I couldn’t get on the plane the last time I tried to go to Singapore. I had a passport that was going to expire in less than thirty days, so they couldn’t let me in. And even if they did, immigration would just send me back.
I should’ve done my homework.
Fast forward a year and a half later, I finally got to fly out and visit my friends in Singapore for the first time. A few of them have moved to the city-state for work so I flew over there as part of my sorta-yearly trip to the Philippines.
I only stayed there for five days, but Singapore is probably my favorite city—at least as a tourist. First of all, the airport itself is a tourist attraction. It features sights like the rain vortex—a towering indoor waterfall that pumps collected rainwater onto a glass roof. I also liked how it created a fine mist that was enough to cool you down, but not enough to get you wet.
Singapore’s public transit is fast. I got to zip around the city easily and got to meet people on time—even during peak hours—thanks to all the money that they put into their trains and buses.
All I needed was Citymapper and a WiFi hotspot to find my way.
Wait times have been very short in my experience, and data shows that that’s true: There is a 12 min average wait time in Singapore compared to 16 minutes in Philadelphia.
I’ve also never seen a city as green as Singapore before. It has so much greenery that the place is a literal urban jungle.
I find that it’s somehow able to satisfy my desire to be in nature without ever having to take a trip and leave the city. There are a lot of parks to go around and a lot of plants along the sidewalk. There’s even a car-free path distributed all over Singapore called the Park Connector Network where people can bike without any worries.
I ate so much while I was there. The cuisine was so new to me that I just had to try whatever I could get my hands on. It’s also relatively cheap if you went to eat out at hawker stands which costs about S$3 to S$10.
My favorite breakfast when I was there was laksa paired with coffee and condensed milk.
There were so many places that I wasn’t able to go to like the zoo or the botanical garden, so I’ll try to make it out there again in the future. I’m also eyeing neighboring countries as well, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Till next time!