Visiting Singapore!
Week 15 of my blog! Honestly, I am so excited to write about this week as we finally got to visit my dream destination.... SINGAPORE!!! Christina, Jamie, and I spontaneously decided to book a trip to Singapore as that is one of the places we all wanted to visit while in South Korea as the plane tickets from Hawai'i can be quite expensive. We decided to book our tickets with Korean Air and it was about $250.00 for each of us round trip. Prior to arriving to the airport, Jamie planned out pretty much the entire itinerary and I am forever grateful to her as I had no idea what I wanted to do. We arrived to the airport at night, and we each only brought a small suitcase as the trip was only three days.
Arriving at Incheon Airport at 11 PM was a ghost town. We came to the airport kind of hungry as we were expecting restaurants to be open but almost everything was closed. Eventually, we all ended up purchasing some snacks and drinks from a convenience store and finished them at the gate before taking off.
The plane ride to Singapore was definitely a journey. It's so funny because neither of us knew that the flight was going to be 6 HOURS?!? I figured that since we were so far away from Hawai'i, we would be closer to literally everything but I thought wrong. The first few hours, the three of us tried to sleep however, it look a while for them to turn the lights off considering that it was practiaclly 12 AM KST. After a while, they finally turned them off BUT THE SEATS WERE SO UNCOMFORTABLE I HAVE NEVER SAT IN A MORE SLEEP DEPRIVING SEAT EVER. Nevertheless, after maybe an hour of the lights being turned off, THE LIGHTS TURNED BACK ON but for some reason this time around it felt much brighter. We all sat up with confused sleep deprived faces and realized that it was...meal time... at 2:00 AM. Once finishing my meal, I tried my best to fall asleep but couldn't so I browsed the movie selection and got roped in by 9 episodes of the popular kdrama "Lovely Runner". After watching almost every episode alongside Jamie who also could not sleep, WE LANDED IN SINGAPORE.
Getting off the plane and heading down to the main airport area was quite easy but I was so suprised by the lack of steps and traffic we ran into. Once you land in Singapore Airport, you simply download the government mandated health app, fill out a few questions, scan your barcode, and you're let into the country. SO EASY! Once we got through, we immediately booked a taxi as it was 5 AM in Singapore and we figured it would be a hassle to take on public transportation this early. Once we booked our cab, we exited the airport and was greeted by the hot, sticky, warm, and humid environment. It was so humid that my glasses immediately fogged up after taking one step out.
On our first day, we met up with Roxanne! She is currently studying aborad at National Singapore University for Spring 2025. She showed us around different malls such as Takeshiyama and Bugis. The heat was nothing I had ever experienced before even in Hawai'i. Just stepping out of our Airbnb made me break into a sweat and we had to take several breaks just to cool off in the AC. After a while, we just got used to it but still had to take a few breaks here and there. Singapore itself was beautiful! It reminded me of Hawai'i since it is incredibly diverse and cultured. People all round us were speaking different languages ranging from Malay, Mandarin, Hindi..etc. The streets were so colorful and there was so much to see.
The next few days consisted of lots of matcha (jamie's favorite), walking, trying new foods, shopping, and taking so many pictures. We visited the tulip and cloud garden expeditions which were beautiful and I had never seen anything like it. We also visited the famous Gardens by The Bay, The Helix Bridge, and the Singapore Flyer. One night, we ordered Indian food takeout since we didn't eat much throughout the day and IT WAS THE BEST INDIAN FOOD EVER. Back in Korea, we surprisingly order a lot of Indian takeout but none of which compared to the one we got in Singapore.
On our last day, our flight was booked for 7 AM which meant we had to be there by 5 AM. It was so difficult getting up but we eventually got there and grabbed some food at the airport. Looking back on the trip despite the heat, it was so fun getting to be a tourist for a couple days with my friends. However, it is pretty expensive in Singaprore so I would suggest saving up before coming here.
Although the trip was short, it was an unforgettable experience I will remember forever!
