We began our trip by taking the HSR up to Taoyuan and flying out of the Taipei airport to Singapore. My previous conception of Singapore was as an incredibly wealthy country, spotlessly clean, with a high chance of one ending up in prison. Each of these expectations turned out to be a disappointment. Since our hotel was located in the red light district of Little India (I blame the boys entirely, though perhaps, I should blame myself - never ever let boys book hotel reservations), we saw sides of Singapore which were far from being either wealthy or clean, and in the two days were there, we all somehow avoided arrest. Maybe we should have tried spitting more... :)
Singapore started off poorly (story below), but I ended up enjoying it. IT is the most ethnically and culturally diverse place I have been to in East/Southeast Asia. Other than the expected East Asians, we saw many South and Southeast Asians, as well as many Westerners. In the airport alone, the majority of the workers were Indian, which was not something we had expected. The Singapore accent is interesting to listen to. Some shoot-off of the British/Australian accents, which sounds similar yet very different? We visited the Malaysian Cultural Center which had a lovely little museum on Singapore's history, explaining a lot about the ethnic diversity seen today. Other than not seeing Chinese people everywhere and not hearing solely Mandarin being spoken around us (I think we heard more English than anything else), we were also impressed by the traffic. First of all, everyone drives on the left side of the road (leftover from British colonization), and secondly, there were no scooters anywhere. We had forgotten what it was like to not see streets littered with scooters, the result being that the roads appear much more spacious. The architecture was also surprising. For example, Little India, aside from its residents, looked like New Orleans. French/Bayou influence? Not sure how that happened...
Funny stories from Singapore:
1) Our flight got into Singapore close to midnight, so it was quite late by the time we arrived at our hotel. When we get there (remember, we are in the sketchiest part of town), we find that our hotel has given away our rooms, despite our on-line booking. They tell us that we can go down the street to another hotel which might still have rooms available. So we tramp down the street with all our luggage, and are ushered into a single "family room." The seven of us got to spend the night in a room with two double beds - a room which had large holes in the ceiling, cockroaches on the wall and the faint yet undeniable smell of curry. Needless to say, we moved to a different hotel the next night.
2) Moving walkways in Singapore are called "travellators."
3) We went to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo, one of the largest tourist attractions in the city according to travel guides. When we first walked in, we got to see an impressive flaming torch demonstration. The performers swallowed their flaming torches and then breathed out fire. It was just like in Aladdin! Then we went to watch a nocturnal animals show. It started off well, with the zookeeper up front warning the audience to stay clear of the aisles and to not try to pet any of the animals which would be running by and around them. We were so pumped. Alas, we saw few animals. Since nocturnal animals are shy, few of them wanted to perform. The zookeeper kept reminding us that the zoo staff would never force the animals to perform if they did not want to. Next she called up a little boy to help her with a trick. She asked him his name and where he is from. "Six" is his answer. After three awkward minutes of trying to get him to talk, she looks confusedly at the crowd and says, "I don't think he speaks English." All of us were trying so hard not to laugh. How did it take her three minutes to arrive at that conclusion and how has she never faced this problem before? Maybe she was new. The dad had to finally get up on stage and help, informing us that they were from Kyrgyzstan. The best part of the night, though, was by far the midnight tram ride. It was a guided tour around the zoo's open exhibits of nocturnal animals, all of which we were able to see up close. At a few points, we were so close to deer that we could have leaned out and touched them as they wandered right up to and across our train's pathway. Throughout our whole trip, our tour guide rambled on in his best flight attendant's voice about how beautiful the animals were, But alas, they are no match for the poacher's gun. Please remember the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recylce." He must have said this at every single exhibit we passed. It was priceless.
4) Perhaps the best story of all is how we nearly never made it out of Singapore. We had previously converted money for each country we were to visit. However, Singapore was a bit more expensive than any of had guessed. In the end, each of us was anywhere from 2-8 Singapore dollars short of getting out of the country. In the evening before going to the safari, we all scrambled to count up change and to do the math of how much we were collectively short. IT did not make sense to go to the ATM just to get out 5 Singapore dollars, but if no one did, we would not be able to catch a taxi to the airport. I did not even have enough for the bus ride home from the zoo. Fonda finally solved the problem by using her credit card to buy one of the safari tickets, so we managed to escape Singapore without anyone going to jail for theft (If you are wondering why this was so complicated, our bank cards in Taiwan are not credit cards and cannot even be used at ATMs outside of the country. Therefore, if any of us ever ran out of money while abroad, we would have to use our American credit cards. All of us have tried not to touch our American bank accounts this year, so traveling in different currencies presented a slight problem. We actually faced the same problem again in Cambodia, and I have another entertaining story for how that one was resolved.
5) Best quote in Singapore:
Taxi Driver: "Which airport terminal should I drop you off at?"
Kristin: "The international terminal." Since there is only one international terminal due to the large number of domestic flights in the country. :)
Pictures: famous mosque in Little India; Arab Street
Pictures: meat market in Chinatown; our Chinese representatives outside the Heritage Center
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