Singapore: my start into the world trip

Singapore made it very easy for me and gave me a nice and positive start. After saying goodbye in Vienna, I was glad about the good atmosphere, a cozy hostel, and the extremely friendly people here. Thanks to Michi's tips, I already had a little plan.

Honestly, I knew little about the city-state. But in three days, you quickly learn the most important facts about Singapore. Luckily, there are "Free Walking Tours" here, where you can come to a meeting point without registration, quickly join a sociable group, and give the guide as much money as you want at the end.

That's how I started on the first day, and because the guide was so good, I immediately did two more tours. (1. Chinatown, 2. Civic District (Colonial District), 3. Kampong Glam). (monsterdaytours.com for those who are coming)

He was so incredibly motivated and knew everything we asked him. He even knew why chewing gum is practically banned in Singapore... The reason for my question: out of fear of paying a fine, I left my chewing gums in the plane because it was at the top of the "prohibited" list in the immigration info. In reality, you just can't throw them away in public, but you can possess them. Because they are hardly sold here, a black market for chewing gum has actually emerged 😂. They are banned because somewhere a subway door was so glued with chewing gum that the subway could not continue for five hours. 🤦‍♀️

Okay, enough about the chewing gum story.

About Singapore itself: for me, it was an exciting, multicultural, clean, friendly, colorful, green, organized, and safe city. Most of the inhabitants come from China, Malaysia, and India. Accordingly, the food was delicious. 😋 One of my highlights was also the Indian Thaipusam Festival.

Singapore (City of the Lion) was founded in 1819 by a Briton (so it's 200 years old this year...), before that, it was just a fishing island.

A few downsides: very expensive, politically apparently somewhat authoritarian democracy compared to Europe, but progressive compared to the rest of Southeast Asia! I was very impressed by the government's measures for cleanliness and the environment (e.g. for every built sqm, a sqm of green space must be planted here, which is sometimes vertically integrated into the architecture and looks great!)

You can see on the photos where I've been hanging out.

There could have been so many interesting museums, art, and places, but there wasn't enough time for that...

I really liked Singapore overall and can highly recommend it.