week three: singapore

tourist shit in singapore, what we ate, and who i met :)

Finally, the last segment of my Southeast Asia trip. Technically, there’s one more week after Singapore (spent in the Philippines again), but I’ll wrap this shit up in one go!! Cause lowkey I’m burnt out on writing these recaps haha. Anyway, it was my first time in Singapore, and I got to do two amazing things while I was over there: meet my long time penpal, Corey, and make a new friend, Seth.

I’m the type that doesn’t enjoy solo traveling. I’ll fly alone to a place where I know I can see my friends or meet up with people I know. I would much rather spend all my time exploring the world alongside other people. Whether that’s going on a trip with a friend and getting to know a new place with them, or living alongside the people of the city I’m visiting. Or a mix of both! I tried doing a solo day in New York once, and I was so miserable that I cried… and then I was okay the next day (and the rest of the trip) because I met up with my friends lol.

My family and I spent a lot of this trip being tourists. We looked at the Marina Bay Sands from every angle. Meandered inside of it! Stared at the Mer-lions. Hobbled over to the Cloud Forest and looked at all the flowers at the gardens. Listened to disco under the Supertrees. Took the cable cars over to Siloso Beach. And visited Popmart like, every single day.

Taking the cable cars to Siloso beach was super fun! I love cable cars. But the beach was kind of weird… Having grown up in San Diego, even Manhattan beach feels kinda weird to me (sterile). They had this big rock that had “Siloso Beach” painted on it, like some kind of landmark. But the rocks next to it were… hollow!! Which makes me feel like the big one is probably fake, too. The rock to the left of me in the picture has a giant gaping hole in it, and if you look inside, there’s pipes in there. Super weird!!! I was told the beach was made with sand borrowed from Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. But I did get to draw while I was there!

in my palm tree drawing phase

The Cloud Forest and The Gardens By The Bay were on our agenda. We spent basically all day at both exhibits, and then laid down under the Supertrees after all was said and done (I think that show started around 7PM). I always get really lucky with travel and timing in regards to cherry blossoms, and I managed to catch them in bloom! Spent a lot of time sitting and drawing in both of these exhibits.

---

There’s so much good food in Singapore! And they’re everywhere!! Food courts, restaurants, stalls- all spread out in their massive malls and underground systems. I wish I had x-ray vision so I could see just how sprawling the underground is. Anyway, I snuck away from my family to eat kaya toast + milk tea almost everyday. I’d been chasing that flavor ever since Antoine made it for me a while back. I made sure to buy some of their tea powder and kaya spread to make home and hopefully eventually make it for myself in the states… One of my favorite bites was the hainan chicken from Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice. Located in another mall food court, the stall was covered in Michelin Bibs from the many years they’ve earned it. The meal was cheap, fast, and incredibly delicious!! I miss her.

An entire day was dedicated to exploring the Changi airport. We went to see the Jewel, look at all the stores, and eat at the food court. I don’t remember how many floors there were, just that there were a lot and we kept getting lost… My family landed on eating at Aburi-En, a Japanese restaurant nestled in one of the many food courts in that airport. It was good, so I’m showing you pics of everything that my family ordered. Changi airport was dubbed best airport in the world for the last 7 years! And it’s true, it’s really nice and clean and has like, everything you can possibly imagine in an airport. With its foliage covered walls and natural lighting, it’s certainly a very gentle welcome to the country.

The airport also had a Ilao Ilao, which is my favorite froyo place ever and I went A LOT when I was in the Philippines. (tart froyo + warm pistachio cream + biscoff cookie crumble… i miss you so bad…) We had a lot of ice cream and snacks while we explored the city, and the street ice cream sandwiches were one of my nightly go-tos. There were a bunch of them perched along the walk back to the hotel. I wish we had them here… ice cream slab and wafer sandwich is such a perfect combo.

---

This is Seth! My new homie from Singapore. How we met, I cannot possibly tell you. But we got lunch at Milkfish cause I was suffering from food poisoning (SMH) and I got some fish soup and it did make me feel a little better. After chatting and digesting, we hobbled over to Ya Kun so I could try the steamed version of kaya toast! It was good, but lowkey prefer the normal version better hehe. Then Seth took me to check out SAM the Singapore Art Museum. There were so many exhibits in that warehouse! All different artists and different vibes. I got to sketch a bit and we bonded over everyone’s fascinating pov of the world through their art. After absorbing the art, we went thrifting, and got dinner at Taan Asian Grill Bar! Lots of skewers. And ended with Tom’s Palette, with which the event that inspired the comic happened. We tearfully said our goodbyes and I flew out to the Philippines the next day… It feels so special to be able to connect with a total stranger in an unfamiliar place, and learn about the place in which they grew up and currently live in- through their perspective! And to continue to nourish that friendship after the fact. I hope we meet again soon!

Speaking of learning about the city: the first thing that I noticed was that everyone spoke English. Seth told me (and then I also did my own research) that Singapore had passed the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) back in the year 2000 in order to standardize Singaporean English. He told me that despite him knowing his mother tongue (Mandarin), many of his peers only spoke English. Singapore has a 75% Chinese population, with Malay at 15% being their native population. Fascinating…

Back to the topic of friendship: the other incredibly beautiful and special thing that happened: was that I got to finally meet my penpal Corey after having written to her for (this is just a random guesstimate without me actually fact checking) around 15 or so years!! It was so nice to see her in person, and hear her voice, and chat for the short time that we did. I found out she’s half-Filipino, which I somehow did not know or maybe just did not remember after writing all this time… she very kindly made me a goodie bag that was like a starter pack for Singapore, filled with all of her favorite snacks and quintessential Singapore food stuffs. I hope we get a chance to actually hang out in the future- and it seems like I have many reasons to come back hehe!

Final final comic from when I was calling out for my stepdad in the pharmacy:

I guess everyone’s my dad now.

Anyway, that concludes the Singapore leg of my SEA trip. It’s been around two and a half months now since I got back from Asia. Since then I’ve been battling my health rapidly declining, went to the hospital and specialists many times, tried and failed with medicine, had a successful cafe popup rerun, and I freaking moved. Now that I’m settling into the new place and starting on new medication, I’ve found time and space to get back into the swing of things (being that I am writing this newsletter right now when I skipped last month). I’m hoping to write the next one very soon to keep you all updated with my crazy last 3 months of living.

Thanks for being here! See you in the next one. :-)
-nicey