Singapore Part 2

 

My love of green spaces is well established by now.  Singapore has a campaign that says ‘Let’s make Singapore our garden’ and they do an excellent job just judging by Fort Canning.  The park is situated on a series of tiers with the lowest tiers open to car traffic. Plenty of benches, some waterfalls and, for some reason, chickens.  Okay. 

On the last full day of my trip, I explored yet another garden area full of sculptures and hedge creations near the Marina Sands.  A very peaceful place with much to see.

I still don’t understand how this huge baby sculpture exists.  What’s holding it up?

I found my new favorite store/restaurant.  It’s a Singapore exclusive called Bread Talk, a bakery located in every one of the 300 malls I’ve been in.  They provide you with a tray and some tongs and you just pick out what you want then go to pay.  The bread is amazing and each store has a slightly different selection so seeking out the stores was something of a scavenger hunt for me.  A theme song plays in the stores that, if I had to listen to it for 8 hours a day, would make me start beating people with a loaf of bread, but other than that, the store is great.

Since I didn’t get a chance to see much of Changi Airport when I came in, I decided to dedicate a day to explore it.  I jumped on the train and got out at the airport along with a bunch of other people who didn’t have luggage.

Now why

would anyone

go to an airport

just to hang out?

The waterfall is located in a crystal-like building called the Jewel.  It is a massive multilevel (two commonly used words for structures in Singapore) garden with mini-waterfalls and seating areas everywhere.  As you can see, it currently has a Marvel theme – strange, but since I’m a big Marvel fan, it worked for me.  Even with the branding and all the tourists, the garden is a peaceful place to chill in.  There’s theatrical music playing, mist from the waterfall to cool the skin, and plenty of people-watching to engage in.  This is only one of the couples I spotted having a photo shoot in the airport.

This being Singapore, there is a full mall in the airport along with multiple food courts.  The free movie theater was showing one of the Mission Impossible movies (could have been the latest one, I'm not sure).

The top floor of the Jewel is set up like an amusement park.  There are attractions like a virtual experience game, a hedge maze, a mirror maze, and a bouncing net all for separate fees.  You can also access the train that goes past the waterfall and the walkway for a better view.

The airport is so well designed that you could wander around for hours and keep yourself entertained, fed, and broke.  All for the cost of a short train ride from anywhere in the city.  And hey!  Free air conditioning!

Remember how I said everything was connected in Singapore?  I was not exaggerating.  On my first full day, Google Maps led me on surface streets to get to the Merlion and the Marina Sands hotel.  Turns out, you can get there through subway tunnels.  Most of my time in Singapore was spent wondering ‘where does this escalator go?  I don’t know, but I’m about to find out.’ In keeping with that mindset, I started to follow a group of determined looking people as they went up one escalator near the City Hall MRT, around the corner, through a parking garage, up another escalator, on and on.  I was stunned when we ended up at the outdoor bandstand across from the Marina Sands.  I was curious about where else you could get if you knew how.  I was also curious to see if I could find my way back taking the same route since I wasn't paying attention (better than I thought as I only made a couple of missteps).

Besides the gardens and Fort Canning, there are so many other great gathering spaces around the city.  I saw numerous groups of people taking a lunch and a blanket to a shady spot and having some fellowship during the afternoon.  Even the evenings were full of people just walking around and enjoying the summer breeze.  And why shouldn't they?  Singapore is safe, clean, and gorgeous.  I loved this place.  And while it's too expensive to live there, I would definitely go back for another visit.

 

Singapore

 

I’m kind of obsessed with the movie Crazy Rich Asians.  I’ve seen it multiple times and never get tired of it.  It is straight up pornography – food porn, rom-com porn, rich porn, Singapore porn (Singaporn) and I love it.  So, for this reason, I just had to visit Singapore where the movie is set.

Singapore is an easy 2 ½ hour flight from Bangkok with the added benefit of flying into Changi Airport, which is considered one of the best airports in the world.  Well, not so much when you first arrive.  It just looks like any other airport with large airy spaces.  Immigration was the first area where the airport stands out in an interesting way.  The arriving passengers are guided to a bunch of kiosks where you have to put in your passport info.  A couple of people are around to guide you through the process (very appreciated as I did have some problems).  The screen asks a bunch of questions about nationality and point of origin and at the end you are granted a 90-day visa (of sorts) to stay in the country.  A copy is emailed to you along with the picture they ask you to take of the screen.

Then it was on to transport to the hotel I’d booked for the week.  No taxi this time – I was encouraged to take the MRT, Singapore’s insanely well-organized public transit system.  I thought I’d have to buy a ticket or fuss with machines until the attendants told me to just press my debit card to the scanner at the gate and voila!  The gate let me pass.  No tickets or tokens to worry about.  Just scan your card to get out at your destination and the system charges you accordingly.  How’s that for convenient?

As for the rest of the trip to my hotel … not so much.  I got out at the recommended stop only to find it pouring rain.  I waited around for it to slacken up then had to wrangle all my bags, while holding my umbrella up to try to keep my phone dry while I traversed unfamiliar streets.  Oh, and there was a lot of traffic and construction that closed off some of the sidewalks.  And, sure, let’s go up some hills because I needed more of a challenge.  Then I dropped my umbrella in the road while I dashed across.  I heard a car honking trying to alert me, but it wasn’t until a nice man on the other side of the road pointed it out that I realized what happened.  He offered tips to get it and told me that people would stop for me.  In hindsight, I shouldn’t have risked my life for a cheap replaceable umbrella, but … I was new to the country, it could rain again, and I don’t like to litter.

Finally found my way to the D’Nova hotel and, well, I hated the place on sight.  I know that capsule hotels are popular in Singapore.  The rooms in those hotels are basically drawers to store people at night with a communal bathroom out in the hall.  Really not to my taste.  I looked for AirBNBs and hotels in the area, but the only place I could find that was even remotely affordable was this place.  It’s a slight step up from a capsule hotel, but the room is still just a glorified jail cell.  There is no chair, no desk (only a narrow shelf), no drawers, no closet, only one outlet and a 'privacy curtain' over the sink that offended me wherever it was situated.  The only benefits over a prison cell were that I didn’t have a roommate and I could leave whenever I wanted.  And it was clean.

The hotel is located on a side street from two main thoroughfares.  It’s surrounded by other tiny-room hotels and a lot of bars and restaurants, all of them stupidly expensive.  To add insult to injury, the two-high-rise complex of the Carlton hotel is located just across the street.  Rooms there go for around $600 a night.  Any questions why I’m staying in the dump?

The Carlton was just one example of the expense of this city.  Just down the street from my hotel is a huge, ornately decorated, white mall full of high-end stores and restaurants requiring reservations.  Down the street is yet another mall, a mix of big name-brand stores and more affordable options. Just like in Portugal, where you could throw a stick and hit a café, in Singapore that same stick would land you in a mall.  This country really wants your money.  The malls here are huge, beautiful, vibrant, and crowded places where everyone meets.

The City Hall MRT station is located in that mall, called Raffle City. It pissed me off to realize that this station is closer to the hotel than the one they recommended.  It could have saved me a lot of hassle to know that sooner.  But no matter.  This mall, with its MRT station, huge food court and grocery store on the lowest level, became my main point of reference in getting around the city.  Very helpful as I am prone to wondering aimlessly without keeping track of how to find my way home.

The next day was bright and sunny. Thanks to the movie, I knew just what sights I wanted to see first.  My phone took me on a circuitous route to get to the famous Merlion statue.  This image is on a lot of the merchandising and is so popular, there is a mini lion right in front of that statue and a whole park designed around it.  And just across the harbor is the iconic hotel where the final scene of Crazy Rich Asians takes place.  Now just to get there.

That is a looooong walk to get to those buildings.  It means going past a concert hall, an outdoor stadium with a running track, up some stairs, across a pedestrian bridge and into The Shoppes at Marina Sands Bay.  All in SE Asian summer heat.  Oy.

This mall is just … Huge.  Beautiful.  Crowded.  Way too rich for my blood.  There’s Fendi next to Marc Jacobs next to Van Cleef and Arpels next to Hermes next to … yet another store I didn’t even bother to go into.  Like I said, Singapore wants your money.  It wasn’t going to get mine, though.  And judging by the empty hands of most of the people I saw walking around as well as the bored workers standing around in those chi-chi stores, Singapore wasn’t getting anybody else’s money either.  The only place doing big business was the massive food court on the ground floor.

Technically, you don’t have to enter the mall to reach the hotel.  But, as I was soon to discover, everything in Singapore seems to be connected as long as you know how to get there.  This is the land of escalators and underground tunnels.  I wandered around, marveling at everything I saw.  This mall has a canal.  And like in Venice, you can rent boat rides after you get tired of the casino and the interactive light display near the food court.

I stumbled upon some escalators that led to the reception area of the hotel.  If you go through there (very crowded with people checking in), out the door and around the corner, you’ll find another set of escalators that will lead you to the ticketing area to get to the top of the hotel.  For about 30 SD, you get your picture taken (you have the option to pay for a copy later) and go up the elevator to the 56^th floor.  The boat shaped structure at the top of the three towers features a concession stand and a restaurant (only for guests of the hotel) and gives you a killer view of the city. 

Singapore is truly beautiful.  A very modern, safe, and clean place.  Seeing it from atop the towers was a great overview before really getting into exploring the city.

And this, friends, is how I spent my 4^th of July, 2023.