Singapore

I think four days is just right for an exploratory trip to a new city, and it was just right for Singapore!

For the first couple of days, I wasn’t too sure about Singapore. First, the weather. Singapore is near the equator, and I’ve lived in hot areas before, but nothing prepares you for the stifling heat and humidity. It was like July in Florida. Without the thunderstorms. And that’s in October!

The first day, we went to see the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore’s pride and joy. I’m still torn on this one. On the one hand, Singapore is committed to bringing plants to the forefront and conducting environmental research and creating more greenspace. So, go go science. But Gardens by the Bay was just freaky. There are giant tree frames with foliage slowly growing up the trunks, so for now they just look like huge pollarded trees. Every evening, there is a light show. They play show tunes on the PA system and the trees light up in rhythm. It’s like fireworks in fake trees. It was just weird. I got eaten alive by mosquitos. The only way I got through it was singing along to the showtunes. That helped.

​I still wasn’t convinced.

Singapore is famous for shopping. I’m not a shopper.

It’s also famous for indoor entertainment for kids. Not this trip.

Everything just felt canned, like a planned community in the suburbs. Except the whole city is planned.

Then, I had Chinese food burnout. Sam really, really loves his Chinese food. Usually, that’s fine with me, but I still hadn’t quite recovered from our China trip last month. I just snapped. Couldn’t look any more moo shoo in the face.

I had a local specialty, chili crab. It’s pretty good, but not worth the trouble you have to go to to get those 17 bites of spicy crab.

I began to wonder if Singapore and I were going to hit it off.

Then, it happened. I bought a chicken.

Chicken and I really clicked. We squawked at strangers. We cooed at hawkers. We made trouble in the taxi. We got smiles out of hardened shop merchants. Little kids stared in wonder. We sneaked up on Sam and Kid 3 and scared them. I could tell, people were thinking about getting their own chickens.

Suddenly, Singapore was a little bit fun.

We took a ferry to an island called Pulau Ubin for a day trip, and I hit my stride. While waiting for the ferry (called a bumboat, by the way!) we ate lunch at the hawkers center and my eyes were opened to the wonders of NASI LEMAK. It’s rice cooked in coconut sauce, fried chicken, chili, egg, peanut/anchovy sauce, and a few raw cucumbers. You just mix it all up together and wolf it down. It’s so much more than chicken and rice! I also had some satay sticks and drank a ridiculous amount of coconut juice.

Then we got on the bumboat. It’s a ferry that seats twelve, but oh the joy of sitting in something called a BUMBOAT!

We got to the island, rented bikes, and headed for Chek Jawa Wetlands. We rode for a while on a paved road, then a while on a dirt road.

Kid 3 plowed ahead, but Sam languished at the rear. He gasped. He wheezed. He discussed his advanced age and general lack of fitness. He lamented not exercising more. He walked his bike up the hills, even gentle hills. He threatened to go back to the bumboat. He said we should just leave him there. We coaxed him through, promising a beautiful view and fresh ocean breezes. You can’t take bikes into the wetland, so we parked them and started walking on the boardwalk over the swamp. I thought I might have to carry him, but suddenly, Sam found his groove. He climbed to the top of the viewing tower, made us take the longer boardwalk loop over the sea, cracked jokes about his sweatiness, and pedalled his bike back to the bumboat quite cheerfully, periodically yelling out, “Look Ma no hands!” on the downhill sections. Somewhere between the dirt road and the viewing platform, he had found his inner chicken. Not a chicken that makes you scared, but the plastic squawking chicken that makes life fun.

See how happy he looks?

It was a beautiful day. The island was a tad cooler than the city, and the views were beautiful.

I loved our hotel, the Hotel Sultan, in the Arab part of town. It’s a quirky area with low-rise historic buildings, delicious eateries, interesting history, and lots of cats.

I loved kaya toast, thin-sliced toast with coconut jam. They serve it with runny eggs and divine coffee. No pictures allowed! I don’t know why, but in a country with no trial-by-jury and punishment-by-caning, I’m not going to push any envelopes.

I loved seeing Muslim women covered head-to-toe next to Chinese women in shorts and tank tops, being nice to each other and coexisting.

I loved my first Singapore Sling. We went to the trendy part of town, Clarke Quay, for an evening. We’re really too old for the nightlife scene, but we ate some good steaks.

​I loved my massage at Green Apple Spa. A lovely Malaysian woman tore me up for an hour and a half, then put me back together.

I loved how people were truly friendly.

​I loved how the taxi driver assured us, with pride, that Singapore is a very safe city for women because if a man touches a woman inappropriately, the police put him in jail and BEAT HIM. I asked what if the police don’t believe the woman, and he said they always give the woman the benefit of a doubt.

I loved how there were sit-down toilets with toilet paper everywhere. (I guess I still haven’t recovered from China.)

By the time we left, I’d learned to enjoy Singapore. It’s true that it’s a planned community with a bewildering set of laws. It’s true that the weather is possibly the worst on earth. It’s true that the Gardens by the Bay light show is an artistic armageddon. But those things are pretty small compared to a city full of delicious food, nice people, natural beauty, and a high level of civilization. 

I’ll be back.