“You travel alone?” they ask.
I hesitate, sizing each one up before slowly nodding my head in confirmation.
“Yes,” I murmur.
“Oh, you not scared? So brave!” they exclaim.
It’s a common conversation that I have with the locals on my travels. It seems that every friendly soul who strikes up a conversation with me will ask if I’m alone and finds it admirable that I am alone. I guess that’s fair enough – I’ve yet to see another girl traveling alone. We really are few and far between, especially in Asia. But to me, this type of travel is not so abnormal, so it’s just vacationing as usual.
Sometimes I want to ask these people, “Should I be scared?” After all, that’s what they’re implying. Nevertheless, I am not scared and see no real reason to be. Most people ignore me and those who do talk to me are just curious about where I came from. They’re all nice enough, though I still keep my guard up. There are those moments when someone walks by too close for comfort and I find myself clutching my purse a little tighter to my chest, but generally I’m not worried.
I’m always careful not to flaunt my wallet or other valuables (most of which I didn’t even bring in the first place). I carry as little as I can, typically just a small purse and a water bottle. I keep my eye out for suspicious movements and never walk too close to other people or the road. I keep my money, cards, and ID in at least two places so I’ll still have half if the others go missing. I maintain a neutral expression on my face so nobody thinks of me as threatening or too vulnerable.
So, through a combination of precautionary steps and general street smarts (not to mention locals who usually aren’t a threat), I haven’t run into any problems yet, nor do I anticipate on it.
Wow, what an eventful day. It started off quite well, with calls from Mizu announcing a pleasant surprise: I would get company on my way to the airport and even be given a ride! That meant that I could sleep in a little and enjoy some extra rest. By and by it came time to leave, so I took my stuff downstairs and hopped in the car. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and ate some lunch, casually chatting until it was time to check in. Mizu and Zen then went on their way and I prepared my documents for the counter.
Mizu kindly drove me to the bus departure and I got myself a ticket on a nice luxury vehicle. We had some time before its departure, so I exchanged some money and then got some dessert to snack on. Soon enough, it was time to board the bus and Mizu sent me on my way. I settled in to the large comfy seat and watched the landscape whizz by as we headed off. The rest of the trip was scattered with movie-watching and naps on and off, briefly interrupted twice to get off and go through immigration and customs. It was very comfortable save for the cold air blasting overhead, which left me shivering towards the end of the trip.
It was a lovely day today and I had an equally lovely time going on an outing with Skim for the afternoon. We met up at Bugis MRT and got on a bus that took us out to East Coast Park, where we were able to rent two bikes and take a nice ride. A mere two minutes into our journey we nearly crashed into each other, as I tried to unsteadily pass my camera to her. I never knew my right hand was so weak at maneuvering! The opposite was for her, as she had trouble with her left hand, so there we were, a complete screaming disaster as we saved ourselves from near destruction. I then switched to be on the left side and we managed to make the pass so she could take some pictures for me. Why we couldn’t just stop our bikes like normal people I don’t know. It’s far less exciting that way!
The one thing that wasn’t so enjoyable about the ride was when our butts started to get sore about two hours in. I kept shifting around in an attempt to put weight on different areas, but once we stopped for a quick snack, we both felt the soreness creeping us. At first walking was a little strange and I wondered if this is how it feels to get off a horse after a long journey. I’ve only ever been on horses for brief times, about an hour or so, so I never got the bow legs that others have. We were right by the ocean at that point, so we went down to the water so I could at least say I touched the ocean water here. It’s a lesson from my trip to Australia that I’ve never forgotten – going in the water is something so simple, yet it’s something I didn’t do in the Gold Coast, so I’ll never repeat that mistake again.
It was a nice overcast day for the most part, which kept things cool. Thankfully, the rain stayed away though and allowed us to enjoy a very nice time at the park. Apparently a lot of people are blood donors because the place was packed! From the bus that took us from Boon Lay to the park to the line to get in, we could tell it was going to be a crowded place. It was still great fun though, as we made our way from penguins to flamingos to macaws to hawks to ostriches, and so much more! There was even this beastly creature that was huge and rather ugly, with remnants of a dino-like crown protruding from his head. Along the way, we came across a pelican feeding, where we were told about the seven types of pelicans in existence, and then got to see an entertaining bird show with all kinds of fun tricks.
At the end of our trip, we took the tram for one more spin around the park and headed out to meet up with some of Mizu’s friends. We stopped by the gift shop hoping to find a cute penguin pen to bring back to Starfish, but they didn’t have any. 🙁 We also came across this free pearl offer (where they would extract it in front of you), but it was only for real ticketholders. 🙁 I was so sad because I really wanted one so I could bring something back to Chatty to thank her. Oh well. We then squeezed back onto the bus to take us to the MRT and took a nice long ride to Ang Mo Kio to wait for Mizu’s buddies. Typea’s been using my iPod touch to play Tap Tap Revenge (it’s like DDR but with your fingers on the touchscreen), which Mizu also enjoys, so we played a few rounds challenging each other as we sipped on some drinks.
Though I’ve been getting little tastes of Singaporean culture throughout my time here and occasionally something will remind me of China, it wasn’t until last night that I truly felt a strong cultural impression in everything around me. We had gone to East Coast Park, where there’s an outdoor cafeteria of sorts with stall upon stall of laksa, satay, dong dongs (I can’t remember what they were called), stingray, and who knows what else. I felt at once lost and amazed among all the dishes I’d never seen and had hardly heard of before. Paths cut through the park to allow bike riders, rollerbladers, and other such athletic activities to ensue. A little stage consisting of a piece of carpeting and a half watermelon backdrop provided the scene for an acrobatics show. On one side, we could look out across a small patch of trees to the ocean beyond, which was filled with ships.
