Another Singapore Trip.

When I blogged about my Japan trip, one of my friends asked why I didn't blog about the Singapore trip I took before.

I told him I will, so here I am. I'm pretty sure he wasn't serious but I'm still going to write about it for memories' sake. After all, I had a blast.

So here's the post for my Singapore trip on August.

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I've always wanted to go to Singapore, not for the food or sight seeing, but to meet my online friends. However, it's quite a problem because if I had to meet every single one of them, I wouldn't have much time.

It's always a dilemma. Do I tell everyone I'm going? Do I tell only a few? If I hide the fact I'm visiting Singapore, does that mean I can't post any social media updates? If I do post on social media, how will my friends who didn't get to see me react?

In the end, I decided to just meet my closest friends and some new ones. Because I'm kinda sure some of them will get mad at me if I don't, and I've gotten complaints from people for not meeting them before.

HA I'M SO POPULAR HA just kidding.

DAY ONE

I had to get on an early flight and arrived around 10AM and my friends who were supposed to greet me was not in sight.

I had the problem of not having Wi-Fi in Singapore, so I started to get worried. As I was struggling to get connection to the internet, one of my friends spotted me. Apparently there was a lot of problem with the MRT and all of them except her was stuck.

#justsingaporeanproblems

Everyone made it anyway and it was pretty much first time meeting all of them (#teamrekt). But since we voice chatted a lot it wasn't that awkward. We had lunch at Burger King where I was shocked to see so many senior citizens at the counter.

I dropped by my cousin's house to put my luggage and we were on our way to Universal Studios. It was an hour bus ride, gosh it felt like forever

 I couldn't join in the fun because I didn't know how to play #failedmalaysian

We arrived at USS and I was really excited. I couldn't get to ride on Battlestar Galactica the last time I went there so I was so ready. Before we did anything though, my friends changed into the Echo shirts from my exhibition. I feel so loved.

There wasn't really a lot of people, but some rides had an hour queue. If I visited Japan first where three hour queues are possible, I wouldn't mind that much.

Thankfully, the extreme rides I was excited for didn't have long queues. I had a lot of fun on Cylon and the Transformers ride.

 Thanks for the support guys.

I also went to conquer my fears again on the Mummy ride this time. I told my friends that I didn't open my eyes the last time I was here and they made sure I kept them open this time, haha. We also rode on kiddy rides but it was just fun to hang out and get silly with my friends.

My friends ran out of energy quite soon while I was really hyped. The girls weren't a big fan of extreme rides too. We still stayed till the park was about to close, though.

After we left the park, I went in to check out the casino. One of my online friends who was also a Malaysian couldn't get in with me as her student card expired so I went in alone. I felt really out of place as the people gambling there are mostly uncles and aunties, but I did enjoy free drinks.

We had dinner at a curry place and we went back to our homes after that. Kinda had a communication problem but I managed to tell my friends I made home safe.

DAY TWO

I'm a pretty punctual person, and I realized that every person I met in Singapore is always late. It's okay though, I'm used to it. *wipes tears*

I met up with another group of friends on this day. We had lunch at a steamboat restaurant where THEY ACTUALLY SERVED PORK. Even though our culture is pretty much the same, eating in Singapore needs time to get used to.

I mentioned that I wanted to check out the Yayoi Kusama exhibition and my friends tagged along. Another online friend also decided to join me when she found out I'm in Singapore.

Because I wasn't a Singaporean citizen, I had to get in line and made my friends wait with me. I felt bad, but they didn't mind and I'm thankful for that. After getting the tickets, we got into one of the first exhibition hall that features her Yayoi Kusama's works.

Going to art exhibitions are definitely interesting, because you look at art that are influenced by a person's experience. Yayoi Kusama is a very eccentric person and her work certainly says so.

They are a lot of people there and I'm pretty sure most of them are just there for the hype and maybe because it's free. I really dislike the fact that there are people who were just there to take pretty Instagram pictures. I felt that it was really disrespectful.

After seeing all of her works in all the exhibition halls, two of my friends left. I was looking at another exhibition with the remaining friend till I had to go.

I hope my friend had a great experience, or at least have a new experience in an art exhibition.

For dinner, I went to meet some of my friends that I met through Steam. Had pasta at a fancy restaurant and just talked about stuff.

After that, I left to meet my first group of friends minus one (#teamrekt) to shoot darts. It wasn't my first time playing but I wasn't good at it.. I think I even broke some of the darts, hmm.

I was tired as I met a lot of people that day and traveled a lot, but it was worth it to finally meet my pals in Singapore.

DAY THREE

My breakfast for all mornings in Singapore are biscuits given by my friend. TQSQ!

I think I woke up quite early and I had to catch a cab. The thing is, my friend called for it and directed the driver to my cousin's house. I was alone in the cab with the driver. It was a first time of me taking Grab and I was confused if I had to pay for it.

Anyway, I met up with my #teamrekt friends in east side of Singapore, near the beach area (I think) as we're going cycling. My friends said there are bicycle rentals there we could go to and get bikes.

Apparently, thing has changed a lot since my friends been there so everything was a little different. Some of the bicycle shops have moved and we were walking down a long stretch of road before we realized there are no more bicycle shops and if we wanted to get a bike, we had to walk back.

There was this guy who I assumed was from China walking around giving out flyers that said they rented bikes. Being lazy, we agree to rent bikes from him as it was quite cheap and not that further away, compared to the shops before.

However, he lead us to a very shady looking area with a very shady looking truck and gave us bikes. We were all doubting ourselves, wondering if this was okay but we got the bikes. Then, we just pedaled away.

One of our friends didn't know how to ride a bike, so we spent some time teaching her. She was a fast learner, but there was some close calls of her hitting things. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt but her legs got dirty. *sobs*

We had our lunch in a food court but I don't think we ate anything, we only had drinks. We were pretty tired, but we continued cycling around the area until afternoon. It was nice cycling again, and with the breeze from the ocean blowing on your face.

We returned our bikes to the shady looking truck and left. Our next destination was Gardens by the Bay.

We got our tickets with a discounted price (thanks to my friends) and went in to see all the beautiful flowers. The first thing I thought was, wow, I wish my mom was here to see this. She loves flowers and plants.

Since Singapore's Independence Day was closing in, they featured orchids as the main attraction. I have never seen so many orchids in my life and I wondered how did they manage to maintain so many flowers and in such perfect conditions.

For dinner, we had dinner at a burger restaurant and it was really delicious.

Finally, our last activity for the night was something we do even when I'm not around in Singapore - Overwatch.

We went to a LAN cafe (Malaysians would say cyber cafe) and played together as a team. Unfortunately, my mic was broken so I couldn't really communicate with my friends. One of my friends also had to leave for personal reasons.

The night ended and I was realizing I have to say goodbye to my friends. When would I see them again? I don't know. I was sad, and I hugged them goodbye.

LAST DAY

I went back to Malaysia by bus and it was quite a scary experience, particularly at the immigration area. But obviously I'm fine since I'm here blogging.

Heading back to Malaysia reminds me of how shitty my country is, but hey, it's home.

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I wanna thank all my friends that I've met in Singapore, and for the memories we shared, online or offline.