Day 6-7 First weekend!

Day 6 -Badminton

Not much happened this Saturday...Tom and I checked out the PGP gym (not air conditioned!) and played a bit of badminton. Here, we learnt that we must provide our own badminton nets. That's a new one for us!
We asked a local where we could buy nets and I was told about Queensway Shopping Center which has a lot of sports equipment stores.

During the night, we joined the 8pm Exchange student welcome party, had a few drinks and visited the Merlion again by taking the #10 bus. The view was nice but I didn't bring my camera. There were also a lot of nice cars (2 Lamborghini, 1 Porsche, 1 GTR to name a few) near the area.

Day 7 - Arab street

Sunday! Tom, Irfan, Yahya and I decided to visit Arab street. After a quick lunch at the non-AC canteen, we headed towards the 183 bus stop. We took the 183 to Clementi and then the MRT to Bugis...here we quickly found Arab street. The first attraction is a beautiful Mosque:

Next we decided to explore the neighbourhood and looked around for a place to grab a drink. We took some pictures around the area too:
Eventually, we decided to stop by a Turkish shisha shop and had some fresh fruit drinks (except Tom who had mint tea). We decided to avoid trying the Tobacco based shisha due to health reasons but next time, if there's herbal based shisha, I would like to give it a try.

Next up is the first day of school! Posts will become less dense until we find time to explore again.

Day 4 - City Tour Part 3

Day 4 - City Tour Part 3
After 18:00

After leaving the Fullerton Hotel, we cross over the road and get our first glimpse at the Merlion. This is probably Singapore's biggest tourist landmark. In the background we see a closer view of the Marina Bay Sands (which I hope to visit soon- I heard there's a swimming pool inside!)
Looking across the body of water, we see the Singapore Flyer which is the world's largest Ferris Wheel. It is said some other country is building a bigger one, but for now the Flyer is the biggest.
Looking at the city, once again we see the clock that catches my attention. The time is still 12 o' clock! I guess the clock is not working!
We get to see a closeup of the durian which is actually a theater/arts center. Lots of amateurs playing live music inside and outside this complex. There are also theaters for professional musicians and artists.
Lastly, as we wind our way out of the Esplanade shopping mall, we get to eat! For some reason, I felt adventurous and ordered a S$10 dish (quite expensive). Can you guess what it is?
If you haven't already guessed, it is seafood...I was told this is sting ray, and indeed the bone structure looks like it! Tastes much like any other fish but with a lot of bones going along those lines in the picture. I tried eating these bones and they seem edible but I only ate a few bites of bone.

After eating dinner, we went back to the pier and saw some excellent night views of the city. However, all my pictures are blurry so perhaps I will go again to take better pictures or borrow some of Tom's pictures.

We ended the long and tiring day with more walking. Tom and I were looking for a nearby Suntec City Mall. Upon finally arriving at this mall, we found a sports store and I bought a S$16 badminton racquet, along with S$20 goggles. Now I can play badminton and go swimming!

Day 4 - City Tour Part 2

Day 4 Part 2 - Jan 7, 2011
after 17:00
After leaving the Arts House, the tour group proceeded to the Singapore River. The first attraction was the statue of Sir Raffles who landed at the Singapore ages ago (refer to wiki for more history).
Looking across the river, one can see all the old buildings that were once warehouses. Now the warehouses for trading have been swapped for small businesses and tourist attractions:

We proceeded to the nearest bridge and crossed the river. Looking back we see a bunch of skyscrapers. Some of the shorter buildings include the new and old supreme court.
There is also a giant statue of a bird...not too sure about its significance other than a piece of art:

Finally we arrive at the next attraction which is the Fullerton Hotel...a very fancy hotel with carp swimming inside!
Inside the hotel, there is live music being played at the grand piano...
and the decor includes carp swimming around!

Day 4 - City Tour Part 1

Day 4 Part 1 - Jan 7, 2011

This post may be the most interesting for those who enjoy sightseeing and have not been to Singapore. After sleeping in, I went with Tom to Yusof Ishak House to grab a late lunch. Had saba (for the first time?), which is some sort of fish. After lunch we registered for the walking tours set up by NUS students for new exchange students.

In my group, we took the 95 bus to Buona Vista MRT station and then took the MRT to City Hall Station. We spent the rest of the day walking around this area. The first stop was St. Andrews Cathedral, which is the first Anglican church in Singapore.
Inside the cathedral:

Next we walked to the Art House but that did not have any spectacular. However, on the way to the Art House I saw a "good effort award", which I found funny because it was only a good effort and not a best effort or excellent effort!

There was also an excellent view of some of the skyscrapers. Here's what they look like:
These random buildings are mostly commercial. One of the tour guides did mention that they all follow feng shui rules, such as banks having office buildings shaped like a calculator.


This is a picture with the Esplanade in the foreground and the Marina Bay Sands in the background. The Esplanade is also known as "the durian" in Singapore due to its peculiar shape! More pictures to come in the next post!

One last thing that was visible from this area is the random clock. I am not sure about it's significance but it definitely caught my eye:

Day 3 - Rainy Day

Day 3 - Jan 6, 2011

Singapore in January is filled with rain. Today I got drenched in rain trying to find the registrar's office...good thing I had a change of clothes and the inside of my bag stayed dry. Singapore has a very prominent drainage system with little gutters on the side of every path to help remove the rain water. NUS is no exception and during the heavy rain, the drainage system is put hard at work, looking like a waterfall:
Unfortunately I was drenched in rain because I got off the internal campus shuttle 2 stops too early and had to go through a maze of buildings to find the registrar's office. Here's some of the science buildings:
After finally arriving at the registrar's office, I was lucky enough to pick up my IPA letter since I technically arrived 15 minutes after their office hours. Then I proceeded to Yussof Ishak House which is like the SLC(student life center) of Waterloo. Here there was a exchange student welcome party. After picking up some freebies and talking to a bunch of people, I met Yahya. Another classmate has arrived! During this time, Tom found a giant snail which I also captured on camera:
There's no ruler in the picture for reference, but the bricks might be a good indicator. The snail shell is around 2 inches by 3 inches in size.


During the evening, Yahya, Irfan, Tom and I decided we wanted to eat some good food so we made plans to go to Harborfront MRT station and find food. Harborfront is the end station of the purple line and we figured there's probably food there. However, while on the bus we passed by multiple stretches of restaurants and due to hunger and impulse, we jumped off the bus while still very far from Harborfront. After looking at some of the restaurants, we were unable to find suitable dining and started walking toward the previous restaurants. Coming upon a sketchy food center, we decided to try and find food. This food center's sign only had the food and 'c' lit up in the dark. Upon arriving we found a food court-like establishment where all the owners would try and entice us to buy food from their stall. In the end we settled for 10 satay skewers of chicken, beef and mutton. We decided to quickly leave the area since we had neglected to eat from so many of the stalls. On the way out, Irfan and Yahya saw some cats in one stall which spooked them out...thus the food center is now known as the cat place.

The skewers warded off our hunger for a while and we decided to head back to campus. On the outside edge of campus, we saw Blooie's - a bar and restaurant with a Canadian owner. Here we decided to get our good food for the night. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so no pictures but the food wasn't special. I had a caesar salad with grilled cajun chicken while everyone else had burgers and/or fish+chips. A bit expensive, but at least we all had a good meal!

Day 2 - Setting up bank accounts and Holland Village

Day 2 - Jan 5, 2011

As usual, I have procrastinated my second blog post but here it is at last! Day 2 was filled with the exploration of parts of Singapore close to NUS.

I was able to create a HSBC bank account in Singapore but it will take a while for the account to be setup and ready for use. Once ready, I was told I would be able to use global view to transfer CAD from my Canadian HSBC account free of charge! Most of my friends create accounts at DBS. I could not guess what DBS stands for, but the closest search on Google suggests Development Bank of Singapore. They were able to get debit and credit cards immediately.

After setting up bank accounts, we also explored Holland Village - a touristy area that is "a stone's throw away" from PGP. This is probably a hyperbole unless there are some strong-armed stone throwers in Singapore. Due to our incompetency with public transit, we took the 183 bus to Clementi and then circle back to Holland Village using the 106. On the way back Tom and I took the 95 which brought us straight to campus. Here is where we ate lunch:

This is the fried rice I ate...not feeling very adventurous yet since it's just a Thai-style pineapple fried rice, a dish that one can find in Canada.

And this is a random drink we saw in the food court with a funny name:

Day 1 - Introduction

I left my Aunt's home in Markham early on the morning of December 29th catching the AC15 to Hong Kong. After staying a few days with my family, I proceeded to Singapore.

Day 1 - Jan 3, 2011
23:00
I landed in the hot and humid Singapore on the night of January 3rd and quickly walked to wards the customs and baggage pickup. At customs I was asked to provide my offer letter which I did not have. Luckily the officer let me through with a 30day tourist stamp. After picking up my 53lb suitcase, I was asked to get the suitcase scanned. No trafficking of drugs (death penalty) or anything illegal, so I was able to get to the arrival hall where I quickly located Benny, my welcome buddy.
Benny brought a friend and they quickly showed me around the airport and brought me on the shuttle to Terminal 3. I got a SIM card with SingTel and activated my phone. I was quickly convinced to test out the 019 feature of the SIM by calling my mom in HK. Everything went smoothly and we took a taxi to PGPR - the residence I was staying at. The taxi fare, just under $33 came with a tarriff for taking a taxi after 11pm, but it was still a cheap fare. Benny knew exactly where to checkin and found my room :)

After a restless night, I found Tom early in the morning and went to orientation. Luckily I bumped into another classmate, Irfan on the intra-university shuttle. We all proceeded to the orientation, found lunch and went to registration. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete my registration with ICA but at least I had my student card. Here we met many other exchange students from mostly Canada, including Kyra who is also from Waterloo.

After registration, we (Tom, Irfan, Kyra and me) took the 183 bus to Clementi (MRT) station where we got EZ-link cards, similar to Octopus cards in HK. I like their tap on and off feature on buses which I couldn't find in HK. Basically one can pay a fare that is based on the distance traveled on the bus by tapping their card while getting on and off the bus. For the first time, we then proceeded to explore the subway (MRT) system. We went from the green line to some other line and arrived at Farrer station, one station after Little India. Here we found a big shopping mall and got a bunch of necessities.

By the time we returned to PGPR, it was already 8pm. We dropped off our groceries and proceeded to the "big stairs" where we met up at 8:30 to visit West Coast Park. On the way I found two 500ml tigers for $7.90 total. Around 10:30, Tom, Irfan and I went to go eat dessert at "the dessert place" where Irfan got a mango ice and I got a waffle with ice cream for $3.50 each. Not a bad start to Singapore but definitely a long and exhausting first 24 hours. A more interesting Day 2 up ahead, with a lot less paperwork and more exploring!