I am so thankful for my
Singapore friends. It’s a weird thing, really, because we go years at a time without seeing each other. (well, we’re averaging about once a year). So it’s weird in some senses because a lot changes in a year and we’ve lost a lot of what we shared in common. 2 fiances have joined our reunioning (and fit in quite well). Life has thrown a lot of very different experiences at us all – some of which have hardened us, some of which have softened us – at the root, we’re the same people we were. So at the same time, nothing’s weird because somehow nothing has really changed. And theres something unique and fun about that. (at least that’s how I feel about it… They could have a different opinion :P)

If you haven’t experienced relationships like that, it might not make sense, but that’s the best way I can describe it.

So Singapore has been great even just for getting to see everyone again.

And it’s been even more fun having my
Worlds collide in having Tiffany here.

So Monday morning Frisca took Tiffany and I to mt. Faber, the highest place in Singapore and we hiked to the nearby Henderson Waves bridge and the connected ‘forest walk’. I’d been there with Adelyne 2 years ago, but this time was more exciting… Because we saw MONKEYS 🙂 I really live monkeys for some reason. Third time in Singapore, first time seeing monkeys in Singapore. So fun.

Then we had some delicious sushi and headed to Chinatown. Tiffany rode a subway for the first time ever. She was excited! Adelyne met us there along with her friend Shuqi, who we met up with Melbourne when we visited there last year. They took us to the famous Buddha’s Tooth Relic temple. There was some kind of event happening so it was interesting to visit. I was there 2 years ago so it was cool to see what has and hasn’t changed.

Afterwards, Liptong met us and we got traditional Chinese singapore coffee (coffee with condensed milk).

We walked to Esplanade (the spikey durian building) and listened to a little bit of a free concert. Yessy met us outside near Marina Bay while we enjoyed the serenade of an Indian singer’s ode to Diwali or Deepavali.

We headed to the giant boat casino and walked across the DNA helix bridge, which definitely brought the scientist in Tiffany to the surface 😛

To end the night, we squeezed into a cab, bought a durian, and headed to Pauline’s (Alex’s fiance) apartment so Tiffany could try durian (the stinky fruit).

If you don’t know what durian is, google it. My best explanation is that it’s a giant green/brown spikey fruit that smells so potent, you’ll get fined for bringing it on Singapore’s public transportation. In my opinion, it smells like trash mixed with throw up mixed with pineapple. It has the consistency of an avocado but thicker and stringier. And an aftertaste of death. They saw you can taste it fir at least a full 24 hours afterwards. Our Malaysian friend told his Swiss friend “it’s so good. It’s like eating cheese”. And his Swiss friend replied, “like eating cheese in the toilet maybe” hahaha. That’s about how we feel.

Soooo anyway. It was a great stop in Singapore and I hope it isn’t too long before I return. I’m sure it won’t be 🙂