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  • Tag: Singapore

    • twenty eight

      Posted at 10:12 am by jasminedesirees, on March 16, 2015

      Yesterday was my birthday, I spent a great weekend exploring the San Diego area, sleeping on the beach, and eating cupcakes. I was thinking back over the past year, and how amazing it’s been, so I wanted to take a little time to reminisce, and share some of my favourite experiences.

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      March 2014- On my birthday last year, we were on a trip to visit New York City for the first time, and it was everything I’d been dreaming of. It was kind of one of those spontaneous trips where you’re not sure if it’s really necessary, but you could do it, so we did, and I’m so, so glad. We also visited Niagara Falls, and got one of my friends married off in Toronto.

      April 2014- Last April, my sister came out to visit me in San Francisco for the first time, and we had the best weekend ever. We took a last minute road trip down to L.A. to spend a few days with my family. I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like, so driving down to meet up with them was kind of a no-brainer, even though we had to change a flight we already had booked, and rent a car in order to get there. We also went out to Phoenix for the weekend for the first time, not realizing then that we’d be moving out there in less than a year.

      May 2014- In May, we were well on our way to finalizing plans for our trip. We were spending as much time with family and friends as possible, and really enjoying our last few weeks of living in California, including a lovely day in Capitola.

      June 2014- In June, we spent a few days visiting my family in Montana, and then took off for Thailand, mid-month. I loved visiting Bangkok, the Floating Market and the White Temple.

      July 2014- In July, we moved down to the islands of Thailand, including Phi Phi and Railay, and then spent a couple of weeks in Cambodia, visiting Angkor. Ta Prohm was my favourite place in the world. We also spent a few days in Singapore, and visited the Cloud Forest, and the Supertrees.

      August 2014- In early August we finished up our last few days in Indonesia, including the most amazing time diving in Flores and trekking with Komodo dragons. Then we finally landed in Australia, hung out in Sydney for a few days, then started our road trip up to Cairns, and also, this happened.

      September 2014- In September we were still creeping around Australia. We visited Whitehaven, spent a few weeks working on a farm, and then a few more weeks hanging out in Byron Bay, and hiking to the lighthouse every day. This is still the most amazing graffiti I’ve ever seen.

      October 2014- In October, we made the decision that as much as we loved Australia, it was too expensive for us, so we headed back to Indonesia, to relax on the Gili’s, hike Batur, trek Rinjani, visit the beach of my dreams, and creep around in Kuta Lombok, and South Kuta.

      November 2014- In November we took a spontaneous trip to the Philippines (posts coming this week!) and eventually, made our way back to California.

      December 2014- In December, we spent as much time as we could with our friends and family in California, then packed up our stuff and moved to Phoenix.

      January 2015- In January, we spent a blissful week in Montana, made a quick trip up to Canada to experience the -40 weather and load up on ketchup chips, and then headed back to start life in Arizona.

      February 2015- In February, we finally got our furniture and got actually moved in to our new place, and then got to start exploring our new state with trips to Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and the Grand Canyon.

      Posted in exploring, life, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged Australia, birthday, Cambodia, exploring, Indonesia, life, nyc, Phoenix, Singapore, Thailand, travel
    • sentosa

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on August 25, 2014

      As I mentioned in this post, we were trying to save money in Singapore, so we turned to Groupon, where we got a great deal on tickets to the conservatories at the Gardens by the Bay, and also free tickets to the aquarium at Sentosa Island.

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      I didn’t really know what Sentosa Island was, everyone just called is Sentosa, and said that we absolutely had to go (and by everyone, I mean everyone in the tourism industry, people that live in Singapore stay far away, but we hadn’t discovered that yet) so we did.

      Sentosa Island is basically a huge tourist trap/resort with just about everything you could ever want to do all in one place. There’s a Universal Studios, a beach, an aquarium, and tons of resorts and hotels as well. Also there is a giant lion statue. for some reason.

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      We were there on a beautiful day, it was actually scorching hot out. It was so bad that I took to hiding out in the corner of a Billabong store just for the air conditioning. The other thing about Sentosa is that it is RIDICULOUSly expensive. A lot of the beach bars have signs out advertising $16 beer at happy hour, as though it’s a bargain.

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      Even though it was 4000 degrees, I wasn’t spending $16 on a beer, or $22 on a margarita, so we didn’t stay as long as we could’ve.

      The aquarium was kind of cool, we got to play with sting rays, you can pet them and feed them. I felt a bit awkward about that later, when we met up with an old classmate of mine for supper in Chinatown and we ended up eating stingray for supper.

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      I normally don’t really eat anything that swims (fish are friends, not food) but I blame the massive Tiger beers that the waitresses, dressed up like Oktoberfest hostesses, were bringing to our table in buckets.

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      After the aquarium we went to the dolphin show, which was about 25 minutes of some sea lions playing ring ross and balancing balls on their noses, and then 3 minutes of dolphin jumping.

      But the dolphins were pink at least. So that’s not nothing.

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      Posted in Singapore, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged dolphins, sentosa, Singapore, travel
    • singapore by night

      Posted at 7:17 pm by jasminedesirees, on August 18, 2014

      A few snaps from the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. We wanted to go up and check out the infinity pool up there, but it was $25 each to go to the top, and you can’t go to the pool anyway, just the observation deck.

      After supper in Chinatown one night we decided to go over there and see if we could sneak in. We got dropped off at the entrance to the third tower, and crept inside. It’s really gorgeous inside the hotel, as you would imagine.

      We got in the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, but we needed a key to get up. Just as we were about to get off the elevator, a group of hotel guests got on, and pushed the button, so we were able to go up and check it out.

      At the top there is the pool, a couple of bars and restaurants, and several observation decks, and you can see almost a full 360 degree view of Singapore and the Gardens by the Bay at night.

      It’s truly stunning, and I’m very grateful to that group of people for helping us sneak up to see it.

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      Posted in Singapore, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged gardens by the bay, Hotel in Singapore, marina bay sands, Singapore, travel, view
    • flower dome

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on August 14, 2014

      The Gardens by the Bay has two conservatories, the Cloud Forest, and the Flower Dome. The Cloud Forest is the big, splashy main event, but the Flower Dome was pretty cool too.

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      It’s divided up into sections, to showcase the flowers and plants that grow in different regions of the world, so you walk around into each section, and find yourself in Australia, or South America, or California, surrounded by those native plants.

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      My favourite part was the flower field in the center of the dome, it’s a themed flower display that they switch up every few months.

      When we were there, it was made into a Persian garden, with lots of bright colours, and table displays.

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      There is a succulent garden, a large collection of cool, gnarled trees called Boababs, and an olive grove with a 1,000 year old olive tree.

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      I was eventually unceremoniously dragged out, apparently watching someone take 600 pictures of roses gets boring after awhile, who knew?

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      Posted in Singapore, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged cloud forest, flower dome, flowers, gardens by the bay, marina bay sands, native plants, Singapore, The Cloud Forest, travel
    • gardens by the bay

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on August 11, 2014

      We only had about five days in Singapore, but since I’d been told over and over again that we would pretty much need to sell our kidneys to afford to eat there because it was so expensive, that seemed like the right amount of time.

      It was expensive comparatively, we had just come from Thailand and Cambodia, where we were spending about $15/night for a nice room, and in Singapore we were paying $60/night for basically a shoe box, but it had air conditioning so that was really all we needed.

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      We were looking for ways to see as much as we could in Singapore without having to sell any organs, and we found tickets on Groupon to the Gardens by the Bay (to go to the gardens themselves is free, but there is an admission fee to get into the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome) that also included day passes to the aquarium at Sentosa, so we went for it.

      However, we didn’t look at the fine print (reading is hard), so after navigating our way on MRT (the public transit system, which is pretty easy to get around on) we realized that we had to go all the way back up town to a tourism agency to pick up our tickets.

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      It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it hadn’t been so bloody hot out. I felt like we’d climbed all the way to the top of Mount Everest only to realize we’d forgotten the flag we were going to plant and we’d have to climb all the way back down to get it.

      Going all the way back uptown seemed like an impossible feat. I threw myself down on a bench and pouted for awhile. But I pulled it together eventually because I am a grown up (allegedly) and we went got our tickets, after a quick stop for ice cream, and found our way back.

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      The gardens themselves are really beautiful, there is lots to see outside of the domes, and it’s free admission so it’s definitely a great way to spend a morning if you are on a budget.

      I was really excited to see the Supertrees. They are about 16 storeys tall, and they are covered in lots of different plants from bottom to top.  You can pay $5 to climb up the walkway to the top of one for a great view of Singapore. There is also a restaurant inside one of them.

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      The real show starts at night though, twice per night there is a light and sound show in the Supertree Grove. The Supertrees are gorgeous all lit up, and there are lots of people just laying on the benches and walk ways underneath watching.

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      Luckily the streets in Singapore are pretty clean, because it’s illegal to chew gum there. Or so I’ve been told, 4000 times.

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      Posted in Singapore, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged gardens by the bay, marina bay sands, Singapore, super trees
    • preparation

      Posted at 11:26 am by jasminedesirees, on May 28, 2014

      On our way to Australia, we’ll be spending some time in Thailand, Cambodia, Bali and Singapore.

      Yesterday I spent 3 hours at the DMV, and then had to go to the doctor to get 5 shots. I hate shots. My dad once hired an off-duty nurse to come over to our house early in the morning to give us all flu shots, and I hid in my closet. And I was 18.

      And the only reason I came out at all was because my 8 year old little brother said “don’t worry jazzy, it’s not so bad, I’ll show you” and went first.

      But I know it’s all going to be worth it to see these amazing places in person.

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      Posted in exploring, life, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged adventure, Bali, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, travel
    • twelve days

      Posted at 10:26 pm by jasminedesirees, on May 27, 2014

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      Today was running all sorts of errands to try to get a few more things knocked off my list.

      It was also the first day that I would have been working if I was still working, but I’m not, so I wasn’t.

      So I guess this is really happening then. Twelve days. Yikes.

      Posted in life, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged adventure, Australia, Bali, Cambodia, Pacific, Singapore, Thailand, travel
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