I like Singapore!
This city is a little bit of sanity in South-East Asia. It's clean, green and it even feels fairly spacious. Germany is always thought of as being a well organized place to live, but Singapore puts us to shame. It's not near as expensive as I had expected either.
Taxis are a good example. It's usually easy to flag one down, all are metered and I didn't hear a single one of them use the horn. We had troubled getting picked up one afternoon when we were in Little India. I thought maybe we smelled bad, because of few of the guys around us sure did. They weren't getting picked up either. The next day another driver explained that it's always hard to get a taxi between 4 and 5pm because that's when most of the drivers finish their work day, before the next guy takes over the car. Unless you're going the way the driver wants to go, your chances of a ride are pretty slim.
As for the price of all these taxi stops? That was a pleasant surprise too. A cab ride here in Aachen from say, the train station to home costs about 6 or 7 Euros, and that's only a 5 minute trip. A ride in from the Singapore Airport to the quay area was only a couple Euros more than that, but it was 25-30 minute trip.
This was just a short stop on the way home from Indonesia. Singapore is a regular stopover for us when we go on a dive trip, but we've never seen more than the airport. This time we had a couple of extra days because my wife is still using up vacation days from last year and she has a ton of overtime to use up too. So with two days and three nights to wander around, that's just what we did! We hadn't counted on the fact that it was Chinese New Year, and a lot of the shops were closed for the holiday.
We ate dinner each night at Clark Quay, and that was a nice change from rural Indonesian style. Two particular favorites were Brewerkz, and The Pump Room, both of them micro-breweries. Both of them have a widely varied menu and at least a half dozen brews to choose from. The "Kölsch" beer from Brewerkz tasted more like a light Weizenbier, but it wasn't a bad one. My favorite was the Scottish Ale from The Pump Room. It had a nice sweet finish but it was a little darker than your usual pale ale.
Prices on drinks aren't cheap in Singapore. That Scottish Ale at The Pump Room was S$12 (over 6 Euros, $9USD), but our entire meal that night was less than 60 Euros (about $90USD) for starters and steaks and a couple of beers for two people. You would pay a lot more than that for the same meal here in Aachen.
We had two days to wander around and almost everybody I talked to about Singapore said, "The Botanical Garden". So we did that. We got up fairly early the first morning so we could wander around the garden before the sun got too hot. It was still a heavy sunscreen day. My wife was particularly impressed with the Orchid Garden but I liked the Bonsai display the best. The Cactus Garden was interesting, as was the Ginger Garden. I didn't know that a banana plant is actually a Ginger.
That afternoon we decided on the National Museum. There is a permanent exhibit on the history of Singapore that we wanted to see, but that one will have to wait for the next trip. They also had an exhibit of Greek masterpieces, statuary, relics and other items on loan from the Louvre. Most people don't know it, but the Louvre is one of the stingiest museums when comes to lending out their works, which is a shame because they don't physically have the space to display a lot of their works, particularly heavy Greek statues.
In all, 130 pieces are on display. Most of the statues are copies of originals but all of them are dated to historical times. The display provides both a time frame of the materials, but also groups them thematically. The statues of the gods are particularly impressive.
Greece and its history have long fascinated me, so to get a chance to see this material wasn't something that I was going to miss, even if the plan was to "see Singapore".
The next morning we slept in a bit, and then decided on the Changi War Museum. This place is a must see if you have any interest in World War II history. The sacking of Singapore was an absolute disaster for Allied forces and was due to incredibly poor preparation for the defense of the region.
One the other side of the coin, the brutality of the Japanese towards their POW's and the civilians needs to be remembered. Let's just say that I think the only place on earth where such brutality has been seen was right here in Nazi Germany, right about the same time in history.
That afternoon we had to see Chinatown. Unfortunately most of the shops were actually closed. Many of the restaurants were open though and the food was amazing. After a couple of days walking we needed a foot massage too, and while it was quite a bit more expensive that a foot massage in Thailand? It was all good. We even got to see a Lion Dance that day.
In all it was a refreshing way to return from rural Indonesia, and we'll definitely be back for another visit.
Taxis are a good example. It's usually easy to flag one down, all are metered and I didn't hear a single one of them use the horn. We had troubled getting picked up one afternoon when we were in Little India. I thought maybe we smelled bad, because of few of the guys around us sure did. They weren't getting picked up either. The next day another driver explained that it's always hard to get a taxi between 4 and 5pm because that's when most of the drivers finish their work day, before the next guy takes over the car. Unless you're going the way the driver wants to go, your chances of a ride are pretty slim.
As for the price of all these taxi stops? That was a pleasant surprise too. A cab ride here in Aachen from say, the train station to home costs about 6 or 7 Euros, and that's only a 5 minute trip. A ride in from the Singapore Airport to the quay area was only a couple Euros more than that, but it was 25-30 minute trip.
This was just a short stop on the way home from Indonesia. Singapore is a regular stopover for us when we go on a dive trip, but we've never seen more than the airport. This time we had a couple of extra days because my wife is still using up vacation days from last year and she has a ton of overtime to use up too. So with two days and three nights to wander around, that's just what we did! We hadn't counted on the fact that it was Chinese New Year, and a lot of the shops were closed for the holiday.
We ate dinner each night at Clark Quay, and that was a nice change from rural Indonesian style. Two particular favorites were Brewerkz, and The Pump Room, both of them micro-breweries. Both of them have a widely varied menu and at least a half dozen brews to choose from. The "Kölsch" beer from Brewerkz tasted more like a light Weizenbier, but it wasn't a bad one. My favorite was the Scottish Ale from The Pump Room. It had a nice sweet finish but it was a little darker than your usual pale ale.
Prices on drinks aren't cheap in Singapore. That Scottish Ale at The Pump Room was S$12 (over 6 Euros, $9USD), but our entire meal that night was less than 60 Euros (about $90USD) for starters and steaks and a couple of beers for two people. You would pay a lot more than that for the same meal here in Aachen.
We had two days to wander around and almost everybody I talked to about Singapore said, "The Botanical Garden". So we did that. We got up fairly early the first morning so we could wander around the garden before the sun got too hot. It was still a heavy sunscreen day. My wife was particularly impressed with the Orchid Garden but I liked the Bonsai display the best. The Cactus Garden was interesting, as was the Ginger Garden. I didn't know that a banana plant is actually a Ginger.
That afternoon we decided on the National Museum. There is a permanent exhibit on the history of Singapore that we wanted to see, but that one will have to wait for the next trip. They also had an exhibit of Greek masterpieces, statuary, relics and other items on loan from the Louvre. Most people don't know it, but the Louvre is one of the stingiest museums when comes to lending out their works, which is a shame because they don't physically have the space to display a lot of their works, particularly heavy Greek statues.In all, 130 pieces are on display. Most of the statues are copies of originals but all of them are dated to historical times. The display provides both a time frame of the materials, but also groups them thematically. The statues of the gods are particularly impressive.
Greece and its history have long fascinated me, so to get a chance to see this material wasn't something that I was going to miss, even if the plan was to "see Singapore".
The next morning we slept in a bit, and then decided on the Changi War Museum. This place is a must see if you have any interest in World War II history. The sacking of Singapore was an absolute disaster for Allied forces and was due to incredibly poor preparation for the defense of the region.
One the other side of the coin, the brutality of the Japanese towards their POW's and the civilians needs to be remembered. Let's just say that I think the only place on earth where such brutality has been seen was right here in Nazi Germany, right about the same time in history.
That afternoon we had to see Chinatown. Unfortunately most of the shops were actually closed. Many of the restaurants were open though and the food was amazing. After a couple of days walking we needed a foot massage too, and while it was quite a bit more expensive that a foot massage in Thailand? It was all good. We even got to see a Lion Dance that day.
In all it was a refreshing way to return from rural Indonesia, and we'll definitely be back for another visit.
posted by SpearDriver at 4:53 AM
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