Singapore was expensive, and like every big Asian city, our time and enjoyment there would be directly related to how comfortable our accommodations were. We had heard a lot of semi-negative comments about traveling in Singapore, a lot of “yeah… .it’s o-k-“ etc, but we were to have none of that, as we were staying with a friend of Beth’s Dad, who happened to be an expatriot with a conveniently located place on Orchard Boulevard, right next to the information center, and a stone’s throwaway from Orchard Road.
The heat and humidity in Singapore, as in Melacca and Penang, was oppressive at this time of year (and from what we heard, it didn’t get much better in the “off” season). Sometimes I didn’t even feel that hot, but then I would look down at the beads of sweat on my arms and realize my shirt had turned a shade darker and weighed two kilos heavier due to a full layer of sweat. The humidity could sneak up on you.
The information center was excellent. They had tons of maps, pamphlets and two good walking tours (Chinatown and the Riverside area). The monthly Singapore official guide is great and had lots of info on the month’s events and special attractions, so we also used that as a guide.
If you could imagine building a city from scratch, ala Sim City, Singapore may be one of many imagined outcomes. It’s clean and sanitary, and nothing is too old, historical or sacred to be remodeled, altered or improved in some way or another. Perhaps for those same reasons, it lacks the pulse of other major cities. On our last day we did the “Chinatown Walk”, which was quite good, but it lacked the hustle and bustle of similar places in other cities. Everything was in its proper place, which wasn't disagreeable by any stretch of the imagination, just different and unexpected. Singapore is famous for shopping, which was most likely the reason that we practically saw more Japanese than native Singaporeans at every attraction and commercial shopping area.
Sentosa Island was Singapore’s version of Disneyland, and if you took it for what it was – a fun, relaxing place where you could have a good time while spending lots of money – it was great. There were a fair number of things to do after you arrived on the island by bus, boat or cable car (it was only a few hundred meters off the coast of Singapore) and many of the attractions are cheesy and avoidable – Volcanoland, the Merlion and a few others – but Beth and I went to Underwater World and Fantasy Island. Underwater World was an amazing aquarium featuring a huge, 40-meter long square tunnel beneath huge tanks of sharks, rays, groupers and lots more. At the time, the “tunnel under the tank” was pretty rare for aquariums, and I have since been to a few (Sydney, Sarasota, Atlanta) that have replicated this effect, but it was one of the nicest aquariums I had been to at the time. Other features included a petting pool where anyone could get a firsthand look (and feel!) at turtles, rays, starfish and sharks. They had feedings where a diver would go into the large tank and hand feed the ravenous sharks (See Team America - Hans Brix). We spent about two hours there and then indulged at Burger King for lunch – this was quite different from the “backpacker” experience we’d been accustomed to.
In the afternoon, it was off to Fantasy Island (now Equarius Water Park). I know what it sounds like… but unfortunately this wasn’t an offshore brothel! We didn’t have any huge water parks in Canada (like Six Flags in the States), so at that point in our trip, having this sudden “tourist” experience, Beth and I had the best time. We were like a couple of kids – zipping around to the dozen or so waterslides, including two that were pitch black tunnels that scared the shit out of us but kept us going back again and again. We spent almost five hours there! It was great for some stupid fun, but it had its price, in all the day cost us way more that we were used to spending in a week. Fuck it – it was worth it!
Our next day of money spending fun was at the renown Singapore Zoo and the Singapore Night Safari. The zoo was a large, open concept tract of land surrounded by a huge reservoir. We spent quite a lot of time there (6 ½ hours) due to the fact that they had two really good shows, lots of scheduled feedings, and a wide variety of animals, particularly primates. We unfortunately met up with this Brit that we had bumped into at the pool in Malacca, and he was constantly whinging (wow, what a great British word to describe a whining, complaining Brit) about one thing or another – especially when it came to the price of things. We managed to lose him after a while though.
The Night Safari , a new attraction at the time, right next to the zoo, was a very original idea and had promising room for improvements with more displays due to be added. Since, according to out tram tour operator, 90% of animals were nocturnal, you really got a different “zoo experience” at night. The sounds of the jungle at night were incredible. The main feature of the safari was the 40 minute long tram ride which covered 75% of the park. There were also several easy walks, our favourite being the fishing cat display, where if you stayed and watched long enough you could see the small cats diving for and catching fish in a shallow creek.
On one of our walks, we bumped into the whinger again and he led with “it really knacks me off that you have to pay extra for the Night Safari. That’s really annoying isn’t it”. Yes, capitalism is really annoying whinger.
We weren’t allowed to use flash photography, but someone on our tram kept taking pictures to the utter ire of our Malay guide. Finally, after numerous warnings, she said “Maybe I should speak in Japanese….” But that had no effect at all, doubtless due to her bad pronunciation (actually, it was quite good… I think someone wasn’t listening!!!). It made me ashamed for the Japanese. In Singapore, we saw first hand evidence of the Japanese behaviour that many others had complained about: there was no way anyone could have avoided the “no flash” signs – there was a video with obvious warnings, lots of pictorial signs and lots of people telling you to watch it, so it wasn’t completely a case of language barrier. I’ve since seen things like this many times from our Japanese friends, and I think it really comes down to this: when they’re out of their environment, they believe or feel that they are completely isolated from anything they know or understand, so they close themselves off to external things. I have tried helping Japanese tourists in Toronto, coming up to them and speaking Japanese and offering my help, but often they just look at me utterly confused. They are not expecting to be able to communicate, so they shut down their sensors. This is one of the reasons I believe the Japanese are famous for traveling in groups/tours. It’s not just a language barrier but a feeling of isolation that moulds their behavior abroad.
The next day, we decided to do the Riverside walk, which was pretty good, but it wasn’t quite the historical time capsule it purported to be, as everything was too clean, freshly painted or generally modern looking, but it got better when we god to Clarke Quay. The Clarke Quay area is a shoppers and food lover’s paradise, as there are tons of stores, and hundreds of every kind of restaurant imaginable, from low end hawker food to five star dining. There was even a “Hooters”, an American franchise I’d only heard of at the time – I wondered if recruiting had been an issue in Singapore…
Chinatown was also a pretty good walk, but again, it lacked character until you got to the detour area and saw how it may have been. It donned on me several weeks later that one of the things that separated Singapore from its Asian sisters (including Tokyo) was the complete lack of food stalls on the street. In Tokyo, you walk down the sidewalk and there are hawkers on one side and huge glass buildings on the other. You haven’t seen Seoul unless you’ve eaten dinner standing up at a small kiosk on the street, waiting for the owner to Kreskin the total bill. Bangkok, KL, even Jakarta had these stalls, which brought the people outside on the streets, and in turn added character to the city.
Singapore’s streets were quiet. I guess street stalls were difficult to control, and Singapore is all about control. No smoking, no drinking, no gum, no durian! All you see all over the entire city is the ubiquitous red circle with line through it signs. I guess the government saw this as the only way to clean up their city, though no doubt, they had gone a little overboard.
We ended up skipping Arab Street and Little India and instead spent all our spare moments either in our friend’s air conditioned condo, or lounging by his pool: it was our home away from home, but it had to come to end. We had plans to meet up with friends from Japan in Koh Samui, Thailand on the 25th of August, and we had to get back into the swing of things before we succumbed to the life of leisure.
We were not impressed at all with the train station in Singapore. After trying a few times to get them on the phone, we had to go there ourselves, and it was so out of the way and lacking in to/from transport services that I had to arrive at the conclusion that, for whatever reason, Singapore was neglecting this link to it’s former countrymen.
We ended up catching the 8:20pm train to Jerantut, arriving at 3:00am, and after a quiet walk through Singapore and Malaysia customs, our time in Singapore had officially come to an end.
8/5 to 8/11 (6 nights)
Avg daily travel S$17.27 or $USD12.33
Food S$35.28 or $USD25.20
Misc S$34.30 or $USD24.50
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