So, before I get into this week’s post about day four of Nicole and I’s Singapore trip, my sister, Ruth, wanted to add some additional information about some of last week’s post. Below is her addendum. It’s in her words with her permission to do so.
“Very entertaining reading your view of the trip here to SG! Hahaha. Just thought I would offer a couple of clarifications.
“The first dinner at the food court you guys ate one of Singapore’s most famous and tasty dishes — Hainanese Chicken Rice.
“Many places make it but none have been as good (to us anyway) as at our (also kind of famous) Old Airport Food Center.
“The other thing is that Singapore has 3 major universities — National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) — Norm works at SMU. Both NUS and NTU are located in the west and are much nicer (in our opinion), traditional, outdoor, green campuses.
“Actually we saw NTU near the top of a list of “World’s Prettiest Campuses” a few years back.
“SMU is kind of… not so pretty. But yes, it’s where the vampires would go.” – Ruth Li.
That being added, and thanks Ruth for the additional information! :D, on with Day four.
Day Four: August 29th, 2015
Today was a lazy day. Or as lazy as it might get on a tropical city island. We were up late (8:30 or 9) and did our morning routine (shower in a shower that is either hot or cold but nowhere in between. Such is life.) and meandered over to Ruth and Norm’s for an early lunch/late breakfast. We munched on foods, Norm taught me Chinese Chess, and I played a game with Jasper where I won by accident but it was only pointed out to me by Norm three or four moves later, after Jasper had maneuvered (kind of) out of it.
We decided to call it a draw and move on to the next activity: swimming. After a couple hours of beating the heat by dunking in a pool (and losing three swimming races, out of four, to Jasper after he instated a 10 second head start) we called it a day and retreated back to the apartment for a shower and parting ways as we had different afternoon activities planned. Norm and Jasper went to his Wu Shu class while Nicole and I went to Kallang Leisure Mall to catch a movie.
A little on the mundane side, I know, but we wanted, and were recommended to do so, to experience a Singapore movie theatre. I can say this, the quality is at least on part with America’s, but their pre-preview advertisements are waaaaaaaaaaay better.
Those in Hollywood could use to learn a lesson or two from Singapore concerning that sort of thing.
We came out of the movie feeling good and meandered around the mall for a while looking for potential gifts/souvenirs. We didn’t purchase anything of that nature in the mall, but did pick up a few snack type items from the grocery store in the basement of the mall.
Yes. That’s right. I wrote grocery store. See, in Singapore, and I’m paraphrasing my sister here, if you want to go to a shop… it’s in a mall. Need BBQ equipment? Go to the BBQ in a mall. Need clothes? A mall. Ice skating? A mall.
Groceries? A mall.
Kind of makes sense when the island is super tropical and super humid and super reclaimed from the jungle that still exists in the ever so slightly more rural sections of it.
We bounced back to Ruth and Norm’s with our goodies and enjoyed the company of family as well as a dinner meal. After dinner I learned Go and played a game with Jasper.
I narrowly won by a dozen pieces or so, though told him I’d only won by two or three. After we put the game up we took a family walk out to the river, admiring the full moon and enjoying chocolate and marshmallows. We parted ways and Nicole and I returned to our lodging to call it a night. The next day would bring us to an island undeveloped and in its natural, raw state, as Singapore was like before it entered its modernization age.
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