Hi again everyone, it’s Maxwell! After two months of being in Singapore, I’ve definitely started to fall into a routine. Due to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, the majority of my classes have unfortunately been moved to E-learning, meaning that I have no physical lectures. As such, my days have mostly consisted of sleeping in, and trying to muster up the motivation to study. However on the bright side, I’ve also gained a lot more free time in the absence of lectures! Whether that means spending more time with my friends, or even heading over to Malaysia for the weekend, my days here have be super vibrant and colourful!
Speaking of travelling, the most exciting part of every exchange student’s time overseas occurs around this period, and that’s recess week. During recess week, local students and international students alike take the opportunity of a free week to travel all across Asia! As a kiwi who was born and bred in New Zealand, thoughts of travelling to foreign countries have always been more fantasy than possibility. This mostly because flights to any country outside of Australia were at least several hours long, and crazy expensive as well. Flying from Singapore however, is a different story entirely, with many countries famous for their tourism located less than a 2hrs flight away. From South Korea to Myanmar, no country is safe from Singaporean university students during recess week.
Me personally, I chose to go to Thailand and Indonesia. My friends and I came to this decision mainly because of two factors. The first reason was basic: both Thailand and Indonesia are quite close to Singapore and therefore flight tickets are dirt cheap. The second reason is more exciting and that’s because we had heard AMAZING things about both countries. Whether it was their beautiful beaches, sky-high mountains or historical temples, Thailand and Indonesia sounded like they had what it took to make a dream holiday.
Our first stop was Phuket, and right off the bat we learnt a very valuable life lesson. Bad things happen, no matter how careful you are. Upon arriving at our Airbnb, we were expecting to be greeted by our host as had been arranged. Instead, we were forced to wait an hour outside, with no real method of contacting our host(we didn’t have any data or minutes on our phones), hoping that the next minute of waiting in the scorching sun would be the last. When we host finally arrived, we all let out a collective sigh of relief, glad that we could finally seek some shelter, only to find out that the Airbnb had not yet been cleaned. And so, there was naught we could do except wait outside for another 2hrs while the cleaners tidied up. After that misshap, everyone was so exhausted that we simply decided to call it a day.
Fortunately, the next day made up for it in spades. When people think Phuket, they think of the famous Phi Phi Islands, and that was exactly where we were headed. Phi Phi Islands really was gorgeous, worthy of its fame. From the crystal water, to the white beaches, we as if we were in paradise. The only downside was that since the islands are huge, we were regrettably only able to explore a small portion of it. I can also thank Phi Phi Islands for teaching me another life lesson. Life lesson number two for me was that no matter how much a place resembles paradise, you should never fully drop your guard. Being a popular tourist destination, there are tourist traps everywhere that you need to watch out for, such as compulsory donations before entering the island, and toilets that require fees to enter (this was surprisingly common throughout Thailand and Indonesia).
Our next stop was Chiang Mai, and I can say that the Elephant Sanctuary was easily the highlight of that journey. Unfortunately there are many cases of unethical elephant treatment around Thailand such as elephant riding or manual labour, but the elephants in this particular sanctuary were treated like royalty! After hearing about how an elephant spends up to 18 hours a day just eating, I was really starting to question why I couldn’t have been born as an elephant. Once I got over being a human, we participated in the care taking of the elephants, which I found much more enjoyable than I had originally anticipated. We fed the elephants bananas, helped grind up their digestion medicine, and even gave them a bath in the lake! Oh, and did I mention that I also ate a scorpion at a local food market?
I love Bali. I really love it. Did I mention how much I love Bali? There were so many gorgeous and amazing places to see, I even started to lose track of world-class tourist attractions. One particular highlight of my time in Bali was when we woke up at 1am in order to trek up Mount Batur. The trek up was cold and hard and possibility even dangerous, but the view when the sun rose into the sky was simply majestic. At that moment, nationalities faded away as every hiker on that peak watched the sunrise quietly, and in collective awe.
Unfortunately, the hike back down was nowhere near as nice. After we tripped over for the 10th time, we decided that we had to find an alternate method. Conveniently enough, it was at that time that our tour guide mentioned the existence of motorcyclists nearby who were willing to take tourists down the mountain, for a fee. Any nagging worries I had about cheating the hike quickly disappeared as I got onto the motorbike. That ride quickly took its spot as one of the best moments of the trip, as we were treated to amazing views of lakes and villages; all while racing along at exhilarating speeds!
Located to the east of Bali is Nusa Penida, the final stop on our recess week trip. Never had the phrase “saving the best until last” rung so true to me. As far as I’m concerned, Nusa Penida is just a collection of the world’s most beautiful places all placed conveniently on one island together for us to enjoy. Weaving along the ridiculously tight two-way road with only one lane , we visited places such as Angels Billabong, Broken Beach, and the famous Kelingking Beach. Is there such a thing as too many beautiful things in one place?
That’s about it for my travel story! The amazing sights I saw during those eleven days were definitely worth my currently messed up sleeping schedule. It’s been a long blog post, but I’ve really enjoyed sharing the stories of my trip with you. Thailand and Indonesia definitely exceeded my expectations, and if you ever get the opportunity to visit these two countries I highly recommend it! For now, I need to start studying again ugh. Until next time!
Greenery is Everywhere in this Forest Themed Airport
The Majestic Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay at Night
Welcome to The Hive! It’s one of NTU’s two iconic buildings, designed to look like stacked dim sum baskets! I have my business classes here.
Let’s go inside. On the lowest floor, there is a student-managed restaurant where you get your favourite coffee, snacks and pasta.
This is the Art, Design and Media (ADM) building, the NTU’s other iconic building. The coolest feature about this building is its accessible grass-covered roof.
Feel free to walk up to the roof anytime. It is a great place to hang out during the evenings when the weather is cooling. One thing I noticed in Singapore, no one ever lies down on the grass to relax like in New Zealand.
Now, let’s head over to the Sports and Recreational Centre. If you like running, you can do it here at the outdoor running track.
Also, take a dip in the pool whenever you like.
We can play some outdoor sports here next time! We can choose to play basketball to archery outdoors. If it’s raining, we can head indoor and play sports such as netball, badminton and squash.
Let’s go to the canteen. We will rent the e-scooter because it’s fun and convenient. You can also rent these scooters at one of their pods located around NTU using our smartphones. But if you do not feel like riding the scooters the next time, you can always rent a bicycle or take the free bus provided by NTU.
Other than the canteen, there are many more places to eat from a variety of eateries from cafes, McDonald’s to hawker-style food. The prices of the food here at the campus are mostly lower than outside eateries.
Moving on, let’s head to Giant, one of NTU’s two supermarkets – which you can see on the left. Next to it is 7-Eleven which is a 24-hour convenience store.
Let’s take a visit to the Chinese Heritage Centre’s museum. Isn’t it cool to have a museum located right in NTU?
If you look towards the opposite of the Chinese Heritage Centre, you can see the Yunan Gardens which is a relaxing place to do your evening walks.
The Nanyang Lake is located close to it which is another good place to de-stress.
Now, let’s make our way to the North Spine building. Inside here, there is always have a big screen that is always showing live performances of music artists. I love it. It sets the atmosphere.
Over here is the Student Activities Centre at the North Spine building. Shall we play the PS4? Or would you prefer playing either foosball, table tennis or pool?
Well, that was a fun game. I will show you the global lounge now. Over here, they always have 9 TV screens showing different channels. You can choose which channel to listen to with your headphones plugged into the controller next to the chair.
I guess I shall end the tour with the library. This is one of NTU’s nine libraries. You can book a private pod for your group meetings or study with one of those dual-screen computers.
The 360 International Blog 