Pulau Ubin and Bintan, Indonesia weekend

Short ferry ride to Pulau Ubin.

Saturday, me and Katelyn went with Amy to the nearby Island of Pulau Ubin, which is part of Singapore. It was a very short and cheap ferry ride away. The island is undeveloped, unlike the rest of Singapore, and has a very village-ey ('kampong') feel. Lots of people come there to bike, hike, and eat seafood. There we got some bikes at the area near the ferry dock and went biking around for a while. The roads were well labeled, and it was nice riding around nature. We got off and went through a mangrove and did some hiking through the jungle, saw some mud skippers! If those things don't scream evolution then I don't know what does.

Looking for and taking pictures of all sorts of critters and stuff!

 When we went back to the bikes (where there were a whole lot stationed) we found that a bunch of monkeys and boars (including cute baby boars). The ensuing scene was quite hilarious with the monkeys hopping around and stealing bottles from the stationed bikes, and proceeding with biting them and drinking the contents. The boars did this as well with bottles that they knocked out off of the bikes. They were all really close to us and it was very funny. Totally made my day :) I will post those photos/videos later.

We then got some local eats, ran into a couple of other EAPSI fellows, biked some more, and took the ferry back. A very nice, nature-laden morning/afternoon.

Fresh coconut water is always available - nature's sports drink!

Some food by the water after hiking & biking.

Lots of bikes everywhere in town.

 I then went to my Prof's house for a lab party, which was super delicious as his wife made some Korean food and we played a bunch of Wii sports (apparently I'm pretty good at table tennis and shooting things).


Sunday we were going to Bintan, Indonesia! There are a lot of resorts there, so people usually stay more than just one day, but since it's so close and we only had one day, we decided to make it a day trip. We went to a ferry terminal and took a one hour boat ride to Bintan (south east of Singapore). Tom and Jerry were the on-board entertainment, though most people napped as it was so early in the morning.

On the way to Bintan.

 After arriving at Bintan and getting a little jipped for the 7-day Visa, we were followed by one of the resort drivers who wanted to take us on some fancy tours. It was quite annoying, but not toooo bad. Our plans were to take a taxi to Trikora beach, about an hour to the east. It's a public beach frequented by locals which is supposed to be super beautiful. After a very fast and swerving ride, we arrived at a beauuuutiful white-sand beach full of Indonesian kids running around.


We were there for about 4-5 hours total, enjoying the sun, sand, and amazing water. Had some delicious local food. It was great.

Can see boats and prawn farms in the distance (they were actually swimmable-to)

Local eats (and yes, coconut water again :) )

Nap time!

Gorgeous beach

One of ton of pictures that were taken.

 Got about 50 billion pictures taken with the locals. So first, since Indonesia is a Muslim country, even the boys there were all fully clothed (even in the water). Of course us girls showing up in our bikinis was different for them, but no-one seemed to be against it. Second, since this was a local beach and they probably don't get a lot of foreigners there, EVERYONE wanted to take pictures with us.

Usually teenage boys and girls in large groups would spot us, say "Hey Mista/Miss, pictah?" and make a camera gesture. Since we are nice, we let everyone take pictures with us. They'd giggle so much! Then of course everyone would have to take it with their phone and in different positions etc. It wasn't too bad unless we were walking off by the beach. Me and Liz tried to walk down the beach at the end (wanted to see the other side), but the picture taking made us turn back. It was knd of funny, but pretty tiring/annoying towards the end. At least we indulged the humor of some of these kids who think tall white people are cool!

It was a very beautiful place and makes me very excited for Bali in a couple of weeks!

Bugis and Arab Streets

Entrance to the maze that is Bugis Street.

As many other big cities, Singapore has a plethora of it's little "districts" "towns" and "streets" - Chinatown, Little India, and Bugis and Arab Streets. We went to the latter two on two separate nights last week.
Bugis St is supposed to be representative of the "non-mall" -type of Singaporean Shopping. Lots of cheap souvenirs, clothes, street food crammed into densely-packed streets. Lots of twists and turns and people trying to grab the good stuff. Since we didn't go on a weekend when it's packed, it wasn't too bad and I was able to get a few souvenirs that didn't look too corny :)

Lamb Kebab on Arab Street = delicious!

Arab Street was also interesting - had lots of Turkish rugs and interesting fabrics. I definitely bought a few pretty things. Most importantly, they had Mediterranean food, which I LOVE and dearly miss. I had some delicious lamb kebab.

Around NTU campus and Chinese Gardens

I've been around the campus for roughly a week now, and know it enough to get to where I need to. One thing about NTU and Singapore in general is that there seem to be a TON of ways/shortcuts to everywhere. Tons of walkways, stairs, connecting hallways. It definitely confused me some at first when trying to get to lab and back to graduate hall.

There's TONS of food on campus, in places called canteens (there are more than a dozen around campus). All pretty much have around 5-10 different stands with different types of cuisines such as Japanese, Chinese, Noodles, Korean, Malaysian, and western. There are also always fruit and juice and drink stands, and sometimes desserts. As I said before, a good meal will not be more than a few bucks, maybe like $5 if you get a drink and a fruit too.
Anyways, here are some pictures of campus:

Hall 11, with Canteen 11, closest to our hall (2 mins).

Graduate hall where I live

Stairs to dinner after gym... we don't like these =x

Art and Design Building.. very cool looking!

On Tuesday a few of us went to the nearby Chinese/Japanese Gardens. Only the Chinese ones were open, and basically this was a big park with lakes, sculptures, cool buildings etc. We got food at a hawker center nearby and walked around taking pictures, then got some soya ice cream and stopped by the mall for a few things. Good evening :)

Dim Sum, Marina Barrage, and Frisbee

It was super glorious sleeping in on Sunday! We went to get Dim Sum (my first time ever) at one of the billion malls here. Chicken wrapped in bacon and then fried was the most delicious thing ever!!

  Since we were close to the Marina Barrage (the big boat building) we decided to walk around there. So the boat building is actually a hotel only.

Casino

 You can go up to the top for a price and have fun there, but we're saving that for an EAPSI birthday celebration in a few weeks, so we just went to check out the casino (into which we got in for free but Singaporeans have to pay $100!!). We walked around the mall, which has an ice skating rink, had some food, and then decided to play ultimate frisbee at a nearby park.

Ran across some performance at the Esplanade - there was a harmonica player!

That was amazingly fun, despite the fact that I was wearing a strapless white dress and trying to keep it on the whole time.

We then relaxed with some beers in the AC and headed home. Overall a very fun though tiring afternoon/evening!

Bukit Timah and monkeys

Two of the EAPSI girls here work with the monkeys that are found around Singapore - they do all sorts of hiking every day, tracking, and collecting "samples" :) They let us tag along with them on Saturday morning. Singapore actually has a decent amount of nature, and Bukit Timah is one of them. It's got a mountain (hill more like), lots of hiking, mountain biking, and running trails. Of course it was packed! After a little bit of walking around enjoying the atmosphere and a short but intense hike up to the "summit", Anne, one of the girls who studies the monkeys, called us to come see the ones she's found. It's much easier to hear/see them in the forest if you're alone and quiet.

The monkeys came very close!

Anyways, we stayed around the monkeys for a while, taking a bajillion pictures and watching them come super close to us. Definitely didn't feed or touch them though - big no-no. Bikers coming down the path almost ran over the poor things!


After getting sufficiently sweaty, we went to an awesome Indian place nearby - south Indian. Had some amazing Prata and Murtabak :)

Asian Civilizations museum, Chinatown, Clark Quay

The whole weekend must be broken up by day, so here's Friday:

In the morning there was an awesomely interesting lab meeting, where I got to learn what half of my research group here does (my new labmates for the summer are pretty awesome and very multicultural) - lots of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering optimization for biofuel production as well as biosensing (with cells). I also got to present my preliminary data and plan for the summer. The equipment I shipped from the US got here nice and sound after tons of paperwork - so I'll be able to start right away!

In the afternoon several of us EAPSI participants went downtown to get our Work Holiday Passes from MoM (Ministry of Manpower, which we all call the Ministry of Magic). That was a quick process, after which we wondered around downtown a bit and came across an Asian Civilizations Museum. It was free and SPECTACULAR. I'm going to put only a few pictures here, as there were SO many awesome things there..

At the museum

Afterwards we headed to Chinatown for dinner and walking around - found some grilled stingray and a delicious seafood omelet. Hau also got the famous Chili Crab - yum! We were starving!

Barebeque sting ray!

Famous Chili Crab

We were thirsty!

Temple on the edge of Chinatown

Chinatown street

After Chinatown some of us decided to grab a Tiger beer and chill. We then went to the Clark Quay district - which is just a beautiful area by the water full of bars, clubs, and restaurants. It's also fun to just walk around and people-watch. We met up with some other EAPSI students at a local brewery and I had some delicious raspberry beer which was not sweet at all (unlike a lambic). Afterwards we headed home because we were going to wake up early the next day for hiking and monkey-watching!

Clark Quay - very pretty waterfron!

Group at CQ

A quick tour around the city

On Tuesday we were taken on a micro-tour of the city.
Visited the:
 National Gallery

National Museum

Esplenade and walking around outside

Finishing off at the Night Safari - which was pretty awesome.

I also tried some Durian beancurd and ice cream. Was pretty good, especially the beancurd, but there was definitely an aftertaste for a while =x

Welcome to Singapore!

Flight was long, what can I say. My feet were a bit swollen for two days afterwards =X I watched like... 10 movies and read a whole book! Due to some delays, me and another EAPSI fellow who was on the same flight, Katelyn, didn't get into our rooms at Graduate Hall at NTU till 6 or 7am. Sleep was glorious :)

The first day that we were here was "free" so a few of us went to the mall to buy some supplies and take in the atmosphere. Malls are super popular here and shopping is big, so it was pretty crowded. 

Had the first experience here with Singaporean food, which can be really really cheap. For example, chicken rice, which, although is more the size of a snack for ME, is about $1.50 (and that's less in US dollars). Other, larger meals, are around $3-$5 if you go to the cheaper places. Eating out is definitely going to be what I'll have to do the most, as we don't really even have a way to cook food, nor a fridge (except one in a common room downstairs). Riding the MRT (metro) and taking the bus is also super cheap, around a dollar or so. Coffee is around 50 cents.

Waiting for the bus.

More waiting for the bus.

On our first official day we had the opening ceremony (where one person stated that Singapore has two types of weather: outside (humid) and inside (air conditioned)), met with my host advisor, and did a whole bunch of administrative stuff (like getting some checks!), and then went to the mall AGAIN (though a different one). Had my first "hawker center" (basically open food court with food stands with huge variety of food) experience, though this one was air conditioned. 

Not the best picture but you get a sense of the LARGE amounts of cheap food =p

English in Singapore can be a bit difficult to understand, as people will often not only use slang, but also words from other languages, like Chinese dialects and Malay etc. It sounds English, but you catch yourself asking again and again what the person said. At least all the signs are in English!

Also, here they drive on the left side of the road like in England (and correspondingly have the driver's seat on the right side). 

Singapore also has surprisingly a lot of open space and doesn't feel very crammed-in like you'd expect from a small island nation.