Singapore Stopover
November 05, 2005
Singapore, Singapore
After leaving Bangkok we had a 5 day stopover in Singapore on the way to Australia. Singapore is quite a contrast to the rest of Asia that we have seen (India, Thailand, and Cambodia); it is a very clean and modern city and also quite wealthy. The official language is English and you can drink the tap water! (This may not seem like a big deal, but it has been over 3 months since we could do that.) While there certainly is some western influence, there is still a distinctly Asian feel to Singapore. I was often reminded of being back in China again. Chinese characters can be seen everywhere and there were a lot of the same foods, such as dumplings and hot pot (or "steamboat").
The main activities here are shopping and eating. It seems like every block there is an another enormous shopping complex. I have never seen so many shopping malls in one place (even more than Dubai, I think). The number of restaurants and food stalls is unbelievable too. A traditional greeting in Singapore is "Have you eaten yet?" I'm going to have to bring that one back to the US. Singapore is known for their street food. "Hawker stands" all over the city that sell great, cheap food. We have tried some of the local favorites such as kaya toast, a traditional Singaporean breakfast, and chili crabs, steamed crabs covered in a chili gravy.
There isn't a whole lot for tourists to do here (besides shopping and eating), so 5 days was probably more than enough time for us to stop here. One of the highlights, though, was the Singapore zoo, which is probably the best zoo I have ever been to. There aren't really any cages, so you are in closer contact to the animals and it feels more like you are out in the wild. My favorite part was feeding the baboons, who would do tricks such as backflips to get our attention/food. Besides the zoo, we also saw the Fountain of Wealth, which is the largest fountain in the world and was built on the principles of feng shui.
We are in the airport now so I am pretty sure we will make it out without being caned. Off to Australia next!
Posted by tim at 01:03 AM | Comments (1)