Time to Explore Singapore

What. A. Day.

I missed that. Just walking around, exploring a new place. Great fun.

I left my abode at around 10 am. From there on, I walked for more than 10 hours straight. My feet - as of writing this - are absolutely raw.

I just chose a direction in the morning and went wherever my camera took me. I wandered the streets of Chinatown, saw lots of restaurants, cafés, scenic roads.

I grabbed my camera, so happy to use it again. And then - it pouted. It threw a temper tantrum because it didn’t like the rapid change from 19°C cool, dry hostel air to 33°C hot and humid outdoors. Anyone wearing glasses will understand.

So I walked past cool places, constantly checking my camera… to no avail. After about 45 minutes it cooled down (pun very much intended), and I hiked back to all the places I had previously missed. Thankfully all within about a 1 km radius.

One of those places was Amoy Street - a picturesque old-town-style street. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so: a group of seven or eight painters had assembled there, capturing the scene live. At least three of the paintings looked very promising.
I made my way to the harbour, enjoying the crafty, impressive architecture around me. My camera then directed me to Marina Bay Sands.

It’s a massive building - three towers topped by the famous SkyPark, one of the highest accessible points in Singapore at around 200 metres. At the base sits a huge shopping mall catering to every single one of your bougie whims.

I indulged a little, too. I went into a tea shop just to look around and sniff things. And sniff I did. I stumbled upon a green tea called “Silver Moon.” Wow. All the teas were otherworldly - intense, fragrant - but this one was going to be mine.

And they had matcha macarons, would you believe it? … Nothing happened. The macarons were fine. The flavours that weren’t matcha were fine, that is. But they only lost one friend. Promise.
If you’re intrigued: it was the TWG teahouse. You’re welcome.

Next stop: Tower 3. I hopped into an elevator and went to level 56 - about 200 metres high. And boy, that is very high. I was battling clammy hands and trying not to drop my phone or camera. But the views were spectacular.

All the container ships sitting out there made me curious - Singapore is one of the busiest ports in the world, and many ships wait offshore for docking slots or cargo transfers. Seeing that gave me an inkling of what the Strait of Hormuz might look like these days.Read more