After the bustle and third world existence of Vietnam, we really went to the opposite end of the spectrum when we hit Singapore. This is a near Utopian society, and famously a place where chewing gum is illegal. Driving to our hotel from the airport we were struck by how neat and tidy everything was. This view continued in the city.
We were staying near the Singapore river, and from our hotel for a mile or two down to the docks it is lined with restaurants and bars. All the international as well as local chains are here and on weeknights as well as the weekend it is bustling.
Singapore could more accurately be described as a collection of shopping malls. Everywhere you go there are large, air-conditioned shopping malls and there seems to be plenty of people to spend money in them. The bars and restaurants along the river were overflowing with business people and judging by the prices they seem to be doing pretty well. For us this was, a bit surprisingly, the most expensive place we visited on our trip. Sydney came close, but the prices we were paying here were painful after how cheap Vietnam was.
We were only in Singapore for a few nights, so didn’t see much. It’s a country that is little more than an overgrow city and we spent our days walking around the river and shops and being shocked at the price of food.
Singapore is very high-rise and there is constant building on here. One of the more impressive recent additions to the waterfront is the Marina Bay Sands Resort and casino (that’s what’s behind us in the photo above). You’ll see from our pictures it consists of three skyscrapers linked together by a platform that forms a sky park. There is an infinity pool on the edge that I was hoping to visit, but you have to be staying at the $500 per night hotel to use that so you’ll just have to make do with this video of it.
It’s coming to the end of our trip now so we are reflecting a lot on what fantastic things we have done on our trip and what our life will be like back home. I’ll post a final homecoming update when we are back.
A handful of pictures of Singapore are here.