SINGAPORE THE WEST OF THE EAST

Summing up Singapore in one word can’t be done, there so much going on at the same time it’s just impossible. I mean look at the place, it doesn’t have one center, it doesn’t have one main street, it doesn’t have one main language, it doesn’t have one main culture and I can keep going on with this and that’s what makes it very special.

Singapore is a fusion of cultures, languages and everything else. If I had to describe it to someone I would say Singapore is the West of the East. By this I mean it is the one plot of land here in South East Asia that just does not fit in and is more reminiscent of a Western country. Once you step in to the country first thing you realize is that everyone speaks English and this is really bizarre as it is, the English is not your typical perfect English but rather the perfect English if an Asian person spoke it and that’s exactly what it is. They don’t make mistakes but you also don’t get the sense that it would be their first language but it is!  Second thing you notice is there is the diversity of the population it’s fantastic, you don’t get the feeling that ‘’yep, I’m the tourist and I stick out like a sore thumb’’ well besides my huge travel backpack of course and last if not actually first the overall cleanness of the whole place. It’s outstanding, being used to the streets of Bangkok (which by the way has been cleaned up in the recent years) I was so surprised how it has stayed so clean. But there’s a logical explanation for it all and that is the people actually care to obey rules and laws, again this is something different from all the neighboring countries, I mean live ten years in South East Asia and then go to a place and you see its clean and people actually care about rules, it really is something different.

Once we had arrived and made our way through the extensive and impressive metro system to our hotel we immediately left for town and of course the Marina Bay. Funny story time; so once we get to the Marina Bay we started to ponder where the infamous Marina Bay Sands Hotel building was, there was plenty of signs inside the metro tunnels pointing different directions where it would be, and once on the escalator out of the tunnels I look straight up and was awe struck, I told my friend Juho ‘’Look up!’’, we were literally inside one of the columns of it heading out of, it was amazing! I couldn’t get my eyes of the building itself, it really is captivating and stunning. My whole entire time there in I just couldn’t stop staring at the intricacies of the architectural marvel of it all. The Marina Bay itself is full of life all around it, there’s restaurants, bars, people and music. I can understand that locals would want to come there every day and spend quality time with friends. It has such a hip and swanky feel to it as well, plus you don’t even notice tourists because you can’t separate them from the locals. The fusion of culture once again proves its worth.

We stopped off at the foot of the Marina Bay Sands to eat some pizza and drink quality beer in an Australian street bar. All the people seemed to be enjoying their after work beverages with light snacks inside the bar and outside of it you had the stunning view of the bay and watching all the people go by you really don’t get the feeling that you are in Asia besides the tropical hot weather. The Marina Bay itself has a lights and water show every day at 8pm and 9.30pm, this show has lots of smoke, lights and music but honestly not too much action, it worth seeing once and then you kind of realize it’s something perhaps to captivate the tourists who walk by. After the dinner we made our way around the marina just taking in the massive buildings opposite of the Marina Bay Sands, this is where you realize Singapore is truly an architect’s dream place, I personally don’t know anything about architecture because I can’t even draw a square or circle. All the massive buildings hold some of the world’s largest company’s logos, Bank of America, HSBC, UBS and so many more. As our tour of the bay was coming to an end and the day itself huge fireworks went off opposite of us at the very opposite side of the bay, this is when we came to realize that it was the official opening of the 28^th South East Asia games, these are essentially the Olympics for the countries in the region.

So day two and we had the whole day ahead of us, we went in for some brunch at a quality little house just couple blocks from our hotel next to the little India district. Ironically this turned out to be one of the more popular brunch spots after asking around and it definitely was just that, people queued in large number and the food itself was amazing for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the place (bad blogger Aleksi!). Once again I found myself pondering and watching as there was an even mix different ethnicities of people, I just couldn’t help being stunned by this my whole time in Singapore. All I could think was ‘’who are the people of Singapore!’’. To open up a bit about this you have to realize Singapore is tiny and small however it has little India district and China town and then a large expat community all intertwined into one population. We didn’t have a clue where to go besides looking at the map, like in typical me fashion I didn’t do any research where to go and what to see. I just pointed to a map and thought that place seems like there’s going to be something there, this place was called Orchard road, full of shopping malls and people, so naturally we did some shopping. The one main thing I notice about the shopping malls and building of Singapore is that they blend in perfectly with the city outlook. Majority of the time you wouldn’t even know there a mall inside some of the buildings wall, and honestly I had mixed feelings about it. I just didn’t like the idea of not knowing where I can go and shop and eat; a mall should look like a mall!

As shopping was done we once again had the task of finding a place to go eat dinner, we could have gone to China town or any other district but we just came to the easy conclusion again that Marina bay it is, it’s just too good of a place not to go twice in one weekend. As I said before the building and its surroundings is just too captivating, I personally didn’t even feel the need to go up on top of it to get the view in (or pay the 25$ cover charge), the Marina itself holds tons of rooftop bars to get in views and you could go to anyone of them as I asked around and they would all be worth it. Singapore was a delight and the perfect get away, if you happened to have some extra cash lying around I’m all for it and I urge anyone who has not been to at least visit.

There’s also one other thing I always think to myself being a traveling former expat child, would I live here? The answer in Singapore’s case is a,no. It’s just too safe, too clean, just too much somehow. I don’t like rules or at least following them always, no one j-walk’s (hell we even do that in Finland!), and no one litter’s, yes littering is bad but I’m making a point here. I felt that if there was an empty street and I crossed in the middle of it someone would yell from their window ‘’hey! you can’t do that go back!’’, this is just the feeling I get. I guess I’m used to Bangkok, Jakarta and all the other less developed areas, they have raised me in a different way from Singapore. Singapore is my mind from what I saw meant for the business savvy people, working there in the business world seems like the optimal thing to do, the business district is so diverse and developed. Living there as something else I just don’t see it myself, I couldn’t. Not because I don’t want to but because I wouldn’t know how to, now you can say I’m biased which is most likely true and I don’t know until first hand experiencing it but this is my opinion and how I see it, hopefully someday I can be proven wrong or otherwise. But in my book Singapore gets a huge gold star, and I will definitely be back!