We're now in Asia! Our first stop was Singapore, a little island located at the southern tip of Malaysia with a total area of 718 km2 and a population of only 5.4 million. We had 4 days to take in as much as Singapore had to offer.
Our first impression of Singapore was that it is extremely organized and a country where everything is very efficient (quite different from what we expected! - these guys could give Germany a run for their money). Everyone here is patient, are happy to wait in line-ups, and everyone follows the rules (which there are many, conveniently signposted on every corner). For example, it is not permitted to eat or drink in the train. Of course we didn't know this so the first thing we do after getting out of the airport is to pull out a granola bar and got told right away by another commuter that this was not allowed. We also learned about this website: www.stomp.sg which is basically a public shaming site, for those who decide to break the rules and are caught by cell-phone camera.
We also quickly realized that Singaporeans LOVE their shopping! There are massive malls on every corner, which, I admit, were convenient for two reasons: 1) easy to find a toilet and 2) air conditioning breaks. Singapore is HOT. So hot that our first day there we literally couldn't walk for more than a block before ducking into a mall where we would sit in the A/C until we cooled down. The forecast was about 34C but with the humidity felt like >40C!
Tom ended up buying a little hand towel which we refer to as his "dude rag".
Singapore has incredibly innovative architecture, with our favorite being the banana boat pearched atop three towers
The city also has hawker stalls everywhere which are basically outdoor food courts. Because Singapore is extremely multi cultural it is easy to find Chinese, Malay, Indian or even Vietnamese stalls. It was fun walking through them all trying to pick lunch; there was quite a variety (but also a lot of unknown!)
Unfortunately by day three we both got food poisoning.... but it was worth it!
Before that though we still packed a lot in including a great walking tour of the city which started in the heart of the central area down to the waterfront.
We visited the botanical gardens which contained an impressive orchid garden with >1000 different species and learnt that new orchid hybrids are actually developed each year.
We even went to the Night Safari, which is associated with the Singapore Zoo. On the night safari you get to hike through the jungle on several trails, and see all sorts of local animals. This turned out to be much more interesting than I thought! Most of the animals were actually very active at night (we assumed it was probably because of the heat!). The highlight was the "bat-cave" where you get to walk through a night-time jungle with bats flying everywhere - complete with gigantic fruit-bats. Just remember to duck - some of those bats were the size of flying puppies! (if puppies could fly)
We also went to the National museum where we learned about the history of Singapore (you can read some history from Wikipedia), and went on a great tour of Chinatown with our new friend Wei.
On our last night in Singapore we met up with an old friend from our Montreal days, Wen Tsern, who gave us a tour of Sentosa Island, his favourite hawker stalls where he treated us to an amazing spread of the best local food and then gave us a tour along Orchard road, where Hermes has not one, but TWO stores. (Interesting bit of info: the woman who owns the most Hermes Birkin handbags in the world is a Singaporean ex-flight attendant named Jamie Chua).
Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a cooking class because I got sick :( BUT I still did get a chance sample a lot of really great food!
Next: Hong Kong!
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