24 hours is Singapore

From Langkawi I took a two hours plane to Singapore. That night I had woken up in the middle of the night because my shoulders, chest and belly were hurting, a lot. In the bathroom I realised I was badly sunburnt. My skin is naturally darker, I usually get a nice gold/brow tan but this time when I looked at myself in the mirror I was both surprised and worried, never in my life something like that had ever happened to me! I still don’t know what I did wrong, maybe my sunscreen was expired or I didn’t apply it as often as I should, but basically I was tomato red, and there were tiny blood dots where the bra strips touched the skin. I couldn’t carry my backpack for 4 days and I had to go to the pharmacy to buy a thick and smelly cream to ease the pain! I’m not going to insert a picture here since it is really ugly, but enough to say that I sent it to a few friends and they thought it was photoshopped ahahaha

But now back to Singapore: I’m gonna be sincere, I didn’t have really high expectations about Singapore, I decided to visit the country just because it is really small and close to Malaysia. But this proves how wrong sometimes we are judging a book from its cover. I LOVED SINGAPORE. I loved Singapore that much that 2 weeks after my first visit I decided to actually go back and spend there my last 4 days of vacations.

I got to the hostel at around 12pm and I was right away invited to join a 4 and a half hours scooter tour of the city later that evening. That was the best choice ever! Not only I met a lot of really cool people, but I also got to see the city by night with a guide that actually knew where to go and the nicest view point (and it was free ahahah). I recommend 100% the InnCrowd Backpackers Hostel, I had the time of my life both the two times I was there. I’m always amazed by how easy it is for a group of strangers to get along in just a few hours and actually become friends.

Before going on the scooter tour I had some time and went for a walk around the city all by myself and I really and truly had a few and very much needed hours just for myself. My hostel was located in little India and my first stop was of course the Marina Bay Sands (how mainstream ahaha): I had seen the Marina Bay Sands hotel in pictures or on tv before, but seeing it in person is a whole different story: IT IS STUNNING! After walking around a coupe of hours I started feeling a little dizzy, it was really hot and sunny, I was badly sunburnt from my Langkawi trip and I had been up since 5am, so I decided to take it easy and I ordered a salad fruit and a lemonade in a nearby Starbucks. I found out that the cafe I was in actually had a quiet and peaceful back room with huge windows overlooking the Marina Bay Sands. There are some moments in life where you can’t really express how you feel and I would say that while sipping on my lemonade and staring out the window I was happy, truly genuinely and unconditionally happy. As chhesy as it sounds I consider myself blessed/lucky, there’s a lot of hard work behind every trip and I never take anything for granted. I think I was also slightly emotional because Singapore in a way reminded me of a cleaner and posher version of my New York City, and everybody knows how much I love NYC and what does it mean to me…I kinda felt really “at home” for the first time since I came back.