Singapore

Hey all,

So, after having gone back to Melbourne to study teaching and live
with my Korean girlfriend Sammy, three weeks later and i'm overseas
again! :) Guess I can't stay put for too long these days. This time
it's just a week in Singapore followed by a week in Hong Kong.


TRAVEL TIP #103: DON'T RELY ON MOVIES AS RESEARCH ON EXOTIC LOCATIONS
Anyway, I arrived in Singapore with images of old rickety boats and
seedy characters on decrepit piers and wooden walkways in an old dirty
port city as characterised from the movie "Pirates of the Carribean
3". Clearly I should do my research and not rely on pop culture, for
Singapore is far from that.

Singapore is a very humid hot city (as it sits on the equator), filled
with shopping malls, food centres and restaurants, and lots of
vegetation. This makes the city quite clean and pleasant if not for
the oppressive heat! They say Singapore has two climates: the hot
humid outdoors, and the freezing cold air conditioned buildings
inside. I'm surprised people don't get sick from the constant change
of environments.

It is pretty much illegal to do anything here, from bringing in drugs,
to eating on the subway, to chewing gum! That's why you have tshirts
calling Singapore the "Fine" City (Fine as in penalty for doing
something).

Singapore I'm told is also very family orientated city, as there are
lots of facilities and activities where families can happily live and
spend quality time together on the beaches, east coast, shopping malls
and the famed Singapore zoo. In fact, as I was staying at my sister's
apartment with her husband and two kids (first time I saw my 2yo
niece, awww so cute!), the first place they took me to see as a family
outing was indeed the zoo.

The Singapore Zoo is reputed to be one of the best in the world, and
for good reason, since it is very well designed - bars and cages are
rare, instead there are wooden walkways through open enclosures where
you feel you're actually getting quite up close to the animals. The
place is more green with vegetation and waterways than modern style
concrete and steel structures. The environment is very natural.


EATING AND SHOPPING OUR WAY THROUGH SINGAPORE
I met up with Marie and Beckaroo (two friends I worked with in Korea)
in Orchard road, which is a mecca for shoppers since it is lined with
department stores. Marie also introduced us to a local friend called
Suresh, who was nice enough to drive us around places and give us the
grand tour of Singapore.

Over the week we explored Chinatown (i'm told that it's a little
strange that a country with 70% of the population being Chinese, that
there is a Chinatown in the city!), Little India (which was a little
dirty and seedy - i've heard the real India is worse), Sentosa Island
(which is a beach Island and resort area off the Singapore mainland
which we accessed through a cable car enabling lovely views of the
construction work around us). We also looked around the riverside
exploring the clean quays with pastel coloured buildings and affluent
bars and restaurants. I imagine the movie "Pirates of the Carribean"
would not have had the same effect if it was represented this way. We
also did a lot of shopping around all the huge malls (actually Marie
did the shopping, I mainly did the tagging along looking bored kinda
thing that guys generally do when dragged to shopping malls).


FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!
I ate alot of food here (as it was a welcome respite from all the
shopping). I tried the famous Chilli Crab, Black Pepper Crab, Stingray
(as revenge for what it did to the Crocodile Hunter), Laksa (a yummy
seafood and rice noodle dish in a light spicy coconut soup) and
various versions of noodles, rice and curries. Yep, Singapore is
definitely an awesome place to eat. Its not too expensive and has a
great variety of dishes as it is virtually a meeting place of
cultures. Alcohol is very expensive though :(

I also tried a singapore sling, which is a famous cocktail, sweet with
cherry and pineapple and other spirits. We chose not to try it at the
original location of Raffles Hotel, as I heard their version is
expensive, premixed and not the genuine version anymore. I actually
thought I was clever when I came up with a great pick up line, go up
to the counter next to your intended victim and say "would you like a
singapore fling?" Never tried it though as I'm sure Sammy would not
be impressed.