His View 

Singapore - Feliks' perspective

 

Singapore

Our flight to Singapore landed around dinner time and we headed to the hostel. The public transportation system was supposed to be really good. We found the metro and bus stops at the airport and unwisely chose the bus because it was cheaper. Cheaper, yes. More practical, no. We had a distance to cover from the airport and the bus stopped every 2 minutes, so it took forever. We ended up getting off the bus at a metro stop and took that the rest of the way. Much faster. 

 

We had a lot planned for Singapore and started as soon as we woke up. Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens, a little north of city center. The metro system had a stop pretty much outside the front door but we got off a couple stops early to walk through the Orchard Road shopping area. It was kind of typical, with lots of shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and some high-end retail stores. The area was very clean and well-decorated, and seemed like a nice place to hang out on a weekend after a hard week’s work. 

 

The Botanical Gardens were about a 20 minute walk from there. The entrance was free and there was so much to see; the place was massive. There was even an Orchid Garden, which was not free. The gardens had tons of plants, ponds, random wildlife, and an abundance of workers all over the place. I was actually surprised at all the people that we saw working on maintaining the area. 

 

It was a very relaxing atmosphere, minus all the walking. The best part by far was the Orchid Gardens. I had no idea that there were so many different types, so many colors and smells. They also had an enclosed area with lots of different types of plants that were pretty cool. There was a part where they had hybrid orchids that were named after famous people that help support the area, but we didn't know any of the names. Some were pretty funny to read though. 

Like I mentioned, the entire complex was very big so even though we spent almost four hours walking around we only saw about half of it. This was pretty much all we did our first day. 

 

The next day we decided to do the MacRitchie Nature Trail. This was a giant park with a lake in the middle of it. The walk that we intended to do was over 11 km in total. We started off by the main area on the south side. The lake was sectioned off for people using row boats and there was a lot of them on the lake. They had kayak rentals too, but the area sectioned off for that was so tiny that it would have been boring after 10 minutes. As we were walking along the lake where people were having picnics, we saw the funniest thing ever. 

 

We were looking at all the things that were going on around us, the people kayaking, having picnics, relaxing in the grass, and then when we saw a money stroll out of the woods. The monkey was no bigger than a toddler and was definitely on a mission. He had his eye set on something and started a fast walk toward some people walking in front of us. There was small group of people walking and the guy at the rear was carrying a grocery bag. As soon as the monkey was within 10 feet of the bag it ran and grabbed it. The guy, startled by this, turned around and they started a tug of war match. The thieving monkey ripped the bag and made off with some kind of baked good. As thirty people looked on laughing, the monkey sat down in the grass as if having his own picnic and enjoyed his plunder. One of the best things I’ve seen so far. 

 

Our walk began just past the lake and headed straight into the woods. It was a somewhat difficult walk. It was dirt and rock most of the time and with lots of ups and downs. It was totally worth it because we saw lots of monkeys just hanging out in the trees. We also saw a couple of lizards running around. I would say that it was a relaxing walk, but it was definitely more exercise that relaxation. About halfway through the 10km we reached our main attraction, a treetop rope bridge. It was one of the longest we’ve done so far and maybe even the highest. The view was pretty sweet and well-worth the hike. Unfortunately we did not continue on the rest of the trail but instead turned around and walked back as we were both exhausted at this point and going back was shorter than going forward. 

 

After a good night’s rest, we headed to the rest of our attractions, which were much closer together. Our first stop was Chinatown. As soon as we got off the metro we were surrounded by China. It was a pretty cool Chinatown, maybe even better than the one in San Francisco. Maybe. There were lots of food places, a ton of shops, and banners surrounded by Chinese lanterns hanging about the streets. The only reason I would say that it was not better than San Fran is that it felt too commercial. In San Fransisco, Chinatown felt authentic. You could tell that the people working in Chinatown actually lived in Chinatown. This one felt too focused on sales and was more of a tourist attraction. Still a really cool area though. Also, right next to Chinatown was one of our attractions, the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. I’m honestly not sure if I saw it or not, I imagine the relic was very small. The temple was worth the visit on its own. 

It took up almost an entire block and the inside was so unique. There were little buddhas lining most of the walls with little prayer stations every few feet. The center was blocked off but the main stage area was really cool to see. One side of the temple had buddha statues that represent the different gods for each month. Mine is the one with a million arms or eighteen, something like that.

 

Out next stop was the Bay and the Shoppes at Marina Bay. As we turned a corner on our walk there, a structure came in to view. I know I say this a lot, but this was the coolest building I have ever seen. It was three towers, somewhat round in shape, and very hard to describe. They were all connected at the top by what looked like a ship. Literally, the front was pointy and round, the back was square, and there were different levels stacked along the middle. There was pretty much an entire garden up there. Check out the pictures below or Google it; this thing was so weird and awesome. I believe it was called the Sky Garden. 

 

As we made it to the marina and the shops, we got a nice view of the downtown skyline. The marina was cool. The shopping area was pretty neat. They had this art thing that was a giant bowl with water that was being drained out and moving all around. Very strange to call it art I think, but it was cool to witness. It drained down into a fountain inside the mall. You could actually see it do its thing from the bottom because the bowl was made of glass. Other than that, the mall had a little boat ride and lots of shops, and I’ll leave it at that. Oh, there was a very interesting building just outside the shops, their science museum. 

 

Our next stop was the Singapore Flyer, a giant ferris wheel with huge capsules. Some were even VIP where they had tables set up for you to have dinner or drinks. There were some awesome, awesome views of the city from the top that were definitely worth the price to go on the ride. 

 

We finished our day at Gardens by the Bay. The first part was full of these massive manmade trees that overlooked the entire area. There was a rope bridge connecting a couple of them. We made our way over to the indoor mountain, which they called Cloud Forest. This thing was incredible. There was a giant waterfall as soon as you walk it. The whole mountain was covered with plants of all kinds. It was like a massive rainforest. There were seven floors with amazing views everywhere you looked. There was so much to look at. It took us almost an hour to walk all the floors. The next area was the Flower Dome. This one was not as cool as the mountain, but still worth the visit. 

 

Overall, Singapore was an awesome place to visit. By far the cleanest city I have even been to. We knew that chewing gum was illegal, but we also found out that there are serious fines for littering on the streets. My mother found an article where a guy was fined $30,000 for throwing cigarette butts outside his window. Jaywalking is also illegal and can get you a $300 fine. We only saw a hand full of people breaking this law which was a change compared to the last few countries. The metro system was really good, and clean. It is also illegal to eat or drink inside the stations. Almost everyone, minus the few jaywalkers, abided by the laws and everything was very tidy. It was almost too orderly. I really liked this city as there were clean public bathrooms everywhere especially in most shopping areas. The WiFi was pretty easy to find also, again most shopping areas had a free network. I would definitely plan a visit back to Singapore. 

Last stop: Cambodia

Next stop: Indonesia