The Singa Trail...
Once upon a time, there was a prince named Sang Nila Utama. He was neither into Rolex, long orange combs and wallets that stuck out of his back pocket (don't think he wore pants or perhaps those pants he wore didn't have back pockets), big yellow contractor boots, long pinky nails nor had a girlfriend named Ah Lian. One day, his ship sailed onto this little island at the tip of the Peninsula Malaysia. At that time, this island wasn't on the map and didn't have a name. Spotting an animal that resembled a lion (Singa in Malay), he decided to name this island Singapura (which means Lion City).

Anyhow, this island grew to become a big prosperous monster of a city, where the only nature you see are potted plants, neat rows of planted trees, and carefully preserved nature reserves. The main tourist attractions are also carefully crafted by the local government into what they think tourists will like. Guess the only thing they really show tourists is that Singaporeans lack creativity, independence, and drive (look at the crocodile, bird, and animal enclosures). The only thing worth mentioning would perhaps be the wide variety of food and the cosmopolitan culture. Thus, when my friend from afar arrived at my doorstep one evening, to impress upon her what we are like, food was the way to go!

For 5 days, I had more than 6 meals a day, often at different places. From local fare like chicken rice, fried carrot cake (black/white), rojak (chinese/indian), roti prata, murtabak, goreng pisang, nonya tauhu, prawn roll, etc., to local restaurants like Han Ka Ram, Marche, Swensen's, the time was too short to try all. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring my friend to try other stuff like Char Kway Teow, Hokkien Mee, Bak Kut Teh, and other stuff. But this will make her come back for more! Heh. (T: get the hint?) Despite walking my feet to bits, I think I still put on a minimum of 11kg, and my wallet lost approximately 1kg (not that I'm complaining.. it was worth it!)

Besides food, there were also the nice walks along Boat Quay, Clarke Quay, The Esplanade, looking at Sentosa from Harbourfront Centre, and the visit to the Singapore Art Museum (my 2nd trip there! Not bad for a Singaporean eh?) These few days made me relook my life as a Singaporean, as a human being, and as a person in relation to others.