My travels to Singapore and why I couldn’t be naked and chew gum in front of a window
Singapore grabbed my heart and taste buds. I feel it’s still holding on to them as I return to Bangkok.
I explored the city, trying to leave no alley explored or tasty dish untried (I made a little dent) and in doing so all my senses came alive. I can’t wait to return to continue my taste travels.
It was the perfect place to pause after being in Thailand for awhile and I recommend it as a great place to start your explorations of South East Asia.
Here’s why.
This is Cloud Forest Dome at Gardens by the Bay in downtown Singapore. The sound in the background is the massive waterfall at the back of this.
1.Singapore http://www.worldatlas.com/as/sg/where-is-singapore.html is lovely and I was surprised at how green it is. There are many trees, parks, and gardens with spaces to walk through, rest and be. You can tell this is an important part of its urban sustainable planning.
2. Design and innovation is embraced and everywhere you go there is evidence of this, from the sculptures around town, to the design of buildings, to the way things are created and displayed. Even the economy is known as one of the freest, most innovative, and dynamic in the world. I believe this focus is due in large part to its independent and entrepreneurial nature and the encouragement of foreign investment, workers and ideas to make the country competitive, prosperous and vibrant.
By the way, I loved visiting The Design Centre https://www.designsingapore.org/NDC/About_NDC.aspx during Singapore Design Week , March 3–12, and walk through its space, store and exhibitions http://www. designsingapore.org/sdw
3. I knew little about Singapore before I visited, including where it was and what was the main language. I blame this in part to living on the other side of the world and the news being focused on Canada and the US. Now that I know more, I can’t wait to share the story of Singapore because it’s a good one.
Singapore has a population of 5.8 million and is at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsular in Southeast Asia, between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. It is situated between parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, and features a hot, wet climate and tropical rainforests. As a city-state, Singapore is both the country and its capital.
Founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles as a British colony, Singapore gained independence from the UK in 1963 by federating with other former British territories to form Malaysia. It was expelled two years later over ideological differences, becoming a sovereign nation in 1965. 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 workforce. Wikipedia
4. English is the main working language. There are four official languages in Singapore: Chinese, Malay (national language), Indian and English. Most Singaporeans are bilingual with English as one of their languages. This makes getting around, especially on your own, quite easy, that’s if you can speak English of course, and regardless, residents are used to helping out the large influx of tourists and foreigners to the city.
Kamphong Glam area and Arab Street
Sultan Mosque, Kamphong Glam, Singapore, right around the corner from Arab street, where the previous photo was taken. Traditional, hipster, and everything in between.
5. The multiracial and multicultural nature of the city is wonderful with vibrant and distinct neighbourhoods: Chinatown, with well preserved 1820 architecture and temples and street markets http://carolineishii.com/tastes-in-chinatown-singapore; Little India with its colourful streets and where the largest Indian population outside of India congregate http://carolineishii.com/how-little-india-wooed-me, and the Kamphong Glam area centred around the Sultan Mosque retains strong ties to the Native-Malay and Muslim community http://www.yoursingapore.com/see-do-singapore/places-to-see/kampong-glam.html
I didn’t know much about the Malays before so to share the wealth…
The Malays are mostly Muslim and the original settlers of Singapore. They came originally from the surrounding regions, including the Indonesian islands of Java and Bawean, and the Malayan peninsula. I would definitely love to return to Kamphong Glam as it has a great vibe and side streets with quirky stores, hip bars, coffee shops and restaurants, along with traditional fare and delicious food.
The stunning Marina Bay Sands Hotel with the large ship-like infinity pool on top! And the lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum!
6. Singapore seems more like a European cosmopolitan city. It’s clean, orderly, and there are diverse ethnic communities combined with a large population of non-residents from all over the world who make up almost 30 per cent of the Singapore population of 5.8 million.
7. It feels relatively safe wherever you go, even at night, and especially as a solo women traveler, and I saw and met many women of different ages from all over the world who were traveling on their own, some who had very little English.
There didn’t seem to be very dangerous pockets that you could accidentally end up in as is usually the case in most cities. It is well lit at all times. I heard there are lamps every five metres (I didn’t check but it is bright) and therefore there are limited dark areas. And there are a lot of police stations and it is well policed. As a result, there are low crime rates.
However as with all cities, you need to be on alert and try not to stand out as a the obvious tourist with a big camera around your neck waving lots of cash around. If you are smirking at this, you are not that person.
8. The tap water is clean and safe to drink. I drank lots of it. You still may want to buy bottled water because there are chemicals in the city water, like all city water, but you don’t have to worry about the ice cubes in your drink or food and drink where tap water is used. There are not many countries in Southeast Asia where they advise you that it is safe to drink the tap water, including Bangkok, so I found it refreshing not to have to buy bottled water , use up more plastic bottles, or think about it for a change.
9. It’s a great walking city. There are sidewalks (not a given even in some urban cities like Bangkok) and there are a lot of places to walk through like parks, gardens and interesting hoods. And it’s a relatively safe, well-lit and well policed city with low crime rates, which helps for walking and getting lost, which is inevitable if you travel to foreign country.
10. The city has a great transit system that is clean, easy to use, fast, and affordable.
11. The Singapore dollar is easy to figure out. In other countries, currencies are harder to figure out, take Vietnam where you have 17,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) to $1 Canadian. It gets confusing and complicated in particular when you have to negotiate something. Travelers to Vietnam joke that it’s the only place you can become a millionaire. At today rate, $585 Canadian will get you one million VND.
It’s shocking how expensive things are in Singapore and it is often named the most expensive city in the world for a reason. I’ve heard the high costs are because items have to include the high costs of labour, transportation and a lot of taxes. And since there is little land devoted to agriculture (10% of the total land area), this means most produce is imported and is super expensive. Durians, rambutans and mangosteens are some of the only produce made in the country.
Many locals seem to get around this by shopping in their ethnic areas and lower priced centres. I found that Little India offers fresh and reasonably priced produce along with a lot of herbs used in Indian cuisine in stalls along and near Buffalo Road and the Mustafa Centre is a big multi-level supermarket complex open 24 hours with good prices for food, toiletries, and other products.
12. Singapore is situated near the equator and has a tropical climate, with uniform temperatures and high humidity all year around. It has abundant rainfall with short bursts of heavy rain storms while I was there, which was actually refreshing in that it clears the air afterwards a bit. AC everywhere is a relief in that if you’ve had too much heat and humidity, you can dip inside an air conditioned shopping mall, coffee shop or food court (my first choice) to rest and eat and drink something before you carry on. Carrying water with you and a handkerchief for the sweat is a good idea.
13. Wow, the food diversity and flavours! I am leaving the best to last. I had a checklist of dishes I wanted to try but as the week went on there were more and more dishes I wanted to try. I couldn’t keep up!
I had a tough time deciding what I would eat from the diversity of food choices, whether at a food court (street carts are not allowed here so this is called “street food”) or in an ethnic neighbourhood. There are pure ethnic foods such as Chinese, Indian, Malay, Arab, and the mixes such as Indian Chinese.
These are photos of my favourite taste memories, I had many!
14. Related to food, it’s a great city for solo travellers, in particular women, because the places where there is the best food, in my view the food courts and centres and ethnic neighbourhoods, are where most people eat solo anyway and are not fancy so perfect for solo dining and people watching.
15. It’s a good city for vegetarians, in particular the Little India area where there are lots of signs for vegetarian restaurants and restaurants in general that say they serve both veg and non-veg food.
I even found a mall, the Fortune Centre, full of only vegetarian and vegan restaurants, including Japanese, Chinese and more. https://www.google.co.th/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1JZAP_enCA708CA708&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=fortune+centre+singapore&*
There is gourmet veg food too. My friend recommended the Raj South Indian restaurant https://www.rajrestaurant.com.sg/ and Li Zhing Chinese http://www.lingzhivegetarian.com/home.php and they were great.
The vegetarian and vegan food that I tried was in general delicious, full of flavour and interesting, and that is one of my main criteria for any food, vegan, vegetarian or otherwise.
16) If you want European food, Singapore has it too, and most of the biggest celebrity chefs have restaurants in town to wine and dine those who can afford it, including Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Gordon Ramsay, Wolfang Puck and Jamie Oliver.
However, Singapore is the first place in the world where a hawker (street food) stall was given a Michelin star in 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chan-hon-meng-singapore-food-stall-hawker-wins-michelin-star_us_57a8ad8fe4b0b770b1a38713.
I’m happy to see that the prestigious Michelin organization recognizes a fact that many chefs and food lovers from around the world have known for a long time. That good food is good food where ever you may find it.
But before you go, you should know some little-known laws of Singapore…
Every city has its distinct quirks and rules. Singapore is no different. However, this city-state (a very small country with one city in it) is very law driven with fines for many things and for the strangest of things from the outside of Singapore view.
It would be wise to pay attention to some of these little-known laws because the penalties are incredibly harsh.
Gum selling and chewing is banned
If you are found guilty of this offence, you risk having to pay a fine not exceeding $2,000 or being sentenced to prison for a term not exceeding three months — or both.
When I heard this, my over active imagination started conjuring up images of secret encounters in not so dark alleyways with people selling Wrigley and Dentyne to addicted gum users and secret rooms filled with people chewing madly their gum of choice.
It is illegal to be naked in your own home while being exposed to public view.
And to make matters worse, there could be a “citizen’s arrest”, meaning that under Singapore’s Criminal Procedure Code, an ordinary citizen, such as a neighbour, has the right to arrest another citizen that is committing an arrestable offence. The citizen must hand over the arrested person to a police officer or take him/her to a police station. https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/can-a-civilian-arrest-a-criminal-in-singapore/
If you are found guilty of this offence, you risk having to pay a fine not exceeding $2,000 or being sentenced to prison for a term not exceeding three months — or both. In August 2009, a man was fined $2,600 for being naked in his own flat in clear view of his neighbours. http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/5-little-known-laws-of-singapore
I imagine if you are naked in your apartment chewing gum in front of a window, and you see your neighbour, instead of waving, you would be scrambling for the number of your lawyer!
It is illegal to “borrow” or “piggyback” on your neighbour’s unsecured wireless Internet network.
If found guilty of the offence, you could be fined a maximum of $10,000 or jailed up to three years, or both. The first person in Singapore to be convicted of this offence was sentenced to 18 months’ probation, half of which was to be served at a boys’ home and he was required to stay indoors from 10pm to 6am for the next nine months. He also had to carry out 80 hours of community service, and was banned from using the Internet for 18 months. http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/5-little-known-laws-of-singapore
Well despite this, I still love you Singapore.
And while there are always differences between countries, we are more similar than we think. People here are also trying to get monkeys off their backs and keep them at bay, for real!
Love, Caroline xo
Originally published at Caroline Ishii.
