Townsend came this weekend! We had a blast, and got to explore parts of the country I haven't been yet. But first, I want to share a story about a fellow exchange student's experience over spring break.
There are a couple of exchange girls here from Columbia. Due to the country's reputation, they are required to get entry visas to EVERY single country in the region. Considering the cost and time this takes, unfortunately they haven't been able to join us on alot of trips so far. However, spring break was a chance for them to plan ahead and get out. One of the girls decided to go to Indonesia with a couple of friends. They landed in the Bali airport, and was going through customs when she was stopped. They asked if she was Chinese, as China has the same color passport as Columbia (red) and when she said no, I'm Columbian, they took her and her suitcases aside. They informed her they would be going through everything, and that they did out in public. She said they searched every nook, lining, etc of her suitcase. They found an un-opened box of tampons, proceeded to open it and ask her what they were. When she replied with the answer, they opened one to see what was inside....how embarrassing! They let her through and that was that. On her way home, she traveled on a a different date then her friends. She was stopped again at customs and asked what she was doing. Traveling with friends. Where are your friends? They aren't coming back with me. Why not? They just arent.... Do you know that your missing a visa stamp? She told them that she submitted for the visa online and was granted it and given it upon arrival a couple days ago at that same airport. They decided to take her back into an interrogation room and ask her questions for the next 20 minutes. She said she was terrified and finally they told her she could go. What a terrible experience....
So back to Townsend. He landed at 1230am on Saturday morning, and just like what happened with dad and Max, I got confused about the terminals but his time I didn't make it in time, Townsend was stuck wandering around by himself for a little bit while I was freaking out about why he didn't get off the plane I was waiting for. But I eventually found him and we grabbed a taxi to our hotel for the weekend in Geylang. Geylang is the infamous Singaporean red-light district. I have never been here before or knew anyone else who had, but I figured it's Singapore, how bad can it be? Prostitution is legal and kept inside brothels here? Anyways, they had the cheapest hotel prices and was close to the MRT and airport! When I checked into the hotel that evening before Townsend arrived, it looked a bit different than every else I had been, but not that much. The streets were more crowded, there was more trash on the roads and it smelled a little bit more. It looked like a slightly cleaner version of all the places in Malaysia I had traveled too. No prostitutes in site, so no worries.
Well on our way home, at 1am, it was more crowded than in the evening. We saw a couple of "lady boys" that our taxi pulled out, and went upstairs for the night. The next morning, we were hitting Chinatown and downtown to join a school tour of a reservoir. We stopped at a corner Indian restaurant outside for a quick breakfast. Across the alley was a bunch of people just standing around. Then suddenly they all ran away and we saw a police car turn the corner. I've watched enough Law and Order to know what was going on here. There were only a few seats at the restaurant, so a guy sat down across from us to eat. He started to chat with us, and he told us that you must register and be inside a brothel to be legal here, but lots of women come from Thailand to stand on the streets illegally, which was who we were looking at. Most were normally dressed, shorts and a normal shirt, but there were a few in some more "professional" clothing. I guess that's why I didn't notice them before, they don't stand out.
Chinatown was great, we went shopping and bought some cute little local art pieces, went into the Buddha Tooth Relic Museum and Temple again, its just too cool! We hit a Hindu temple and then went into town. We got a free tour at Marina Bay Reservoir, one of 17 reservoirs in the country. We learned all about the contraptions used, and then got a tour of the little museum inside that talked about how Singapore is on top of its game in energy conservation. 30% of their water supplied to the country is NewWater, the recycled water from baths and toilets. The top of the beautifully designed building was a grass roof where there were tons of people picnicking and flying kites. The roof collected rain water for use and had large solar cells to collect solar power. Singapore really is super-eco-friendly.
The next day, we really had no plans, so I decided to take Townsend across the country to see my school. From one side of the country to another its a little over an hour train ride, so its another relaxing (and AC) way to see the country for cheap. We hopped on the MRT and went to school. He got to see how tiny my dorm was, the awesome view from the 7th floor, as well as the big highlights of campus. I took him to the mall/food area next to campus where I always eat and shop at.
There's this MRT stop called Chinese Gardens near my school that I always wanted to stop at. Literally the only this there is a gardens set in the middle of a very large field and lake. There were people flying kites and playing cricket. We went into the gardens, its mainly Chinese gardens with a Japanese garden site, as well as the Guiness Book's largest turtle "museum", which is a turtle sanctuary. The sign boasts over 3,000 turtles with 1,000 species. We wandered around the gardens, there were dragon-shaped bushed, an 7 story pagoda, a lake, some ponds, tons of turtles, coy fish, and statues of famous Chinese men, such as Confucius. We went in to the turtle museum, which had everything from tanked turtles to those in a tub you can feed to free-wandering turtles. We saw the most dangerous (shout out to the Florida-living alligator snapping turtle, one actually snapped at Townsend through the glass! We both kind of screamed....), the flattest, weird snake-head turtles, everything. They were all so cute!
We had a 4am wake-up this morning to get to the airport on time and for Townsend to work his Continental employee magic and get on the flights. I came back to my dorm to sleep. When I woke up, my roommate opened the door! She said she didn't have enough participation points to stay in the dorm this year, so she was kicked out and it took her this long to get assigned another room. She moves in officially tomorrow!!!
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