Singapore

Singapore: that South East Asian metropolis of metropolises!

We ventured forth with a small detachment of new teachers on Jan. 24^th. See, to gain admittance into Malaysia, you need to show “proof” of when you’ll be leaving, so, along with paying our flight to Malaysia, our school also bought us a one-way plane ticket to Singapore: the closest foreign country to KL. You didn’t need to go; you just needed to have that “proof”.  Some new teachers didn’t end up going, but Megan and I didn’t want to discard a free plane ride to Singapore; therefore, we packed a light bag, booked a hostel and return plane ticket, and set off for the airport!

We weren’t going alone either. As companions, we were graced with 5 others: Suzie, Sherry, Perry, Christina and Doug: all new teachers. We were sharing a hostel room with Sherry and Perry. Now, they aren’t brother and sister, or even romantically involved; just good friends with rhyming names from Newfoundland. In all my years of travelling, I had never stayed in a hostel, so this would be a first. When booking, Megan asked if we should book a small hostel room (expensive) or big hostel room (cheap); I said, let’s go big! My argument was that if you were sharing your bedroom with one stranger, what’s the difference of sharing it with ten? Megan poked a hole in this logic by simply stating that one drunken, loud stranger as a roommate was doable, but ten drunken, loud strangers was downright unseemly. So we went for the smaller room to be shared with Sherry and Perry. (There were two extra beds in the room, but over the course of the weekend, these remained vacant with little ‘reserved’ signs resting on the pillows).

Hostel Entrance

Now, Singapore is the city I imagined Kuala Lumpur as being! Kuala Lumpur has the beautiful Petronas Towers as its architectural focal point, but Singapore has a plethora!  We got there mid-afternoon and strolled as a group down to the marina. All of the buildings lining the marina were new and uniquely designed.  All of us walked in awe, snapping photos. We discovered that Singapore had doubled its land area in the last 40 years or so, by simply continuously spraying dirt and sand into the ocean to create new land. Everything in the marina had not been there 40 years previous.

Ice Cream Sandwich Vendor

Sherry enjoying a 'wich... mmm

The Double Helix Bridge

The Singapore Merlion

Perry pushing

Now, KL and most of South East Asia are not fans of pedestrians. They don’t detest them, but they don’t pay much mind to them. Cars have the right of way in these parts, so if you’re using your dogs to get from point A to point B, best check both ways before crossing the street. (It’s funny: here in KL, they drive on the left side of the road, so I’m always looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic: so both ways is always a safe bet). There’s one tale of a teacher from years before getting nailed by a car while strolling on a crosswalk of all places; one of our friends here speaks of being nailed by an automobile while jogging. So, it was to our pleasant surprise to find that Singapore loves pedestrians! They do, they really do! They think about pedestrians when designing their city; they may even dream about them. As a result, there are wide sidewalks everywhere! For those of you back home: Cherish your sidewalks! Get down on your hands and knees and kiss them! They don’t have them everywhere. I found Singapore’s wide sidewalks to be completely refreshing. Here was a city you could stroll about in and not feel hemmed in by the buildings and streets. It’s amazing how much power sidewalks have over your mental health. Imagine walking in downtown Ottawa, Toronto, New York with narrow non-existent sidewalks: enough to transform you into a sociopath, I think; maybe you’d never even leave your house!

Also, on these sidewalks: joggers! From where we’re from, joggers are not rare. But since being in South East Asia, I can probably count the number of joggers I’ve seen on one hand. That’s not an exaggeration. People don’t jog in these parts. There are a number of reasons for that, I’m told: 1) It’s hot. 2) Lack of sidewalks or even parks. 3) Laidback attitude. Now, some teachers at my school provided me with reason number three, but apparently the majority of Malaysians don’t love to exercise. There’s no real physical competitive spirit; the Malaysian Olympic team consists of Badminton and that’s it. In KL, you can drive around for days and find no fields to play organized sports on: just building developments and shopping malls. But, here, in Singapore, there were joggers! I started counting them and reached a hundred until Megan got annoyed and told me she got the idea. Even though Singapore’s more southerly, they have the cool winds coming in off the ocean, so heat isn’t as big a problem. I find it quite amazing that I’ve talked about sidewalks and jogging for the past two paragraphs, but there it is.

The one architectural highlight in Singapore was what we called “The three buildings with the giant boat on top.” It looks just like its name. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw this puppy in the distance. At first, I thought of an architectural student, at the bottom of his class, simply taking a model of the titanic and sitting it on top of three buildings: EUREKA! ASSIGNMENT FINISHED! But after awhile, I grew to love this sight. We tried to go up it twice to have a drink, enjoy the infinity pool and the view, but unfortunately our efforts didn’t produce results. We were not able to go up. If you were a guest of the hotel (located in the three buildings), you could go up, no problem. But otherwise, the hours were more exclusive. We first arrived there after 6pm, when the dress code comes into effect. It was simple enough: pants for the guys, no spaghetti tops for the girls. Alas, the gods were not with us, because I didn’t think to bring pants to Singapore. The ladies likewise. The second time, we made it there before 6pm, but discovered that the top is closed between 12 and 6. You could easily go up at 6… if you brought pants. Alas…

Other highlights: Chinatown. Every major city has one, but Sinagpore’s is the cleanest I’ve seen. Their Chinatown is like a movie set of a Chinatown. It’s clean because there are city laws that state if you litter, spit or chew gum, you’ll be fined. Those laws obviously work because you could most likely eat off the sidewalks and streets there.

Megan, Sherry and Christina

Sentosa Island. We scoped out the local beach and some of us explored Fort Siloso. This is the famous British fort that was conquered by the Japanese in 1942. It’s amazing how many countries in this area were conquered by Japan before and during World War II. Singapore was supposed to be impregnable with its huge guns defending the harbor, but the Japanese simply came down the Malaysian peninsula and attacked the island from the north, not the south. The British quickly turned their guns northwards, but it was to no avail.

Tossing the Friz

Segways in the Sand

Watch out for Snakes!

Megan and I ventured one day to Mozzo, a restaurant owned by Mario Battali, a celebrity and IRON chef. It was an Italian joint that served pretty good pizzas. Megan is a foodie and has been to Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay’s restaurants previously.  The restaurant was a nice change of place that reminded us a little of home. We also explored the Arts Centre and checked out a lovely photography exhibit; the night previous, we had gone with Christina to the Singapore Art Museum, where we roamed what felt like hours and viewed many amazing display; the highlight being an old airport/train station board, you know, where the numbers and letters flip around… well, the numbers and letters flipped around on this one, with messages and interesting observations being posted instead of departure and arrival times.

Arts Centre

Later that night, we met up with the rest of the teachers and enjoyed drinks down at an area called Clarke’s Quay: it’s filled with posh restaurants, bars and clubs all vying for your business. The whole area is filled with expats and is all under the covering of a weird canopy that resembles something out of a science fiction movie. Three of us turned in early, but Sherry, Perry and Doug continued the party by meeting up with some Russians and chugging vodka down by the river. Perry and Sherry came in late, with Perry tying a plastic bag to his wrist in case of intestinal emergencies. I warned him not to Technicolor yawn (1920s slang) all over the place; he didn’t break his promise. The two of them were getting up early to catch a boat to a nearby island; Megan woke them up at 7:30, saying ‘Don’t you guys have a boat to catch at 8am?’ They burst out of bed, got dressed, and made it to the boat on time; once they made it to the island, they discovered it sold no food or water, so they bought some cokes from someone’s house and fell asleep on the beach, where they promptly got sunburnt. On the boat ride back, Perry accidentally dropped his digital camera into the ocean. These two are good people, so I hope you’re not getting a bad picture of them. :)

Restaurants in the courtyard of a Church

Singapore Police Station: multicolour windows

Clarke's Quay

It was time to say goodbye on Jan. 27, but we’d love to go back. The prices are the highest in Southeast Asia, but the city feels very western.  We feel our families would absolutely love it. Hopefully, you get the chance to visit someday!