Singapore: Like Another Country

Singapore isn’t just like another country, it is another country. And what a country! I have literally never experienced anything quite like Singapore. It is a tropical paradise that feels like living inside an immaculately kept garden that sprouted skyscrapers. As we rode in the taxi to our wonderful hotel, The Fullerton (another selection by Maggie - I'll stay anywhere she selects!), we could hardly believe our eyes. Glass and steel skyscrapers, each one of a more extraordinary design than the next, were packed shoulder to shoulder with more under construction.

The first thing that struck me about Singapore was the vegetation. Lush greenery is everywhere. Palm trees line the streets, flowers such as bird-of-paradise grow along walkways. Bougainvillea fills the planters across bridges. But here’s the most amazing part.

There’s not a piece of litter anywhere – not one scrap. As we walked around the city, we counted the number of individual pieces of litter that we saw. We never needed more than two hands for the entire day’s walk. A plastic bottle in the grass looked so out of place that we would pick it up to throw into the nearest can. The other dominate feature of Singapore is the water – either the river that runs through the center of the city or the ocean. Unlike, say, Baltimore Harbor, there was not one piece of debris floating in the water. Our hotel faced onto a large inlet where the river joined the ocean. We saw two boats cleaning the water by sucking up debris, except, there wasn’t anything to suck up. An old man swept a public sidewalk with a dust pan and broom and, in the course of the morning, had amassed a few leaves and a couple of cigarette butts. Workers were pressure washing already clean sidewalks. During my first morning run, I saw a small group of people meditating underneath a highway overpass which was pristine clean – no trash, no graffiti. A Starbucks was operating under the same bridge on the opposite side. We were told that there is a substantial fine ($300) for littering so people simply don’t do it. It must save a boat load of money in cleaning expenses. It’s amazing how pleasant it feels to walk around in such a clean place. It makes you care more.

The other thing I didn't realize about Singapore is how multi-cultural it is. The city seems to be a mixture of Chinese (the predominant culture), Malay, Thai and Indian with others thrown in for variety. There were Chinese temples, Buddhist temples, mosques and Christian cathedrals. It was a sophisticated urban environment filled with young people lapping up culture, food and drink from all over the world. We saw every type of ethnic food you can think of. For example, there was a restaurant, O’Gambino’s, which was advertised as an Irish Italian Bistro Bar. Figure that one out! And, it was situated between Australian and German restaurants. We tried to stick to “local” foods although I was never quite clear what was considered "local." Would that be Malay, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean or Indian? We went to a "hawker" market for lunch. These markets are clusters of vendors selling all types of local cuisines - mostly in the open air. I watched a tiny man grill my chicken satay over charcoal fanned with a banana leaf. Mike came away with freshly steamed prawn dumplings. Awesome. One of my favorites was a dessert (of course!) of fresh mango served with sticky rice and coconut milk. So yummy! Like a flavorful rice pudding. And there’s the ubiquitous Singapore Sling which originated at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. We made the trek over to Raffles and discovered a charming, old hotel that reeked of old-world British culture with a top-note of Indian. So civilized. So civilized, in fact, that it felt cold and pretentious. We tried to have lunch at their outdoor café and never got service. The Long Bar was better with its dark wood interior, bamboo leaf ceiling fans, and peanut shells on the floor. Mike watched as I nursed my Singapore Sling (there serve 800 per day on average) as we had a wonderful beef kabob for lunch.

Singapore is a mecca for shopping, but shopping was the last thing we needed as our luggage is already brimming over. So we walked and walked through this beautiful city. I ran each morning around the water front or through lush, spotless parks. This is the perfect place for walking. Pedestrians – unlike in Bangkok – are treated with great care. No matter the circumstances, if a pedestrian is hit it is automatically the fault of the driver. Pedestrian cross walks are meticulously signed and large urban streets have underground tunnels for pedestrian access. You could eat off the floor inside these tunnels. All the bridges have large, flower encrusted pedestrian walkways.

The weather was just like I like it – warm and humid. Perfect for shorts and tank tops everyday. It was quiet in the heat of the afternoon but the river front came alive with activity at night. There was a large marina development across from our hotel. It is connected across water by a free standing pedestrian bridge that is wrapped in a spiral truss. The bridge springs to life at night with twinkling colored lights. All the bridges, in fact, are beautifully lit. We took an evening boat ride under a full moon, with cooler temperatures, and enjoyed the lights of the towering skyscrapers and the ornamented bridges. The marina development had its grand opening and we just happened to be on the boat in front of it as they shot off fireworks. Very fun. Oh – and the boats are all electric so that the river area is quiet and pollution free. Impressive.

Since we weren't shopping, what else do you do in a tropical paradise? You go to the botanical gardens. The park is huge and filled with walking trails around lakes and through a rain forest. The plant life is so lush and exotic it was like walking through a scene in Avatar. One section of the park contains a ginger garden. Ginger, as it turns out, blooms in the most delightful ways. Some are odd, spiky flowers and others look like variations on a bird-of-paradise. The unopened blooms are bright and festive as though they are candy waiting to be licked. The National Orchid Garden is the jewel of the park. Orchids bloomed at every turn (prepare for flower photos!) – large, small and tiny; yellow, white, pink, purple, orange; solid-colored or speckled. There were masses of blooms tumbling off of rocks and tree branches. But as spectacular as the orchids were, I was captivated by the palm trees. Some of the palm fronds were close to 5’ in diameter. They were spectacular! And there was a “cool house” with plants that grow in the mountains of the tropics. The most notable were the carnivorous plants like pitcher plants that entice bugs inside only to be trapped as plant food.

The people were as nice as the environment. Hotel staff treated us like family (and upgraded us). In Istanbul, we had discovered that this part of the world adores Barak Obama. So, Mike has gotten a lot of mileage from telling Obama fans that I work for him. Technically, it’s true, but I think they have images of me roaming the halls of the White House. The young man checking us in at the Fullerton was beside himself with glee thinking that I worked for Obama (He’s the one who upgraded us. Thanks, Mr. President.).

There’s so much that we didn’t see of Singapore. And yet, as we lifted off on yet another long plane flight, we watched the lights of this small country grow dim. Nonetheless, Singapore will remain a bright light in our memories. What a fabulous country.