It’s 2:30 in the morning on the final day of the SEA Winter Trek! I just got back to the hotel after a raucous night of dancing and partying at Zouk, one of Singapore’s oldest and most famous nightclubs.

Since we went on a Wednesday night, the crew was able to partake in Mambo Jambo, a theme clubbing night featuring retro songs (from the 90s) and intense para para dance choreography. Basically, as we danced on the floor, some of the club employees stood on pedestals and enacted special dance moves. Everyone on the floor had to follow along.

The best way to describe it would be like playing Dance Central but without the Xbox Kinect or points. It’s clear that each song has a predetermined set of moves as a lot of the regular patrons already memorized the gestures.

It was a fun night… but I can’t keep up with all these 18 year olds. In Singapore, the legal clubbing and drinking age is 18, not 21. My mind may still be young, but I feel my age starting to catch up in my aching bones and muscles.

All of our activities today have been pushed back from 8:00 in the morning to 10:30 in order to help everyone recover. I’m off to sleep.

I went back to One Fullerton after our grand tour of Raffles for a Haas-Berkeley mixer and ended up taking more photos of the bay. There’s not much to say. This city is gorgeous at night.

Enjoy the pretty pictures!

Here I am in front of the Marina Bay Sands. Thanks to Julie for taking the picture.

One of my friends wanted to take a picture of herself jumping in the air in front of Marina Bay Sands. Sadly, when she jumped, she kicked her shoe into the water! A boatman managed to retrieve the shoe. But instead of handing it to her, the boatman tried to throw it back! Big mistake. He missed and the shoe sunk to the bottom of the bay.

More pictures after the jump.

Continue reading →

Viv and Nikhil organized a walking tour of Raffles today with a very sweet and knowledgeable guide named Margaret. We visited several key sites and activities, including the river exhibit at the Asian Museum and the statue of Raffles. We also went on the Marina Bay Cruise, Raffles Hotel, Pewter Demonstration, etc.

Singapore is truly an amazing city. It’s sleek and modern, yet peppered with old superstitions and cultural considerations throughout its urban design. For example, many of the skyscrapers along the river are eight-sided because 8 is an auspicious number in Chinese.

Would I ever live in Singapore? It’s hard to say. The city is beautiful and the people are nice. Everything is new and clean. However, residents have to sacrifice certain civil liberties and pay very high taxes in order to maintain this standard of living. It’s a city of incredibly polarizing trade-offs.

PHOTO: Lev. B

The entire tour was wonderful. However, I found the Marina Bay Cruise especially exciting because it gave me a chance to see Marina Bay Sands from the outside and take pictures. Also, the skyline is amazing. Sorry, Chicago. You are now number two in my heart.

I took a lot of pictures (far too many to post on this blog). You can see the entire gallery here.

In The Lord of the Rings, Pippin talks about breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. That’s what I feel like in Singapore right now: a big-bellied hobbit who’s had too much to eat.

As you’ll recall from my previous post, our crew had dinner last night at Viv’s house. Aside from the unfortunate episode with the durian, we left feeling completely stuffed from the yummy food and vowed never to eat again.

This morning, we assembled at our hotel lobby for a breakfast food crawl. We ended up walking a block to visit the Raffles City shopping center and prowl the food court. We ended up at a breakfast shop called Ya Kun Kaya Toast, which served drippy eggs and toast with butter and sugary jam. I was about to have a heart attack and forced myself to eat slowly. I was hyper for a few hours afterwards.

A few hours later… we decided to congregate and eat again. Hit the jump for more details.

Continue reading →

Look at this view! Wonderful, isn’t it? You can see the tallest buildings in Singapore from the rooftop club at the Ku De Ta lounge/nightclub on the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. Like Bangkok, Singapore is definitely a city of lights.

See more photos after the jump.

Continue reading →