Singapore was cool. I said goodbye to my folks on Wed. Sept 2nd and flew to Singapore on my own. It’s a noticeable difference traveling on my own. When I was traveling with Jason we were fairly compatible travel companions because we could handle packing a lot of things into one day. With my family, even though we had a strict structure of tours to follow they still struggled with it. I’m guessing it was a combination of indifference and jet lag. I realized how this is also the first time I’ve really ever been on my own for an extended period. Even living away from home I was always surrounded by friends. It’s a big adjustment but I’ve taken comfort in the fact that I’m not alone in feeling this way. I have met a ton of people who were in the same boat but were also just coming to terms with the initial culture shock, something I was fortunate to have long overcome in Taiwan. It’s been an odd experience offering guidance to these lost souls while being relatively new at this myself.
Getting back to Singapore, I spent four days (more accurately afternoons and evenings) exploring the city. Day one, I arrived at 12:30am on Jetstar. The MRT was closed so I had to take a cab. Here I was introduced to the “after-midnight fee,” a ludicrous rule that states that cabs can charge 1.5x the metered fare just because it’s after midnight and they’re the only form of transport available at that hour. I had hoped to go clubbing one night since I had heard very good things (beautiful Indian women + good clubs = win) but after learning of this bullshit taxi rule and that the MRT only ran until midnight I decided against it. I fell asleep after an hour of worrying about the top bunk smothering me to death (I hate bottom bunk).
Day two: I walked around little India on a mission to find a new side bag. I had purchased a knock-off converse POS in Bangkok but it was already falling apart. Plus it was too small to fit all my things (netbook, camera, wide-angle lens (!!), money, travel docs, etc.). On the advice of the hostel desk guy I ventured out to the Mustafa Centre. This place is Singapore’s version of Honest Ed’s, except a little less tacky which I guess takes away a little of it’s charm. However, the shear chaos of the place, packed with every product imaginable and half the population of Little India to boot, make it a neat place to explore. I found a decent bag and was on my way. Headed back to the hostel to do laundry before venturing out to the Singapore zoo for the Night Safari. Singapore’s zoo was world class. Boasting three parks on the premises; the main zoo, a bird sanctuary and the aforementioned Night Safari. I knew I didn’t have time (and money and energy) for the other two so I focused on the Safari, since a guy I met at the hostel recommended it. “Get there early” he had said, you’ll need at least 4 hours for everything. I arrived at 5:30 to cloudy skies and as I got off the city bus it began to rain. I waited it out and fortunately it stopped just before the park opened at 7pm. The night safari was a treat. Looking at animals in enclosed habitats takes on a new element of surrealism at night, as the barriers seem to melt away in the darkness and you find yourself staring at a leopard sleeping on his back less than a foot away from you. There was an animal show which featured animals walking out (or for the stage frightened ones, sometimes not). The show had a very half-hearted message of conservation through out, highlighted by having otters putting recyclable waste into the appropriate bins. After I took the tram through half of the park, passing sleeping lions, packs of deer roaming freely next to the train, and rhinos eating silently while weighing the pros and cons of charging us. Some other highlights included 3 hippos sleeping side-by-side in the water and this very strange ant-eater/hippo type animal standing next to the road munching away as we passed. I got off the tram at the Leopard path and walked around. Saw more big cats as well as these amazing flying squirrel and bat habitats. The way these work is that you have to walk through 3 sets of doors into a caged environment (but again, because of the scarce lighting you don’t really notice the cage) and then you’re just standing in the open with these animals. In the case of the flying squirrels they’re sitting perched in the tree tops, free to jump from tree to tree above your head. I had a half eaten bag of chips which I clutched closely as the furry critters eyed me from above. The bats were much of the same, except there were these fearless fruit bats who flew right by my head and these foot-long (body size, not wing span) furry ones hanging upside-down from the trees who screeched as I walked past. I had climbed through a bat cave in Thailand where the bats only voiced their displeasure with us invading there space but they never flew this close to me.
Day three: I went to Orchard Rd. during the day since it had been raining and I wanted some place I could duck indoors if the weather turned again. Orchard Rd. is the materialist’s mecca of Singapore, a smattering of shopping malls selling every overpriced designer brand imaginable. Being on a budget and not really having any interest in that kind of thing I took more notice of the architecture of the buildings. Some were quite cool. It seems like every building these days has a “crystalized” look to it, with plenty of glass and jagged edges. It’s a look I enjoy in a nerdy “it reminds me of a space station” kind of way. After wards I went to Newton’s Circus, one of Singapore’s many food bazaars. A food bazaar is essentially a ghetto outdoor food court with food stalls and hawkers swarming every poor tourist who enters. It was my turn to play poor tourist so I got talked into buying a tasteless plate of chicken and shrimp fried rice for S$5. The guys pitch was that his picture was in the lonely planet guide book I had borrowed from the hostel (it was) so the food must be good (it wasn’t). After I took the MRT to the Colonial district and did a walking tour. Since Singapore really developed from a fishing town into a major business hub under British occupation the amount of lovely Victorian buildings is vast. After passing highlights like the National Singapore Museum and a number of Gothic churches I walked along the Singapore River and ended up at a pier with the skyline to my left and the Singapore Flyer / Esplanade Theatre in the distance. I’m running out of synonyms for “spectacular,” so just know this: it was very nice. On the tip of the pier there was a mythical creature with the body of a fish and the head of a lion spouting water from his mouth. Apparently he’s the national symbol of Singapore. I had hoped to ride the Singapore flyer that night but I ran out of time. The 50 minute walking tour took me two hours since I was constantly wandering off the path and stopping to take pictures. I made sure to catch a flight the following day.
Day four: I woke up at one in the afternoon after staying up until 5am the night before. I was on Skype until 4, took a shower and then had the good fortune of having all of my dorm mates return from a night out just as I was getting into bed. They were good guys and kept it down for me. When I finally awoke I set about planning my next move, since I’m going about this trip day-by-day and figured my time in Singapore was coming to a close. I booked a hostel in KL and a ticket for that bus I never made and did more laundry. I departed at 5pm for the Raffles Hotel, a place named for Mr. Raffles, the Brit who is credited with developing Singapore into what it is today. Although it is more famously known for being the birthplace of the Singapore Sling and home to $1000/night rooms. I wandered around admiring the property and playing a guessing game of “rich hotel resident or poor tourist?” to keep myself entertained. I debated ordering a Sling at the Bar & Billiard room and somehow justified the S$23 price tag. It was the best tasting high-alcohol-content cough syrup I’ve ever had. Then I ventured back to the Singapore National Mueseum since it’s free to the public between 6 and 8. The open galleries were small but it managed to kill an hour. From there I walked to the Singapore Flyer, the biggest observation wheel in the world. It beats the London Eye by 30m. Just a quick aside, I read in the Lonely Planet that Malaysian’s are obsessed with world records, even having their own annually published record book to note their absurd achievements. This obsession is also noticeable throughout Singapore, with constant reference to things being the biggest or the best in the world.
Final thoughts on Singapore: It’s a cheaper and more culturally diverse version of Hong Kong. It’s approximately the same size (around 7 million people), also a former British colony (although it’s now independent rather than having been returned to China as HK has). Due to this the city is quite westernized, with honest people (a welcome change from Thailand) and an oddball melting pot culture with very developed China town and Little India neighbourhoods. Off to Malaysia!
