Singapore in three days

Luxury vegetation, sky-scrapers and modern buildings, colonial houses, shopping malls, over thirty degrees the whole year long, and an interesting mix of asian and western population: for three days, I opened my eyes wide and admired Singapore with all my heart. An amazing city, from which I´ve come back two days ago and still day-dream of.




Singapore is a small island, a city-state with over four official languages, English being one of them, spoken everywhere. Sometimes with a nice chinese accent that makes it not so easy to understand, but still a big advantage for the city visitors.

I got to Singapore Sunday evening, after a twelve-hour flight and with a seven-hour time zone difference from Germany, enough to make me forget what day it was and even my own name. Fortunately, I spend Sunday evening on my own, just admiring the view from my 59-floor hotel room and strolling throught the malls between the hotel and the conference center.
I was there to attend a conference and meet colleagues in the region. I left feeling shy about how little do I know about the region, and hoping I won´t get caught into some conversation about local realities where I won´t be able to have any clever opinions. It didn´t happen, but once again I realised how little do I know about so many countries in the world.

Coming back to the things I am good at: the shopping malls were really fascinating. Not only due to the variety of shops and multitude of nice, not too expensive clothes, with a completely different style from the european ones. But also due to the highly fashionable youngsters, same fascinating mix of people, strolling througnh the mall. The asian girls expecially looked exotic and very petite, which explaines why none of the clothes I tried really fit me and why I sometimes felt like an elephant in a butterfly colony.
It was the time before Chinese New Year celebration, and the malls and hotels were nicely decorated with red-golden globes and small orange threes – maybe an equivalent of the Christmas trees.

After two full conference days there followed a party on the beach, on an artificial island close to Singapore. The colleagues left their business suites and came to the party in shorts and slippers to dance the night away. It was nice, but I left early to fulfill my self-promise to visit the city the next day, before departing.

So Wednesday morning I left my luggage at the hotel reception, took my long-road shoes and left to stroll throuth the city. The shoes proved a big mistake, as my feet starting melting after the first five minutes. What was I suppose to do? I went into the first cool mall and bougt myself some summer sandals. Every girl has an excuse for doing some extra shopping.
Actually, the malls proved a real oasis in the Singapore city heat, and no matter which direction I took, somehow I ended on the main shopping street, Orchard Road. And Singapore seemed to me a big shopping mall.

I had lunch also in a mall, where I walked between rows of chinese, japanese, thailandese and you-name it fast-foods, carefully looking for some vegetarian food. I found a small shop with only vegetarian meals and had a plate of rice and delicious, unknown vegetables, for the amazing amount of three Singapore dollars – a mere one and half Euros. I even got an extra soup bowl, with a transparent, funny tasting soup that didn´t really fit my taste. So I left before having to tell how I liked it.

But I did like the fruits, especially the melons, so fresh and delicious that they reminded me of my childhood visiting my grandparents in a Romanian village where the melons had a real taste, not like the ones you find today in supermarkets.

I ended the day with a double-decker bus city tour, a good occasion to take a lot of photos.

The mix of modern architecture, with so many different styles, and the collonial architecture with white buildings surrounded by palm trees was impressing. I even took pictures of a lot of appartment buildings, with the revelation that, here you go, they can be even nice. Actually, everything in Singapore seems new and clean, with green areas everywhere and a non-aggressive traffic – maybe due to the high price of cars on the island. The city has, despite some very high buildings, a general harmonious and relaxed style.

Singapore is the regional center of many multinational companies, so many westerners live there. I even met a Romanian colleague, introduced to me by an Australian colleague who found out in the elevator at the conference I am also Romanian. I find the people who live and work in Singapore lucky: to be in such a nice and modern city, with paradise temperatures the whole year. I left determined to come back for a holiday with my boyfriend, to go to the beach and zoo, including the only night safari in the world, and of course to do more shopping.