This lovely creature can be found near a pond on the southwest side of the dorm complex that I am staying at. Don't worry, he isn't alone in his grazing there is another rhino grazing a few feet. The coolest part about it? They are made of WOOD!
On Monday we went to this really nice place that serves Dim Sum called the Crystal Jade. I was a little worried when we first arrived because the prices were pretty steep (the one thing I saw said $60 per person). I voiced my concern to the Singaporean student who was leading us and his reply was not to worry about it and that NUS would be treating us to lunch. That eased my worries and made it possible for me to eat my lunch without having to figure out how to pay for it.
On Tuesday we visited a company called Makino. At Makino they make very large CNC machines. It was really neat to visit a place that makes machines similar to what I have used at school. I was surprised at the large amount of manual labor put into assembling these machines. The factory worker showing us around said that most of their orders that they receive are very specialized and so it is more cost effective for them to assemble them manually then to have it all done by robots.
Welcome to Wednesday. This is the day that I went from enjoying Singapore to wishing I could go home and lay in a soft bed in an air-conditioned room. Don't get me wrong, I still love being here in Singapore, but being sick in a foreign country is not fun at all. Despite my feeling very ill Wednesday evening I just had to go out and do something fun after 2 long days of lecture and work on our project. A few of us from BYU decided to go explore the neighborhood know as Little India. When we stepped out of the train station and onto the street I was surprised at how different it looked from the places in Singapore that I was used to seeing. I'm guessing it really does look like India. We didn't really know what to do in Little India so we just started walking to see what we could see. Eventually we came across a lot of shops with souvenirs and stuff for really low prices. I found a really slick looking watch for $13 and three Merlion figurines for $10. After we had shopped for a while we decided to find a place to eat before heading home. A lot of the places we found were relatively expensive at $15 or more per plate. I know that doesn't really sound expensive given that you will pay that much for good Indian food in the states but if you were used to paying $3.50 for a good meal even $7 sounds expensive.
So we eventually found a place that looked sanitary and that had prices that weren't too steep. We ordered what the waiter recommended. It was delicious but seeing as how I wasn't feeling well I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I would have if I were feeling well.
I soon realized that eating the local food was not helping me feel better and so I had to break my vow of eating nothing but Asian food. For lunch on Thursday I went to the Engineering Canteen on campus like usual but instead of ordering from one of the Asian menus I ordered from the place that offers "Western Cuisine" which comes in the form of something that looks like pasta. After staring at the menu for a long while I decided to order the backed pasta with breaded chicken. When I was given my food I thought that it looked like it would taste good but looks can be deceiving. Now, I won't say the baked pasta was horrible but I will say that is was probably not as good as something you could eat out of a Chef Boyardee can. For dinner me and my teammates ate at a place called Mos Burger, a Japanese hamburger joint. I tried the teriyaki chicken burger. Not only did I have to pay $5 for it, it was only mediocre in taste. Despite the lack of tastiness, eating at a Japanese burger joint was a fun experience.
After three days of stomach aches, back pain, and other unmentionable problems Saturday FINALLY arrived! My team worked on our project for an hour in the morning but after that I was home free to have fun and relax. The BYU students all decided to go to Sentosa island to play on the beach. While the water around Singapore is nowhere near crystal clear or pristine, it was still fun to go play in the water and in the sand. We played around for an hour or so and then decided to pack up and go explore the rest of the island.
During our exploring we found what is claimed to be the southern most point of continental Asia. The funny thing is that once you get to the south side of the island that the sign shown in the pic above is on you can see islands that look further south than the one you are standing one. We didn't quite figure out how the island we were on was the southern most point of continental Asia but we decided that we would trust the sign.
Later in the day we met up with some of the YSA's from the ward that we had attended last Sunday. We were planning on going to the deck of the Marina Bay Sands Sky Park but by the time we had gathered everyone together and everyone had eaten something it was nearly 9 o'clock PM and the park closes at 10. We decided that since not everyone wanted to go up to the park (it costs $20), that those of us who do want to go up could do so another day. Instead of going up to the park we walked across the double helix bridge that connects the two sides of Marina Bay. The picture above was taken from one of the lookout decks that are along the bridge. The white building on the left is a museum of science and technology and is supposed to look like a lotus flower. The rest of the skyline is the business district of Singapore.
After crossing the bridge we made our way to Clarke Quay which is the place to go if you want to experience the night life of Singapore. By the time we arrived at our destination it was nearly 11 PM. We soon found out that the trains and buses stop at midnight and that taxi prices nearly double after midnight. One of the local YSA kids realized that he didn't have any cash and that the only way for him to make it home was on the train. He wasn't sure if he would make it or not and was worried about what he would do if he needed to take a taxi with no cash on him. Another BYU student and I decided to run to the train station with him to make sure that he, along with us, would be able to make it home before midnight. We managed to make it to the train station with enough time but had to run when it came time to switch trains. Sadly, me and my friend weren't able to make it to our stop before our bus left so we had to take a cab. Luckily we were close enough to where we lived and so the price of the cab was only about $8. Hope you enjoyed my crazy week! I'll try to update y'all more frequently this coming week.
major bummer that you were sick! still looks like an awesome place and tons of fun!
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