It’s a bigger island than it seems. You think you could walk around it quite easily but it’s a bit of an illusion. We would either be caught up in pouring tropical summer monsoon, or we would catch our breath in the air-conditioned underground MRT stations after having walked between two stops in the sticky humid heat.
The main things we enjoyed the most in Singapore were the food, Pulau Ubin, and the zoo. The food is amazing. Really delicious and swiftly cooked food in their hawker stalls is a must-do. Most stalls offer the same variety of foods but you can find all four main cultures offering food: Muslim (Halal), Chinese, Malay and Indian. Singapore has figured out a way to force the different language and cultural groups into cohabitation. As such, you can find Chinatown next to Little India, both near the downtown financial district area. There’s also the Muslim quarters and further away from the central area plenty of compounds for western expats. The iconic Malay meal of crayfish is beautifully cooked in its spicy sauce served with noodles, and the Indians make a mouth-watering Naan bread. The Chinese are really quick in making their stir-fried rice or noodles, served with either meat or dumplings. These hawker stalls are small kiosks, no bigger than a stall at a Christmas market in Europe. It was so good, we went a few times, though the crayfish is notoriously expensive. Even if the menu says otherwise, they’ll come up with a magic figure after you’ve licked your fingers. The rest is cheap and will feed you enough till dinner.
In one of the compounds we stayed in, there’s a swimming pool for relaxed activities or for super-trained people who want to start their day with a medal. In the pool was a small girl learning to swim with her coach. I say coach and not teacher because he was training her to be an Olympic swimmer more than a casual one. He kept counting the steps for her so that she kept in time with the required rhythm, and told her she needed to do some 30 more laps. I can barely swim half the length, and that’s if I can touch the bottom of the pool.
Pulau Ubin is the last untouched island of Singapore on the northern edge of the city-state. Once at the harbour, we had to wait until there were enough people to cover the cost of the crossing. It’s a small wait, cause it’s cheap.
The island is mostly covered by tropical jungles inhabited by wild monkeys, boars, probably some crocodiles, lots of birds and plenty of biting insects. But it’s a real treat for anyone who hasn’t gone to South-East Asia yet. It gives you a small insight into how humid, how sticky and how dense a jungle can be. And this was only a small island, which we just barely covered. There’s a small village with a couple of pubs where you can rent bikes – if you can withstand the heat.
Finally, the Singapore Zoo isn’t as much a zoo, as it is a sanctuary for indigenous animals living in the untouched jungle in the middle of the main island. Most of the country is urbanised and much more land has even been claimed from the Malaka Strait. But the middle area remains barely touched and many animals still thrive in it. Naturally, you’ll still find African animals and a polar bear in the zoo, which beats the point of conservation I guess (or not if we’re melting away the poles). The Zoo offers three activities: the main Zoo, the Night Safari and the River Safari. The second involves in taking a bus that drives around nocturnal animals and they explain what caretakers have done to better their living conditions, or why they harbour them. Most animals aren’t caged. They’re free to roam around the jungle, unless they’re not native and carnivorous, in which case they are in a cage, but their living area is quite extensive (still, it’s a cage, but the species is conserved and their natural habits emphasised through training and hunting apparently). You can also walk around afterwards to have a closer look at some animals and their nocturnal habits. The River Safari we didn’t do, but sounds amazing. We still saw some pigmy hippos, which are the most adorably fat animals!
The downtown area obviously offers the iconic tour of the Marina Bay Hotel (if you fly Singapore Airlines you’ll have a discount)! Next to it are the botanical gardens which are an extensive collection of plants and flowers from all over the world with an impressive cascade of green walls and waterfalls through thick clouds. During the Christmas period, the iconic supertrees will light up at the rhythm of the songs in a show of lights and lasers. These supertrees are both a statue to our need to change our carbon-dependent lifestyle, and an actual tool to combat climate change. As an island city-state, Singapore will be one of the worst affected areas of the world. The supertrees are intended to give a new way for cities to combat climate change by harbouring plants’ photosynthesis process without taking up much space. By increasing the amount of vegetation in a given area, they hope to transform the CO2 into O2, and consequently increasing the amount of water falling in rain (by means of perspiration from plants and animals thriving in such areas) and channeling the resource to combat future draughts. It would also enhance insect activity and keep the food chain intact.
Singapore kept surprising us along the way. With great food and diverse cultural experiences, we’ve explored the city-state’s intricate system of culture balance. English is the main spoken language, but there are three other official tongues: Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil (a close relative of Hindi, written in an older version of Sanskrit). But this was above all the rule in Singapore: keep safe and look out for one another. All along the city, we found propaganda to stay at home if you’re unwell (“coughing spreads germs and viruses; stay at home, contain the disease”), to look out for anyone around you needing help (“in case of a terrorist attack, run to safety following the exit signs or to the nearest hiding spot, and take anyone behind with you!”) and to check that no one forgets their belongings (“if a bag’s unattended, call it out to a security officer, or if someone left it behind, call after them!”). The whole system works because everyone looks after one another, regardless of ethnicity, language, religion or background. This ought to teach many in the West how to behave. I was once called out for having forgotten my umbrella at a metro stop (and it wasn’t even mine, so they saved me the pain of ridiculing myself in front of our hosts).
Singapore clearly made its way out of its colonial past and into a bright future, still trying to combat inner conflicts of course. Many aspects of daily life we have not noticed because of our situation as a tourist. But fundamentally, it has taught us a great deal about a way to keep up with the world’s tendencies for a global financial system and plenty of skyscrapers, and yet fill the void left by its colonial past with its mishmatch of cultures and languages, creating a harbour of equal lifestyles and religions. They severely punish any crime and misdemeanour. They require specific behaviours when in the metro (letting people out first, older generations sit first, don’t forget your bag, don’t listen too loudly to music), but they also remind you, with text on the walls of the stations, that rape is punished by caning (beating), a prison sentence and a fine. They’ve simply brushed off Europe’s human rights and dignity, for a measured punishment, in their regards, to quell any crimes. Whether that is just or not, I leave that to the reader.
One last word on colonialism (it never seems to go away)… The Raffles Hotel from former colonial times still stands and once entered, an air of South England hits your nostrils. The floor is filled with peanut-shells for some strange reason and everyone is fine with that. It must stem from some old joke, or maybe just the British way of rendering a small mess after independence (nuts)! But the highlight of Raffles’ is the Singapore Sling. It’s an expensive (for Singapore) pink but tasty cocktail invented sometime before 1915 by the barman at the time. It wasn’t acceptable for women to drink alcohol during those times. So the barman came up with an innocent-looking, yet alcohol-full, drink. The men were stupidly duped and the women loved it.
Singapore had to strive to keep itself intact from inner forces tearing it apart. Its cultural diversity went from a burden to an advantage, ruling the cohabitation under the dogma of respect. Between the cracks of religious and cultural diversity, they built bridges so that they can all stay afloat, and use the innovation from a diverse background, to survive a changing climate.
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