cambodia in 5 days

I just got back from Cambodia 3 days ago. It was again a 5-days-trip, but even so we managed to visit quite a lot of places and to get a good impression of the country.

We began visiting Angkor Wat temples, near Siem Reap. I must recognize some of them really impressed me. The weather was hot, we had to wake up really early in the mornings and we hardly got much sleep, but still, we enjoyed 

it a lot.

We then jumped on a local-6-hours-bus to get to Cambodia's capital: Phnom Phen. I must say the change was drastic. Not only Siem Reap was much more touristic than Phnom Phen, it was also cleaner, more organized, more relaxed. Phnom Phen, on the other hand, was nearly as chaotic as Bangkok, dirty, poor. I don't think I'll ever forget the 10 minutes we spent on a local street market packed with dozens of motionless hens, fishes covered with fleas, meat lying on the floor...

in love with thailand

During my first two weekends of my exchange program I have definitely fallen in love with Thailand: chaotic streets, paradisiacal islands, stinging neon lights beckoning to drink liquor, stark white beaches, bikini-clad bargirls, ... everything is possible in Thailand.

My 5-days-visit to Bangkok can only be described as unforgettable. The city cannot be more chaotic, noisy and messy but it definitely has its own charm. Thousands of temples spread around the dirty streets, some of which are really impressive. We even visited a nearby city, ancient capital of Siam, and a floating market which has unfortunately turned into some kind of touristic attraction.

At night the city gets even more colorful. We walked through the streets where we ate pancakes, bought some really cheap t-shirts, had a beer near the river and even saw a moey thai combat. We moved around with the famous "tuk tuk", and was in fact quite funny when the six of us tried to fit all in.

When we came back to Singapore we felt all a bit disappointed since our trip had gone by so fast. But we didn't really had time to worry, as two days later we were back in Thailand, but for a very different kind of trip. This second weekend we didn't visit any temple nor did we walk through crowded streets... this second weekend was relax time.

Krabi, Phuket, Phi Phi Island,... all of them were once paradisiacal places which have nowadays become a massive tourist point. However, we spotted a really nice beach with only a few climbers that guaranteed us peace, relax, beautiful sunsets, crystalline waters and white sand scenarios. We enjoyed so much that this time it was even harder to go back to Singapore!

hello singapore

Hello Singapore. That's what I thought two weeks ago when I first arrived to my exchange destination. I must recognize I was quite excited. I had never been to Asia before but I somehow knew I would fall in love with it from the first moment. And that is what has exactly happened.

Singapore is everything I had heard about before arriving here: clean, modern, diverse, hot, packed with skyscrapers, friendly, efficient, ...

What has impressed me the most is the wide range of cultures, places, infrastructures and atmospheres that can fit into such a small piece of land!! The island has 3 airports, 1 massive zoo, 3 universities, 4 official languages, hundreds of office buildings, huge shopping malls and a wide variety of food choices. Singaporeans can be used to it, but it's still quite impressive for me!

why singapore?

I have lived all my life in Spain, and have had the opportunity to travel to several countries, but Asia remained still undiscovered for me, which did nothing more than increase my curiosity. And that was precisely what made me decide I wanted to go to Asia on exchange, but the following question was... where in Asia? China? India? Japan? I finally decided on Singapore because of two main reasons: English was an overall spoken language in the island and its location made it perfect for travelling around.

Great, now you know I was curious about Asia, I wanted to practice my English and I wanted to travel a lot, but... why did I start this blog? I thought about the different ways I could use in order to get in touch with my family and friends in Spain during my exchange (e-mail, facebook, and so on), but what I was really willing to find was some way that could be more personal and that could actually be kept as, let's say, a "diary". So when my "Digital media across Asia" teacher in my "new singaporean university" (I'll talk about it sometime later on, because it deserves a whole post) proposed us to do a blog for our individual grade... I just thought it was a great idea!

my exchange blog

On the top of this page it says "my exchange blog", and that is exactly what this blog is going to be about: about me spending 4 months in Singapore (and its surroundings). I hope it works out!