Singapore’s Changi airport is a large, modern facility that feels like a small city, replete with every type of store, restaurant and amenity you could possibly want to keep you occupied as hours effortlessly drift past. The airport even boasts it’s very own movie theater, free to all travelers, which shows a good selection of movies that at least came out in the last few years.
While the stores and restaurants provide plenty of distraction on their own, if you want to escape even further there’s a premium lounge that’s available to anyone for not much more than the price of lunch. I took advantage of that option and for all of fifteen dollars (U.S.) I had access to wireless internet, complimentary soft drinks and snacks, a comfortable and quiet seating area with an outdoor roof patio to watch the comings and goings of planes, and a refreshing shower which was one of the best I’ve taken in over two months.
As enticing as the airport was, however, the best part was that downtown Singapore was a mere twenty minute metro ride away and you don‘t need a visa to get in to the country. So, before settling in to the comfy environs of the premium lounge for the evening, I stowed my bags in a luggage locker and headed downtown to check out the small city that’s doubles as a country.
After months of traveling through the often gritty cities of the rest of Southeast Asia, Singapore was absolute heaven. It’s a conspicuously clean, well manicured, ultramodern and scenic city with a nice waterfront, plenty of parks and a just-built newness even though most buildings have been around for at least a couple of decades. The cleanliness and order does come at a slight price, however, as the citizens - and visitors - have to obey some strictly enforced rules. Examples include no chewing gum, no jay-walking and no eating or drinking on the metro train which all carry significant fines of $500-$1000 each that most Singaporeans can‘t afford to pay despite a higher standard of living than their regional neighbors.
While the strict adherence to the rules definitely helps present an idyllic city that seems more than comfortable to live in, it did remind me a little of those futuristic movies - such as Gattaca, Minority Report, and 1984 - where everything is spic and span yet personal liberties suffer a bit for that result. Still, cooperation versus oppression seemed more the order of the day between the government and the people.
As the country is one of the smallest on the planet, encompassing essentially the downtown area and a handful of outlying suburbs, the city proved to be one of the easiest to explore in a short time. But, that’s not to suggest that it was devoid of plenty to keep me busy. I spent a solid six hours exploring spotless Singapore which gave me a good sense of the city-state, but I still left behind plenty of unexplored areas that I couldn’t fit in to my visit.
Downtown Singapore is crowded, yet remaining orderly, with shiny steel skyscrapers that stop short of the Singapore River that runs through the heart of the city. Along the river are clusters of entertainment and dining areas which fill up the shores between the many artfully crafted bridges that cross the waterway. The stately looking buildings that house City Hall, Parliament and the Supreme Court provide a transition to the city’s retail sector full of shopping arcades and topnotch hotels.
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| From Singapore '07 |
The waterfront also features one of the city’s more distinctive landmarks, the Esplanade Theaters. They‘re reminiscent of the Sydney Opera House in that they are home to the city‘s performing arts center and reside on the edge of the water, shaped with a avant garde flair in the form of two bulbous pods that resemble metal whales with silver, armadillo-like skin. Due to the surrounding buildings and landscape, they don’t have quite the all-pervasive profile of Sydney’s Opera House so they seem to be much less well known, yet equally attractive.
Of course, walking around Singapore is no picnic, despite it’s cleanliness and order, thanks to the 90 degree heat and humidity that are constants for the area. I took refuge from the heat in the very modern and worthwhile Asian Civilizations Museum which turned out to be one of the better museums I’ve seen on this trip. Having just spent the last ten weeks discovering a good portion of Asia for myself, the museums own exhibits on each country and the specific sub-regions of the Asian continent provided a good way to recap many of the places I’d just seen.
Then there’s Orchard Road. If Singapore’s cleanliness and orderliness is my utopia, then Orchard Road would definitely be any shopper’s paradise. It’s mile after mile of shopping malls, boutique outlets, and restaurants with every internationally known brand and store you could possibly think of or want to see. It’s like 5th Avenue, the Magnificent Mile and Rodeo all packed into one spot then multiplied over and over. Even though I found myself on Orchard Road on a crowded Sunday afternoon, the wide, tree-lined streets and sidewalks make the area seem airy and comfortable in spite of the towering monuments to commerce surrounding them.
With my traveling bags already packed full, I restricted my explorations along Orchard road to be purely observational and not participatory. So, after the malls and shops began to blur together I hopped on the efficient and clean metro and headed back to the airport to settle in to the airport lounge. Then, seemingly just as quickly as I had arrived in Singapore, I boarded a plane to leave it, and the rest of the fascinating countries I visited in Asia over the last few months, to embark on my next continental adventure in Europe.
SINGAPORE PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):
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| Singapore '07 |
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