“Amazing what obscene amounts of GDP will get a country.” – Old Sean
Year Dawn
Happy New Year and holidays. For the past week or so, I’ve been staying with my friend Ching and her family in the Philippines, primarily around Manila. For the most part, my visit has been relaxing and slow. Many days are spent just working online and enjoying the rather extensive range of Philippine restaurants around Alabang District.
Other highlight events include overlooking the downtown area from a mountain to watch New Year fireworks rippled over the skyline, leaving smoke so dense it looked like fog.
But now I’m on a different sort of adventure, flying off to Singapore with my group in order to enjoy the a few days in one of the strangest countries on Earth.
Singapore is unique for a dozen reasons. Firstly, it was the site of a British catastrophe during WWII, when Japanese forces besieged the city by land, rather than by sea as expected. After being a wealthy British colonial holding, then a Japanese military stronghold, Singapore was granted independence along with Malaysia. In just a few short years, Singapore would be the only nation in the world to have city-state national independence forced upon it.
Malaysia, wary of the hyper-economy of Singapore writing all of its laws and regulations, voted to expel Singapore against the massive city’s will. Now, Singapore has the highest GDP per person in the world, the strongest passport on Earth, and a sprawling, famously clean metropolis connecting a series of tightly clustered islands.
The Peak of All Airports
Anyone who visits Singapore by air is immediately introduced to the Changi Airport, the greatest airport in the world by an order of magnitude.
The center of the airport is known for its lattice-funnel-dome which downpours a light-tinged waterfall onto a glass dome. The surrounding amphitheater is made of black stone staircases, dense jungle foliage, a stunning number of smaller waterfalls, and an upper-story skywalk area. Encircling the entire centerpiece are multiple floors with an incredible number of mall-based storefronts.
Upon arrival, my small group looped the mall space several times, eventually arriving to the top floor where visitors can purchase tickets to enjoy some of the unique attractions overhead. This is definitely worth it, as Singapore takes its entertainment venues seriously. The walking space leads over a skybridge that shoots mist into the air, a meandering garden walk filled with flower-based topiary figures, an abstract reflective slide, a flower garden, several meditative pools, a green space that shoots mist geysers into the air, and a dinosaur augmented-reality experience.
To our great misfortune, the waterfall of Singapore is currently closed for maintenance. But even without this feature, the rest of the airport has a lot to offer. We spent hours browsing art shops, sampling restaurants, visiting the highly engaging Pokémon Center, and looking at upscale gift options.
It’s difficult to overstate how impressive Singapore is.
Orchard Street
After our time at the airport passed 1 PM, we took a shuttle into town where we checked into a massive hotel near Orchard Street. I soon found myself with my group wandering through the endless maze of malls that borders both sides of Orchard Street, gradually growing more impressed by its scale. There are endless shops, eateries, Turkish ice cream stands, storefronts, upscale window shopping spaces, art venues, pedestrian overpasses, Asian cuisine centers, and more. Singapore is certainly the sort of place where heaps of money are spent for the benefit of anyone enamored with shopping.
However, due to the extremely early flight of my group, everyone was feeling a bit sleepy. While the kids of our group went off to a rail-based Go Kart experience, I opted to take a long, scenic walk east.
Fortified Green
My long walk took me through the entirety of Orchard Street, where Chinese New Year decorations are visually dominant. This year (starting January 29th) marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake. There are many fun snake sculptures and red-patterned storefronts, especially in LEGO shops.
Regardless, after stopping at a cafe for a water bottle refill and strawberry smoothie, I arrived at my chosen destination, Fort Canning Park.
Fort Canning is the highest natural site in Singapore’s civil center and arguably one of its most historically vital areas. The fortification space is home to a stunning number of historical and modern attractions, including Raffles Gardens, Five Kings Walk, the Canning Reservoir, the Dinosaur Tree, the Tree Tunnel, the Green, and several historical sites including gates, bunkers, a lighthouse and more. There are also several museums. The entire hill is enormously lush, with knobby, fern-draped trees ringing the path. Joggers frequently move through the lovely green space at a comfortable pace.
Night Coins
After my time at the fort, I returned through Orchard Street to finish up some of my personal shopping. Namely, I needed to buy shoes for a wedding. As such, I spent a lot of time scuffling through malls, checking out shops. Sadly, there weren’t many places with my shoe size available, so the trip was centered more around eating macha ice cream than anything else.
That being said, there are some very cool artworks scattered around. From a tunnel filled with goths making Tiktok videos to a display case with black-velvet deer miniatures to a wall gleaming with Christmas medals to an arched peacock under a red-leafed tree, there’s a lot to see. I eventually found a pair of shoes that would serve before returning to my hotel. That essentially concluded my first day visiting Singapore.
Rainout
The following day, I joined my large travel group on a slow morning journey by train to the nearby Singapore Chinatown. We eventually arrived to see finely appointed buildings of traditional architecture extended backward until they reached a ramble of streets with endless storefront shops.
The shops are fairly impressive, especially since Chinese New Year is right around the corner. There are walls of good luck charms, rooms full of traditional Chinese games, incredible carved statues, and talking grey parrots. Snacks abound and the elegantly painted wall art is worthy of attention.
The main reason for visiting the Singapore Chinatown was for food. Our group sat down at an enormous round table centered by a lazy susan. Food rotated endlessly, giving me endless flashbacks to my time spent in Chongqing, Beijing, and Hohhot.
When the meal was finally done, our group planned to take a shuttle to Universal Studios, where we wanted to get to the aquarium. Sadly, a torrential rainstorm struck, slowing our drive dramatically. It was raining so hard, crews had to disable the outdoor escalators. In the end, our group only stayed underground, waiting for a shuttle to take us home.
Back at the hotel, however, the rain cleared up dramatically. While the rest of the group divided up between dinner, resting at the hotel and shopping, I took the metro going north to visit the Botanical Gardens.
I love botanical gardens, especially in tropical regions. Mosquitoes, by and large, tend to ignore me. Flowers are a delight, towering trees soothe me and I love that cities can still curate nature amidst the skyscrapers.
However, it’s rare that I get to visit the Botanical Gardens at night. But the Singapore Botanical Garden is especially nice in the evening. There are softly glowing waterfalls, ponds fringed with hooded lanterns, winding walkways and curling jungle plants. Most interesting of all was the noise. The jungle is obscenely vibrant with sound, including birds hooting, bats fluttering, frogs chirping and unidentifiable noises filtering out from the darkness.
The ground was still slick from the recent rainfall, but the gardens are romantically lit. I enjoyed my long, pensive walk through the area and it was nice to recharge my social battery for the following day.
Munching Turtles
The following day, my group awoke early to attend a unique event; a turtle sanctuary.
Somewhere within Singapore is a turtle discovery center, filled with the little critters. There’s a gift shop absolutely crammed with figures and a wonderful section with dramatically designed statues. Out back is where the real action begins.
Dozens of tanks showcase a huge range of the critters. There are box turtles, painted ear turtles, pig nosed turtles, alligator turtles, snapping turtles and a large enclosure of tortoises.
The ponds were especially impressive, with turtles layering on top of one another as feeding pellets were dropped into the water. We eventually reached the tortoise enclosure, where we eagerly fed long leaves to the large, munching reptiles.
Second Universal
After feeding the tortoises, we made a trip to Universal Studios for a second time. Our luck held, and there was no rain to speak of. We also arrived with plenty of time before closing. Heading inside, we were able walk through the massive aquarium complex, which is always a surreal experience.
I enjoy aquariums tremendously, but I prefer when they’re a bit on the quiet side. Sitting and watching undersea creatures drift around is oddly therapeutic. I have a friend who is utterly terrified at deep, opaque water since it’s an entire world she can’t see or react to quickly. But I’m comforted to know that there are domains where people are only visitors. Getting front row seats to sea life drifting along is calming.
The aquarium doesn’t slouch, either. Long eels twisted through tanks, massive sharks drifted overhead, pillars of jellyfish pulsed along, walls of shimmering silver fish schooled together, shrimp perched on coral towers and sea dragons fluttered through kelp towers.
Our group ended the night by heading to the massive Ion Mall complex, looking for a place to eat. We struggled quite a bit finding a restaurant that would seat all sixteen members of our group. But once we’d finally eaten, we trudged back to our hotel for another night of restless rest.
I should mention that our hotel, while nice, had rather tiny rooms. The bed basically took up the entire living space at Yotel Hotel. It was fine for a single person, but everyone was in a group of two, making things a wee bit tight.
That being said, the hotel had some clever designs. There were pull out coat hangers, folding TV stands, unfolding work stations, multi-stackable wardrobe spaces and walls that doubled as storage spaces. It’s a clever design, certainly, but it only highlighted that space was at a premium.
The Merlion
The following day would be spent almost entirely outside. With a splinter group, we all went to see the famed Merlion, the mythical half-lion half-fish mascot of Singapore. The fish body represents Singapore’s origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means “sea town” in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore’s original name—Singapura—meaning “lion city” or “kota singa”.
It was a lovely visit, as the tall statue fires a beautiful arc of water over the bay while crowds of tourists gather underneath. The distinct Marina Bay Sands Structure towers nearby, with three curving pillars supported a massive, stylized modern longship, which serves as the upper viewing platform. In the opposite direction, the city skyline glinted in the morning sun.
Our group walked around peacefully enough, following the Jubilee Bridge until I found some melon ice cream. Which I ate with the requisite joy.
The rest of our time was spent at the Esplanade Theater, where we puttered around briefly until reaching the metro station. My group went home for a quick rest, but I opted to take the metro in the opposite direction, eager to explore the famed Gardens by the Bay.
Blazed Green
While the Gardens by the Bay aren’t actually that big, they’re dense with attractions. It takes a whopping six hours to fully explore in any meaningful way, with the bigger indoor attractions requiring roughly an hour apiece.
However, I was eager to spend some time frolicking, despite the heat. With an umbrella propped up over my head, I visited the Meadow, the Serene Garden, the Colonial Garden, the Bayfront Pavilion, the various statues, Dragonfly Island, Floral Fantasy, the Marina Bay Sands interior, the Supertree Center, the World of Palms, the Golden Garden, the Sun Pavilion and Jurassic Nest Food Hall, where plenty of dinosaur statues overlooked people eating.
When the rest of the group arrived, we substantially upgraded the tour. First, we entered the Flower Dome, which contained winding paths filled with vibrant flowers, strange statues, wood carvings, leftover Christmas decorations, impressive Alice in Wonderland mushrooms, and tumbling vines. The nearby Cloud Forest was also impressive, with endless waterfalls, waves of mists, a hollow mountain of greenery, and impossible bridges looping overhead. The primary reason for our visit was visual: Our group had hired a professional photographer for the visit, so we took endless photos throughout the tour. It was still excellent and beautiful, despite my mild reluctance to pose for frequent snapshots. I still enjoyed myself tremendously, especially once we found a viewing garden to watch the Supertrees perform their nightly 7:45 PM light show.
That essentially concluded our time in Singapore. The following morning, we zoomed back through the airport and returned to the Philippines, where I’ll soon be attending a wedding.
So until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written January 10th, 2025
Singapore Activities
