Singapore - Thursday, Friday

After 2 longs flights that were both late, we finally arrived in Singapore on Thursday evening around 5:30. Before coming to Singapore we had heard so much about all the rules here, all the things you can’t do, and all the things you can do to get yourself executed. After this wonderful introduction to my next destination I couldn’t help but be nervous about the whole immigration/customs process we would be going through at the airport. I assumed it would be very rigorous, something like the States but more intense. I would not have been surprised if they searched every bag at the airport and put you through intense questioning. It was nothing like this.

First off, when you land on an international flight in Singapore you disembark he plane into the international terminal, mixing with all the other passengers who are waiting for outgoing flights. I have never seen this before anywhere and this definitely seems strange considering their really strict rules regarding drug smuggling. I can only imagine having all the passengers mix like this could make drug smuggling easier.

Next, you pass through the immigration checkpoint, where they stamp your passport, and they don’t ask you any questions. It is the most efficient customs I have ever seen in my life – minus that fact that it probably doesn’t do much for keeping people out of the country. They didn’t ask me a single question about why I was here, where I was staying, when I would be leaving, what my plans were in the country – nothing. They didn’t even say hi. You just hand over your passport, they put it through a machine, take a photo of the information card you write on, and then that is that. (Oh but to find immigration you have to follow the signs for “arrivals” – that was confusing. It didn’t say “baggage claim” or “arrival immigration” it just said “arrivals”, like you see when you’re driving to the airport to drop someone off – but anyways, we made it eventually).

Then it was off to baggage claim where my bag took like 30 minutes. Good thing we didn’t have anywhere to be. We’re pretty sure this was a bi-product of flying a budget airline.

Next is customs. Since filling out our immigration form on the plane we had found it quite strange that they didn’t offer us a customs form where we are asked to declare anything that we might be bringing into the country. We asked a few other people but they said there would be big signs all over the airport about items we can’t have, like drugs and chewing gum, and warning us about illegal activity like human trafficking. Yes, according to many people chewing gum and human trafficking are on the same warning sign – that is apparently how serious they are about chewing gum here, or chewing gum not being here to be accurate. We then started to approach customs where there were signs for doorways with “Nothing to Declare” and “Something to Declare” but only one sign with very small print next to the “Nothing to Declare” line with a list of what you need to declare. There is no sign next to the “Something to Declare” line. Since we both have prescription meds with up we told them but they said that was fine. We then walked through the “Nothing to Declare” doorway and were out of the airport, just like that. No x-ray of our bags, no questions asked, no nothing. I have never seen a customs like this before in my life, ever. I can now see why people would attempt to smuggle drugs here, they only x-ray about one in every 15 or 20 people’s bags. If they don’t choose you, you are free to go, just like that, no questions asked. (We did think maybe they scan them before they put them onto the baggage claim belt but this would be useless because they would either confiscate the bag and maybe not ever get the smuggling person or they would have to follow the bag on the cameras until the person picked it up and then what a hassle that would be! Anyways, if you are traveling to Singapore, you do not have to worry about customs being a scary process, it isn’t at all.

After leaving customs we caught a taxi to our hotel from the airport for S$22. Singapore trades about 1:1 with the New Zealand dollar which is about 1.3:1 with the USD. I am going to talk about prices in Singapore in Singapore dollars but know they only cost about 75% of the Singapore dollar cost in USD. Our S$22 cab took about 20 minutes and we likely went over 20 kms. We just couldn’t believe how cheap the cab was! And clean and easy. Someone on our flight had told us it is cheaper to take a cab everywhere you need ot go in Singapore than own a car. Cars are expensive here but the operating costs are outrageous. They sell road licenses so for a car that costs S$50,000 the road license is S$70,000. They are extremely expensive to drive on the road, no wonder almost all the cars you see are cabs and luxury vehicles. No need for a cab though, the MRT (mass rapid transit system/underground/metro) is clean, efficient, timely.

Once at our hotel we check in, chilled out, and then headed to Chinatown for dinner at the hawker stalls as we had heard, once again on the plane, that Chinatown was the best place for hawker stalls. I had Xiao Long Bao – soup dumplings, they were delicious – and Elizabeth had a sweet and sour noodle dish, we had cucumbers to share and a couple of Tiger beers. Welcome to Singapore! After taking in the sights and smells of Chinatown’s hawker central we went back to the hotel and right to bed, we were exhausted and wanted to get up early the next day and see the city!

Now about our hotel room, I booked the hotel online before arriving after doing a fair amount of research. Singapore is pretty much on par with western prices when it comes to hotel rooms and Elizabeth and I are on a budget, so a budget hotel is what we were after. Neither of us are really the hostel type so I didn’t bother doing too much research into these. I found a place, the Haising Hotel, that had decent reviews on TripAdvisor, a low enough price, and was in Little India, a neighborhood I had heard is rather safe from many people who live/have lived in Singapore. The room works for everything we need it for, but it is definitely a hotel room in a large and crowded city. The room is almost the same size as the bed, minus room for a small table and enough floor space to set your suitcases. We have an attached bathroom, thankfully, that is more a wet room than a bathroom. The whole room is waterproof and contains a showerhead, a toilet, and a sink. Don’t forget to take the toilet paper out before you shower or you’ll have a soggy mess on your hands when you’re done. Although it is small it has working AirCon, good water pressure in the shower, and the bed isn’t the worst I’ve ever slept in. We actually like it enough that we have extended our stay 3 more nights instead of having to move hotels. We are in Little India, near Arab Street, close enough to the metro, and can walk most places as well. I’ll upload a video soon so you can see how wonderful and basic it actually is.

Waking up Friday morning we spent a bit of time doing research on what to do/see in Singapore. This was really the first time we had say down and done anything to this effect. Mixed with what we had learned on the plane we put together a pretty good list of what our priorities are over the next few days. With the list made and a map in hand (although it was a pretty shitty map!) we were off to explore the city on day 1.

We started with a walk over to Arab street. Now we headed out just before 9 on a Friday morning but the city was extremely sleepy. I’m not sure when things really start to get rolling but the city had seemed more alive at night than it ever has during the day, at least so far. After a bit of a stroll around Arab Street we stumbled into an Indonesian café for breakfast and it was delicious. We both had very savory and spicy dishes – something we will have to get used to and something I am looking forward to, savory food for breakfast. We sat outside, sweating out asses off – it is over 90* every day and super humid! Thank god almost every place has nice AirCon inside – except many of the street cafes, that is, that are all outdoors. I had a tasty tofu and egg combo that was deep-fried and smothered with a spicy peanut sauce; Elizabeth had a veggie combo with a different, yet still spicy, peanut sauce. We then meandered next door into the AirCon for a nice coffee like we’re used to back in NZ. We spent some time there cooling off and chatting.

Following breakfast we went for a wander around Arab Street. By now the stores were starting to open so we had something to look at. We found lots of fabric stores, lots of clothing stores, lots of restaurants (like every neighborhood), and then some random western stores mixed in here and there. We found one great clothing store that we may go back and buy from another day on our trip but outside of that we didn’t make any purchases.

We then decided to head off towards a more touristy part of town where many of the museums and attractions are, thinking we would do one thing a day. The walk in that direction took us quite a while. We didn’t know exactly where we were going, we didn’t have a very good map, and we went down the wrong street a few times. The city is very pedestrian friendly, there are sidewalks along every road and over every bridge (even bridges with much busier roads), but we did have to walk through one major interchange and got a bit turned around. In the end, however, we made it over to area with Gardens by the Bay, the Marina Sands complex, and the ArtScience Museum.

We checked out Gardens by the Bay but decided to go back another day at night when they have the fake snow falling and all the Christmas decorations lit up. We then went over to the ArtScience Museum where we visited a photography exhibit the showcased works by photographers from around the globe. Some of our favorite collections included one that showed how humans have influenced the environment showcasing many genetic modificaitons we have made to other animals including a glowing deer (less likely to get hit by cars), an egg that has a hard bark outside instead of a shell (cannot be broken unless using a hard pointed instrument), and tattooed goldfish (the are more colorful than a normal goldfish). There was another exhibit that I found especially well showcased where a photographer followed people at a gaming conference. There was a collection of very dark photos in a collage of snapshots from the week and then 6 or 7 color photos of people leaving the conference, stepping out in the sunshine and daylight that they had not seen in 7 days and their facial expressions when exposed to the sun.

After the ArtScience museum we wandered through the shops of Marina Sands, a large shopping mall/hotel/casino complex on par with something you would find in Vegas, but I am sure much more grand. It is very beautiful and well manicured. It was then off to Chinatown again for a nice lunch of noodle soup. By the time we were done with lunch it was 4:45 and time to head back to our hotel for a rest. We had 7:30 dinner plans and after a long day of walking around the city needed some time to rest.

At 7:30 we met Richard and Guessy in our hotel lobby to head out for dinner. Richard is the son of a guest of mine from Ortolana, Alan. Richard grew up in Auckland but has lived abroad now for 9 years. He moved to Singapore about 9 months ago and when his father heard I was coming here he connected us. Guessy, Richard’s girlfriend is from Indonesia and is living here in Singapore and studying make-up. They were kind enough to spend an evening with us 2 strangers and show us around town.

For the night we headed over to Clarke Quay, a touristy nightlife hub of Singapore. We had Spanish Tapas for dinner and then went to a nice outdoor bar for drinks afterwards. Clarke Quay is a very artificial part of Singapore, the whole area feels as if it was built at once as a tourist destination (I’m sure it was). It feels like downtown Disney, but it is really cool. Very crowded at night with lots of cool outdoor bars and restaurants along the water. We were there until close to 1am eating, drinking, and generally having a good time. I’m very happy we had this experience on a Friday night as I cannot imagine this part of town to be the same during the day.

We crashed into bed upon our return to our hotel and had a good night’s rest.