MussoLOLen is Always Right! |

Our original plan was to head to Sentosa Island, but when Nic and I realized that we were a little low on cash, we decided to improvise.

Get on a bus. Any bus. Ride the bus until you see something interesting, or until whenever you feel like getting off.

It’s rare in the Philippines to see a nice, grassy park without 8 million children and beggars littered all over the grass. So we jumped off the bus the moment we saw a lovely green patch of earth with a little lake in the middle. A dragonboat race was going on–some high school sports event, we guessed–which we watched for a while. When we happened upon the playground though, we forgot the fact that we’re both 21 and started going crazy on the swings, seesaw, and those bar things where younger people with more agile bodies can perform gymnastic tricks.

As we were swinging away, I suddenly felt this impulse to go ride a bike. Riding a bike is the closest sensation I will ever get to flying, but ever since a not-so-fatal accident in which I got hit by a car, I decided that it’s too fucking dangerous to do that in Manila. In Singapore, however, people actually obey the traffic rules. I asked Nic if he knew a place where we could rent a bike and ride around a park and he said he did, somewhere in the far eastern side of Singapore. So we got on the first bus we saw and rode it for what seemed like an eternity. During the ride though, we passed by streets that are probably not included in the glossy tourist magazines handed to us in the airport. One of them was the red light district, which we wanted to check out. But since it was the middle of the day, nobody was really on the street so we decided to pass by later in the evening.

We gave up on the bus and took a long train ride to Choa Chu Kang road, where Phoenix Park is located. When we got off the station, however, the weather decided to ruin things for us. The cloudy skies finally gave way to some rain and since we didn’t have the sense to bring umbrellas with us, we took shelter underneath an overpass til the rain died down. By that time, we didn’t really feel like riding bikes anymore. So we took the first bus that we saw, which eventually brought brought us to Orchard Street half an hour later. Since the whole point of today’s adventure was to avoid the malls, we decided to head back to Nic’s dad’s condo for a swim.

The whole journey took about four or five hours and despite the rain, we had a blast. Total spent: approximately 5 Sing dollars.

Clubbing means spending money. The poor cannot afford to go clubbing.

I was supposed to head over to a club called Momo with Cessy tonight but decided to cancel when I looked at the sorry state of my finances and my wardrobe. Joel, a friend of theirs whom I met last night, explained to me that the bouncers are very subjective about letting people in. Even if you’re an underaged female, he’ll most likely allow you to enter if you’re dressed appropriately. And by appropriately I mean that your breasts should be spilling out of your top. I’m 21 and all I brought with me to Singapore are boring, practical travelling clothes–the same ones I wore for school. Meaning that they don’t show off my breasts or any interesting parts. Hell, I don’t even have clothes appropriate for clubbing because I never go clubbing, and I believe that women who dress skankily are just asking to be raped. So I told this to Joel and he said that with the clothes I have with me, chances are the bouncers won’t let me in even if I wave my ID at them. Oh wells.

It pays to have a nice host who will buy you dinner.

Nic’s dad took us to Jumbo’s Seafood in East Coast Park for a lovely chili crab dinner and some seafood. I was stuffed. I could smell the sea breeze from where we were sitting and at first I thought it was just all that seafood. But when Nic and I took a walk, we discovered that there was actually a tiny beach. It didn’t seem like the kind of beach where people actually swim because even at night time, we could tell that the water was murky. But it felt wonderful to listen to the sound of the tide rushing in and out, and to inhale the balmy sea air. I may live on an island, but I haven’t been to the beach in the longest time.

After dinner, I decided that part of the Singapore experience is to use the toilet that doesn’t have a toilet seat. Apparently every southeast Asian country except the Philippines has one, so I figured that urinating on that….thing is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience. After having done that, it’s something that I wouldn’t recommend. Squatting down to pee feels so…barbaric. For once in my life, I was thankful to the West for something–the gift of toilet seats.

If you want to save your money, avoid Mustafa at all costs

Mustafa can be found Little India. It’s Singapore’s 24-hour version of Divisoria except that the Versace bags they carry are actually genuine Versace. I know that I’m supposed to avoid shopping centers but then Nic’s dad offered to show us the place and since he’s my host, I couldn’t exactly refuse him. I had the sense to leave most of my money in the condo but unfortunately, I ended up spending 34 Sing dollars on a bikini. Don’t ask me why I did that. All I know is that I saw it on the rack and thought, “What the hell. There’s no harm in trying it on.” Unfortunately, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it on my body. The argument I had with myself in the dressing room went something like this:

“You already have a bikini. You don’t need a new one!”
“Yeah, I have a bikini all right. A bikini that feels like it’s about to slip off every time I go into the water.”
“It costs $34 Sing dollars!”
“But it fits me so well! Back in Manila, a bikini of this quality would cost me at least two thousand pesos!”
“You never go to the beach!”
“There are always swimming pools! I have friends who have swimming pools in their condo buildings!”
“But it costs $34 Sing dollars! I can look gorgeous without spending that much money for a bikini!
“You’ll thank me when that bikini catches the attention of the guy of your dreams.”
“But…$34!”
“Does it really matter?”

Total spent: $34 Sing dollars. But $34 dollars is a small sacrifice if this blog entry can actually help someone save some cash should they ever visit Singapore. :P (I’m just trying to make myself feel better here, I’m not that altruistic.)

Tomorrow we leave for Malaysia, where we shall be visiting Genting and Kuala Lumpur. Oh wait–it’s 1 a.m. Which means that we won’t actually leave tomorrow, but a few hours from now (6 am). I’ll probably just spend the rest of the evening testing out my 34-dollar swimsuit; the bus ride will take seven hours and my iPod can only entertain me for so long. And nothing makes me feel relaxed and sleepy like a nice, long swim.

Pictures from Day 2