Singapore, Day 1, March 21, 2023

We arrived in Singapore around noon. Right after docking, we went through immigration and headed to the nearest major subway station to buy a 3-day pass.

Equipped with the pass, we then went to see the Merlion, a half-lion half-fish sea creature. After that, we took the first bus to the Arab Quarter, which adjoins Chinatown.

Afterwards, we met up with Salbiah, a former colleague of Maria's from E+H who lives and works in Singapore. We started by exploring a few shopping malls together. Singapore feels like one big shopping mall. These malls have plenty of fountains and indoor streams with gondoliers ferrying passengers around. There's an area that was originally designed as an ice rink and is now replaced with a giant touchscreen that responds to footsteps. Some stores have entire facades draped in real flowers, and so on.

Later on, we revisited Chinatown and then went out for an Indonesian dinner with Salbiah. After saying our goodbyes, we went to the Gardens by the Bay, either by taking a ride or walking. There are both real and artificial supertrees there. At night, there's a light show. We watched it from below first and then went up to the rooftop bar on the 47th floor of the Marina Bay Sands Building to admire the light show from above. The Marina Bay Sands has three towers with a ship-like structure on top. Inside the building, there's a large hotel, shops, and even private apartments.

Finally, we took the subway back. Along the way, we bumped into some crew members who were also going out after finishing their work.