What to do in Singapore

In the last post I have promised to write about the attractions of Singapore. Singaporeans themselves are known for saying that their country is famous only for shopping and eating. To some extent I agree: huge shopping malls are in every metro station and on every street. The most famous shopping place is Orchard Road - full of fancy shmancy luxurious clothing brands and everything one can imagine under one condition: it has to be freaking expensive.
When it comes to food – it is amazing. One can find food courts from every country (as long as Asian food is great, I do not recommend spaghetti with Asian spices or Mexican kitchen that tastes just weird. Yes: rice is a safe bet. And using the chop sticks is quite easy to learn). The good thing is that it’s very cheap. The proper meal costs around 2 Euro, so there is no point in cooking. One is much better off just going out.
However, Singapore offers many more attractions that make the life of an exchange student amazing. Here is my must-do list:
1. Sentosa – an island on the south of Singapore, only 30 minutes by the metro from the city center. Sand, sea, palm trees, beach volleyball courts. Everything a person needs to forget about school and homework.
2. Botanic garden – a reminder that Singapore lies only 167 km from the Equator - rain forest trees, lakes and orchard gardens. The only minus is that it seems fake. The Singaporeans were planning to convert the whole island into the urban area, but at some point they decided that some parks would be nice, so they ended up planting the trees back. Therefore the area seems to be a bit unnatural (we managed to find FAKE rocks).
3. Flier – an equivalent of the London Eye. Highly recommended – all the skyscrapers are lighted up during the night so the view is amazing.
4. Casino – located on the top floor of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. As long as Singaporeans are obligated to pay the fee of 50 Euro just to enter the casino, the entrance is free for internationals (the money of foreigners is very welcome in Singapore). Not too long ago one of the casino players lost S$26million during one night.
5. Great parties – just as Tilburg people party on Tuesdays in LG, Singapore goes out on Ladies’ Night on Wednesday. In most of the club the entrance for girls is free with a complementary free flow of drinks. Great parties guaranteed.
6. SMU student clubs – come up with some crazy hobby or idea and most likely there is a group of students in SMU already doing it. Wakeboarding? No problem! Sailing? Scuba diving? Paintball? – you name it. I tried wakeboarding a couple weeks ago and – gonna boast around a bit – I was pretty good:)
7. Arab Street – a perfect place if you are sick of rice and all the Asian food. Kebab and mint shisha are the best in the Arab area. It was especially interesting to go there after the sunset during Ramadan. The night markets were very fun to walk through.
8. Marina Bay Sands – Infinity Pool on the roof of the skyscraper.
9. One-time events – the monthly calendar of Singapore is filled with very interesting events such as: F1 Night Race, Youth Olympic Games, concerts, festivals.
The only problem with Singapore is that you HAVE TO go to school and you HAVE TO do your homework. So far the trade- off between school and everything else was definitely in favor of the latter. Unfortunately the deadlines for papers and presentations are coming up so I will have to start hanging out in the library a little bit more.
Greetings from extremely sunny and worm Singapore!
Joanna