Viva Singapura! (Singapore)

Member Name: MGirl

Product:	Singapore
Date:	07/08/02 (205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Efficient, Clean, Polite people

Disadvantages: Some people find the laws restrictive, Can be expensive if you don't know where to go

Singapore is my favourite city in the world. It’s clean, polite, efficient and well organised.

I visited in between my visits to India and Bali so I didn’t notice the extreme heat. Singapore is incredibly humid though but everywhere has efficient air conditioning, including the tube.

Top tips:

You can find pretty cheap accommodation just by asking at the hotel desk in the airport. We chose the cheapest hotel on their books, the “Ruby Fragrance”. Not a large double room but with ensuite, air conditioning and TV at $37 per room, (under £15), it’s much cheaper than I expected. We were based in Geylang but not far away from the nearest MRT (about 5 – 10 mins walk).

Don’t bother getting a taxi from the airport. The MRT (mass rapid transit, basically the tube) now runs to the airport, although when we visited you had to change trains en route because of technical problems, but it’s no bother.

Do eat in the food courts. Food courts in England have a bad name but you have to put aside your preconceptions of Kentucky Fried Chicken because Asian Food courts are a completely different kettle of fish. The Singaporean government decided that the food hawkers in the streets looked a bit messy and were concerned about the quality and the safety of the food. To rectify this situation, they created food courts with shared seating where you can sample some of the best and cheapest food in Singapore. Unfortunately, some of these food courts lack the atmosphere of the street hawkers but they’re air-conditioned and you can sample food from several different stalls at once.

Eating at food courts is not deemed to be only for the poorer travellers and occupants of Singapore, we saw plenty of men and women in suits eating after work. Allegedly Asian pop stars can be seen at them too but I doubt I’d recognise any. The food is usually based around Chinese and Malay cla
ssics. When choosing a food court, check that the food is cooked to order rather than taken from heated trays, it tends to be of a better quality. The best food court we visited was in the basement of Funan the IT Mall but we didn’t find a bad one. (N.B to get a taste of an Asian food court in NZ, go to Food Alley in Auckland.)

Drinking beer in Singapore is an expensive but pleasant experience, especially with the heat and humidity. Tiger beer (the local brew) is served in frozen glasses and many bars do bits and bobs to nibble on as you drink (such as deep fried squid). It’s obvious but look for happy hours but it can really save a lot when the beer is so expensive.

Do go and see Raffles but give the Singapore Sling a miss, they charge a fortune for it. You can wander through the back of the hotel where unfortunately they’ve fallen into commercialism and installed a chain of shops. I just found it enjoyable to dream about the day when I’ll be able to afford to stay there. It’s also a must to get a photo of the front, especially beautiful at dusk but you will be one of several tourists doing the same thing.
Do go window shopping, Singapore does have a high population of rich people and some of the shops are fantastic to look at, even if you can’t afford the prices. What’s more, most are organised into super air-conditioned malls.

It’s worth visiting the zoo if you can, although it’s one of the few places you can’t get to on the MRT, which can make it difficult as many bus drivers have quite difficult to understand accents. If you fly with Singapore Airlines, they hand out a discount card before the flight, which will give you a discount off several things, including the zoo. The big highlight is the Komodo dragons, huge lizards.

If you’re travelling around SE Asia and have any niggling illness problems or requirements (e.g. Malaria tablets for travell
ing onto other countries) get it sorted here. Singapore has by far the best healthcare system in SE Asia. You’d probably find it’s better than the UK.

Much is made of Singapore’s restrictive laws. They do have laws on virtually everything but I didn’t find it restrictive at all. Examples include $500 for smoking in a public place, $50 for jaywalking, $1000 for littering, eating and drinking on the MRT could cost you $500, allegedly you can also be fined for not flushing public lavatories. It’s a bit scary really because Singapore believes in corporal and capital punishment as well. To be honest though, once I was there, as a law-abiding non-smoker, I didn’t find it restrictive at all. I can’t stand people smoking near me and it’s nice to never have that. I never walked into a dirty public toilet. That never happens in the UK. The streets were clean and free of litter and chewing gum (also illegal in Singapore). People allowed me to get onto the MRT in front of them, imagine that on the tube in London!

The whole atmosphere is radically different to the UK and to anywhere else in SE Asia, which can make Singapore a great place to have a break from Asia. I’d definitely recommend spending a week there and it’s a great jumping off place for Malaysia and Indonesia.

N.B. Singapore is not a place I'd recommend to Gay people, unfortunately they also have a law I really disagree with, homosexuality is illegal and can lead to long jail sentences.

Summary: