These Are The Last Days

Walking towards my hall building few hours ago, I noticed my room's light was off. I thought my roommate Tinglin was asleep already. However as I got in front of the door, I noticed her shoes were gone. I unlocked the door and instead of seeing her, I saw only plushies neatly tucked under her blanket. OH NO! She left without me having a chance to say good bye. I'm not gonna lie, but I got a little teary when I read her note. The morning when I woke her up with my arrival and the luggage noise that I made seems to be really fresh in my memory, just like yesterday.

So with that being said, this is very likely to be my last post written in Singapore as I'm leaving in 2 days. I've spent the past week just studying while being tourist at the same time: visiting places on my list that I haven't gotten a chance to visit. Among them are the St. Andrew's Cathedral, Peranakan Museum, Asian Civilisation Museum, and the Treetop Walk at MacRitchie Reservoir.

Saying goodbye is never easy, but I've been handling it well so far through some of the goodbye dinners I had this week.

Now that it is all about to come to an end, I can't even imagine how my life would've been if I didn't make the choice to come to Singapore in the first place. I wouldn't met these awesome new friends, nor would I traveled to these amazing places. I would've just been a typical Fransisca: clocking in and out of co-op for the rest of the summer, overworking myself with ambitiously packed schedule, looking for jobs that would pay me well after graduation, and just sticking with the status quo.

This semester has definitely been the highlight of my Drexel career and changed my life. My Singapore experience has changed the way I view my life and the ideas of rest, life calling, and community. I've also been challenged to step out of my comfort zone and complacency in many situations and without God's providence, I would never had the strength to go through it all. In a way, I'm sad to pack all these memories with me as I leave this place. But on the other hand, exciting stuffs are waiting for me in the States. Talking with friends back in Philly as we plan things to do this winter has definitely helped in getting me pumped once again for the  rest half of my senior year.

Good night, Singapore! I will miss you just like a migrated Singaporean does.

Hong Kong Madness

After reading this post's title, please don't be too judgmental. I know I had just came back from Thailand and Vietnam the Sunday before, but I'm not as addicted to travelling as you might think haha :D

So how I ended up going to Hong Kong was quite an interesting story. Right before leaving for Vietnam, I got a text from friends with whom I also did Kuala Lumpur back in August. I booked my flights right in a heart beat, and kaboom! That's where I spent the past weekend; a New York City of the Eastern world, 4 hours away from Singapore. Such a crowded city that even our hostel was located at a residential flat building along with a couple other hostels, and a room for 6 was only about 36 feet-square.

We started off the first night in Hong Kong with a dim sum dinner at a humble stall downstairs from our hostel at Nathan Road. With happy stomach, we were able to plan for the next days. After getting some rough ideas of what we were going to do, it was time for some exploration. Kowloon park and Avenue of the Stars were so gorgeous at night.

The next day was a very packed one. We started the day off busing to Shek-O to hike the Dragon's Back trail. I still can't get over how helpful and friendly the bus driver was. He actually made another passenger go up to the deck where we were sitting to tell us that we've arrived at our stop.

The hike itself was quite easy and quick. In about 1 hour we were able to reach the peak and enjoy this gorgeous view.

Since the day was still early, we walked around the Central area for the Sun Yat Sen memorial and various markets along the waterfront.

 

And somehow also made it to the Victoria's peak as well as picnicking on the rooftop garden of IFC mall.

The group split on Sunday since some wanted to go to Macau and some wanted to explore the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Mongkok markets. I went with the second since I wanted to get some souvenirs. I headed back early to the hostel to repack before I flew back only to find that nobody was at the reception desk and our the key to our new room were nowhere to be found. The thing is that they also moved our stuffs to the new rooms. Huge thanks to Heather; we finally found a stack of card keys from the unattended reception desk and tried breaking into each room to look for my backpack. It's Hong Kong after all, gotta do it action-movie style.


By the way, I still owe 80 cents on my Octopus card due to my purchase of gums at the airport. Anyone heading to Hong Kong can use it, just remember it will deduct my debt right away once you top-up

A Kuala Lumpur Weekend

As promised on my last post, I would share with you about my weekend trip to Kuala Lumpur. It was amazing!

Waking up Friday morning to catch the 9 AM "luxury coach" there was a drag at first. But I was so thrilled to find out the "luxury coach" features massaging reclining seats which made the five-hour bus ride not bad at all. The city mass transport in Kuala Lumpur is very unreliable, so we walked to our first choice of hostel, Reggae, for about 45 minutes or so in the Chinatown area (it's a really great hostel, btw!). Recuperating from the ride, we spent the evening strolling around for bargain items in the Chinatown night market and chilling at the rooftop.


The only landmark we were dying to visit in KL city itself were the Petronas twin towers which are best viewed at night. Waiting for the dusk and our grand visit to the towers, we decided to go to Batu Cave which is about 20 minute train ride away. Climbing up its 272 steps was totally worthwhile since the view from up top was beautiful and we got to see some violent monkey fights at the main shrine. Our visit to Batu Cave was followed by a pursuit of Little India for a pursuit of some good Indian food. Apparently there were 2 Little Indias in the KL city, and we mistook the smaller one for the real one and the smaller one doesn't really have Indian restaurant. For the crave of Indian food, five of us hopped on a small taxi to the bigger Little India where we just went into whatever we found first. Aside from the way better quality of Indian food compared to University City's "Big 3" (Tandoor, New Delhi, Sitar), I grew to enjoy Indian snacks and desserts I have never seen in Philly.

The highlight of the trip was the guided hiking trip by Open Sky Unlimited on Sunday to Bukit Tabur, an hour drive away from the city. It was a sweaty hike under cloudy morning skies, but it was definitely worthwhile for the even more amazing view from the peak. After the hike, our guides Amos and Kevin took us for a special brunch to a local mamak restaurant as they educated us about their local food. All in all, they definitely gave us a really professional service.

The weekend had  to end, somehow. We finally packed and hit the bus station to come back to Singapore where another great week was just starting :)