Singapore: The Global City
Living in India really makes you crave a modern, green city and there are few cities as modern and green as Singapore. Even as you exit the airport onto the immaculate road surface it's amazing how green and clean the place is. It was a red eye flight from Bangalore but luckily I had drank two cokes on the plane and was ready to go.
Firstly, we set out out for hawker centre. In Singapore food is the national obsession. People are willing to line up for hours to experience the best food. And in Singapore the best food is at the hawker centres, which were set up by the government to move food off the streets and into centralized locations. The hawker centre I attended was the Telok Ayer market. I'm going to be honest, I don't know what Good Singaporean food is. But this food was good. Sitting under fans larger than anything I had ever seen I enjoyed some classic spring rolls, choi, and a fresh pressed green apple juice. I was surrounded by foreigners, and was surprised to learn that over one million expatriates live in Singapore.
After finishing a delicious lunch, we set out into Singapores towering financial district. The place was deserted accept for a few cars speeding down empty streets. It was Saturday morning so clearly nobody was at work. Singapore is highly urbanized and uses some radical architecture. It's not uncommon to see plants growing on balconies of even the tallest skyscrapers. The place is spotless and there is not a single cigarette butt or chewed gum anywhere. Eventually we made our way down to the famous Merlion. The merlion was first created by Singapore's founding Father, Lee Kuan Yew as a symbol of national unity. These days it's basically the mascot for Singapore. The merlion is a striking statue. It's very big, and has a spout of water exiting its mouth. Swarms of tourists took selfies with it and I struggled to get a picture without someone else in it.
The area around the merlion is surrounded by trendy restaurants, all selling items at insanely high prices. It's said that Singapore is most expensive city to live, and when you are buying 30 dollar burgers at a restaurant it's hard to disagree. We walked down the bank of the Singapore river, past the statues of Yew, Nehru and Ho Chi Minh. On the other side of the river were traditional Singapore houses, but just a few blocks behind them there were huge skyscrapers. Eventually we made it to Clarke Quay, but by this point not sleeping for about 30 hours was finally getting to me and I basically become unaware of my surroundings at this point
Firstly, we set out out for hawker centre. In Singapore food is the national obsession. People are willing to line up for hours to experience the best food. And in Singapore the best food is at the hawker centres, which were set up by the government to move food off the streets and into centralized locations. The hawker centre I attended was the Telok Ayer market. I'm going to be honest, I don't know what Good Singaporean food is. But this food was good. Sitting under fans larger than anything I had ever seen I enjoyed some classic spring rolls, choi, and a fresh pressed green apple juice. I was surrounded by foreigners, and was surprised to learn that over one million expatriates live in Singapore.
After finishing a delicious lunch, we set out into Singapores towering financial district. The place was deserted accept for a few cars speeding down empty streets. It was Saturday morning so clearly nobody was at work. Singapore is highly urbanized and uses some radical architecture. It's not uncommon to see plants growing on balconies of even the tallest skyscrapers. The place is spotless and there is not a single cigarette butt or chewed gum anywhere. Eventually we made our way down to the famous Merlion. The merlion was first created by Singapore's founding Father, Lee Kuan Yew as a symbol of national unity. These days it's basically the mascot for Singapore. The merlion is a striking statue. It's very big, and has a spout of water exiting its mouth. Swarms of tourists took selfies with it and I struggled to get a picture without someone else in it.
The area around the merlion is surrounded by trendy restaurants, all selling items at insanely high prices. It's said that Singapore is most expensive city to live, and when you are buying 30 dollar burgers at a restaurant it's hard to disagree. We walked down the bank of the Singapore river, past the statues of Yew, Nehru and Ho Chi Minh. On the other side of the river were traditional Singapore houses, but just a few blocks behind them there were huge skyscrapers. Eventually we made it to Clarke Quay, but by this point not sleeping for about 30 hours was finally getting to me and I basically become unaware of my surroundings at this point
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