Singapore - Greetings from the Equator

The beloved belly 🧠

The beautiful thing about waking up in the same bed every day? Everything has its place, everything runs smoothly. You don't have to search for long, you can trust your things. Unfortunately, if you have to get up at 06:00 a.m. and go to the airport because the alarm clock is set to vibration as usual, but your phone is on the soft carpet. I am happy because I listened to my belly and set an additional alarm on the hotel tablet last night. Something I never do.

The flight 🛫

I'm not stupid, no, I can even learn. I am prepared. It goes to a new country, this time I have informed myself about my destination Singapore beforehand. It is amazing how much background information there is about the current society of a country when you learn about its history. Even if it's just a '5 Minutes of History' video on your phone. In the plane. To Singapore. 😅

Singa means lion, Pura means city. The lion city, because the stranded prince saw a lion and then founded a city there. Later the British came, then there was a lot of immigration from Chinese and Indians. '5 Seconds of History'.

In the airplane, I am a fan of window seats. It's because of my inner child, it loves the takeoffs and landings. But this time there are no sun blinds. 'What is Scoot for an airline?', it shoots through my head. Until the moment I send my inner child off. Something circular is under the window. It has a light and dark half. It can be pressed. It makes the window darker! Woooow! My inner child rejoices.

Arrival in Singapore 🛬

Arriving at the destination, I look at the waterfall in the airport; must-see. It doesn't blow me away. It's okay, but nothing that I would line up for. During my trip, I did not visit many of the major attractions. Often I find that they are not sooooo impressive. You imagine it to be super fantastic in your head, you dig deep into the bag of expectations, and in the end, it turns out differently.

It's like the analogy of stones and sand in a jar. You can already fit some of the big stones in this jar, at some point the jar is full. But between these big ones, many small pebbles fit, until the jar is full. Full? No, there is still space for sand, the little things in everyday life. Like a self-tinting airplane window. 😅

Multi-culti

Cynically, I realize that there are advantages when the British have colonized something: everything here is primarily in English. Primarily means the first of four languages. The labels are often in English, Mandarin, Tamil, and Malay.

Singapore is like a tropical London with better food. The street names are often in English, there is, among others, 'Lavender' or 'Kitchener' Street, or 'King George'. The curbs also have the same appearance, and double-decker buses also drive around here.

It's somehow different. I was surrounded by languages for two months with which I couldn't do anything. Whether spoken or written. And now it feels utopian. Malays, Chinese, and Indians walk around here and also speak English among themselves. Even if the majority are Chinese, it feels very balanced.

Vroom, vroom 🚌

I turn on the navigation to the hotel and Google Maps tells me: 'Hey, you can also pay with Google Pay via NFC!'. Now I have really reduced everything to a minimum, namely my phone. No commuter card, no bank card, just the phone. In a few days, I will leave without ever having withdrawn cash. No, not just that. I notice that in my time I haven't even seen cash. Even the bus takes your VISA card. Just like in Korea and Japan, you hold your card to the scanner at the ticket gate or bus entrance, and it checks you in. Payment is made when you get off. Done. Done.

When I leave the train station, I quickly realize: Yup, we're in the south. 31 degrees and 63% humidity. Welcome to the equator. It's crazy that I see some locals wearing sweaters here.

I can imagine that it is exhausting to stay or move around, especially in the midday heat. Since I'm carrying a third of my body weight with me, the idea is wishful thinking because I'm sweating.

On the way to the hotel, I pass an intersection where I suddenly hear applause and loud cheering. I look around and discover a railing with some people looking down. I join them and look down. There, two floors below, a public competition is taking place. A martial arts school has its young Judokas compete against each other. From up here, it has a bit of cockfighting flair. Also a bit from the movies, where the protagonist sees a fight between two fighters in a cage.

Japan loves its vending machines. But also its 100 yen coins. I rarely saw drink vending machines with contactless payment there. Here, however, every drink vending machine accepts NFC payment. And not only that, there are orange juice vending machines here. Since it is right around the corner from the hotel, I will definitely try it.

Arrival at the hotel 🏨

As I enter the lobby of Lyf, I see the reception with a huge 'Say Hi' sign above it. I check in and enjoy being able to finally have a conversation in fluent English with someone.

The room is fine. A fairly large room with separate chambers for the shower and the toilet. The sink is in the room itself. I notice a slight smell of mold, and it won't be the last time. I open the shower door. I see no mold, but the reason for it: a level-access shower, without a tub. It won't completely drain the water after the shower, not only in my room. So it's not worth the hassle.

When booking the room through Booking, I didn't even notice that the room doesn't have a TV. Lately, I've regained my enjoyment of sports, so this won't stop me either. Well, then I just have to hear better than see during boxing. 🤣

After a short shower and settling in, I go out to get water. I will need a lot of it. When I come out, I realize that I have ended up in Little India. I could have thought so. People predominantly Indian, it has a slightly dirty flair, although there is no garbage lying around and shoes are scattered in pairs in front of temples. But not only do I see that I am in Little India, I also smell it. Here and there, I encounter this distinctive smell of... Indian people. Not excessively, but it's there.

I go shopping and think to myself: 'Well, it's really expensive here.' Whether it's water, food, or milk. A liter of milk costs 2 € here, and that's still cheap. The fact that you only get alcohol at certain times is somehow .... unusual. Specifically, on Saturdays and Sundays between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m., you will not get alcohol. And on a public holiday. And on the eve of the public holiday. Asia - here stores are also open on public holidays.

In the evening, something pulls me outside again, into a small park. I notice with a slight irritation that it gets dark relatively quickly here. It dawned on me that I am at the equator. The sunset times will not change greatly here, not even in three months. It's 9:00 p.m., it's still 29°C, it probably won't get cooler. I lie down on a stone bench, the light breeze makes it bearable, almost pleasant. I listen to the chirping of the crickets and a distant jazz musician, my relaxed soundtrack of the evening; I review the day.

The city is not bad per se, from the little I have seen. But it doesn't invite me to come back. As a European, you definitely don't come here because of the climate.