I took a day off work yesterday and went to the Botanic Gardens.
My friend from Paris had stopped by in Singapore for a few days, en route to New Zealand to pursue her studies.. So.. I decided to be a host and bring her around. During my past 2 trips to Paris, she had brought me around, so i thought i will return the favor.
I totally enjoyed myself as a tourist in my own country.. never knew we have such a nice garden in Singapore!! We went to the National Orchid Gardens, and i saw the biggest orchids I have ever seen in my life... really beautiful flowers there.. I also saw the tiniest pineapple I have ever seen in my life.. very interesting.. And because it was her birthday, i bought her a little souvenir from the Orchid Gardens.. = )
Throughout the trip, we chatted a lot.. mostly about New Zealand, since i was going there soon myself.. and also about Tokyo, since she is also a huge fan of the Japanese culture. She is a French girl who can speak really good Japanese! And she's also a huge fan of plants and flowers apparently. She loved the gardens so much that she said she will come here and work after she graduate with her degree in Environmental Management. She even told me she had thought about getting a tattoo of an orchid on her ankle. That started a whole conversation about tattoos. Once she told me she was interested to get one, i showed her mine. We had so many things to talk about between us i felt we were like old friends!
We had lunch at the food court in Botanic Gardens, went around for a bit more, before we headed to Takashimaya Kinokuniya to find this Japanese book she wanted, and then for some Coffee Club huge-ass mudpie, which she totally loved.. We then headed to Chinatown's famous Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.. It was a really interesting experience for me because if not for her, i would never go inside the temple to look around. We had to don robes because we were not allowed inside with sleeveless tops.. I thought we looked like Jedis, but she said we looked like monks cause our robes were brown.. = )
The temple had like 5 levels and a roof top.. We toured every floor. Unfortunately, i couldn't take any pictures of the temple, because my handphone battery had gone flat from all the photos taken at the Gardens.. All my photos are on Facebook now..
After touring the temple, we went shopping for some Singapore tee shirts, before heading back..
Overall, it was an enjoyable day for me.. Although my legs were super tired from all the walking, and my head hurt afterwards from all the sun! Maybe I should do this more often.. be a tourist and visit all the brown color road signs in Singapore! Hmmm...
My friend from Paris had stopped by in Singapore for a few days, en route to New Zealand to pursue her studies.. So.. I decided to be a host and bring her around. During my past 2 trips to Paris, she had brought me around, so i thought i will return the favor.
I totally enjoyed myself as a tourist in my own country.. never knew we have such a nice garden in Singapore!! We went to the National Orchid Gardens, and i saw the biggest orchids I have ever seen in my life... really beautiful flowers there.. I also saw the tiniest pineapple I have ever seen in my life.. very interesting.. And because it was her birthday, i bought her a little souvenir from the Orchid Gardens.. = )
Throughout the trip, we chatted a lot.. mostly about New Zealand, since i was going there soon myself.. and also about Tokyo, since she is also a huge fan of the Japanese culture. She is a French girl who can speak really good Japanese! And she's also a huge fan of plants and flowers apparently. She loved the gardens so much that she said she will come here and work after she graduate with her degree in Environmental Management. She even told me she had thought about getting a tattoo of an orchid on her ankle. That started a whole conversation about tattoos. Once she told me she was interested to get one, i showed her mine. We had so many things to talk about between us i felt we were like old friends!
We had lunch at the food court in Botanic Gardens, went around for a bit more, before we headed to Takashimaya Kinokuniya to find this Japanese book she wanted, and then for some Coffee Club huge-ass mudpie, which she totally loved.. We then headed to Chinatown's famous Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.. It was a really interesting experience for me because if not for her, i would never go inside the temple to look around. We had to don robes because we were not allowed inside with sleeveless tops.. I thought we looked like Jedis, but she said we looked like monks cause our robes were brown.. = )
The temple had like 5 levels and a roof top.. We toured every floor. Unfortunately, i couldn't take any pictures of the temple, because my handphone battery had gone flat from all the photos taken at the Gardens.. All my photos are on Facebook now..
After touring the temple, we went shopping for some Singapore tee shirts, before heading back..
Overall, it was an enjoyable day for me.. Although my legs were super tired from all the walking, and my head hurt afterwards from all the sun! Maybe I should do this more often.. be a tourist and visit all the brown color road signs in Singapore! Hmmm...
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February 23, 2009 at 6:47 AM
wow, you took her to some unique places. my first tourist spot is always Sentosa. hahaha. i haven't been to the relic temple before.