This week marked a tiring yet adventurous week in Singapore. Firstly, for a quick internship update, my work week consisted of 4 work-from-home days this week, a little more than anticipated. Largely due to travel plans that my supervisor and boss had towards the back end of the week, they decided it would be best for me to stay home and work remotely, which gave me a great opportunity to find an awesome coffee shop roughly 10 minutes away from the Orchard Park Suites, as well as working outside by the pool area. During the weekdays, I stuck to my usual routine of working, then going to the 24/7 Fitness gym, where a bunch of my also buddies have memberships, and then making dinner or exploring other neighborhoods for dinner. One of these trips included a repeated showing of the apartment-favorite Netwon Hawker Centre, the same Hawker Centre that was used in Crazy Rich Asians (which we had to watch afterwards). A favorite dish of mine at the Newton Hawker Centre, as well as in general in Singapore, has been the BBQ chicken wings, which have also been crowned as the best chicken wings that I have ever had. Alongside these wings, which are served at a Michelin starred restaurant where a husband and wife are the sole workers for, I also ordered my first Indian dish while being in Asia, consisting of a classic butter chicken with a side of two naan breads. I can confidently say that the Hawker Center experience is one of my favorite experiences relating to food, and I am going to fully take advantage of this experience for the next 6 weeks of being here.
Two highlights of this Singapore experience so far happened to happen on back-to-back days. On Sunday, we went to the botanical gardens of Singapore, located right next to the Marina Bay Sands building. Some buddies and I got tickets for the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome, which were essentially two massive greenhouses holding some of the most beautiful and vibrant plant life I have ever seen. The waterfall in the Cloud Forest, despite being artificial, felt extremely natural and real, which made it all the more beautiful. The Flower Dome was very interesting as there was an assortment of Asian flowers and plants, with a large mix of flowers that are widely seen in the United States, such as one of my favorites: hydrangeas.
A final highlight of this week was a trip to Sentosa that happened today. Some buddies and I took on the famous luge, which is pretty much a downhill go-kart track, and we raced the track 4 separate times. Alongside this, we took a nice hike to the beach in Sentosa, which was beautiful despite locals encouraging us not to swim due to the water pollution. Though we did not get tickets for Universial Studios, we made a pact to go back and get tickets for another weekend that we are in Singapore. Overall, the Sentosa trip was a blast, and a great way to spend the holiday!
