Of Singapore

I packed my bags and traveled to Singapore for the weekend. Singapore is notorious for  being unforgiving; they fined you for chewing gums, littering, and every other sins. I thought they'd welcome another sinner who needs some sort of punishment, like me.

Singapore is also hectic, even the clouds seemed to be moving a little faster. I could hear the clouds mocking, "Why are you sitting on your ass, you bum? Do something! Move!"

How can anyone keep up with a constantly mocking cloud, i'll never know.

I stayed in a darling new hostel, sharing my room with 5 other unknowns. Most of the occupants are Europeans, I can tell from the several bottles of body wash left behind in the shower. It was nice of these people to leave their toilettries for others to use. Even if they left it there without the intention of sharing two dots of body wash with the rest, how can i resist the urge to try out the 3-in-1 Nivea Shampoo, Body and Shave cream? It's not like they install a camera in each shower room.

One thing notable about Singapore is the lifestyle. I am drawn to it. You see people cycling, running, or walking their dogs, and then they enjoy their coffee in one of the many sidewalk cafes.

It's the Singaporean dream, where you cycle, run, walk your dog, and drink coffee in Starbucks in the morning and read the newspaper, preferably the New Straits Times.

I made a mental note: This lifestyle is very appealing.

I took the Original Duck Tour, on a Duck Boat. The duck boat is an amphibious remodeled Vietnamese World War II war craft that can move on land and then, ploop, straight into the water. It was really pretty cool.  

Oddly, the tour guides and the bus drivers are mostly Filipinos. While my tour guide, Marianne, gave a rather interesting narration about the Fountain of Wealth (accorded as the "World's Largest Fountain" in Guinness Book of Record, the water flowing from the fountain is a symbol of wealth and the essence of life), i thought of a career change.

Maybe i can be a tour guide in Singapore. I can be lively. And i surely can engage a sleeping crowd. And I scored A in history so i can definitely narrate better with my natural passion for history, right?

And then i factored in the fact that most of the time, i walk around with a dark cloud. Little things could irk me. When Marianne was conducting the tour, an Indian man kept signaling her to take photographs of him.

I need to appear cheerful even when i feel like stabbing that Indian man!

I mentally resigned as soon as i disembarked the boat.

While waiting for the next bus to take me on a heritage tour, a Turk sat next to me and surreptitiously asked his friend to take a picture of him, with me in it.

The problem? The friend is so much more hotter! He was wearing a red polo shirt and a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses. And when he lifted his arm to shield his eyes from the glaring sun, i could see an arabic passage tattoo on the inside of his bicep!

I can sense that he was very proud of his tattoos.

The bus took us past St. Andrew's Cathedral (no sight of the one-handsome-and-the-other-ugly turks in the tour bus though). One interesting fact about this cathedral is that it was struck by lighting, twice! I stared at this neo-gothic cathedral and I could see myself. 

Two major boyfriends and then I am rebuilding my life again.

One day I'll stand as mighty as St. Andrew's cathedral.