Throughout the 15 months of our first foray into international living, we lived our lives with very little to regret. But one thing that we did wish we could have done differently was visit more of the wonderful countries in Southeast Asia. Because of the COVID influenced world, we were only able to make it to one other country (see the two prior posts about Cambodia to learn more!). To top it off, we also knew that the transition of leaving the home we loved and going straight back to the United States and no longer living independently was going to be mentally and emotionally bumpy at best. So, we found a solution to both these problems: plan a trip to Singapore right after moving out, but before our grand return to the USA!
We only had three days free to spend in one of the world’s smallest countries, which normally would be no problem for us to fill. Jessica is usually quite the planner when it comes to travel itineraries. She’ll spend hours on the internet looking for the best recommendations (usually various eateries) and pinning them to her map on Google Maps so that we are always prepared with the best places to eat and things to do. But, for this trip, our lead up to landing in Singapore was more starkly dominated by packing up our lives in Thailand and saying goodbye to everyone we met there. This is all to say that when we landed in Singapore, the only knowledge we had of the country was what we had seen in Crazy Rich Asians. Which means, we knew next to nothing.
However, there was one thing we knew we needed to check out immediately, and didn’t have to go far to check it off our list. Singapore Changi Airport is widely known as the biggest/best airport in the entire world. In July of 2019, the Jewel of Changi Airport was opened. This megamall meets jungle cost 1.7 billion dollars, and is conveniently placed right outside of security. After we dropped off most of our belongings in a storage locker for the next three days, we walked over to the Jewel.
From the walkway, the Jewel looked like a twisting glass orb. It was so futuristic and modern, and we were getting more and more excited to see what was inside. But, as we reached the outer circle of the sphere, it looked just like a big fancy mall. It was impressive in a sense, but we had seen so many incredible malls throughout Bangkok that we weren’t sure what all the fuss was about. However, as we started walking, we made our way into the middle of the Jewel and instantly knew that we had found what we had been looking for.
The circling mall slid away as we entered an indoor jungle, complete with the biggest indoor waterfall in the world. The waterfall poured inside from the top of the outer sphere, right through the center of the Jewel. The mist sprayed off in all directions, giving the visitors in this indoor portion the sensation of actually being in the rainforest. There were 5 stories of palm trees and plants lining the walls, with trails snaking their way around the entire space. We wandered around the Jewel for a few minutes, passing shops, restaurants, hotels, and even a movie theater, before making our way back into the main part of the airport and down to the metro towards the city.
Conveniently, the metro ran directly into the city from the airport, and had a stop only 5 minutes from our hotel. After spending so much time in Bangkok, a metro like this one was nothing new to us, so we hopped in with very few expectations. We were met very quickly, however, by quite an interesting sign. On every window of the train, a sign repeated “No talking in the metro.” We were immediately taken aback by this, because if you have ever met us, you’ll know that we spend very little time not talking. But the rest of the metro passengers were truly silent, so we tried our best to just look out the window, or keep our voices to a whisper if we absolutely had to say something. We got off the metro at our stop, and headed up to the street, excited to see one of the greatest cities in the world.
Everything that we had heard about Singapore was true. There were chic and modern skyscrapers looming far overhead. The streets were spotless, with not a spare piece of trash or mangy street dog in sight. There was absolutely no traffic, and no visible power lines. This is about when we noticed something very interesting. These bustling city streets were barely any louder than the silent metro ride that had brought us there. There were plenty of people around, but they weren’t talking. The cars freely drove by without a honk or screech or loud revved up engine to be heard. We were puzzled, whispering on the street around others. And if one of us (read: Nolan) ever got a bit too excited, we’d occasionally get a side eye from a Singaporean.
This was incredibly jarring to us as we had just left the land of motorbikes, giant vans and wires sparking and humming. In Phuket, we never walked anywhere because if you were near a road, it would be very hard to understand each other from the deafening noise. And Singapore was silent.
Our hotel was conveniently located inside another megamall, called Funan. We checked in and had some delicious food in a food court connected to our mall. Our hotel was set up somewhat like a hostel, with a spacious community center, large kitchen, and plenty of opportunity to talk to
people. We didn’t have much time for that on this specific trip, and went out to get some beer at an old cathedral that had been turned into a fancy market, serving as a hub for restaurants and bars for people to hang out in. We enjoyed our beers before heading to the harbor district to find one of the crown jewels of Singapore: The Marina Bay Sands (which we fondly called the Boat Hotel). If you’ve seen Crazy Rich Asians you know exactly what we are talking about: three mega towers that stand 55 stories tall with a giant boat set on top all three. Right where these towers meet the water, they play an amazing light show every night for anyone who wants to enjoy. After a 15 minute Disneyland-esque show, we wandered back to our hotel, completely overjoyed with how we would be able to spend the next two days.
The next day was our most action packed in Singapore. The day started with a delicious vegetarian Indian buffet, where both of us went back for large portions of seconds. The city was laced with effective bike paths, so we rented classic pedal bicycles and rode all around the iconic harbor district. What people know as “Modern, Chic Singapore” is all built around the original
colonial harbor. This is where museums, concert venues, and of course the famous Gardens by the Bay park and Marina Bay Sands Hotel sit around the water. Bikes were a great way to leisurely make our way around the core of the city and get the general lay of the land. We even found the Formula 1 Grand Prix racing paddock, which we loved as new fans of the Netflix Show “Drive to Survive.” We took pictures in front of the garage of all our favorite drivers, and laughed at how we were fanning out over pictures of these athletes.
After biking around some of the major sites, we decided to park our bikes and walk around the famous Gardens by the Bay. This area is known for its giant tree-like buildings, which reminded us of something we might see out of Avatar. As we started walking around the sprawling paths, however, we learned that these gardens were a lot more than just a funky art and nature area.
Singapore, as one of the greatest and most modern cities in the world, is working on becoming carbon neutral. This park, along with many others, do great work as carbon reserves for the rest of the city. On top of that, these giant trees actually aid the environment of Singapore by creating solar power and collecting rainwater. All around these mega-trees were specialty gardens that
commemorated Singapore’s history, including a Chinese garden, a Japanese garden, and an outdoor museum of some of Singapore’s highest value exports throughout its history. Overall, Gardens by the Bay was one of the most well-thought out and purposeful parks we have ever been to, and just like the wonderful water show we saw the night before, it was free for all who chose to enjoy it.
After our great day of exploration, we headed back to our hotel to prepare for what we knew would be the highlight of our entire trip: the Singapore Hawker Center Food Tour. This was the one thing that Jessica decided to plan in advance. Knowing that we would only be in this city for three days and knowing that it is one of the greatest cities in the world in terms of eating, we truly just did not trust ourselves to fulfill all of our culinary fantasies on our own. So, we consulted an expert (AKA a man on Trip Advisor named Gerry). He picked us up from our hotel in a van where we met the two other couples who would be joining us for the evening, and we headed to China Town.
Now, as extreme foodies who had just booked a food tour, we thought we would dive right into eating. This, however, was not the case. Much to Nolan’s excitement, Gerry started to give us a history lesson of the immigration of Chinese workers into Singapore, and how this affected the culture of food and Singapore in general. He walked us up and down the streets, showing us where people used to live, work, smoke opium, watch theater, and even where they had funeral homes that performed ever-important burial rights. He truly created a picture of what this area of Singapore was like in the 19th century. And, of course, where there are centers of people and work and culture, there is food.
Singapore, much like other countries in Southeast Asia, used to be a bustling hub for street food. Something that we haven’t mentioned about our street food experiences in Thailand and Cambodia is that street food, while delicious, isn’t always the most sanitary. There are no regulations for how clean street chefs or their carts need to be, and markets are often plagued by rats and bugs. However, like we have talked about, Singapore has been trying to improve everything about its way of life for almost as long as it has existed. So, when they realized that the street carts didn’t have the level of cleanliness that they desired, they needed to find a solution that would preserve the culture and history of the food, while cleaning up the streets and imposing laws that would guide chefs to a more clean way of preparing their specialties. Thus, hawker centers were created. Hawker centers are basically giant food courts with communal seating and many rules about cleaning up after yourself (you can be fined up to $300 for your first offense and $2000 for repeat offenses if you do not return your tray to a designated area). These hawker centers can be filled with hundreds of food stalls, all selling various types of classic Singaporean dishes, as well as dishes from other areas of Southeast Asia, desserts, and drinks.
Our first stop on the food tour was to a very local hawker market in China Town. Immediately upon entering, we realized that we were surrounded by Chinese people of all ages, and we were the only foreigners that we could see. Gerry had us all seated around a table, brought over a huge variety of Chinese beers, and as we got to drinking, he got to ordering. From all sides, hawker chefs or Gerry would come with plates stacked high with amazing and classic Singaporean dishes. We will try not to get bogged down in the details, but we do have to talk about three.
The first to arrive was two different kinds of Carrot Cake. Now, this isn’t the carrot cake that you are used to, it is more of a poor translation for a completely different kind of food. The main ingredient in carrot cake is a type of white radish, which roughly translates to carrot. Then it is fried in either egg, making a light and fluffy omelet, or it is stir fried with black soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar, creating a sweet and savory coating over the radishes. The egg version is called White Carrot Cake, and the saucy version is called Black Carrot Cake. Both were unbelievable. The second food we need to talk about is Laksa. Laksa is one of the most famous Singaporean creations (Jessica even had it on the flight into the country a few days earlier). It is a yellow curry noodle soup with tofu and other various types of meat. It is savory, not too spicy, and a classically delicious comfort food. The last dish that was at the very top of Jessica’s “to-eat” list was Chicken Rice. Now this food, when described, sounds incredibly underwhelming, but trust us here. It is chicken that is boiled over and over again until almost all of the fat has left the chicken, and then the rice is boiled in the same pot. So, what you get is the most flavorful, succulent rice in the entire world, with tender strips of chicken laid over the top. It is served with a sweet and thick soy sauce, and all together it creates the most beautiful, harmonious dish that Jessica had all night (of course, Nolan is pescatarian, so he stuck to the Carrot Cake).
After trying these three dishes, and many many more, Gerry rounded us up to bring us to the next stop: Little India. We headed down to the metro and when we came up on the other end, you could immediately tell that this was an Indian neighborhood. The smells coming in from all around had our heads swirling with excitement, and even though we had just eaten enough for the entire night, we were suddenly hungry again. After living in Thailand for a year, Indian food became one of our weekly excursions. The vegetarian options are endless, and Jessica often likes to argue that it is the most flavorful cuisine in the world. So, we entered our second hawker market for the night.
Every stall in this market was filled with Indian food from different parts of India and other parts of Eastern Asia. The stall that Gerry went to for all of our food was a Pakistani Indian restaurant, and holy moly was it good. Unlike the last market, we both thought we knew what we were stepping into here. Like we said, Indian food is one of our favorites. But this place had a whole different thing going. The first thing that Gerry set down on the table, besides another round of beer, was a giant crepe, one plain, and one filled with curried potatoes. Jessica claimed
she could have eaten the entire thing. After this appetizer, he came around with Daal Makhani, Goat curry, Chana Masala, and many more curries, all served with Garlic Butter Naan. It was heaven. After our second dinner, we walked over to the stall to see how they were making some of the food. The most interesting part of their cooking process was how they made the naan. They had a huge cylindrical oven that was open from the top, and the hawker chef would stick the delicious bread onto the inner side of the oven. Then, when it was done, they would pull it out with a long metal rod, and lather it up with delicious butter and garlic.
Now at this point, we were ridiculously full from all of the food and beer and were being told that we still had one last stop. Luckily this stop wouldn’t include any more food, but we still wanted to see and learn about one last area of Singapore. As a micronation on the tip of Malaysia, obviously there had to be a strong Malaysian influence on the city. So, we hopped on a bus and headed to the Malaysian quarter.
As we walked over we started to feel a little bit tired from all of the eating, but Gerry reassured us
that this quarter would wake us up in no time. We turned around a corner and entered a tiny street lined with bars, flashing lights, and loud music. Gerry ran into a 7/11, grabbed us more beer, and we mozied down the street taking in all of the people and parties going on. At one point, we stopped to see a table covered in cell phones and purses, but no people. As we looked quizzically down at it, Gerry reassured us that in Singapore people regularly leave their possessions out, even on party streets like this one, but everyone is so trustworthy that there is no problem with stealing. We finished our tour in front of the biggest mosque in the quarter, thanked Gerry for the amazing time, and headed home in a taxi.
Our last day was the most leisurely of the three. We started the day going back to the Chinese hawker market from the night before to get Jessica a second helping of Chicken Rice, and we ran into Gerry on his first tour of the next day! What we did next will surprise exactly no one who keeps up with this blog: we went disc golfing! The sun was beating right down on us, so we had to fight with the heat to play, but loved the course and met several friendly locals that made us wish
we were staying around a lot longer! We went back to the hotel to relax and change before heading to our last Singaporean bucket list: drinks at the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. It was very pricey, especially after becoming accustomed to Thai prices, but it felt like one of those things we had to do. We put on our finest clothes and headed up to the top. The views were beautiful from all sides. Jessica felt like it was only proper to have a Singapore Sling, and we enjoyed our cocktails while reminiscing over our past 15 months of international travel.
With the experiences of the last two nights, we noticed the stark contrast that existed between the different sides of Singapore. On the one side was the modern and fancy Singapore, which could be found amongst the skyscrapers like the Marina Bay Sands and surrounding area of the harbor district. State of the art architecture dominates, and you feel fancy just by osmosis. Here, cuisine from all over the world could be found, but a meal and a drink would gauge your wallet much like prices in the States these days. These places were filled by high flying tourists and wealthy international businesspeople, and the standing dress code seemed to be button down shirts, khakis, sleek dresses, and nice shoes. On the other hand, sometimes hidden beneath the skyscrapers, other times more out of sight, were the local neighborhoods. Here you could get unique street food from hawker markets for just a few bucks, and old men could be found hanging out around the same market since they were small boys. Here, the buildings dripped with culture and tradition. Neither part of Singapore was better or worse, but together they form one of the most fascinating places we have been. We can’t wait to go back and do it all again.
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