Singapore

After quite a long gap without writing about my travels I thought it was high time I gave myself a kick up the bum to catch up on at least a month's worth of adventures. It's just such a hard life, chilling on the beach, exploring a new place, going out for drinks, meeting new people and having fun, that unfortunately my blog has taken a bit of a back seat. I am kidding, I've just been incredibly lazy with it, but here I am ready to catch up! After being in Thailand and Malaysia, Singapore felt very different somehow. Although a country in its own right, it's actually just a city on an island. I say 'just' a city, but not that in a way that it was any form a disappointment. It was more developed and somehow felt more westernised than the rest of South East Asia that we'd visited. In a way it reminded me of a smaller New York; bright lights and busy cars hurtling around, surrounded by tall impressive buildings.

Seeing someone in Penang with a gorgeous Henna tattoo on her foot, I'd decided I wanted to get that exact same design but as a real tattoo. Not wanting to jump right in however, I thought it would be a good idea to get a Henna myself to see if I really wanted a tattoo forever more. We ventured into Little India in Singapore to try and get one done. We were very excited for Little India, expecting lots of stalls, markets, food and a lively atmosphere. We had to question if we were actually in the right place when we finally got there, it was like a ghost town with nothing going on at all. Feeling quite disappointed, we continued on our hunt for a Henna tattoo, knowing I would not be satisfied until I got myself the little design I'd seen on that girl. When I got mine done (and consequently loved it and wanted it done properly as a real tattoo) Stef decided she'd like one too. The lady who painted the designs on with the Henna dye was amazing, she just made the pattern up in her head and the dye just seemed to flow from the pen. We left feeling feeling very impressed and satisfied, albeit wishing they were real! Later that evening we met back up with Adi who we'd met at the full moon party. He invited us over to his friend, Jessica's apartment, which Stef and I were in absolute awe at. It was absolutely stunning with an infinity pool and a gym and the most amazing living space I think both of us had ever seen. We were green with envy and amazement at this gorgeous condo. Jessica, Adi, Stef and I drank FAR too much vodka by the pool and consequently the next day I was unable to leave my bed, feeling a bit too worse for wear to go off exploring. Stef however felt fresh as a daisy and went sightseeing alone while I suffered the consequences of drinking too much Absolut vodka too quickly, all alone in the dorm room. A very very very distant cousin of Stef's lives in Singapore, so that evening when I'd kind of recovered from the previous night's antics we met up with him in a little pub with some of his friends. We listened to a live band and caught up with him and chatted to some of his American friends, who all worked there teaching English. We headed down to Marina Sands to check out the light show, which we'd heard was very pretty and worth seeing. Right by the water front a little display of colourful lasers and holographic images were produced against a backdrop of city lights and sky scrapers. It was very cool and quite different to a bog standard firework display that we're used to seeing. This part of the city seemed very affluent with the skyscrapers, apartments, condos and the shopping centre containing Dior and Louis Vuitton shops all on the waterfront. It seemed an amazing place to live with an amazing lifestyle but as impressed as I was, I could never imagine myself living in a place like this. It was amazing and beautiful and very well developed, but I'm not sure I'd fit in with such a lifestyle, surrounded by wealthy and successful people, shopping in the designer shops all day long, spending money on brands I don't care about. Maybe that's just me, but I'd definitely prefer to live in a cute, modest little home in England than an affluent, bustling city like Singapore. Each to their own I suppose! I guess it makes you appreciate the simple life you lead at home and makes you miss home in a way you never thought you would. I wouldn't say I'm homesick but coming travelling has made me realise actually how much I love England and that I do want to go back home to live there one day. Before I came away I was determined I didn't want to live in England, but just being away makes you appreciate what you've got at home. Your friends, your family, your life. Anyway it was very strange to see Christmas decorations and hear Christmas music being played in the shopping malls, whilst outside it was swelteringly hot. I couldn't quite get my head around the fact that Christmas is on its way and there are no scarves, hats and gloves, but instead bikinis, flipflops and shorts! Such a bizarre experience. We headed down to the Bay Front and had lunch on the canal and madly rushed back to the hostel to grab our backpacks so we could head to the airport. We were flying to Phuket and were very excited to be heading back to Thailand. We didn't realise how much we'd been missing those beaches! Singapore was a lovely busy place with lots of character and although I spent one entire day in bed and didn't really get to see much, I feel like I did at least soak up a little bit of the culture, which differs greatly to that of Thailand and Malaysia. And although it felt very western to me, it did have that familiar Asian touch to it too. The weather of course was beautiful and we also tried some lovely new food in the hawker centre, which I think was one of our favourite places we'd been to eat. Nothing compares to that chicken fried rice!