Singapore
Singapore
Where in the world can you be in India, China, Arabia and England at the same time? The answer is Singapore city, an island nation lying at the southernmost tip of continental Asia and an important gateway to Asia and Australia from Europe. I had visited the island back in 2007 and in those eight years the place has changed spectacularly, especially the developed Marina Bay area. Our trip also coincided with Singapore’s jubilee year, Singapore is celebrating 50 years of independence and everywhere you look in the city, there are posters, banners, bus ads and post boxes marking the event. The government-led brand sums up the jubilee with the acronym SG50.
Happy Birthday Singapore.
To give a brief history of the area, the islands were settled from the second century AD by a series of local empires. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company, with his name still commonplace around the city, from the famous Raffles hotel, birthplace of the Singapore sling to Raffles hospital.
After the company collapsed, the islands were ceded to Britain and became part of its Straits Settlements in 1826. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan.
It became independent from Britain in 1963, by uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but was expelled two years later over ideological differences. After early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian tiger economy, based on external trade and its human capital.
From my last visit I remembered a humid city with impressive skyscrapers and financial district leading down to the marina with eye-catching Merlion spouting water from its mouth into the bay. I don’t remember too many renowned tourists sites or things to do but I was obviously looking in the wrong places as this time around we found plenty to keep us occupied.
We stayed near the little India district and as the name suggests it is India in miniature. It was a pleasure to walk through the area with majority Indian population and wander through the shops selling many Indian dress articles with their vivid colours and designs, the Tekka centre being the epicentre. For lovers of Indian food you will definitely not go hungry here with so many restaurants, one we sampled on our first night was delicious and reasonably priced. Also in the area at the time was a Spongebob playland that Paula just had to see. She happily posed outside a shopping mall with Patrick and Spongebob, sorry to my brother (Gary) but I didn’t see Gary the snail!! A short stroll from the Pineapple under the sea is Arab street, here the restaurants change to more Middle Eastern style cuisine and instead of the many Hindu temples down the road in Little India, beautiful and impressive Mosques stand with many attending the call to prayer.
After we had walked through the districts we made our way towards the Marina bay area. I wanted to take a picture with the famous Merlion, a symbol of the Republic, but when we arrived we got much more. The one new obvious landmark is the Marina Bay Sands https://www.marinabaysands.com/, what an amazing piece of architecture. it is billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion, including the land cost. It is easy to see why when you first view the place, three huge column structures hold up an impressive structure shaped like a large ship called the Sky Park. The SkyPark has the world’s longest elevated swimming pool, with a 146-metre (478 ft) vanishing edge, 191 metres above ground. The pools are made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1424 cubic metres) of water.
The SkyPark also has rooftop restaurants such as and nightclubs, The Club facilities, gardens, hundreds of trees and plants, and a public observatory deck on the cantilever with 360-degree views of the Singapore Skyline. Alas on this occasion we passed on the SGD$23 fee to go to the observatory. Across from the Sands is another new iconic landmark, the Singapore Flyer. This is essentially a large ferris wheel similar to the London Eye with capsules available for private hire and dinner parties. Again we decided to pass on the $SGD33 fee as we have ascended many towers around the globe and didn’t feel the fee was justified on this occasion. That isn’t to say it is not worth a trip on, we are sure the views are spectacular. The Flyer has an overall height of 165 metres (541 ft) and was the world’s tallest Ferris wheel until the 167.6 m (550 ft) High Roller, which is 2.6 m (9 ft) taller than the Flyer, opened on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, US, in 2014. The previous record holder, the Star of Nanchang, in Jiangxi, China, is 160 m (525 ft) tall, although its 153 m (502 ft) diameter wheel is larger than the Flyer’s 150 m (492 ft) wheel.
Back along Marina bay is the Youth Olympic Park, which offers a good vantage point for photography.
A boardwalk connects the park to Marina Promenade, and The Helix Bridge connects the park to Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. From here we noticed the one landmark from my previous visit, the Merlion, the Merlion is the national personification of Singapore. Its name combines “mer” meaning the sea and “lion”. The fish body represents Singapore’s origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means “sea town” in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore’s original name—Singapura—meaning “lion city” or “kota singa”. Tourists continue to flock to the Merlion for that iconic image and photo opportunity of the city with a welcome to Singapore sign behind it and in front of the nearby Fullerton Hotel, a five-star luxury hotel commissioned in 1919 as part of the British colony’s centennial celebrations, a building taking you to the British era.
After taking some pictures we wandered through the financial jungle with office workers scurrying for lunch or a cigarette break. Almost everybody is on their phones here which is sad because if they only looked up for a minute they could appreciate their beautiful city. Money talks here with many world-renowned financial institutions, fashion houses and luxury cars roaming the streets. Despite this cheap eats and shopping can be had with many food halls scattered around the city.
Our last day involved more exploring and some shopping. We decided not to avail of the hop on hop off bus service as we had seen so much on our first day. We walked so much our feet ached so the next day we used the SMRT system to our advantage. SMRT, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, encompasses 153.7 kilometres (95.5 mi) of route, with 113 stations in operation. For only a couple of dollars you can pass from one area of the city to another, on an efficient, modern, clean and easy to use system.
Paula was especially happy as her feet still ached from the day before! One stop that has to be taken is Chinatown. From being in India the day before you are transported to China. Chinese people, Chinese language, Chinese food. The highlight for us were the markets around Smith St. Here you can find anything from clothes, jewellery, to Chinese art and a food area where you can choose from many Chinese cuisines. If you don’t want to shop it doesn’t matter as the impressive architecture and colour of the area makes for some wonderful photo opportunities. After another long day it was time to go back to our hostel to give our feet a rest before going back out that night to Bugis with its many restaurants, clubs and bars which seemed to be a favourite with the locals. We took the MRT to Marina Bay to take some pictures at night which didn’t disappoint as the lights and warm night air made for a relaxing walk along the waterfront.
Our two days in the city just flew by as we took our morning bus overland to Kuala Lumpur, some 7 hours away. As we are on a budget we passed on many of the tourist attractions such as the night safari http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/index.html and the botanic gardens https://www.sbg.org.sg/. The city may not be the cheapest for a backpacker especially Accommodation, but is certainly easy to get around and the SMRT system is one of the best and most user- friendly in the world. Singapore is a cosmopolitan, chic and as it has been described like a yoghurt! full of live and active cultures. I think that is the perfect description. The colours, cultures and cuisine are the real draw to Singapore and I’m sure we will be back, we just hope it’s for a stay in the Marina Sands!!
Singapore
