As I mentioned in a previous article of mine, I spent my winter break- which, at this point, ended more than a month ago?!- traveling and sightseeing in four different countries: Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan. From Jan. 10 to 15, I spent my time with friends in perhaps the most beautiful Asian country I have visited thus far, Singapore. Having known very little about Singapore prior to this trip, besides its role as the setting in “Crazy Rich Asians,” I wasn’t sure what to expect. Mansions? Fashionable Asians? Glamor?
First what I noticed upon landing was the greenery. I was staring out the plane window at the lush fields of vibrant grass, bushy, green-leafed trees, and well-tended flowerbeds all coming into sharp clarity as we edged closer to the tarmac. My eyes remained wide as we disembarked and walked through the spacious airport, met up with two other friends and slipped onto the metro, gliding effortlessly and seamlessly past the sleek exterior of the airport.
For dinner we stopped at a hawker center, an outdoor food court, where my senses grew ever more overwhelmed by the bright lights, the endless food and drink options at each stall, the suddenly suffocating humidity, the constantly shifting streams of people and the flowing babble of conversations in various dialects all around me. There I tried sugarcane juice for the first time- a pale, greenish-yellow beverage, sweet in a way that made my eyebrows raise before I decided to take another sip. I also tried beef satay, which is grilled and skewered beef, an oyster omelet- exactly what it sounds like, and clay pot rice, which rice cooked in a clay pot so that the rice at the bottom became browned, crisp, and crunchy. For dessert we had chendol and ice kachang- two different kinds of shaved ice with syrup, red bean, and other toppings, which we would have plenty more of throughout the trip.
Although the food was among the best experiences I had in Singapore, there were many other memorable moments of sightseeing as well. Having the chance to explore my surroundings with various forms of transportation- bus, train, and my own two feet- afforded me a priceless traveling experience. The Gardens by the Bay, a typical tourist destination, was one of the most remarkable places I visited thanks to all it had to offer: the towering Supertrees that loomed, magnificent and vividly multicolored, against the inky sky; the Flower Dome, an impressively large greenhouse with its array of exotic flowers and plants; and a view of the Singapore Flyer, the second largest ferris wheel in the world.
What has stuck with me more than the food I ate or the attractions I visited, however, is the time I spent with my friends. I hold every moment with them to be precious, whether sitting on the grass beneath the shade of a tree in the Japanese Gardens, attending church at Bukit Panjang Gospel Chapel on a Sunday morning and being overwhelmingly welcomed into the community there, or wandering around Chinatown amidst glowing yellow and red lanterns and large, inflatable pigs for the approaching Chinese New Year. Every inside joke, every new thing we saw, was only amplified by our being in a foreign country- a place where I wish I could have spent more than five days if only to know the country and its people better.
I have no doubt that if and when I ever return to Singapore, I will embrace it with a nostalgic heart and fresh eyes, ready for new adventures there and for new life to spring forth.