Singapore

Singapore surprised me a lot. I thought that it would be similar to Dubai or London, but I found it a million times better than Dubai and much nicer than London. In the category of big modern cities, Singapore is at the very top of my favourite list.

The most outstanding thing about Singapore is how green it is. Plants, flowers, little and big gardens are everywhere around. I understand that the humid and hot climate allows it, but a big applause to the city planners to leave so much green space. For me, beautiful green areas are much more important than the highest, the most sparkling constructions, or dancing fountains. It is green areas which make a big city to look lovely and cosy. Maybe because of this or another reason, but Singapore feels spacious, even high skyscrapers do not look scarily falling on the head and hiding the sky.

The city/country is well known for its outstanding cleanliness and perfection. It was nice to be there for 24 hours, but, if I had to live there, I would find this perfection stressful; especially after learning how high are the penalties for any little litter on the ground or cigarette thrown not to the ashtray. While I can behave on these things, it just stresses me out that I don’t know what and in how many other ways (maybe not so self-explanatory) it is possible to upset the rules of this city. Every person in Singapore looks perfect: the hair, the outfit, the way they smile, the way they speak. Are there penalties for bad words in a public place? I wouldn’t be surprised if there are. Shortly saying, I loved Singapore, but that overall perfection everywhere seemed a bit exaggerated. Good that we are not smoking, and litter bins are everywhere around.

However, locals did not look stressed at all. The opposite – I have never seen in any big city transport moving so incredibly slow, almost annoyingly slow and people helping us out so if they had the half day free and no plans at all. Nobody is running, nobody looks anxious as I would normally expect in such cities.

I greatly enjoyed our morning walk in the bohemian Arab and Chinese district. It is a flat, older, very colourful district of the city, with lots of restaurants, bars and street art around.

Since our initial idea was to make this travel a honeymoon, our original plan for Singapore was to pamper ourselves by bathing in the famous swimming pool on the roof of Marina Bay hotel. Then we changed plans, we decided to go around the world instead of having an expensive wedding party, and, only at the last moment before the departure, we cancelled our booking at Marina Bay hotel, reusing the money we thus saved to have a tour in remote Aru Islands (Indonesia) to see paradise birds. I am happy with this decision because Singapore is easy to travel and we can come back there any time at any age, but sooner or later, yes, I want to make a luxurious weekend and make a splash in that water with a marvellous view.

This time we just got up to the bar on top of Marina Bay. And how lucky we were! There was an event of preparation for the National day celebration on the 12th of August (we were in July). There were long fireworks, a laser show, another light show and a concert underneath. All in one evening. As that was just a preparation, I cannot imagine how big and impressive the celebration in August is.

It was a very happy 24 hours visit, an extended connection between the trip in Cambodia and Bali. Singapore remained in my mind as an exotic, modern paradise with botanical gardens on every corner and calm, perfectly looking, not overstressed and extremely polite people.

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