Traveling around peninsular Malaysia, we were too close to Singapore to resist checking it out. I'd always heard mixed reviews about Singapore; many travelers lament that it has developed away all its character and become an overpriced modern metropolis, but I was curious enough to want to see it for myself.
It met most of my expectations, as in yes, it is clean, orderly, and a bit pricey by Asian standards (though still fairly cheap). Though we did discover some interesting cultural enclaves. The first evening we walked through the Arab Quarter, whose streets are lined with colorful textile shops, hookah lounges, and cafes. We were guided to the center by the gold minarets of the Sultan Mosque poking above the pastel two-story shuttered buildings, and had a delicious $3 meal on a pedestrian street.
Nearby, Little India was as bustling and lively as a Little India should be. Its market almost seemed out of place in clean-cut Singapore, where tarps lined an alley with people selling random household items, clothes, shoes, and clunky old electronics. We also happened upon a large Hindu temple with colors, smoke, chanting and people spilling onto the sidewalk. We went in and milled about among the people milling about, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells. The temple was filled with colorful statues of Hindu gods, where people kneeled and offered incense, fruit, and other food. A crowd stood intently around a man chanting, while another came around thumbing a colorful powdered circle on their foreheads. A group of women filled a silver bucket with several containers of milk, while a man tended a fire in a heart-shaped pit. Ghee lamps burned everywhere. In all its sensory overload, being in that temple felt like a dream - the good kind of dream that is the essence of travel.
We did allow ourselves a rare touristy splurge, a ride on the Singapore Flyer - the tallest ferris wheel in the world. It's so big that it takes 30 minutes to come all the way around, and it can fit up to 28 people in each car (though fortunately we didn't have to try). Along the way, it has an audio tour explaining everything you see, which they must have to update often - much of the waterfront looked like a giant construction project, and I have a feeling that's not unusual. Ships lined the port as far as I could see in one direction, while in the other I could see all the way back to Malaysia.
Singapore's MRT system is great - though its only downfall is that if you get off at a stop, chances are that stop is attached to a mall. On a few occasions we'd miss the street exit, and end up winding through a maze of underground hallways trying to find our way back up to the street. Though the malls were nice a/c break from the thick tropical heat, they were also a bit overwhelming.
We stayed in a hostel that is a reflection of Singapore itself - clean and
air-conditioned, but accommodating more people in a given space than is reasonable. Allie and I stayed in a 4 bed dorm room - the other two bunks were occupied by Luke, a young traveler from Orange County, and Don, a twenty-something from the Philippines who knew a tremendous amount about American pop culture. At night we'd lay in our bunks, with Don asking a thousand questions about America, from "How long does a president stay in office?" to "Is Michael Jackson really dead?". Before we left I gave him a copy of my CD, which amazed him - he even apologized for not having heard of me as an American musician.
On our way back from the Chinese Festival of the Arts on our last night in town, we walked though an underpass near our MRT stop to find it full of Singaporean teenagers. Apparently it's a popular gathering place on weekends for youth who want to practice and show off their performance skills. It was mostly break dancers, but there were also a few jugglers and a group of girls doing synchronized dances to pop songs. I think it was even more entertaining than the festival we'd just come from!
Though we were glad to have experienced Singapore, by the time we left we were ready to get out of the big city. We boarded an overnight bus, settled in with some bad subtitled movies, and were on our way back to mellow Malaysia.
