If you were wondering, there's a sign up

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I can't quite seem to figure this place out. It's only an island, but big and super-developed - like a major city that just kind of stops at the water. It's hard to get one's mind around, and this place doesn't feel like Asia, but more like Europe. In fact, many of the views from the city remind me of Berlin.

Jason and I were looking to visit one more country on the Southeast Asia leg of the trip, and after weighing our options, time available, and flight prices, Singapore won out. We were also ridiculously tired from our time in Ko Pha Ngan and were looking for a chiller place to recuperate in. Singapore seemed to hit the spot.

Perhaps the thing that sticks in my mind the most is how well-signed everything is. Even in the first piece of the country you get your hands on - the immigration slip they give you in the airplane - there's a warning in big bold letters that smuggling drugs will get you the death penalty. All throughout the city/country, there are big placards warning you to not do things, and noting how much the fine will cost you, or what other bevy of penalties might be up your alley if caught. At least they can't say they didn't warn you. I kept on remembering the case of that stupid American kid a few years back who had earned a caning for spray-painting cars... We just felt nervous jay-walking: that's a fine of like 500 Singaporean dollars, and there are a lot of cops around.

As mentioned before, the city seems very modern European, with big sidewalks and a lot of bakeries and coffee shops. In fact, there are some Singapore-only coffee shops like "The Coffee Connoisseur" which have bigger coffee menus than most restaurants have food options - pages and pages of different blends, and other unique twists on the old bean. The city is as advertised, very clean. One constantly sees city-employed street sweepers who walk around with a dust-bin and broom cleaning the sidewalk, no joke.

The nightlife as far as we've experienced centers around the river-front quays. Clarke Quay, the newer one is reminiscent of Bethesda back home, and has the same sort of population frequenting the bars and restaurants to boot. The two others, Boat and Robertson are older and have more colorful characters hanging about. Interestingly, there are multiple bars piled on top of each other on different floors a buildings at the quays. Good way to save space I guess.

Singapore is trying to bill itself as a shopping mecca, but unfortunately, it is really expensive. Though the Singaporean dollar is a third less than the US Dollar, when you do the price calculations, the prices are right on par, if not more. We'd heard horror stories from other people we'd met about how Singapore had broken their budget, but luckily, we weren't there long enough for the price tags to swallow our accounts.

Jason and I did our fair amount of sleeping, but probably the highlight of our time in Singapore was riding the G-Max, a hydraulically-powered bungy sphere which shoots you into the air, going from 0 to 200 km/h in 2 seconds. The thing is really powerful and you experience 5 G's - apparently more than the astronauts do when they're rocketing off the earth in the space shuttle. The view from atop is spectacular, but hard to concentrate on as you rocket about in the air spinning all over the place - pretty fun, although you shouldn't eat anything beforehand.

We were in Singapore for two and a half days, and probably overstayed by a day. Once you walk the city a bit, and check out the art exhibits, you get the feeling that you've done it all.

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Photos

Don't ride your bike in a tunnel
You've been warned

G-Max
You can see the bungy box inside. Someone else must be enjoying 5G's