Singapore - Tiger Of Southeast Asia
For my 30th birthday, we traveled to the glittering world hub that is Singapore. The island city-state is a centre of commerce, culture, and industry on a worldwide scale, and we both were excited to make it there at some point. so plans were made and we were off.
The city of Singapore has long been a focus of trade all across the Asian Empire, and it has grown into a glittering mecca of commercialism that might be one of the most modern cities on the planet. The British first landed in 1819, led by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, and over the next two hundred years the city went from a thick jungle swamp to a nexus of power in Southeast Asia. Thanks to the steadfast rule of Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister for over 30 years, the city has become on par with New York City, Tokyo, Shanghai, and other worldly cities as one of the "best" cities in the world.
The city of Singapore has long been a focus of trade all across the Asian Empire, and it has grown into a glittering mecca of commercialism that might be one of the most modern cities on the planet. The British first landed in 1819, led by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, and over the next two hundred years the city went from a thick jungle swamp to a nexus of power in Southeast Asia. Thanks to the steadfast rule of Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister for over 30 years, the city has become on par with New York City, Tokyo, Shanghai, and other worldly cities as one of the "best" cities in the world.
All trips to Singapore being with a trip to Changi Airport, the Skytraxx-ranked #1 airport in the world for three years running, 2012-2015. No pictures as we were quickly onto the Airport Lightrail. Singapore is connected by one of the most modern and consistent metro systems in the world. Between several subway lines, a couple of monorails, and other above-ground high speed trains, as well as a comprehensive bus system to compliment it, Singapore is an extremely well connected nexus. We ended up riding the subway almost the whole time we were there, and it was a charm and a dream to ride.
By utilizing three of the lines, we were able to quickly get from the airport to our hotel, located on the famous Orchard Row, one of Singapore's primary shopping hubs. This street is comparable with Times Square, or any other stretch of urban shopping space anywhere in the world. Our hotel was the top 19 floors of a 29 floor building, with a large shopping mall in the bottom levels. Our metro stop, Somerset, was in the basement of this building. It was quite convenient to say the least! The hotel was right in the heart of Orchard Street, so we were in a glittering mecca of shopping malls and high rise residential complexes. From the roof (where our pool was) we had a great view over to Downtown, the glittering heart of the Singapore Empire.
Orchard Street & Clarke Quay
Since we had a limited time on the island, it was imperative that we keep busy to enjoy all we could in our short time. So, it was out to explore.
The first night we were out also happened to be Thanksgiving, so we settled on a restaurant in the Clarke Quay area, a place popular with local expats. So, after a super quick stop for me to grab some McDonalds (so amazing) it was back onto the subway and off to Clarke Quay. Our friends Cate and Justin, who had lived in Singapore for a time, told us of some places to look, so we settled on a place called Brewerkz, in the area that is just off the greater Downtown. |
Dinner ended up being a bit of a bummer; it was a buffet, and the restaurant was busy with both customers having that and the usual night time traffic of people who didn't celebrate or didn't give a shit about Thanksgiving. So as a result, the food wasn't great and it was a bit expensive. Still, walking around the Quay after dark was quite fun, as it was all lit up gay and festively, with lights and decorations aplenty. The area around the restaurant had lots of wide sidewalks and bridges, so there was lots of plenty out strolling around, jogging, and hanging out. We browsed around in a few of the shops, although most were just too expensive!
|
Little India - Arab Quarter
Our first full day in the city, also my birthday, was to be an ethnic day. We set out to see the three neighborhoods of people that have made Singapore a melting pot since the beginning: Little India, the Arab Quarter, and Chinatown. We also explored a little bit up Orchard Street as well, checking out all of the various malls and buildings. Before anything though, I had to go to the US Embassy, as I was quickly running out of Visa pages in my passport. The regulations on the website said that to process the new pages, I would need to leave my passport overnight and pick it up the next day. However, since the Embassy was closed Thursday because of Thanksgiving, and closed nominally on Saturday and Sunday, and seeing as how we had a flight out of the city on Sunday, I decided my best hope was the get in as early as possible and try and sweet talk to person on duty into helping. As it turned out, the woman who helped me had been living in Ho Chi Minh City for two years before Singapore, and since it was my birthday she put it on rush processing and I had it back at 2 pm that day! She helped me out a bunch.
Little India isn't far from Orchard Street, and really aside from a few streets of shops full of Indian cloth, Indian food, and some Indian food restaurants, it isn't that all encompassing. Like the other cultures in Singapore, the Indian culture lives and works everywhere, and doesn't need to be confined to one neighborhood like in the history of the city. The Arab Quarter is similar, although the big claim to fame of the Arab Quarter is the Masjid Sultan, or the Sultan Mosque, and incredible piece of architecture and history. Although some of it was undergoing a renovation, we were still able to see it's beautiful facades.
Back to the hotel we went for a quick swim and some R&R out of the sun (it is always hot and muggy in Singapore, always), and celebrated my birthday with a little cake the hotel sent me for free! Then it was out to Downtown, where we were going to check out the core of high rise towers, the Waterfront and Marina Bay, and Chinatown, which was just past the whole area.
Downtown - Bay Front
We exited the metro at Raffles Place, the square in the middle of Downtown Singapore. It is a pretty impressive place, coming out of the subway and into a tiny plaza of green, surrounded by giant towers of concrete, steel and glass on all sides.
Downtown is the home of numerous Asian companies and conglomerates, and even those who are not based or headquartered in the city have major district or regional offices here. The Stock Exchange in the area is a major worldwide banking and business hub, and the amount of dollars and pounds, yen and reminbi, ringgit and euros, is staggering. Just a few blocks from Raffles Place and the Downtown core is a the HarbourFront, which famous for it's Merlion Statue, as well as views across to the hugely famous Marina Bay Sands, it's well-known triple-tower design striking just a kilometer across the water. |
Chinatown
After wandering around and exploring Downtown, it was over to Chinatown for dinner. One of the places I wanted to go in Singapore the most was Chinatown. It is quintessential piece of the city, as fully 75% of the cities inhabitants boast some kind of Chinese heritage. It is like most Chinatowns you see around the area, (and world) with numerous hawker areas selling cheap knockoff shit, with lots of DVD shops, fake sunglasses, and Buddhist temples. There is also quite the array of restaurants in the area, and some true, authentic Chinese is just what I wanted for my birthday dinner, so we saddled up at the "Old Yang Kee" and had a fantastic and delicious Chinese meal.
After dinner we mulled around the idea of just going home and calling it an early night, but we ended up going all the way out to the Night Safari, which, like most of the zoos/aquariums in SE Asia, just made us a little sad. In Singapore the animals are treated a bit better than in other places, but still, the tiny enclosures that they keep these majestic animals in is quite sad, and the animals themselves look quite sad as a result. Our camera doesn't shoot night time very well, so we took very little photos there. |
Universal Studios Sentosa
The next day was our last full day in Singapore, so we headed to Sentosa, the artificial island created in the harbor that houses Sentosa Resorts World, basically a gigantic island of fun and theme parks. In addition to Universal Studios, the island also boasts a full theme park, several artificial beaches, a water park, numerous hotels and shopping options, an aquarium, and plenty of other activities. You have to take a separate monorail out to it, which is kinda fun but also silly. Universal Studios was a blast; if you ever go here, BUY THE EXPRESS PASS! It is quite a bit more money but at the end of the day I was wishing we had bought them. The rides are great, but the wait times are LOOOONG for the short time you are on the ride. We waited close to an hour for the Transformers Ride, which itself lasted all of about 3 or 4 minutes. It was fun but no ride is fun enough to justify that long of a wait. Still, we did have a fantastic time here and it was a blast.
The next day we pretty much had to get out fairly early and leave, so it was a quick run on the metro back the airport and out. Since the flight between Singapore and Da Nang is no more, we had to fly to Ho Chi Minh City first, and then back to Da Nang. I wanted to get a shot of the port area from the airplane but ended up on the wrong side of the cabin, so I will leave you with a picture of our plane, and a picture of the ports from www.superbwallpapers.com courtesy of user godlike_box_man.
All photos and text copyright Kit Davidson.