In Singapore, instead of there being a Starbucks on every corner there is a shopping mall. I’m not kidding. Imagine being a poor female who has been living in the same clothes out of a backpack for the last 8 months. Torture I think is the best way to describe it. Everything was so new, pretty and shiny – I felt like a Magpie. But, we did resist. Just.
Apart from being the Malaysian shopping equivalent of New York, Singapore is also exceptionally clean. I’d say it was the ‘Hilary’ (love you Hil!) of all countries. It has to be said that, in a place where chewing gum is illegal but Capital punishment isn’t, Amy and I were walking tentatively on egg shells. We lived in fear of being pulled up for some small infraction on their sparkling city streets. Luckily, despite a death stare for dripping rain water inside a mall, we left Singapore in one unarrested piece.
One thing that Singapore has working in its favour though is her train system. Without it, Amy and I wouldn’t have been able to have seen half as much of the city as we managed. It’s big and our little legs can only walk so far. The MRT, as it was called, is a tube like equivalent….except ever so much less worm like. You aren’t constantly stuck in darkness and the platforms themselves are cavernous and very, very silver. As well, being the poor, money conscious backpacker that I am, the ticketing system please me endlessly. Yes, train travel was cheap with some trips costing less than $1. But, the AMAZING thing was that you got a deposit back should you return your ticket to the machine at the end of your journey. Bloody brilliant. Singapore really is the technological superior of any other country when it comes to trains.
We didn’t just vist Singapore during our 4 day stay. Oh no, we visited China and even lived in India. It was a round the world trip in itself. On a daily basis you could be transported into the midst of smells, sounds and colours that would attack your senses and make you truly believe that you had been swept far away from Singapore. Chinatown, decked out in traditional Chinese lanterns and various dragon like statues, was bustling with the markets filled to the brim with tourists and locals alike. Living in Little India meant that each night as we wondered the streets in search of food, our sinuses were filled with the aroma of spice upon spice. Kampong Glam as well, the Malay quarter or the city, was the only place where you could find a mixture of churches, mosques and temples all on one street. It truly is a culturally diverse city.
Our final night in Singapore we ventured out to the ‘plastic fantstic’ island of Sentosa. A man-made wonderland just a monorail ride away from the city. With 5* hotels, imported sandy beaches, butterfly farms, restaurants and a soon to be Universal studios theme park, it is a definite tourist attraction. As the monorail gliding smoothly away from the lives and lights of the city and towards the large, colourful gates of Sentosa, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you were entering a Disney theme park. To say Amy and I, Disney fans extraordinaire, were excited would be the understatement of all understatements. After a spot of dinner and exploration, including a ride up the Carlsberg sky tower to look out over the city and glance over the border into Malaysia, we headed from the ‘Songs of the Sea’ light show.
Now, I’m as cheesy as they come. The smellier the better as you really can’t’ beat a bit of cheesy behaviour. But the actors of this show were over the top, even for me. It seemed to me when they came bouncing out onto the beach/stage that they were overcompensating for something with their ‘lets wave are arms and hands around as much as possible’ actions. Turns out that is exactly what they were doing to try and deter people from noticing that they were not only lip syncing the songs, but also the dialogue. After about 5 minutes of this torture, the real show began and I must admit that I momentarily forgot about the arm waving baffoons. The light, water and fire displays were so amazing choreographed with the music and effects were acheived that still baffle me now. It was a show that could nearly match Disney standards. Nearly. My one bit of advice? Shoot the actors. In a country where capital punishment is still legal, I can’t imagine it would be too hard to put them out of their misery. Call it an act of humanity.
