Singapore was a very different city for me in the respects
that it seemed to be a city from the future. Anyone who has visited Singapore
might think I am talking about the Airport. Their Airport won the award for the
best public building in the world in 2011. It comes fully equipped with a
mini-movie theater, tons of restaurants and cafes, a gym, and even a hotel! It
is much more a mall with an airport in it than an airport itself haha. The
icing on the cake for me was that the toilets they are smarter than I am (not
really but close!). But I am not just referring to the airport. I am talking
about the holistic feel of a mix between the high-tech western capitalism world
and the South East Asian small business and community world. The city is NOT
jam packed with garbage, cars, pollution, or Caucasians in suits looking to
sell their souls for a six figure annual wage. I shall explain.
The city is INSANELY clean! People’s full-time jobs are to
make sure the entire city is spotless! You may think “we have these people in
Canada Derek?” but they have REALLY taken it to the next level in Singapore. You will know
what I mean if you ever go there. To own and drive a car in Singapore is crazy
expensive so if you do have a car, you REALLY want/need it. This makes the city
just seem more pleasant and… better! The entire city is extremely
“sustainable”, and by this I mean it seems that everywhere you go there is an
energy or water reduction initiative in place. Lastly, diversity is a good word
to describe the city. The amount of different cultures, religions, and skin-colours
in this city is amazing. I believe it is predominantly made up of Malay,
Indian, and Indonesian but there are many more countries represented in this
city. When I say represented I don’t just mean by their people simply walking
around. These cultures foods and twentieth century way of life can be found all
over Singapore. There are many different parts of the city devoted to different
countries such as little Indian and china town. It’s really cool going from
high-tech skyscrapers to the raw hawker-stalls environment.
Singapore reminded me of a city that came about twenty years
after a nuclear war. It’s inhabitants seemed to have conquered nature, seen the
benefits of conservation and resource efficiency, and excepted people from all
walks of life. It’s a very different
city…. I like it.
It just so happens we would be arriving on the auspicious holiday known as HALLOWEEN! Before arriving at this amazing country I messaged my two friends from the UVic BCOM program Allie Keller and Kieran Parker. They were both doing their exchanges in Singapore, which made me extremely excited for one reason. Everyone thinks an exchange is a chance to learn new knowledge from different and foreign perspectives. No no… not at all, it is however a chance to party your face off and travel foreign lands! So I was pretty excited to be showing up for Halloween!
I flew into Singapore a whole day later than Steve and
Carson so when I arrived I was stoked to be greeted by these lost souls! Unfortunately,
they were unable to procure us accommodations for this first evening (because I
flew in at 1am) so we ended up sleeping in the McDonalds at the airport haha.
Sleeping at such a location does have it’s rewards however! When we woke up we
were three steps away from breakfast! This was my first McDonalds breakfast and
I was extremely surprised with how good it was! Those scientists sure can
engineer a good pancake!
After our breaky we embarked on the journey over to Allie
and Kieran’s place (who were living together along with five other roommates).
They graciously opened up their apartment to us to stay at for the duration of
our time in Singy!
We easily found the
place but we didn’t believe it was the right building haha. The building we
rocked up to was downtown, massive, and WAY TOO NICE for exchange students to
live in. We were greeted by a bellman and asked what unit our friends lived in.
I told him the number and he said “Yes of course sir the penthouse” haha. I was
sure they gave me the wrong unit number as a joke but sure enough we rolled up
and my friend Kieran grabbed us and took us to their PENTHOUSE!!
Here are some pics of their beautiful living quarters:
That night was Halloween so Carson, Steve, and I dropped our
stuff and went searching for some solid Halloween get-ups! After searching long
and hard we came up with nothing. I bought Kieran a cowboy hat for his cowboy
costume but none of us bought anything. I wish I could tell you we didn’t find
anything good but that would be a lie haha. We were all just too cheap to buy
anything.
You see once one leaves the economically kind area of South
East Asia you are kicked in the face by just how EXPENSIVE EVERYTHING IS WHERE ELSE! So
buying anything for about a week or two is just out of the question! Then you
get accustomed to normal prices and you recall the idea of externalities, so you go on living life again but of
course in the back of your head you are always yearning for the Asia prices to
emerge once again.
We got back to the
Penthouse and started putting our imaginations to work! Steve used his artistic
skillz to make a pair of binoculars out of cardboard. He actually had a really
awesome bird watcher costume in the end. Caron borrowed my snorkel and goggles
and was a muff diver haha. Lastly, I was the Canadian Singles Ping-Pong Champion
ahha. Here we all are in all our glory!
The plan for the night was to pre-party at the penthouse
then head over to the iconic sands! Which is a big old ship on top of a big
skyscraper downtown! You could actually see it from their penthouse! Here is a
pic:
It’s a really fancy hotel but also had a big club as well!
But unfortunately right before we left for the Sands some of Aliie’s friends called
her and told us it was on fire haha. So we aborted that plan and just kept the
party going at the pent house. It was a really fun night!
The next day Steve, Carson, and I just played tourist and
explored Singapore! We met up with a friend of mine Court and I met in Ubud.
His name is Madhu and he took us to such an awesome Indian restaurant for lunch
it was a great time! We then explored the city some more.
Before we knew it night was upon us but before we could head back we needed to find a place that sold the famed chicken rice! Chicken
Rice is a must try when in Singapore and I had heard it was
amazing!!! They apparently cook the rice with the chicken and it completely
blows everyone’s mind. I have one bowl and I lost my shit I ordered two more
for take away! TRY CHICKEN RICE!!! Here is a pic of the delicious dish.
Then we all went back to the penthouse I grabbed my backpack
and then headed to the airport to go to Oz!
