SINGAPORE: Day 8 & 9

Day 8: Esther, her cousin and baby, Elizabeth and I went to Adventure Cove ^^

But before that I had breakfast with Hui Xian's mum in Yishun's Hawker centre :) 

I ate the mee pok which everyone suggested. I love the hawker culture and was a bit surprised by how many people were out and about for breakfast. I couldn't finish my meal...it was like a whole dinner bowl for breakfast haha

Then I caught the train to meet up with Esther and Elizabeth. I really like Singapore and Shanghai's train system. It's so efficient and easy to use. I wonder how they feel when they catch a train in Melb...they'd probably cry in frustration. 

Anyway we played a ton in the water park. It's been ages since I've ran around and played all day. 

We all enjoyed the snorkeling tank the most! There were schools of fish and small, friendly sharks swimming in the tank. I was absolutely amazed to experience swimming with them!

Elizabeth ended up going three times, but Esther and I were exhausted (and sun burnt) 

Esther and I were totally inspired to go snorkeling again, and since we live in Australia, I think we'll go to the Great Barrier Reef one day ^^ 

After Adventure Cove we ate some Kueh tutu and I had my only chance at eating durian with my ice-kachang. This guy was super fast at making kueh tutu. I'd never eaten it before, but it was good!

 

Then I rushed off to meet Mags and Shu lin!! I think it's been over 5 years since we've met and they are some of my favourite people in the world :) They both commented on how they missed the Australian accent hahaha. Much has changed in just 5 years. I've graduated and started working and they are married and Shu lin is a mum!

Mags showed me her house or "real Singapore". Normal class Singaporeans all live in government apartments. I was told that they don't really get to renovate and customize their houses. The government basically rents it to them for like 99 years or something. I felt grateful for living in Aus, where we have the freedom to have our own house and do what we want with it. 

Day 9: Universal Studios and dinner with the relatives 

Today Esther and I met up for breakfast. I absolutely love this Kopitiam breakfast set. I realize how much my mum brought me up with Malaysian culture at home. She brought me up on soft boiled eggs, instant coffee and kaya bread, and today I got to experience the real thing. The kaya bread was perfection, I loved it haha.

Then we bought some snacks from the shopping centre, which had these mascot thingos. 

I found it really weird that the shopping centres had names...kinda like suburbs. It was like walking through Chadstone, but each part of Chadstone having a different name. 

Anyway theme parks always make me happy. I forced Esther to ride the big roller coasters with me and she held my arm through the Mummy tombs hahaha

I absolutely loved the Waterworld performance! It was the highlight of the day as the stunts were brilliant and the actors interacted with the crowd really well. I also really liked the 4D transformers ride. It was done really well with the screen and felt like we were riding inside the transformer.

After USS I finally sat down to eat the McSpicy chicken burger at Maccas or McDonalds. Dwight was constantly expressing his desire for me to try it, because it's his favourite hahaha. I admit it was pretty good :) One difference I noticed is that in Aus most of the Maccas workers are young uni or high-schoolers. However in Sg, they were all old people. One of the elderly workers came up to Esther and I for a chat, and then asked to see what an Australian coin looked like. So I took out a 50c piece and gave it to him. Then he put it in his pocket and cleared the food. I was stunned and looked at Esther..."was I just robbed?" We both just laughed but I was thankful that I didn't give him any notes :/ 

After that I met up with Uncle Soh Ha and his family. I hadn't met any of my relatives for ages, but it was really nice meeting them. I don't really have relatives in Aus, so it was a bit strange interacting with my cousins. They were friendly though and very much like me. Westernized Asians who can't speak Chinese, aw yeah.