World Travel: Ready, Set, GO! Singapore

After posting some photos in my last post about my epic adventure to Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia, and commenting on how I wanted to change the feel of this blog, I realized I will have to start a new one. At this time I have begun the creation of a new blog and I will be sure to share the link once it has been"launched." In the mean time this blog will continue to be used as a great communication tool about my travels. :)

This past trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia is one that was quite potentially the busiest yet greatest trip I have had thus far. I had the joys of traveling the whole time with two other teachers, Alison and Naz and along the way we met up with other teachers and friends.

We started out our adventure with a wonderful redeye flight. When flying lowcost airlines where there is no TV or movie to watch, you don't get fed any meals and you pay for your baggage, flying at night is ideal! If you can sleep on planes then all you have to do is board the flight, sit down and sleep for the next few hours until you arrive at your destination. You don't have to worry about eating the "delicious" airplane food or so they advertise, it is quiet, dark and you are not sitting around board feeling like you have wasted the day away.

After a sweet flight where we all got a few hours of sleep, we arrived in Singapore. If you didn't know already Singapore's airport is stellar. By looking at reviews you would know that it is one of the nicest airports in the world, and from what I have seen I tend to agree. Thankfully in Singapore one of the national languages is English which made for an easy start. We jumped on the subway with our backpacks on our back in search for our hostel. Along the way we picked up city maps and brochures about what you MUST see. Airports and subway stations are great to have that kind of information in addition to ATM's and money exchange locations. The hostel we booked was Tree In Lodge, which consideres itself a green hostel, being environmentally aware and eco friendly. The staff was great to help us plan our one day in Singapore.

Highlights of Singapore:
-Marina Bay (for lunch) where local companies had food stands out for Lunar New Year (aka Chinese New Year)
-Purple Hippo City tour - allowed us to see many of the main attractions of Singapore.
- China Town - Although we went through China Town with the city tour, we headed back to enjoy the Chinese New Year celebrations that were going on.
-Sky Park - After exploring China Town and coming to the conclusion that it embraced similar feelings as Korea does, we went to the Sky Park. The Sky Park can be simplified to be described 'big boat that was built on the top of three buildings.'
-By around 11 pm we were so tired that we went to our eco friendly hostel for some sleep as a 5 am wake up was in order to make it to the train for Malaysia.

Singapore Airport:

City map reading on the Singapore Subway:

Great lookin' group of backpackers on the subway:

The famous & overpriced faris wheel that was recommended to us to not take as you get a more cost effective experience and better view of Singapore from the Sky Park!