Singapore wasn’t one of the stops on the initial trip itinerary but at one point the flight back to Shanghai had us going through Singapore so I figured we ought to stay at least one night there. Later that became extended to the two final nights of the trip.
I think our views of Singapore can be summed up as a nice place to live but not an incredibly great place to visit. In that sense you could compare it to Shanghai except that I think there are more exciting things for Shanghai tourists to do when they are in town.
By our final day in Cambodia, I had a full on cold/flu, so I was looking forward to going to Singapore in case things got worse. I definitely wasn’t in the mood for going to the doctor in Cambodia. We found out at the Siem Reap airport that our flight to Singapore had a stop in Da Neng, Vietnam and were a little bummed that we were backtracking a bit. Once we got on the plane, I asked for additional blankets because I was so cold that I was literally shaking. The entire leg of the flight to Da Neng, I sat against the wall of the plane and shivered and blew my nose. I am sure the people around me were thrilled to have the plague sitting next to them. As we landed in Da Neng, I felt so bad that it crossed my mind to exit the plane and go check myself into a hospital but I decided to give the fever more time. I was finally able to sleep on the second half of the flight and woke up roasting hot. Luckily, my health no longer seemed so delicate and the biggest problems were my aching back and running nose which Tylenol and NyQuil could mitigate. It was nice to be in a developed country though, being sick.
Upon arrival in Singapore, everything was easy. It was obvious where we had to go and what we had to do to get a taxi. Andy immediately ran up to a drinking fountain in the airport recognizing that he had not had a drink from one in more than a year. Surprisingly, our taxi driver spoke poorer English than anyone we had encountered in Vietnam and Cambodia. He was an older man who clearly didn’t know where our hotel was and kept rambling about where it might be and calling people and speaking partial English and partial Mandarin and partial something else I did not recognize. Andy finally got involved with the search for the hotel and asked the guy for a map. Eventually, they figured it out and we arrived at the Scarlet “boutique” hotel.
Some people like to describe boutique hotels as overpriced small rooms and that is usually pretty accurate but they are leaving out the unique decorations and amenities of the hotels when they describe them in this way. The Scarlet Hotel is in Singapore’s China Town and the owners spent $90M to renovate some Chinese row houses and turn it into an upscale hotel. There was a sexual theme to the names of things in the hotel and restaurants were called things such as “desire” or “bold.” If you select this link, you can get a good feel for the mood of the hotel. As in the link, the decor was scarlet red and velvet pervaded the choice of furnishings. I thought the place was cool and Andy liked it as well. We arrived really late that first night in Singapore, so we immediately went to sleep.
View of Downtown Singapore
The next morning after sleeping in, I was feeling quite a bit better, especially after the NyQuil kicked in so we signed ourselves up for a city tour. The tour had us visiting some of the key sites in Singapore including the lion fountain, an orchid garden, a gem shop (pop up ad), Chinese temple and Little India. We quickly recognized that Singapore’s reputation of rules and organization is quite accurate, but the coldness of excessive rules is warmed up by the cities wonderful diversity. There are Chinese, Indians, Malays and many others living in harmony with many different customs and religions on a relatively small island. It was impressive. As we went into each ethic groups’ area of town, it really felt like the home country. China Town was a cleaned up version of a Chinese city and Little India immediately took me back to Bangalore, minus the cows wandering in the streets.
The tour was quite informative and I will take this opportunity to share some of the information. Singapore is known as the “Lion City” but by accident. When settlers first came to the island, there were tigers living there that had swum over from Malaysia. The visiting king thought they were lions and nobody had the guts to correct him so it became known as the Lion City, thus the lion fountain and other lion monuments.
The two most important things to Singaporeans are eating and shopping. This follows the Asian priority of food first that we have witnessed in China. Singaporeans eat a lot, do not walk a lot, but are skinny because of the year-round heat and humidity. Singapore is about one degree off of the equator.
All Singaporeans are immigrants. People are required to learn English and then can choose from Mandarin, Tamil or Malay as a second language. What we learned is that the national language really feels like a mixture of these four languages. There is no national religion and everything from Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim and Christianity are practiced freely on the island.
Eighty-five percent of the 4.7M people on the island live in government-owned high rise apartments. They purchase them from the government and virtually everyone is ensured a roof over their heads. If someone is poor, they have apartments that cost $30 – $50 a month to rent. There are no unemployment checks for the 1.5% who are unemployed but the government will find jobs for those who are able to work. The government does not give out free money but instead will give those in need cheap rent or food. Rent in Singapore is the seventh highest in the world. Every five years, the government paints and renovates the flats so almost no buildings in Singapore appear run down. Most Singaporeans do not eat at home and prefer to eat out. Their kitchen is more of a showcase than having any sort of practical use.
Singaporeans generally work 12-hour days. They have a high standard of living. Since health care is a hot topic amongst the Democratic candidates in the US right now, it was interesting to learn that Singapore creates a medical account for each person to offset medical bills from a private hospital, whereas public hospitals are free. The money in those medical accounts are passed down to next-of-kin when someone dies.
It is really expensive to buy/own a car in Singapore and if you do not keep it clean, you have to pay a fine. We did not see any dirty cars. You can only own a car for ten years and then you have to get a new one since the older cars are hard on the environment.
Alcohol is expensive in Singapore so the tour guide explained that only rich people can be alcoholics.
The climate was very tropical and wonderful in Singapore. The National Orchid Garden that we visited on the tour had over 400 different kinds of orchids giving you an idea of the climate since orchids do not live well in most climates.
After our city tour had completed, we met Rich, a manager I had worked with in Boise who has since relocated his family to Singapore, and his family for dinner. They took us on the subway and to a nice outdoor eatery serving western-style food. We couldn’t resist the quesidillas on the menu and despite my lack of appetite from being sick, I wanted to order another one after I had finished the first (but didn’t since everyone else was finished eating.) It was a nice evening and enjoyable to meet Rich’s family.
The following day, we went up to Mount Faber whose name sounds much more intimidating than the actual hill that it was. We rode the cable cars starting on the mountain over to a tourist spot in hopes of being able to see all of the ships coming through the import/export hub of Asia. We didn’t see as many ships as we were hoping to, but we did see the long-shore operation that made the vast number of containers handled by the Singaporean port clear.
Before heading to the airport, we had one important thing left to do. We caught a taxi to a seafood restaurant and ordered the famous chili crab that I had heard about from coworkers who travel to Singapore. It was amazing…and messy.
At the airport, I perused the books in the bookstore for probably an hour and then Andy encouraged me to use the free email provided by the airport to check my email. He had already checked his and told me there was some exciting news. I immediately started bawling when I read the email from my mom explaining my sisters engagement. Her fiance, Derik, proposed to her down by the pond in my parents yard back home. They are really happy and excited and I am absolutely thrilled for them!
After a five hour flight, which seemed like an eternity since I had already read all of my good books, it was nice to arrive in Shanghai and be home.
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