After twenty-five years’ worth of existence, my dreams of traveling outside of the country have finally been realized.

First stop: Singapore.

Thanks to a random invite from Raydon and his graduate school friends, I was able to participate in a (relatively) hassle-free trip.  My newfound awesome friends Ana and Farina took care of booking the flights and planning up the itinerary.   It was a budget-friendly trip, perfect for twenty-something noob roamers in a new country.   And take note, this was the first time for all of us to take a trip out of the country sans the parents.  Talk about an adventure.

We stayed in a Pillows & Toast, an awesome hostel in the middle of Chinatown that offers unlimited coffee/tea and toast for breakfast (geddit?).  It was my first time staying in a hostel and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sleeping on bunk beds and sharing bathrooms.  It made me feel like a legit backpacker, for some reason and the shared common spaces made it easier to observe, if not interact, with the other guests.

Singapore’s transportation is so freakin’ organized, I didn’t get lost in their train system when I attempted to navigate it myself when I met up with my high school friend, Marjorie.  Because we bonded and made chika well into the night, it was already midnight when I got back to Chinatown.  Walking down the streets alone, in the middle of the night in another country was definitely an experience for the books.  Strangely enough, given the circumstances, I wasn’t really as scared as I could have because Singapore just emits this air of security – probably because of all the “CCC TV on-going” signage plastered all over the place.

Being the first timers that we were, we made sure to at least hit all the “must see” tourist spots – we roamed around Marina Bay Sands and caught the Harry Potter exhibit, Universal Studios, Orchard Road, the Singapore Zoo and Sentosa.  Yes, we squeezed all of that in our four-day-three-night stay and still we still managed to cram in shopping (well, window-shopping for me) for pasalubongs and check out the Singapore City Gallery on our last day (which, in retrospect, was the first thing we should’ve done upon landing).

I’m going to say just this though; I have never, in my life, ever seen people as dedicated to ignoring each other’s presence.  I mean, seriously, the people there all were too absorbed with their cell phones to even make eye contact with anyone on the train.  Although, I guess, to be fair, since everybody had top-of-the-line mobile phones, it can be said that they were just enjoying their toys.

Also, the food was incredibly expensive – we probably spent the most on food and as a kuripot Pinoy, it sort of hurt my wallet to buy a plate of Yang Chow rice for $5.  Converting that to Philippine peso, we paid 150+ just for that alone, huhu.

All in all, Singapore is definitely a nice place to visit and I hope I can come back soon so I can explore the museums and the culture places and just learn more about Singapore.

Well, cheers to that.