Finally back in Singapore

Singapore is a world of its own. Despite the flight being one and a half hours late, leading to the rush at the hotel check-in and the ride to the restaurant where friends have already been waiting a long time, I feel immediately at home. It has been over two and a half years since I was last in Singapore, which feels like an eternity considering that this is my seventh entry into the city-state in the last nine years. But someone seems intent on drowning our vacation in rain. First, we had to welcome a typhoon in Hangzhou, and now the media in Singapore headline 'Northwest Singapore experiences one of the highest daily rainfall amounts since 1978'. However, the expected amounts of rain do not diminish my fascination for Singapore - nor my delight in being here. I discover new buildings and old buildings in new colors. Next to our hotel runs Serangoon Road, which is still festively decorated from the Deepavali festival of the Indian community. The next morning, we spend hours dealing with a bank matter, having to go to another branch, and eventually needing to sort things out the next day. I take it in stride. After all, we stroll in Gardens by the Bay, and I enjoy this green oasis of well-being. I know most of the places in this vast garden area, but this time I was in the 'Web of Life' garden for the first time, where animal figures are shaped from hedges. The sky is overcast, and it drizzles lightly sometimes, so I have to apply a new photo filter to add some color to the photos. In the afternoon, I want to visit monuments. I emerge from Singapore's deepest metro station and... it's pouring rain. I wait out the heavy downpour on a wooden bench. After the rain stops, I jump up and want to go, only to accidentally bash my shin against the wooden bench, making it bleed. No, nothing and no one is going to ruin Singapore for me, no flight delays, no rainy weather, and not even a bloody leg. Hum a song as I stroll through the streets of Singapore to my sightseeing spots. I may have lost a bit of blood, but not my good mood.