Singapore 2014

We had a great, albeit, short, week in Singapore. We didn’t know what to expect but whatever expectations we had were blown out of the water: easy to get around, great food, great people and pragmatism found pretty much everywhere. After spending about two months in Nepal and India it was like stepping back into civilization where things worked on the first try and there wasn’t a need for a plan A, B and C. We had a mini culture shock! I kept asking Jacquelyn, “is this really happening?” because the experiences were so different than our last two months.

Singapore is a developed nation of about 5.4 million people in an area 1/20th the size of the Twin City metro. There’s no Singaporean ethnicity just like there’s no American ethnicity. Singapore was a British colony and people from all over the region settled in the area. Because of all the different cultures, most of the information signs are in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil) making for some pretty large information signs.

The blend of cultures brings a lot of great food, such amazing food. Singapore is unique with “hawker” stalls. It’s a group of food cart like restaurants under a permanent roof. Hawker stalls are all over Singapore and it’s possible to get many different dishes. One of the larger hawker sites we visited had 200 or so stalls. Food is cheap and plentiful so only about 15% of Singaporeans cook their own meals at home!

There was a surprisingly large amount of things to do. Lots of shopping, lots of parks, museums, and performances. It seemed as though there was always a very large mall nearby; I think there’s about 100 or so malls. We were able to find goods in Singapore that we haven’t seen since the US.

I had a chance to work with some Singapore suppliers in my last job. It’s hard to describe their work ethic and work product. Maybe it’s best described as an unrelenting tsunami of exceeding expectations. After visiting Singapore I can see why. Singapore has no natural resources, it’s tiny, it’s the only nation in the world to be given independence against its will and basically started from nothing. So, Singapore people being pragmatic as they are, decided to be good at business and trade. Now, it’s a wealthy country, a financial center, the second busiest port in the world and is a huge tourist destination.

The Singaporean airport was amazing. Butterfly garden, massage areas, sleeping areas, many food options, flower gardens, orchid gardens, free movie theaters, koi ponds, gaming area and so on. I was like, “is this real life? I thought airports were the places people went to go to get groped by undereducated, underappreciated, and underpaid security personnel.” It was such a shockingly huge difference. I’ve never experienced anything like it – I actually enjoyed our time at the airport! Unimaginable!

There were only two downsides for us: sin taxes on a lot of things and the heat. Alcohol, beer, candy, unhealthy snack food were all pretty expensive. A large pack of oreos and a large beer were about the same price, ~$15. Singapore is about 85 miles from the equator so year around it’s in the 90s with 90%+ humidity. So freaking hot.

We enjoyed the water show and all the beautiful flowers of Singapore so there’s a lot of photos of both.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

 

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