Singapore – Sunday, March 6th to Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
My arrival at Singapore was delayed by the customs check of the sleeper train, of which part of the process was handing out a card that featured blood red lettering reading “DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW”. So, you know, enjoy your time in Singapore!
I finally emerged from the sleepy little train station onto a squeaky clean and totally abandoned street on Sunday morning in search of an ATM and an MRT station so I could pay for and get to where I needed to go. Both were difficult to find, resulting in more time lost to aimless wandering, looking for an open shop, a taxi stand, or anything else that might help get me unstuck from the neighborhood around the train station. Apparently even if your country is a well-oiled technocratic state, it’s still a puzzle making sure the transportation hubs are all linked to each other, with the necessary wayfinding and amenities for arriving travelers who don’t already have a luxury car service waiting to pick them up.
Singapore is an elegant and modern city-state, feeling a bit like
what you would get if you placed a Silicon Valley metro hub placed within the hottest, steamiest resort community of Florida, and added a dash of 19th century British penal code into the mix just for giggles. (Singapore is so famed for issuing fines that it’s now a popular theme on the city-state’s tourist swag.) Visible forms of culture are mostly limited to whatever sanitized version is state-approved, though the city-state differs from China by having a distinctive techno-capitalist vibe undergirding it all. Who said that the communists had to have a monopoly on authoritarianism?
My overall impression from my admittedly limited exposure was that Singapore feels very much like a resort community or corporate campus. A pleasant enough place to visit for a short period,
but it becomes a little bit unsettling when it’s expanded to the size of an entire city, one that requires a customs check if you feel the need to get out for a change of scenery. I can see why some people love it here, but if I were to pick between modern city-states, I’d much sooner choose Hong Kong.
A couple hours later than intended I finally checked into the hostel. My plan was to spend the day with two fellow students from HKUST, Nancy and Mariel (with Lord Froggington), on the last day of their Singapore trip. As a pleasant surprise, I found on my arrival they hadn’t yet checked out and were hanging out in the lobby, saving the time and effort to coordinate meeting up in the city later.
I stowed my stuff and then we booked a taxi to begin our day exploring the city. (Yes, like many former British colonies, Singaporeans also drive on the left side of the road.)
My first (and Mariel’s last) destination in Singapore was the National Orchid Garden.
Being in a tropical environment, the National Orchid Garden is home to some pretty remarkable flowers and landscapes. I’ve rarely seen orchids growing anywhere besides in their own separate pots at grocery stores, so it’s a unique experience to see so many delicate varieties just growing outdoors from the same soil all the other vegetation is sharing.
The coolhouse was a nice retreat from the heat to observe some mountainous species.
A reminder on the walk back that Singapore is located in a tropical rainforest with species to match. (Moments after I took the photo below, I nearly walked into a small bit of leaf that was dangling from a loose spider strand. According to Mariel and Nancy, my reaction was quite memorable.)
To take the edge off, for lunch we headed to a place called Long Beach Seafood. I was really terrible at researching and seeking out good local cuisine when I was on my own, so I’m really thankful I had travel companions on this day to take me to what was one of the best seafood meals I’ve ever had.
The spicy chili crab was the signature dish, coming in a super rich, flavorful soupy base. Of course there was much picture-taking of this work of art before we dug in.
Mariel had to be back in Hong Kong for Monday morning so she left for the airport after lunch, leaving Nancy and I to explore Little India on our own afterwards.
We got a little bit lost, but ended up stumbling upon Masjid Abdul Gaffoor, a mosque with some pretty stunning and colorful architecture.
Back on track, Nancy found this Indian dessert place to try. I forget what the item we sampled (top row) was called, but while it looks like a big block of fudge, it tastes more like a dried cheesecake. I liked it.
Like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore is an extremely multicultural city. After Little India, we next migrated to wander around Singapore’s Chinatown. This area didn’t quite impress us as much as Little India. Less intimate, fewer evident layers of history, and more like an outdoor shopping mall.
I did spy these rather rad buildings next to the Bugis Street metro station.
Leaving Chinatown, Nancy took us to yet another Singaporean food vendor, this one making a folded crepe-like confection with a side of dipping sauce. Tastes good and was super fun to watch made.
Marina Bay Sands had opened less that an year earlier at the time of our visit, and was already one of the most famed structures in Singapore for its cantilevered SkyPark platform 679′ in the air.
A model of the iconic casino resort.
Going up to the 56th floor is the Sands SkyPark. Tickets required.
At the top:
A panoramic view over Singapore:
Too bad the weather wasn’t great for photos:
The waters around the tip of the Malaysian peninsula on which Singapore is located is one of the busiest shipping route in the world.
I didn’t have time to go on the 541 foot tall Singapore Flyer, at the time the world’s tallest observation wheel.
If I had opted to do the Flyer instead of the Sands, it looks like I would have had a capsule all to myself.
Gardens by the Bay, now one of Singapore’s most iconic tourist destinations with its distinctive “Supertree Grove”, was still under construction and wouldn’t open for another year.
Going back to terra firma.
The sun sets over Singapore.
The Fountain of Wealth, built in the mid-90’s as the world’s largest fountain. I assume that title is now outdated.
At night the Fountain of Wealth transforms with a water projection show that appears to have had its visuals programmed in Microsoft PowerPoint.
The Helix is a unique pedestrian bridge that opened in 2010 along Marina Bay, with views of Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Flyer, and the lotus-like ArtScience Museum, which had opened only weeks earlier.
This whole area was very modern and looked quite impressive at night, even though we discovered there wasn’t as much activating this area at night as we might have hoped.
The mall attached to Marina Bay looked impressive and contained an ice skating rink, but we were pretty tired by this point and a huge, mostly empty high-end shopping mall didn’t interest us much.
We ended up hanging out along the plaza for a little while as we waited for the free-to-the-public water and light show to play over the bay with the Singapore skyline as the backdrop.
The show was a nice public activation with a few laser and projection effects on water screens, but nothing too spectacular to justify waiting around very long for. The show has since been significantly upgraded and named “Spectra” in 2017.
Perhaps the lesson is that Singapore isn’t a great city to try to see on a budget. Still, there was more than enough to keep us occupied for a full day (and plus some; the shots from on top of Marina Bay Sand were actually from my last morning before catching the plane back to Hong Kong). I had also heard great things about the Night Safari which several of my classmates had tried (including Nancy and Mariel before I arrived), and which I almost tried to fit in but just didn’t have the time or money while also committing my next and final full day at Universal Studios Singapore.
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