Asia 2023

Another traveller brought my own impressions from this crazy city to a perfect bottom line: This city feels like Asia's Dubai.

Who could come up with the idea of building 3 skyscrapers in the harbour area and putting a huge ship on top of all three? Well, they just do it here. People like me are paying obscene prices for a drink on that "ship-look-alike" rooftop... 🙈😅
And, building a huge garden, mostly beautiful (but plantings and flowers in some areas neglected), isn't enough, there are several observation decks, a skywalk, a flower dome, just several "amazing attractions" needed, to make it real fancy (and expensive🤑). Including some huge artificial trees, providing a really impressive light-music-show in the evenings.

Most places (aside from Chinatown, little India and outer areas) are very clean and well kept. Bins are usually provided in most public places, easy to find free (!) and clean public toilets, very few broken items/places and many many construction sites for new buildings and streets. Sometimes, in the city center, it feels a little bit like being back in Tokyo.
On the other hand, especially Chinatown and little India are nice districts with smaller houses, filled with life, especially in the evening. Not that proper and polished, much more relaxed, even if busy. Felt much more like south-east Asia, there. At some points you could nearly forget to be in a huge city with >5mil. people, if there weren't always some skyscrapers in your sight.😅

And, of course, law-and-order-policies, are permanent visible anywhere. You can't do a step, without getting warned by a sign about fines from €140 to €1400 for drinking or eating inside bus/metro, spitting on the ground, smoking or just stepping on the streets, where it's not allowed. Not yet talking about that bubble gum fines... 😅

The multiethnic society is visible everywhere, temples, shrines and churches of all religions, often side by side. You can hear the connection language called "Singlish" everywhere. It's a mixture of mostly english with the other languages, even some different grammar, as I've read. But at least I wasn't able to understand anything from their "Singlish" talking. 🙈
Nice side effect for me, from that ethnic variety: You can get at least Malay, Chinese and Indian food nearly everywhere. 🤤😅

All in all I'm happy I've made that stopover, but 3 days were enough. Permanently swapping between ordinary daily life at local markets and streets and public transport, on the one hand and huge fairground-like environment at every touristic attraction or sightseeing spot (except Mount Faber) on the other hand, is tiring, for me. Especially after being 5 days in Bangkok, just before. 😅
And, honestly speaking, coming from Sri Lanka, and even from Bangkok, these ultra-rich and extremely money-focused societies like Singapore are exhausting. People aren't caring that much about each other, cordiality is (nearly) only given when you are a customer and in such an extremely touristic city it's rarely possible to get in touch with locals. I prefer travelling to more rural and less touristic areas, but Singapore definitely was a must-see.

Another remark about my photos:
All are original as taken by my smartphone, only few of them are fitted to focus on motive, but no else editing, filters, ...
And I'm afraid I won't learn to take pictures in crowded places, or when I'm overwhelmed by impressions. And I'm hesitant to take pictures from people, when it feels like violating their privacy. So I definitely won't become an insta-pro or influencer 😅 But please don't hesitate to ask about personal impressions or anything else you want to know about a country/place, I've been! It could take a few days, but I promise I will come back to any comment or message!Les mer