After my stint in China I traveled to Singapore to visit some family friends. During the first few days of my trip, I was lucky to be able to accompany them on a vacation to a resort located on the island of Bintan in Indonesia. The resort reminded me a little of a Caribbean, but definitely with a more jungle feel. The beaches were secluded, and all the locals were very eager to interact with the people staying at the resort. After a quick ferry ride back to Singapore, I headed to bed because I had one last big day of sightseeing before my trip started to come to a close.

The friends I was staying with set me up with a great bus tour of Singapore, and I really got a feel for the city in the few days I was there. I saw the Formula 1 racetrack that snaked through the city, as well as the famous Merlion statue, the island city-state’s mascot. The Merlion is a fish with a lion’s head, and originates from both Singapore’s past as a fishing village and future as a strong country of the world. Our next stop was a Chinese temple in the middle of Chinatown, where all Chinese religions were grouped together to form one place of worship. The gemstone factory was after that, where the workers cut gemstones into tiny fragments and glued them together to form complex and elaborate pictures. The final stop for our bus tour was at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where one of the most famous orchid gardens in the world resides.

After a much-needed night’s rest, I took a chairlift to the tourist hotspot of Sentosa, a small island owned by Singapore. In Sentosa I was able to see the rare pink bellied dolphin, a specie only found in the waters of the Indian Ocean surrounding Southeast Asia and Africa. The final stop in Sentosa was a wonderful aquarium, where I saw a slew of different types of sea creatures including jellyfish, crabs, rays, sharks, fish, and more. This was without doubt my favorite part of my trip to Sentosa.

The people in Singapore preach tolerance because of the melting pot of cultures that all call Singapore home. Singapore is mainly made up of three types of people: British, Indian, and Chinese. All types of people live together, as well as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Agnostics, and because of the strict laws in Singapore, they all have found ways to get along extremely well, unlike in many other countries around the world.