It’s a night I’ll never forget.
After spending 24/7 with each other for 40 consecutive days in 11+ countries, it was finally time to say goodbye: my travel partner, Annah, just left for Korea. For the first time in 40 days, I’m alone.
But hold on, not really — I get a Facebook message from a friend that’s in the area.
Not even an hour into my newfound solitude, I’m grabbing drinks with my friend from NYC, Sajni, on the 70th floor of the New Asia Bar overlooking the Singapore skyline. We catch up for a bit and then we grab some mint-jasmine shisha at Arab St. Afterwards, I drop Sajni off and I return to my hostel. I think my night is done.
But hold on, not really — A message is waiting for me at the front desk.
10 minutes later I’m karaoke’ing Backstreet Boys with BX, my college friend (on the left in the photos below), and Erin (next to me), a fellow American from Georgia I met just yesterday at the hostel. Afterward, Erin and I find ourselves back on Arab Street, sharing mint-rose shisha on the sidewalk. When the café closes at 4:30am, we’re undeterred. The night still feels wide open.
We met only the day before—one of those rare, instant connections that doesn’t ask for time to explain itself. She found me again the next night, after I scribbled a message on the hostel bulletin board (this was before phones and social media — when fate had to work a little harder).
We wandered. We laughed. We kept finding excuses to lean closer, to linger in moments that knew better than to last. We held hands and danced through a city that wasn’t used to seeing gold-and-white American misfits like us, and we wore it like a secret.
It felt like a scene stolen from Before Sunrise, where this time the sunrise became the literal metaphor, and the hour I had to leave.
We laugh. We dance. For a night, we make Singapore ours.
We didn’t get back to our hostel until 6am in the morning. Usually I would sleep now, but I have to leave right this moment to catch a 9am flight to Calcutta (India!) via the metro.
And just like that, the city, the night, and whatever it was between us, became another memory.
So much for sleep. But for the first time in a long time, I don’t miss it quite as much.
No need to dream anymore; it’s already happening.
- At time of posting in Singapore, it was 26 °C - Humidity: 100% | Wind Speed: 2km/hr | Cloud Cover: mostly cloudy