Singapore wrap

We only had 3 full days in Singapore, which is a ridiculously short time to get to know any City, but here are our quick take-aways:

The City was ridiculously easy to visit. The transit system makes it easy and cheap to get around, the streets are safe (just don't try to cross them against a light) and everything is comfortable. Singapore has a bit of a "law and order" reputation, but it is hard to tell if the apparent orderliness is a result of the hefty fines posted for every crime from jaywalking to carrying a durian onto the MTS, or it is just a cultural attitude that grew from making a City of so much diversity livable. During three days out and about, I only remember seeing a police officer once, and that was a small group of young cops riding the train one day.

It is clear Singapore is all business, and the business of Singapore is business. The glass towers of the CBD (Merryl Lynch, CitiBank, all the usual characters) were quiet on the Saturday we wandered through first, giving us the sense it was a dead downtown? Re-visiting around lunch time on Monday, it was hustling and bustling with people in corporate wear, and the sushi bars and CrossFit centers that prey open them.

However, it is clear the other real business of Singapore is shopping. It was hard to escape the feeling the entire City is a series of air-conditioned Malls. From the dazzling and gigantic Marina Bay development (under that cricket-wicket-boat-in-the-sky hotel) to the sprawling metropolis of Orchard Park Road, which only serves to connect malls. We are traveling light, so shopping wasn't our goal, but if you need a Gucci bag or new Swiss wristwatch, I know a place...

Fortunately, they have not completely replaced the older markets, like Tikka Place in little India where we tended to have our breakfast or random meal from one of the Hawker stalls. It was everything you expect from a public market in the tropics: piles of fresh fruits and vegetables, some very unfamiliar, and fresh seafood of every shape, size and species.

Which brings us to the topic we were most looking forward to about Singapore: the food. The Hawker food and noodles are what makes Singapore famous, and we were only a little disappointed. We had good biryani, decent Indian food, some nice Thai dishes, watched our breakfast parati get hand-made by the hardest working man in Tikka, and generally grazed at Hawker stalls for cold drinks and snacks.

But this is not the street food of Thailand or Vietnam. In a City of rules, the Hawkers are concentrated in markets or designated and dedicated hawker areas, with fixed stands and pretty repetitive menues, more like the food truck areas of Portland. The food was plentiful, fairly cheap, and there was indeed food from around Asia, prepared by people from all over Asia, but I am hard-pressed to think of a single meal that stood out like the Tom Yum in Chiang Mai, papaya salad on Ko Samui or the Bun Bo in Hue.

We did find a couple of decent beers, but paid $17 for pints, and a lot of not-so-good beer sells for $12 a pint, so we took the $17 option the few times it was presented to us.

In many ways, Singapore was more like a diverse and exotic big American City than it is like Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai. It has none of the murky disorder of a Bangkok, or the endless concrete canyon feel of New York. the powpulation diversity is such that you might think you were in Downtown Vancouver, except for the heat, and everyone was so polite (in 3 days, I don't think I heard one person honk a car horn). The neighborhoods were walkable and distinct, and the hills small and insignificant.

So, basically, Toronto.

Edit: Tig actually drew a better comparison. It is a dynamic City on a river, with hawker food areas, lots of great public space, progressive transportation, but still living the American Dream, if in a quirky way. Maybe it is more of a Portland.

 

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