Last Days in SG

Well my days in Singapore have been slowly dwindling down. Tomorrow at 6 am is when we take off for the US. Naturally, I have decided that a wake-up time at 3am means that I will be far better off just staying up until we leave, then sleeping all the way to Japan.

I've definitely had some interesting experiences these past few days, though. For one thing... it snowed! haha okay... man made-soapy stud-like snow, but whatever. They have this snow every night at one of the nearby malls... it was crazy! There were kids running around in bathing suits, and foamy people everywhere.

Later that night I headed out with Heather, Jim and Kevin to the clubs. We hit up this building, an area called St James, where there are several clubs that occupy their own rooms. If you go up to the second floor, you can see down into all the clubs on either side... it is so cool! It looks like clubs you only see in the movies and stuff! We danced until around 3 am.

Saturday I went to Sentosa! My brother was in a boat race, so we went out to watch a little, but I really just wanted to check the island out. I saw the huge Merlion and got to ride in the Cable Cars that stretch from the island back to the "main land"... which is actually also an Island, I guess. They have some crazy stuff over there that I didn't get to do... indoor skydiving, Segway tracks, wave pools, a beach, zip lining and more!

Today I went out to Fort Canning Park. I think I might have mentioned it before... it is this hill that has a lot of historical significance. The ancient kings used to live there, as well as Raffles (the "father of singapore"). There was also a Fort. I went into this thing called the "Battle Box," which is an old bunker underneath where the fort was. There is a reenactment area is set up to show what was happening when Japan attacked Singapore, all the way up to when Singapore surrendered.

Hopefully I will be able to get all of my stuff together and finish packing! I have a loooong trip ahead of me in the morning!

Taiwan Trip

Last weekend I went to Taipei, Taiwan for the weekend!

I really enjoyed the city... so much fun! There actually quite a few things to do there...maybe not all in Taipei, but around the rest of Taiwan.

We went to the Night Market there... no crazy bug food, but awesome sales! They had soooooo many shoes! There were so many people there too! I really enjoyed walking around and seeing everything.

These are some of my favorite yummy snacks! haha... they are just potatoes on sticks, but I love 'em! They also had whole deep-fried chickens for around $3 (USD) and tons of other options!! 

Another place we went was a traditional Taiwanese Temple. They had these cool carvings everywhere just like these.

We also went to a more modern temple. They had a guard change there every hour... very official-like. One kid got to close to the guard on duty and he stamped really loud and scared us all... haha they probably wait all day for people to do that.

We went to another area of Taiwan... near the Zoo, where we took a cable car to this area up on the mountain side. They have all of these tea farms there.

It was a little chilly while we were there... especially on the mountain.

Another thing we saw was the Taipei 101, which is their famous tower. We went up to about the 85th floor and ate at one of tehir restaurants... it was sooo good! When you went into the bathroom, one of the walls was completely made of glass. That was kind of a weird feeling! lol

I really enjoyed Taiwan... everybody was really nice and helpful to us. Plus, it was incredibly easy to travel around the city using MRT or taxi...always a big help! I hope I get to go back and see some of their other stuff!

JB Malaysia

Last weekend I spent Sunday in Johor Bahru, Malaysia (called JB for short). For those of you who don't know, JB and Singapore are connected by a causeway, so it is an easy day trip.

Before I went, I heard a lot of mixed rumors about the city. It's dangerous, some said. Its boring. There are only shopping malls. There's nothing worth seeing.
Well before my little trip, which I took, by the way, with my friend Heather and her husband, Jim, I did a little research. Google, people. I wikitraveled (Did I just verb that? Yes.) it and...presto! A whole list of stuff to do and see.

So after making it across the causeway, the three of us started out towards the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque. We hopped on a bus (literally, hopping over the sidewalk rails which is where buses choose to wait, for some reason) and rode until the driver told us we were there.

Check out those doors! They looked like they were painted with gold or something! We weren't allowed to go inside here...I am actually not even sure exactly what this building is. It was right next to the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque, so it might have been another building more recently built, or just somethign else all together.
Anyway, so we walked up the hill a little ways and found the Mosque we were looking for.

Nice building, right? We poked around a little, but didn't really do anything here. We weren't allowed into teh Prayer Hall, of course, but we thought we might be allowed to go in other parts, but the place was pretty deserted... perhaps because it was Sunday, and sometimes things close then. We did see this interesting sign, though...

We headed around back and over a couple of streets, skirting past a local selling his wares. Heather discovered he was an Elvis fan, and he became entranced with the fact that she was very familiar with Graceland. It was then that we spotted the Zoo.

It looks kind of cute and quaint, right? Not much there? Wrong. We started at this bird show (those of you familiar with my Road Trip blog from when I was in Spain might find that fact a little comedic). The Bird guy didn't speak in English for most of the show, and so we had no idea what he was talking about most of the time. Towards the end, he started translating some into English for us... but only during the parts where we had completely figured out what he was talking about already. Figures.
Anyway...
The more we looked around this place, the more we began to realize just how huge this zoo was. They had tons of animals! One thing they seemed to have an excess of was Lions. They had grown lions, cubs and...teenage lions? So many! Oh...and camels!

I wanted a picture with the camels, but I was afraid they would bend down and lick me or somethign. Noooo thank you! I don't want that nasty looking mouth anywhere near me!
All in all, I was really impressed with the area...especially since it cost about the equivalent of $1 (USD) to go in!




After the zoo? Lunch, then an Electronics Mall stop, and then we were on our way to our next destination! Arulmigu Sri Rajakaliamman Hindu Temple. Try saying that 5 times fat!... Or even just one time correctly, for that matter. Anyway, this is known as the First Glass Temple in the World. It was so...shiny! The entire thing was covered with glass! So cool!

All of interior was covered with glass! Really! But, that is not even the most interesting thing about of little trip here. There was a wedding going on!

The ceremony had already finished, but everybody was still gathered around the Temple area and were eating in the well... Fellowship hall, we would call it back home. Cafeteria? Well... the place the Temple had for eating.
Everyone insisted that we join in too! We were ushered into the room and sat down at tables with all the wedding guests. They served us a traditional wedding meal, apparently. It was on a banana leaf and we ate it with our fingers and everything! Some of it was a little spicy for my mouth, but it was still really good. Cool, right? I am so glad we went to that Temple! One more pic of it, just for good measure...

Let's see... for me, that was really the highlight of the day. Our other destinations included an old Chinese Temple, a trip into the mall that is right next to the border, a walk through some local shop area outside the mall, and another Hindu Temple. This one was completely different from the glass Temple.

So that was pretty much my day in JB! So what did I learn? There is definitely stuff to do and see there besides just shopping (consult wikitravel these and other options). Also, it is not as unsafe as some people seem to think it is! We stayed together and didn't do anything stupid, and the three of us were fine. I think that as long as you remain aware, you should be fine there! Glad I went, it was a lot of fun!