I visited Nat in Singapore last December. It was really great to see Nat for the first time in over 11 years while visiting a country I had never been to.
I met Nat at Northwestern, where she was a postdoc and I was an undergrad in the Meade Lab. She always looked after me, and I like to call her my life coach. We have stayed in touch since we both left Evanston in 2013. We talk once or twice a year about our work, life, traveling, and the countries we live in, among many other things, and Nat continues to inspire me with her wisdom. Although we have been living separate lives, Nat somehow still gives me spot-on advice on school, work, life in general, and always has great perspectives on whatever I have to share with her — I always love hearing her insights. Therefore, even though we have been on different continents for over 11 years, I still feel very close to Nat. Whenever I go back to Taiwan, where we are in the same time zone, I always talk about visiting her since Taiwan is only a 4-hour flight away from Singapore. I am so glad that we finally made this happen before the end of 2024. It felt surreal to finally meet up in person after so many years, and I enjoyed every moment we spent together — catching up with Nat was the best part of my trip.
Since my primary goal in Singapore was to catch up with Nat and see what her life is like there, I did not plan an extravaganza itinerary. I stayed with her in a low-key Malay neighborhood in Kembangan and spent a lot of time walking around the southeast part of Singapore. I used to think Singapore was so small that I could finish seeing everything in two to three days — it turned out that I was wrong. Singapore has so much to offer and I wanted to take a close look at everything, so I only got to see a portion of Singapore on my trip (which is fine, because this gives me a reason to visit Singapore again and see the rest of it.) Although Singapore is a small country, it is extremely rich in culture and full of energy. During my short visit, I was able to see the downtown/commercial area (Marina Bay) with towering skyscrapers, posh malls, and fancy light shows, Chinatown with rich history and an overwhelming amount of food options, Little India with vibrant colors, and Kampong Gelam (Arab Street) with the impressive mosque Masjid Sultan and lots of Arabic style carpets, decors, and fragrances. I loved just walking around in these areas, looking at what was going on around me, and feeling the vibes. Just like the US, Singapore is a culture melting pot, but it seems more peaceful and cohesive, and I absolutely love the multicultural environment.
In addition to Singapore’s rich ethnic culture, I am also extremely impressed with its organization, planning, and efficiency. (I guess it is because these are also strong elements in my own personality.) For example, I visited the Singapore City Gallery, which is actually not a tourist attraction. It showcases how Singapore has transformed in the past 50 years through urban planning, and how the government is planning for the future to balance competing needs and achieve various goals. They also actively solicit input from their citizens to shape the future of Singapore together. Further, the public transportation in Singapore is fantastic. As a woman who grew up in an Asian city, I relied heavily on public transit for the first half of my life, and I have been missing good public transportation since I moved to the US. Singapore’s MRT and buses are very well connected and easy for foreigners to navigate, allowing me to reach many places within my short stay. Finally, as a payments professional, I think the payment infrastructure in Singapore is pretty advanced. I somehow left my wallet behind in Taiwan for this trip, but I had no problem getting around with just my phone. (I just had to make sure my phone didn’t run out of battery.) If I didn’t stay in the US after I graduated, I could totally see myself as an expat in Singapore, even though I know the work culture in Singapore can be very stressful.
Since Nat and I both had to work during my visit, it gave me an opportunity to travel around a foreign country by myself for the first time in a while. Since I did not have any company (except in the evenings when I hung out with Nat), I got to spend more time looking around on my own and saw many things I probably wouldn’t have paid attention to if I had been traveling with a group. (Singapore is very safe for women to travel alone.) People also talked to me more. For example, on Arab Street, I was challenged by a store owner on how many cities there are in Taiwan. I racked my brain to list 20. The answer is 23. (I learned something about my own country in Singapore!) He wasn’t trying to get me to buy anything — it just seemed like there was little traffic in the store due to the gloomy weather, and he wanted to have a conversation with someone because he was bored. Later on, it started to rain, and his brother took me to his Turkish restaurant across the street and gave me free tea while I waited for the rain to stop. A day later, I was wandering around Clarke Quay, and somehow got convinced by a stranger to go on a giant slingshot with him (twice!). (He claimed it to be the coolest way to see Singapore, except I had to take my glasses off so everything was a bit blurry.) I normally don’t like rides and amusement parks, and I probably would have never done it if I had been with a group. However, this did give me a chance to do something I normally wouldn’t have done, see Singapore from some cool angles, and leave with a good story. I enjoyed the different experiences I got when I traveled solo. Perhaps I should do this more often.
A lot of my close friends are now all over the world. While I complain about how they are not near me, it gives me an excuse to visit them, check out new cities/countries, and see what their lives are like there. I am truly grateful for these friendships — “As flame of fire we gather; as skyful of stars we scatter” — when we were in the same place, we built incredible memories together; when we are apart, we continue to enrich each other’s lives. I hope there will be more friendship trips coming up for me in the future!
去年十二月，我去新加坡拜訪了 Nat。能見到一位十一年多沒見面的朋友，同時造訪一個不曾去過的國家，令我的心中充滿振奮與喜悅。
我和 Nat 相識於西北大學，彼時她是 Meade Lab 的博士後研究員，我則是同實驗室的大學生。她總是處處照拂我，我也總是喜歡親切地喊她人生導師。自從2013年我們雙雙離開艾文斯頓以後，我們一直保持著聯繫。我們每年都會通一兩次話，聊我們的工作、生活、旅行、我們居住的國家，還有許多其他話題，而 Nat 總是一如既往地用她的智慧帶給我無數啟發。雖然我們的生活沿著不同的軌跡獨立發展，但每次不管我跟 Nat 聊什麼話題，她都能給我深中肯綮的建議，我也很喜歡聽她的想法和見解，一如我們在西北大學時。因此，雖然過去十一年多我們分處世界的兩端，我依然和 Nat 十分親近。每次我回台灣，回到了和 Nat 相同的時區，我總說有一天要去新加坡拜訪她，因為比起和加州的遙遠距離，台灣和新加坡之間只隔了四小時的航程——很高興能在2024年底完成這個小目標。隔了許多年後再次見面，美好得令人難以置信，和 Nat 一起分享的每一刻都是我新加坡之旅的精彩亮點。
由於我這次新加坡之行的主要目的是和 Nat 敘舊、看看她在新加坡的生活，我並未安排緊湊的觀光行程。我借住在她位於景萬岸（一個低調的馬來社區）的公寓，花了許多時間走遍新加坡東南部的大街小巷。我原以為像新加坡這麼小的國家，兩三天應該就看完了，後來事實證明我太低估了這座「花園城市」。新加坡真正地體現了何謂「麻雀雖小，五臟俱全」，無論是文化、科技、美食，還是風景，應有盡有，我又想仔細體驗，所以在短短的四天三夜中，我只看見了新加坡的一小部分。（其實沒什麼不好，因為這給了我再次造訪獅城的動力。）新加坡雖然面積狹小，文化卻極為豐富，充滿著五彩繽紛的活力。短短的幾天內，我見識到了擁有林立的摩天大樓、豪華的購物中心，和絢麗的燈光秀的濱海灣（市中心/商業區）、歷史悠久美食眾多的牛車水（唐人街）、色彩鮮豔的小印度，以及擁有雄偉的蘇丹清真寺和許多中東風格的地毯、飾品和香水的甘榜格南（阿拉伯街）。我喜歡在這些不同的區域四處閒逛、東看西看、感受每個區域不同的文化和氛圍。新加坡和美國一樣，也是一個文化大熔爐，雖然不比美國地大物博，但卻似乎更和諧融洽，我非常喜歡如此多元的文化環境。
除了豐富的民族文化之外，新加坡的組織規劃和效率也令我印象深刻。（或許是因為這些也是我自身個性中的重要元素吧！）比方說，我參觀了新加坡的城市展覽館（它其實不是旅遊景點，而是為了國民共同參與國家規劃而建造的）。它展示了過去50年間，新加坡是如何透過城市規劃實現轉型、在被逐出馬來西亞聯邦後躋身亞洲四小龍，以及政府如何規劃新加坡的未來，並在互相競爭的需求和目標中取得平衡。展覽館也積極徵求國民的意見，共同打造新加坡的未來。此外，新加坡的大眾運輸系統非常便利。身為一個在台灣城市長大的女性，我的前半生重度依賴大眾運輸。搬來美國後，我十分懷念台灣四通八達的大眾運輸。新加坡的捷運和公車不但線路完善，對我這種外國遊客來說也十分容易上手，讓我在短暫的停留期間能自己參觀許多地方。最後，身為金融服務的業內人士，我必須說，新加坡的支付基礎設施相當先進。我這次出門前，不小心把錢包忘在台灣，但在新加坡，沒有錢包完全不是問題，靠著手機就可以走遍天下了（只要確保手機不要沒電就行）。如果當年畢業後沒有留在美國，我完全可以想像自己在新加坡工作生活的樣子。
在新加坡的期間，Nat 和我都要工作，所以多年來，我第一次單獨遊覽一座外國城市。除了晚上和 Nat 一起吃晚餐之外，大部分時間我都是一個人走街串巷，看到了許多我攜伴出遊時多半不會注意到的景色，也比較常被路人搭話。（對於獨自旅行的女性來說，新加坡非常安全。）舉例來說，在阿拉伯街，有位商店老闆問我台灣有多少個縣市，我絞盡腦汁列出了20個，而正確答案是23個。（居然在新加坡多學了自己故鄉的知識！）他似乎並不是想藉由跟我攀談向我推銷店裡的商品，而是因為天氣不好、店裡人流量很少、他窮極無聊，純粹想打發時間。聊著聊著下起了雨，他的弟弟就讓我去他對面的土耳其餐廳坐坐等雨停，順便招待我一杯熱茶。隔天，我在克拉碼頭閒逛，和一個陌生人聊了起來，不知如何被他忽悠坐了兩次極限彈弓鞦韆。（他聲稱這是飽覽新加坡風光最刺激的方式，但遺憾的是我上了鞦韆後必須摘下眼鏡，所以所有的風光看起來都有些模糊。）我通常不喜歡遊樂園和雲霄飛車之類的設施，如果我身邊有同伴的話，我大概無論如何都不會上這個極限彈弓的，大概冥冥之中老天爺要給我機會嘗試一些不同的體驗、從一些不同的角度欣賞新加坡吧！獨自旅行的經驗十分特別，但是我好多年沒有一個人出遊了（上次好像還是在大學，研究所之後就幾乎都呼朋引伴了），或許以後我可以多找機會獨自旅行、獲得不同的體驗。
現在，我許多親近的朋友都分散在世界各地。雖然我常常希望他們在我身邊，但這也給了我藉口去拜訪他們，看看他們所在的城市、國家，看看他們在那裏的生活。我十分珍惜這些友誼，所謂「聚是一團火，散是滿天星」——當我們在一起時，我們一同創造難忘的回憶；當我們分開後，我們依然繼續豐富彼此的生活。希望為來能有更多機會拜訪摯友、行萬里路！
