singapore travels with friends!

singapore travels with friends!

Welcome to Singapore. Our crew of 12, plus me and two of my best closest friends flew across the world for an exchange week at Ha Chong. We had a very, very long day, 24 hours of traveling and a 12-hour time difference. It was just the most crazy and surreal experience of my life. Exploring the Cartar airport is when I started to realize the magnitude of this trip and just how different of a culture we were stepping into on the eastern side of the world. I just I really didn’t realize how changed I come out of the whole experience. The travel was definitely grueling and I’m pretty sure we all kind of got sick at some point or another, but it was totally worth it. We landed hungry and tired, but we could never have been more excited to begin this experience. >> Hey vlog, we’re going to try. >> That’s >> Wait, it is good. >> It definitely tastes like mushroom. >> What? How do you not like that? As we walked down the steps of Ha Chong in the morning, it really hit me that we were very much in another country on the other side of the world. And I watched in absolute horror as the steps filled with about 4,000 students that I had to give a very impromptu speech to before commencing the rest of the week’s activities. This trip really made me change how I see the country that I live in now, especially after learning the sustainability and climate commitments of Singapore. But it also let me appreciate how much natural beauty there is here in the US because Singapore is almost completely artificial. There’s always a trade-off and everything, but regardless, it was an absolutely beautiful, beautiful country. >> Yeah, you’re in it. I’m not going We got to see some of the amazing botanical gardens in the cloud forest. Oh, that’s fun and rode the second highest ferris wheel in the world. We went to a museum where we kind of got an immersive VR type projection experience where we got to learn the whole history of the country of Singapore. We got to see a really cool projection of their fauna which there’s not much of for us to see in real life. And we ended that off with some really great treats at the museum’s cafe. And of course, I got a passion fruit sorbet. If you know anything about me, that’s just my staple everywhere that I go. Rest of the day we spent exploring, we were in Chinatown. First, I tried these soup dumplings for the first time ever. The stand I got them from had been operating for decades in that same hawker center with generations of families cooking. And you can just really taste the love that they pour into it. And honestly, the time that we spent there, we were just taking in every moment. I genuinely think that having no signal was one of the best things that could have ever happened. For example, in this Buddhist temple, we rang this huge spinning bell that grants a wish of like seven years of good luck, which I’m still waiting for that by the way. You really will have to wait to see the best meals because right now we’re trying durian, which I could best describe as an oniony flavored mango. I would definitely not recommend it, but if you’re in Singapore, you have to try it. My water bottle smelled like the fruit for days from just having touched it. It was still a cool experience regardless. And I had a lot of fun watching all of our classmates try the fruit. It was really incredible to see how unique each of the cultures in Singapore, which are Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian primarily, and how each of them celebrates religion and just kind of like life in general. We ended this little exploration in Little India where we got matching henna tattoos and explored more temples. We had a really early morning joining our buddies in class for the first time which was really great. This is my buddy Yanji. He’s probably one of the most naturally funny people I’ve ever met and will meet. We snuck out to explore the city and Helma have kept in touch with him and her buddy literally until this day. We ended the night seeing a light show and some mild stress after one of our classmates got on a train and got lost on the MRT. And the next day was our first free day with our buddies. We ended up the night again with some Indian food at a hawker center. I don’t know if you’re noticing a theme here, but that was definitely my favorite food that we had or like my favorite genre of food that we had while we were there. Honestly, I could not tell you what we did this day. All I can remember is that we laughed and we walked all day. This was the day that everybody kind of just broke the ice and got really comfortable with each other because we just realized it’s not that deep and we were never going to have this moment back. So, we might as well take full advantage of it. So, >> 8 out of 10. Okay. What about you, Ashley? What do you rate? We had an early dinner at Hale Lima’s buddy’s house, handmaking dumplings with his parents, who were so kind to leave everything prepared for us. It’s such an odd feeling to feel so safe at night in a city, especially as a woman. But in general, Singapore is just so safe and beautiful at night, which is one of the things I really loved and got to appreciate traveling here. My favorite part was really just walking around and seeing all the groups of people. There was so many kids skateboarding. There was kids break dancing in the MRT station, playing guitar like dads. It’s just such a nice feeling to see all of these different people coming together. It’s such a small country that a lot of people, everybody kind of knows each other, but the sense of community is very, very strong from what I could tell. On our last full day, me, Helma, and our buddies waited for an hour in line at Yakun Kaya Toast to try this iconic Singaporean breakfast. We dipped our toast in eggs, which we topped with pepper and soy sauce. We later visited an art museum and for lunch we had probably my favorite chicken rice of the whole trip because that’s what they would kind of serve in the school. And this one was just amazing. We spent a bittersweet afternoon at the beach with all the kids from the trip and their buddies laughing and playing games. We still cried saying goodbye to our buddies at the airport. We had gotten so attached, but that tends to happen on these sort of experiences. And luckily me and my buddy are planning our reunion for once they get out of their military service. So high hopes for that. Well, I gotta run because we have a flight to Cambodia to catch. So I guess you’ll just have to meet me on the next vlog. Bye.

Welcome to my Singapore vlog! 🌏 This travel diary follows my 10-day cultural exchange and study abroad experience at Hwa Chong, exploring Singapore student life, sustainability, and everyday culture. From hawker center food and soup dumplings to durian reactions, Little India, MRT adventures, and unforgettable moments with friends, the first Asia travel vlog captures what it’s really like experiencing Singapore for the first time. I’ll never forget this week full of connection, food, and Southeast Asian memories.

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