Picnic @ Chinese Gardens

One day, my friend JJ, her sister (visiting from Canada) and I were feeling a little homesick for some cheese and bread. After eating so many types of noodles and rice, we eagerly went wild at the grocery store. We bought all the goodies we had been craving and decided to go on a picnic in the beautiful Chinese garden park that is only 2 MRT (subway/train) stops away. We stopped at our mall, Boon lay first to get the supplies. There happened to be a market so my friend Charlotte and I inquired about the foreign objects  (different types of food). 

 Various flavours of steam cakes

Tea leaves are used to flavour this type of boiled eggs

A durian (a type of fruit) and I

Durians are in my opinion the grossest fruit, they are large and have a very distinct smell. To be honest, everyone will tell you that they smell although some really enjoy the flesh of the fruit raw or even fried. It is such a strong smelling fruit that it is even illegal to have them in public or confined spaces in Singapore.

My friend Charlotte looking at all the various fried meat, fish and veggies

Arriving at Chinese Gardens, I felt like I had been teleported and was entering China or Japan. The gardens were huge and well kept. There were temples and monuments decorated with lanterns and lights. I cannot imagine what it looked like during CNY celebrations. Here are some photos of our delicious feast and then playing around the beautiful grounds.

  

I happened to meet a small Irish boy in the park and we had an imaginary tea party. We were interrupted by a huge lizard running across the grass. I didn't manage to get a photo but it was maybe 2 feet long and seemed more like a komodo dragon to me. The small boy was way less scared of it than me..to say the least. 

 Like every nice day in Singapore, we were stopped by a big powerful storm. I would say that almost every day that that gets very humid and hot ends in big showers or a thunderstorm. These storms are not really that bad as they are short lived however, we did leave the gardens this day and went back to the reality of living on campus.