Night Safari, and more.

Hello all! Haven’t posted in a while, but I’m back now.

Since I last posted, I have done a ton of things, including going to Sentosa, visiting the Singapore Night Safari, and traveling to Malaysia (post coming next week). And somewhere in between all of that, school work.

Singapore itself is an island, but to the south of Singapore, is an even smaller island called Sentosa. Sentosa is mainly a place for entertainment, as it houses numerous beach clubs, two golf courses, and a Universal Studios (which I’m visiting next weekend). There are three different beaches on Sentosa, and Mckenna and I were able to visit all of them.

Tanjong Beach

After beginning the day at Tanjong, we went to Palawan Beach, which is home to the southernmost point in continental Asia.

Bridge connecting to the southernmost point in continental Asia.

View from the southernmost point.

After getting a pretty solid sunburn, we decided to head home. It was cool to visit Sentosa though, because I had never been to a tropical beach.

The day after Sentosa, I went to go explore Little India with Wilko, an exchange student from Germany. Little India has quite a bit to see, so we spent a good portion of the day here. After grabbing some Indian food (which I’m a huge fan of now), we went to visit the temples in Little India. Most of the Hindu temples look the same, with some slight variations between them.

One of the Hindu temples we visited.

Inside of a Hindu temple.

Right next to one of the Hindu temples, we found a massive Buddhist temple.

Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple.

This was the only picture that I took, but the Buddha is 50 feet tall, and weighs 300 pounds. The temple was built in 1927, and was extremely impressive.

The next weekend, Mckenna and I went to the Singapore Night Safari. The Night Safari is the first of its kind in the world, and was so awesome to see. I was able to see animals that we don’t usually see at home, while seeing them active in the night. 

The hyenas.

Malayan tiger.

I didn’t get a picture of the Asian fishing cat, which is basically a tiger, but the size of a cat. We got to watch them try to catch fish, which was so cool to watch. If you ever find yourself in Singapore, I highly recommend the Night Safari. It’s a bit expensive, but it is definitely worth it.

I visited Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this past weekend, and will be posting about that next week. But before I post that, I wanted to write about what I’ve been up to in Singapore the past two weeks. I really wish I could have been home last week to celebrate Spencer’s life with everyone that knew him, but I was praying for everyone here from Singapore. Rest in peace Spence.

First week in the Lion City

It’s been over a week since I arrived in Singapore, so I guess it’s time to write about it.

Arriving in Singapore, I had the assistance of one of my mom’s old co-workers, and he could not have been of more help. He (Van) showed me around the city, took me out to lunch, and helped me get my bags to my apartment. He was so incredibly helpful, and I can’t thank him enough for what he did.

After living in Singapore for the past week, the one word that accurately describes it is efficient. From the way the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is set up, to even the pace at which Singaporeans walk, everything is efficient. The main means of transportation in Singapore is the MRT, which is basically a larger, more connected version of the lightrail for my Colorado friends. Since Singapore is such a small country, you can get from coast to coast, via the MRT, in about an hour. It is cheap too, as that fare would only cost about $2.

The day after I arrived in Singapore, my friend Ivan who I met while he was studying at CU, offered to show me around. Our first stop was at a hawker center, which is basically an outdoor food court with endless amounts of choices. There are basically two things in Singapore that are inexpensive: the MRT, and food. If you eat out in Singapore, it gets pretty pricey. But at hawker centers, you can get a meal with a drink, for around $4.

On the right is bbq stingray, on the left is chut chut (snail), and below are Malaysian style noodles.

For those of you that know me well, you probably know that I’m an extremely picky eater. (i.e: I eat cheeseburgers with only the meat and cheese). So to try this type of food for the first time, was quite an adventure for me. I didn’t know that you could eat stingray until we had ordered it, but it was delicious. I had a difficult time getting the snails out of the shells, but those were good too. The crazy food didn’t stop there either, as Ivan had me try frog leg porridge later that night.

Frog leg porridge.

The frog leg porridge was good as well, and I have yet to find food in Singapore that I truly don’t like.

On the 8th Mckenna flew in to begin her two months in Singapore for work (I swear we didn’t plan it), so we’ve both been able to explore the city together. The first night we were able to see each other we went to Clarke Quay, which is situated on the Singapore River, and is a very lively place at night.

Clarke Quay.

Triangle ice cream, with some random person behind it…

The next time we saw each other we stumbled upon a theme park that portrayed Chinese folklore and Confucianism. According to Wikipedia, the place has “over 1,000 statues and 150 giant dioramas.”  This is one of the coolest/weirdest things I’ve seen while being here, and if you ever find yourself in Singapore, it’s definitely worth 30 minutes of your time to check it out.

Just one of the many statues that the park had.

And one more…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haw_Par_Villa <— Here’s the Wikipedia link if anyone wants to check it out.

Finally on Sunday, we went downtown to go to church (which was very different from church back home), and walked around a bit and found the famous Raffles Hotel.

Built in 1899, it has housed Charlie Chaplin, George Bush Sr., and Michael Jackson among others.

If anyone reading this would like to visit me and stay in the hotel, it will only cost you about $4,000/night.

Classes have begun, and it’s weird being the only westerner in some of my classes, but I’m excited for the semester to start. If anyone is reading this and wants/needs to contact me, Facebook is definitely the best way to do so. That’s all that I have for now, hope everyone back home is doing well!

Welcome to Dubai

I have made it to my room in Singapore, just so everyone knows! (Big thanks to Van for all the help)

My flight from Dallas to Singapore connected in Dubai with a nine hour layover, so I decided to explore the city. Getting through customs was a breeze, and was out of the airport under 30 minutes after landing. I decided to take the train to downtown Dubai since it was a fraction of the cost of a taxi, and was at the Burj Khalifa in about 20 minutes. Before going to the tower, I visited the Dubai Mall, which is the largest mall in the world in terms of total area. The mall had four floors, and endless amounts of shops.

The aquarium in the mall, which is the largest indoor aquarium in the world.

After walking around the mall for about an hour, I walked outside the mall to find the tallest building in the world.

Words cannot describe how tall it is. After looking up for a couple of seconds, my neck started to hurt. That’s how tall it is.

The Dubai Skyline (Minus the Burj of course)

This was the lake outside of the mall, and the surrounding buildings.

This is the only picture I was able to get of the tower from base to the top, it’s too tall to take one near it.

View from where I boarded the train to go back to the airport.

After spending 4 hours at the mall and the Burj, I was exhausted and decided to head back to the airport, where I was able to take a shower and look around the airport. My plane was delayed by an hour getting out of Dubai, but it was an easy flight to Singapore.

Goodbye gum, Netflix, and America.

The day is finally here. Tomorrow I leave for my adventure in Singapore. I remember when I first learned about the program at the National University of Singapore (NUS) that CU had offered. I was filtering through the more inexpensive study abroad programs, and stumbled upon the one in Singapore. Being completely unfamiliar with Singapore (even where it was), I began to look into it. After applying to the program in early May, I had to anxiously wait for six months. In November I found out that I was accepted, and could not be more excited.

A little about the program: I will be staying in Tembusu Residential Hall, with five other students. NUS is the the ranked as the top university in Asia, and 22nd in the world. And finally, I will be arriving in Singapore on January 5th, and leaving May 11th.

I am so incredibly excited for this opportunity, and I can’t begin to thank everyone who has helped me achieve this dream of mine. To my parents, grandpa and grandma, Nonnie, friends, and so many others, thank you so much for all that you have done for me. I can’t tell you how thankful I am.

See you on the other side of the world!