Singapore Recap

A few weeks ago a took a much needed and rare vacation to Singapore. Trips revolving around a Frisbee tournament are not usually much of a vacation. It involves a late Friday flight to miss as little work as possible, two days of ultimate, a crazy Saturday night party, beer on the fields Sunday, and a late Sunday flight. I might not get to sleep until 3 am Sunday night. I was allowed to take one day of vacation on Monday, which allowed me free time to actually enjoy the city.

My impression of Singapore: not at all what i expected. I always thought it was a modern, clean, spotless land, one where people would be caned for spitting, a paradise loaded with beaches and exquisite cuisine. I found the food to be incredible, but the rest was a bit underwhelming. I ate Indian food four times in three days, although we were staying in the district of Little India. I sampled the famous Chili Crab and Singaporean spicy noodles, both of which were great. We had Dim Sum on the Monday i was leaving, also fantastic.

So yeah, Singapore equals amazing food. And the tournament was pretty sweet too, although it was crazy hot (in the 100's) and we didn't play so well. Our combined Beijing-Shanghai squad went into the tournament ranked #2 overall, and finished #9, meaning we finished first in the B pool. Anyway, we had fun. The party theme was "Freedom", and being the China United Ultimate Party (CUUP), we decided to go as "Oppression". Here's what i came up with(from Tao's photos):

The party itself was tame by Ultimate Frisbee standards. I hung out with Pia and Kat, a few of my Filipina friends, and mainly stayed out of trouble. A side note about that dart gun in my hand: Ken Su bought all the costumes, the hats, the shirts, matching flasks, and dart guns for some people. I learned that if you liberally apply saliva to the dart before hand and if you're a decent shot, it will stick to glasses. It took a fair amount of convincing before Jeff would allow me to try it out though...

The other highlight was Singapore's world famous Night Safari, which i did Monday night before my red eye flight. It's an open-air zoo that's only open at night, allowing visitors to observe nocturnal animals when they are active naturally. It boasts an awesome Bat Mangrove, a tram ride that takes you through areas of uncaged wildlife, and "award-winning bathrooms". The two best attractions for me were the bats and the cats. There's no glass separating you from the bats, so you could actually touch them if you wanted to. But they are huge. You do not want to touch them.

I also bought a new lens for my camera, designed for better low light photography. So far, i'm pretty happy with it.

Another interesting fact about Singapore: they have adorable little children.

In closing, Singapore: it's really hot and has great food.

~Kev