Truly Asia!
There is only about a month left in my exchange, and I am getting busier with projects and studying for finals. Sometimes I walk on the streets here in Singapore and I would go, “Hey, I seriously AM in Asia!” I have tried speaking Singlish, had two days Chinese New Year holidays when I normally wouldn’t, explored the beautiful Angkor Wat, walked through the extravagant Royal Palace in Bangkok, paid an entrance fee to a temple in Phnom Penh that applies ONLY to foreigners, rode in Tuk-Tuks, and bargained yet still paid premium for taxis. I am so glad I bothered with the application process and everything (though it wasn’t all that tedious anyway), ‘cause I seriously AM in Asia and enjoying every minute of it!
By the way, in my previous post I mentioned that it doesn’t rain that much in Singapore. Right after I sent off that blog, it started and still is raining thunderstorms. I am talking about actual thunder, lightning, and heavy pouring rain!
This is a blog on my travel experiences in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand. My first formal tour of Singapore was when I just got to Singapore. I had a tour of the city with two other friends with the help of their local buddy. My second tour was back in late February, my friend Bob from Taiwan visited and we had the chance to tour around Singapore a little. Bob was an exchange student at UW and we met in Speech & Science class. We walked around Fort Canning Park and Clarke Quay, took pictures with the Merlion, and had Hai Nan Chicken Rice, a famous local dish. Singapore is really compact, it is a city state with everything inside neatly organized.
My Malaysia trip, was really a short trip to Kuala Lumpur. One weekend back in February, my friends and I took a trip to KL. Flying around Asia can be really cheap with the budget airlines. They are strictly no-frills (meaning food, snack, and water are for sale only; yes, even water is not included in the ticket fare). We flew Tiger Airlines and stayed at Tune-Hotel.com, a budget hotel by another budget airline, Air Asia. Because we spend most of our times outside the hotel, staying budget is a great way to save money. It didn’t occur to us that Kuala Lumpur had much to see as we were not interested in spending time at museums. It is an urban city and the things to do are shopping, shopping, and more shopping.
I will stop here and continue my blog on traveling in Asia (Cambodia and Thailand trip that I took in March!) next time =)
