Pictures from this trip can be found here!
You might recall that for our ten year anniversary we had planned on going to Singapore for a couple of days. You also may recall that we weren’t able to take a trip to Singapore because I apparently couldn’t count properly.
So at the end of this school year, we worked out a schedule and we tried again, this time with brand new passports. We made it there and back safely, completely satisfied with the experience. I don’t think we’ll make it a priority to go back to Singapore in the future, but we had a great time while we were there.
The way our trip worked out was that we left late at night from Japan, slept on the plane, and then hit Singapore from about 6:00 am the next morning. Anytime you can make your plane your hotel you end up with more time at the destination, so that worked out great. We were suitably impressed with Singapore’s Changi airport, but things were a little slow that early in the morning, so we caught a metro train from the airport into the center of town.
The city was easy enough to navigate with various applications on our smartphones, and we started out with a view of the bay in front of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. The symbol of the city, the Merlion, sat on the edge of bay, and because we arrived so early it wasn’t yet spewing water. However the area was almost completely deserted and the temperature was relatively cool. Later the day really heated up – I don’t think I could ever live in Singapore in that tropical climate.
My impressions of Singapore were overall fairly positive. The city was filled with banks, and when we looked out over the water there were hundreds of cargo ships awaiting a berth in the port. Also just about everywhere there were signs of affluence. Ritzy shopping malls, Ferrari dealerships, jewelry shops, and brand goods were scattered everywhere. It was clear that conspicuous consumption was in vogue in this city.
Racially it was an interesting mix. Outside the banks and the shopping centers you saw groups of caucasians talking on phones. They were probably assigned to the local bank office from another country. They seemed like they were doing well financially and they wanted you to know it. Afterwards the native Singaporeans walked around, also looking fairly well off and convincing you that you are indeed in an Asian capital city. Finally, there were lots of people working manual labor – watering gardens, moving heavy items, taking care of white kids. In just the short time I was there it seemed like just about all of these people were very dark skinned. I don’t know much about the social and ethnic situation in Singapore, but this point stood out to me.
The architecture of Singapore was fairly modern and creative. It felt very much like Hong Kong, with building designs that stood out and felt individual. Coming from Japan where architecture is much more conservative it was fun to see the variety and style of the buildings there. I really enjoyed the design of the Park Royal Hotel – almost completely covered in living green growth. There were also more art installations around the city than what I am used to.
Our hotel was another good example of interesting architecture. Marina Bay Sands Hotel looks like it was transplanted directly from Las Vegas. It is a very luxurious hotel and we really enjoyed our stay. The grounds are beautifully (if not surreally) maintained, and the pool on top with the infinity view of the city was nice to splash around in. Our room was huge and very comfortable, and from the 47th floor we had a great view of the city.
At night we hurried back to our room because we had a perfect spot to watch the light and water show presented every evening in the bay in front of the hotel. We settled in for the show, but it was pretty underwhelming. Maybe this show is a placeholder until they invest more money in a show with (much) more impact.
But perhaps the most important thing to talk about is the food! We were really excited to try as much as we could during the few days that we were there, and I think we got a good representative sample of Singapore cuisine. We ate most of our meals at hawker stalls – kind of like indoor/outdoor food stands gathered in one place. Each stand sold some different specialty, and you could walk around a try whatever you liked. They cooked the food right in front of you, so you can just watch for a while and get a feel for the dishes.
One of our favorites was popiah, a Chinese based dish that was kind of like a mini-burrito wrapped in rice paper… delicious. Of course we tried the laksa, but we were a little disappointed with the noodles. They were a little bland and didn’t seem to want to absorb the flavors of the delicious soup they were floating in. I also convinced Kuniko to join me for some dim sum – and I finally got to try the salted egg yolk buns. They met my expectations – steaming hot, sweet and salty. We had some more at the airport on the way home – I couldn’t get enough.
There were some other great moments – discovering little eating places under old buildings, having (very expensive) cocktails at the bar on top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and watching another world unfold before us as the rich and powerful ran up colossal bar tabs. I’ll never forget how our bartender’s face fell when I ordered a traditional cocktail instead of his recommended drinks. The short visit to the butterfly garden at Singapore airport was also a strangely relaxing experience before we boarded a flight home.
So I’m really glad we finally got to go to Singapore. Like I said before, I doubt that we’ll go back anytime soon. Mainly the culture is so money and status-oriented, the temperature was a little oppressive (especially in the afternoons) and it is such a small country that I think we covered pretty much everything that we were interested in already.
So Cheers to Singapore, thanks for all the Tiger beers, and we’ll start to look forward to our next trip to South Korea.
