Singapore, Singapore

27.dec '18 - 02.jan '19

The trip to Singapore has already started wild, with a sleepless night at the airport.

At 7 o'clock in the morning we left Koh Phangan with the ferry and then still traveled for several hours by bus to Phuket. I'm slowly running out of motion sickness tablets... uh-oh:// After a fresh six hours at the airport, where we wandered from one restaurant to the next, our plane took off for Singapore. Esther fought with her ears due to illness, otherwise we arrived at 1 o'clock in the morning safe and sound. Then thrown into the seats for the next five hours and then made it to the hostel with the fancy metro. I haven't closed my eyes all that time. But since we could only check in at 2 pm, we were practically forced to turn around and explore the city.

Arriving at Marina Bay, we quickly noticed how beautiful and clean it is here, how tired we are and how CRAZY HOT it is. We fought through until twelve o'clock, then Esther went back to the hostel so she can recover as quickly as possible! I thought to myself, I can keep going until the evening to finally get my sleep rhythm back to normal. So I wrestled my way through the tourist masses to the famous Merlion statue. Watched by all the Indian eyes and driven by hunger, I quickly left.

Since Singapore is known to be very expensive, I was determined to find street food stalls. So I headed for Chinatown and wandered around in my Hawaii shirt, leggings, and slippers in the business suit area (which is actually everywhere) between the skyscrapers.

At least everything is in English here and people are happy to help. After numerous Chanel, Gucci and Prada stores, I accidentally stumbled upon a Chinese food court. About 80 Chinese and Singaporeans (?) apparently had their lunch break there. It was exactly here that I ordered a noodle soup and had the worst chopsticks ever. So I embarrassed myself a bit among all the Asian chopstick pros. Until I realized that I just have to stick my head into the soup bowl and slurp the noodles loudly so as not to stand out. It tasted really good!

After that, of course, I was extremely hot again, as always, and I had to take advantage of the Wi-Fi in the air-conditioned Starbucks. 3 hours later, I finally made my way back to the hostel and fell into a deep coma after 36 sleepless hours.

On the second day, we visited Orchard Street. In just one street there are 22 malls, of which I would estimate about 80% to be in the Gucci-Prada price range.

First, according to our tradition from Canada, we went to Victoria's Secret and treated ourselves to some underwear. Because the laundry here tends to tear some pieces apart :) Then we ended up back at Marina Bay, like every day. You can basically walk around the whole area and there's something to see at every spot. Whether it's Merlion Park, skyline, the ship or the Durian building.

In the evening, we played around with the camera settings and lights. We were back at the hostel by half past eleven 😴

On the third day, it was finally time for the famous Gardens by the Bay. After taking a detour to get the tickets a few dollars cheaper (that's the backpacker life!), we arrived at the Flower Dome. This huge hall with plants from all over the world was a bit disappointing because it was decorated very kitschy with Christmas decorations, among other things.

However, the Cloud Forest, another hall with a botanical garden, a waterfall, and a bridge that surrounds a mountain, put our mood back in place.

After taking what felt like 1000 pictures of plants, we went outside to admire the evening light show at the "Supertree Groves". The announcement said that there was a Christmas special running today, and Esther and I rolled our eyes. Considering that they don't celebrate Christmas here in Asia, they decorate and advertise quite extensively. But the show was definitely impressive and there were a lot of people there. We noticed that on the way back when all the paths were completely blocked.

Then, of course, back to Marina Bay, which is right next door, and enjoy the atmosphere. There is music and light shows everywhere, an amusement park, a food truck festival, and much more. I couldn't get enough of the view of the skyline. In general, the architecture in the whole city inspired me a lot for photography and drawing.

The next day was already December 31, 2018! In the morning, we visited the famous Haji Lane. There are many cute handmade shops with clothes, bags, and trinkets. In the café, I drank an excellent lime juice, which is very popular here.

After a break at the hostel, we made our way to Marina Bay, where the big fireworks took place at 12 o'clock. Of course, we treated ourselves to snacks and a Radler to toast on the way. Alcohol is SO expensive here, more than one Radler wasn't possible. So at half past eight, we were sitting in a relatively good spot. The remaining 3.5 hours we watched Finding Nemo and talked about the trip. Then, quite late, we realized that there was exactly one tree in our field of view and we moved on through the crowds. We weren't in the front row anymore, but we had a better spot. I tell you, I have never sweated so much on New Year's Eve as I did there at 28 degrees among hundreds of people. The fireworks somehow started at 11 o'clock and only lasted until 12:30. but they were really amazing. It was truly crazy and I can only recommend everyone to spend New Year's Eve here once. In this sense, I wish everyone reading this a happy 2019.

I started the new year in the huge Botanic Garden of Singapore. Because I have discovered plant photography for myself, as you can see from the photos as well. I got myself a sugar cane juice in the café, also very popular here. They actually put two stalks through the juicer and that's it. Very interesting, but it wasn't really my taste.

After a good 3 hours, I went to Orchard Road and unsuccessfully looked for flip-flops. But more pictures were taken and I ate ice cream in rainbow toast. Yes, something like that really exists.

Next stop was Chinatown, where I met up with Esther.

Also to the Central Business District and then again to the Gardens by the Bay. So 20km in one day and a lot of things checked off my list. A great day.

What I found really interesting about Singapore was that there is no official language, but 4. All signs are written in four languages, English, Mandarin, Tamil (India), and Malay. All 4 cultures live peacefully side by side. The Indians wear their clothes, eat with their hands, and the Chinese sit next to them and eat with chopsticks. You can especially observe this in the many hawker centers. These are food courts with small restaurants lined up next to each other.

In the week, we ate our way through Little India, Chinatown, Arab Street, and countless hawker centers. The food here is really super interesting, you would like to try everything.

The only thing we had to do without was the national dish Chili Crab because a $70 crab simply didn't fit into the budget. But that's a reason to come back!

We love Singapore and are now looking forward to Malaysia.

See you soon🤙🏽

PS: There are so many signs and prohibitions with fines in Singapore that Esther started a photo series about it. The city is also called "Fine City". Here is an example: