Welcome to the Future 🌃

Our next destination was non other than the City of Singapore 🇸🇬 Singapore is a city state on an island - or rather multiple islands. It is located in the South of Malaysia in a very strategic location that allowed its economic rise as a trading and commerce hub. It’s a melting pot of cultures, having 5 official languages and architecturally being a beautiful combination of old and new. You can still see many temples especially in China town but walking through the business district or Marina Bay could be in Chicago or Manhattan. Modern yet incredibly green.
It’s a parliamentary Repulblic, famous for being incredibly safe and low in crime, owed to its strict judicial system . A selection of what rules are in place in Singapore: -trafficking 500g of cannabis can result in the death penalty and
- vaping e cigarettes can cost up to 2000$
- synthetic chewing gum sale is banned and sale is fined up to 2000$

Especially after spending over two months in more low to mid income countries it was really nice to be in a city again that felt more “ western”. Our hotel was quite basic since Singapore is really expensive, but it was perfectly fine for just sleeping. An early favourite was an orange juice vending machine downstairs - a great invention.
With public transport we made our way to the city centre - walking around in awe of the city. It’s just such a fascinating blend of cultures, steel frame glass buildings with elaborate parks. We walked past the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel - a bucket list stay for when we win the lottery - where the equally famous Formula 1 Night Street race goes past. Unfortunately we didn’t had missed the race by a couple weeks, but it must be a great event - if one has the money. You can tell that Singapore and its citizens are on average quite wealthy , walking through the luxury shopping mall by the Marina Bay. A skyline to beat. Jeroen took the opportunity to buy a new MacBook from the Apple Store - a good story.

We then made our way to the Marina Bay Gardens , which truly feel like you are on some sort of futuristic green planet. Especially seeing the super trees. The thought crossed our mind “ why not live here” - the city really surprised us with how much it has to offer and how green it is for a big city.Read more