Singapore - A rich sweep

For Singapore, I've decided to take it a little slower. With temperatures above 30°C and high humidity, it's not surprising. Sunday will be a real multicultural day. A German with Silesian roots watching Fast X at the cinema in Singapore. In a mall in Little India, in the original English with Chinese subtitles. 🤣

Singapore is always among the top 10 most expensive countries in the world. I also read somewhere that the cost of living here is higher than in 94% of all countries worldwide. I can confirm that. The sad part? For a journey that would cost me over €6 by train in Germany, I pay around €2.25 here. Even for the cinema, I pay €10.74 here, compared to €12.50 in Germany. Either way, it doesn't make the movie any better. 🤣

On Monday, I will have the last opportunity to explore Singapore. On Tuesday, I will take off from the airport at 9:00 PM, and I guarantee you that I will not explore this city with 20 kg of luggage. Since I have to work from Monday afternoon until late at night, I have no choice but to explore the city at noon.

Before I head to the South City, I stop by the local mall to run a few errands. The manga library comes to mind again. They have a 'robot' there that is just waiting to be used. Just like at the airport in Seoul, I think to myself, 'Oh yeah, when will I get the opportunity again?' I press the microphone icon on the A4-sized screen and tell my new friend, 'Strike a pose.' He changes his pose and tells me in a strong Indian accent, 'I'm ready for a selfie.' I like the little tin buddy.

After the mall, I head to a metro station. It's pretty crazy. One moment I'm walking through Little India, looking at Indian restaurants, Buddhist temples, and when I turn a corner, I'm suddenly in China. And yet it works here. Amazing.

I decide to visit at least one more attraction: the OCBC Skywalk. What does OCBC stand for? 'Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation'. On the way there, I walk through Marina Bay Sands Mall. I wouldn't have voluntarily chosen this as a destination, I'm not the target audience for that. Everything screams 'welcome millionaires', which I can't relate to. Well, the idea of squeezing a little bit of Venice into a mall is funny.

But these round cafés surrounded by Louis Vuitton and Co. in an oval just seem extravagant to me. But I'm not the target audience. There are no tin buddies to pose with here. 🤷🏻‍♂️

While looking for my destination, I leave the millionaire's mall and see the city spread out before me. But I also notice the slightly moldy or musty smell, not for the first time. As quickly as it came, it disappears again. The view, however, remains.

On my way to Gardens by the Bay, I pass under a bridge. In the shade of the bridge, Indian construction workers gather, either squatting together or sleeping. It's 12:45 PM, you have to be stupid to do anything at this time.

Eventually, I reach my destination and buy a ticket for the Skywalk. The price is quite steep. Almost €8.50 for a 128m runway at a height of 22m. But for the view, it's worth it. And for the people I meet here. A group of women asks me to take a picture of them, and we fool around a bit. Later, these chicks will also have a video taken of themselves dancing on the walkway.

Eventually, I head back to the hotel by metro. There's one thing here that helps me a lot with orientation and that I don't think I've seen in our country. At German train platforms, the station name and the cities in that direction are listed.
Nice for the locals, but it doesn't help you if you're unfamiliar with the area. What good does it do a stranger in Düsseldorf to know whether they're heading towards Langenfeld or Duisburg, when they don't even know where Langenfeld and Duisburg are?

In the systems here, at each station, you have the following:

• Station name
• Station number
• Name and color of the line
• Direction of travel
• Previous station with number
• Following station with number

If I was unsure in the few cases which platform to take, I can still check the following station on Google Maps and know where to go.

Well, that's it. That was 2 months, almost 9 weeks of travel through parts of Asia. Most of my friends will later tell me that this time went by super fast. Well, I can only agree. At first, everything seemed soooo far away, it was so new and foreign. And eventually, in most cases, I was like a fish in water. A carp in a koi pond.