Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the photos from my time in Malaysia! At last we arrived at another crossroad as to where we should head after Kuala Lumpur. We came up on a deal for a flight to Singapore for $14 USD. It was an obvious and easy decision to head there.
We only had one week to hang out in Singapore because we made plans to meet up with friends in South Africa in mid-April (more on that later).
We would have liked to explore a lot more in Singapore since our time was limited, but I came down with an awful flu of some sorts. I had been lucky for a couple of months before sickness got the best of me. We landed in Singapore, and found ourselves stranded in the city when we were notified that our Air BnB host cancelled on us because he didn’t realize he had already booked his place. We spent the entire day at a café while I was sick as a dog trying to book several places and three more after that cancelled on us.
Unfortunately, Singapore’s hotel prices are absolutely absurd especially for the amount of space you get. Singapore is generally known as an expensive country, especially for accommodations. Ultimately, we decided to book an overly expensive hotel better described as a square box for a night so I could just medicate and rest.
When you’re in a different country, you can expect all of the medications to be different too which can be frustrating in moments of a desperate need to feel better. This nurse felt too awful to hit up the pharmacy, so Alex headed there for me and asked the pharmacist what he should do about his sick girlfriend at home. She gave him a packet of teas and apparently said “This is some good Chinese shit.”
Now typically, I would never trust a random herb or medicine that I know nothing about because I’m way too nursey and OCD for that. However, I took her good Chinese shit in my moment of desperation and whatever herb mixture was in this awful tasting tea; it saved my life. Shout out to the pharmacist with the good Chinese shit. I was feeling better within a day. Sometimes, ya just gotta go with it.
During our week in Singapore we did manage to do quite a lot in between post sickness, hot, humid, and rainy weather. We went on a great bike tour where we learned about Singapore’s history, laws, religions, cultures etc. Singapore is infamously known for some of its rather bizarre and harsh laws. We were surprised to hear about some of the laws here! It is actually illegal in Singapore to walk around your house naked, to sell chewing gum (although you are allowed to chew it), and to not flush public toilets. You can get heavy fines and even prison time for just some of these laws I listed. Needless to say, Singapore is one of the cleanest countries I have ever been to, so I think it works!
What I found most impressive about this country is that people of all different ethnic backgrounds and religions are successfully living in peace amongst each other. Our local guide told us that there is a law in Singapore where if too many people of one ethnicity are living in a certain area, you will be restricted from being able to live in that community- regardless of social or economic status. The reason for this is that so no one area or community will become over-populated with just one type ethnicity. This in turn avoids separation, isolation, discrimination, and instead promotes a multi-cultural community from various backgrounds and beliefs. You can really feel a sense of mutual respect for differences in ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds in this country. It’s beautiful and admirable. If the rest of the world could get on that train, it would be a much better place for all of us.
Singapore is well known for its creative and over-the top architecture, but it provides for glorious sight-seeing. There is such a rich collection of different architecture to see here from its flower shaped art-science museum, to its lush gardens, to its space ship hotels and batman looking buildings, to the floating high end stores.
Aside from the fancy and cool looking places you can see, Singapore offers rich cultural experiences too. There are a variety of districts you can visit such as China Town, Little India, and Arab Street. Each district offers traditional building design, goods, clothing, jewelry, beauty products, food, spices etc. You get a really nice snapshot of different cultures and traditions all in one place.
We had a lot of really great experiences in Singapore. There is a broad variety of things to do here from local experiences, to fancy shopping malls, to beautiful gardens. It’s all here! It feels like a city from the future but with a rich sense of tradition and culture. I would definitely visit Singapore again. What was your take on Singapore? Hope you enjoyed the photos!
-Love Nurse Vanessa
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