I love Singapore!

Went to Singapore to renew my visa. I had such a nice weekend. I was fairly apprehensive about the whole concept of going there by myself, but I had a really good time. It’s probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever been in…it’s very clean and there is lots of green all over. Plus, it is so organized and efficient! A welcome respite from the chaos of Indonesia for my retentive self. Though, I must say, I am pretty amazed at how calm I have managed to remain so far despite traffic jams, getting blown off, having people talking while I’m presenting preliminary results, etc.

Anyway, I arrived mid-afternoon on Friday. (Singapore is one hour ahead of Jakarta, I think because they keep daylight savings time to stay a more uniform time distance from North America & Europe. Being practically on the equator, there’s no appreciable difference in day length during different parts of the year…daylight savings just means that the sun’s up from 7AM-7PM instead of 6AM-6PM).

Thersya was a godsend! FAO’s travel agent said he/she couldn’t get me a room for less than $250 USD per night, then he/she said that he/she couldn’t get me a room at all. Lame. Thersya went through her agent and booked me a room that was ~$80 SGD for the first night and ~$70 for the second ($1 US is about $1.5 Sing). Much better. The hotel was not very fancy and they flaked out on my wakeup call, but all I wanted was a clean bed, clean bathroom, lock on the door, and in a not-scary neighborhood. It fit the bill well. She couldn’t come to Sing with me because she had a wedding to go to, but I’m going to meet her in Jakarta next weekend.

My hotel was 2 blocks off Orchard St., the main shopping drag. All up and down both sides of the street were hotels, shopping malls, department stores and branded retail outlets with restaurants and convenience stores and coffee shops squeezed in between them. A lot of great food, people-watching and window shopping. I walked all over the place on Friday afternoon and evening. For-real shopping was out of the question for me (even through the annual Singapore Great Sale was on) since the likes of Prada, Cartier, Cole Haan, etc. are a bit outside my price range. Except for the occasional thousand pair lots of Prada deisgn mishaps in weird sizes that occasionally pop up at DSW. It’s never the nice ones that can be found there for a reasonable price.

The malls that I ducked into to use the bathroom or get out of the sun for a bit were all gorgeous, too. One had an arc lamp next to the information desk, and several had gorgeous bent plywood and chrome chairs set up in little lounge areas for shoppers. Mmmmm…well-designed modern furniture…

Anyway, Friday was all walking around and people-watching. Saturday I got up early and was headed to the Botanical Gardens by 7AM. I spent the whole morning in the Botanical Gardens and the National Orchid Garden (which is a part of the Botanical Gardens). I headed back in the direction of my hotel for lunch, then went up to the zoo for the afternoon. I met an electrical engineer from Montreal who is in Singapore on business for 3 weeks; we walked through part of the zoo together and had dinner. A nice guy. And mealtime conversation was a nice change of pace…in Indonesia, it’s considered rude to talk a lot during meals. As someone who has always treated meals with other people as social affairs, I’ve found this a bit weird to get used to. Anyway, after dinner was night safari time…the Singapore Night Safari is next-door to the zoo (and parts of them overlap). They put soft lights on around the habitats for the nocturnal animals. The lights are oriented such that you can see the animals, but they have a hard time seeing you. You can take a tram ride through the park, and there are a few trails open as well. It was really neat.

Singapore was pretty hot…I think about 90F…and humid. I probably drank more than 4L of water on Sat, and I still don’t think that was enough. It was a little overcast and there was plenty of shade to be had at the Botanical Gardens & the Zoo, which was nice. Good thing I like hot weather. Some of the other tourists looked sort of miserable. The gardens had lots of little gazebos all over where you could sit down in the shade. The zoo bad benches in the shade, but also a lot of little air-con shelters—small buildings with glass doors that were air-conditioned and had vending machines with cold drinks. There seemed to be a lot of tourists from Australia, New Zealand & Europe. I didn’t hear many accents from the States or Canada.

I was beyond knackered by the end of the day and my feet are still a little sore. My Keen flip-flops are comfortable for walking in an all, but I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to spend >12 hours walking in them (with breaks for meals and bus/train rides) anytime soon.

I really wanted to wake up at 1AM to watch the World Cup final (Forza ragazzi! Azzurri!), but it didn’t quite happen.

Flight back to Jakarta was pleasant. Singapore Airlines is really, really, really nice. As was Cathay Pacific on the way from the States. And the Singapore and Hong Kong airports are both fabulous. Immaculate and very well-designed. American airlines and airports kind of suck! Southwest is at least nice to you, but Cathay and Singapore take it to an entirely different level. Hot towels right after you sit down, a free copy of the International Herald Tribune (or the Straight Times from Singapore or papers in Chinese or Bahasa Indonesia), actually pretty decent food, very pleasant flight attendants…now I understand why Josh’s mentor only flies on Singapore when headed to field sites in the Indo-Pacific. And I’m always amazed by the duty-free areas of the major international airports. Plus, the Singapore airport has orchid gardens scattered about, a movie theater, free wireless internet access and free internet kiosks throughout the terminals. And did I mention that everything is really well-designed? People in Asia don’t seem to do lines very well (there’s always lots of crowding, which I frankly find to be somewhat irritating) but in some areas (e.g. Hong Kong and SIngapore) they do industrial and interior design way, way better than we do.

okey-doke. I should run. Photos are all from the Orchid Garden or Zoo. Hope you’re all well!