Nature and the City

The last week has been quite eventful. After a lazy Saturday I spent Sunday at the Botanic Gardens. As it had rained in the morning and it was still cloudy in the afternoon there weren't many people, which was great. Wandering through the gardens was really relaxing and refreshing. My favourite part was the "evolution garden" were I could see what nature might have looked like millions of years ago.

Since I've  had a wonderful time at the Botanic Gardens this weekend was again about nature. With another German intern I went to MacRitchie Nature Reserve. As it was already late when I went there with Sairozi, this time we started at noon. During our 4 hour hike we saw lots of monkeys and lizards and enjoyed the beautiful environment. Another highlight was the tree top walk and a tower in the middle of the jungle from where the view was just breathtaking.

And it seems like I still can't get enough of parks and nature reserves. This Wednesday is a public holiday and it's one of only 5 days a year when the Istana Park is open to the public and of course I don't want to miss this chance :-) It's amazing how green Singapore is. Even though the city is super modern with heaps of skyscrapers it only takes a 5 minute walk to reach the nearest park.

Sightseeing Extreme

On Saturday evening Sairozi arrived back in Singapore and since he was only going to stay here for 4 days, we had to squeeze as many activities into those four days as possible. It started on Sunday morning when we went to Sentosa. Going there is really simple. We only had to take the MRT to Harbour Front Station and from there take the tram (3.5 SGD) to the island. Sentosa is located just  south of Singapore and it felt like Disneyland. The Universal Studios Singapore and many other sights can be visited there, but we decided to spend the day at the beach. First we went to Palawan beach, which was really beautiful and not too crowded. There is a small island at Palawan which is the southernmost point of mainland Asia, so we definitely had to check it out.

Palawan Beach

At the beach

On the way to the southernmost point of mainland Asia

After relaxing at Palawan beach we moved to Siloso beach which was only a 10 minute walk away. It seemed like a party beach with music and more people. Personally I preferred Palawan though. We also went swimming, but I'm not so sure about the water quality. The island is right next to Singapore's huge harbour and even though Singapore is super clean, I can't tell the same about the ships from it's neighbouring country Indonesia. But maybe I'm just spoiled after spending too much time in Thailand's crystal clear Andaman Sea.

Siloso Beach

On the way back from Sentosa we had a little photo session at the Merlion, Singapore's tourist symbol. It's half lion and half mermaid and there are statues of the Merlion all over Singapore. I've read that the one in Sentosa is the biggest one and you can even go on top of it.

The Merlion at Sentosa

Spending time at the beach left us really hungry, so I suggested to have dinner at a hawker center at Esplanade. The food was affordable and we had an amazing view over Marina Bay. Sleepy but happy we returned home, cause the next day I had to go back to work.

Scenic dinner at Esplanade

On Monday I was able to leave a little earlier than usually so Sairozi and I had enough time to go to the MacRitchie Nature Reserve. Luckliy it's located right next to my workplace at Marymount MRT so we could walk there. The lake there looked just amazing and we saw lot's of monkeys while we walked through the jungle. It didn't feel like we were still in Singapore. After a 45 minute walk we reached the canopy walk, but since it's closed on mondays and after 5pm we didn't get to do it.... maybe next time!

MacRitchie Nature Reserve

On Tuesday our sightseeing tour brouht us to Lau Pa Sat, a famous hawker center close to Raffles Place MRT. Unfortunately I forgot which MRT station we had to get off and it took us more than 30 minutes to find the place. But the food was definitely worth it. I had the most delicious Indonesia Gado-Gado ever!

Tired and hungry at Lau Pa Sat

Afterwards we walked to Gardens by the Bay, which is right behind Marina Bay Sand (Bayfront MRT station). This was one of my personal highlights! These crazy Singaporeans built heaps of mega-trees there and when we walked past them we felt like in the movie "Avatar". It was super romantic and just incredible! I wished I had one of those fancy cameras to take better pictures of it, but even with our low-cost cam one can imagine how great it looked.

Lots of Food and Japanese Racing Queens

 This week has been tiring but exciting. I'm slowly getting used to all the new things at work and after 2 weeks I'm finally able to remember some of my collegue's names. This is partly due to the fact that the previous intern had her last week and I was invited to a couple of super delicious farewell dinners. On Wednesday we had Chinese food. About 8 different dishes were ordered and placed in the middle of the table for everyone to take. This way I couldn't just try one new dish but many different ones... and they all were great! The next day our boss invited us for a Korean BBQ which was really good as well.

The calories were burnt on Friday when the interns got to support our sales team at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2013. One would have thought that the main attraction were the tuned cars but no matter where I looked people where taking pictures of a bunch of "less is more"-dressed Japanese models. I couldn't see any different to many Chinese or Singaporean models but I was told that the Japanese girls are even cuter than other Asians. Since we didn't have any half-naked models at our booth we tried to get attention by handing out balloons to families which was heaps of fun. But the most fun part was dressing up as our mascot "uncle Bob". The costume was super hot and I could barely see anything but people loved him and I had my (or uncle Bob's) 30 minutes of fame. We could even get some attention from the guys usually busy with taking pictures of those Japanese models. I was approximately photographed 200 times during those 30 minutes, while I was slowly melting underneath that costume. But it was super fun and I would definitaly do it again!

The First Week

My first week in SIngapore has been really exciting. Monday was my first day at work and we got a small introduction from the HR department. So far everyone seems nice and my colleagues are very friendly. We already got a lot of work to do so I don't think that my internship will get boring.

I also went to the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) to get my Training Employment Pass (TEP). The process was pretty easy. On Monday I made an online appointment for the following day. All the documents I needed to bring were my passport, the in-pricinple-approval letter (filled out and signed), a photo with a white background, my credit card and the letter I got when I made the online appointment. It took about 1 hour till everything was completed and I was told that I could pick up my TEP in 4 days. So I went back there on Saturday and within 5 minutes I got my brand new TEP card.

Luckily this week wasn't just about work and administration. Almost every evening I went out with the other interns to have dinner together. We usually have hawker food which is cheap and delicious. My favourite dish - Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles -  only costs about 3-4 SGD (2-2,30 Euros). On Friday we went to the monthly Helipad party at the Swiss Hotel. The lift took us to the 70th floor from were we had to take the stairs up to the helipad on top of the hotel. The view was just breathtaking (I'll post pictures later)! On Saturday I went sightseeing with two other new interns. We went to Chinatown, Little India and Orchard Rd before our feet told us to take the MRT to Paya Lebar, where many of the interns live. The day ended there with a nice BBQ and heaps of chocolate biscuits :-)

Indian Temple close to Bugis

Marina Bay

At the Swiss Hotel Helipad Party

View from the Helipad