Singapore: A Tale of a Globalized World

Singapore skyline.

When I arrived in Singapore, I was not prepared for what I was about to experience. I knew its geographical location on a map, but I had not done any research on its language, culture, people, etc. Ignorantly, I assumed I was going to a country similar to Indonesia; a developing and populated country in Asia with crowded streets and a national identity not yet known to me. I was instead shown something far from my stereotypical visualizations.

My first surprise was at the airport. Singapore has one of the nicest, most modern looking airports I have visited. There are massage chairs where you can get a free massage while waiting for your flight, international chain stores where you can get all sorts of high end products, impeccable bathrooms you can electronically rate, and all the signs are multi-lingual since the country has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Farsi. To get to the place where Alicia and I were staying I had a couple of options: I could take a taxi or the MTR (metro). There were clear signs for both, and since I only had a small backpack as luggage, I went for the MRT –which was only about $2. The station was connected to the airport and there were ticket machines to the left and a friendly station manager in front of the turnstiles. I got a ticket and the station manager gave me a map and explained to me how to get to my destination. Two transfers with exact waiting times displayed on screens, spotless stations that looked more like science fiction labs, and I had made it to my destination. Almost.

Chinatown. This is when I realized I was lost.

I exited the station and according to the directions from the Airbnb host, which Alicia had previously emailed me, I had a short ten-minute walk along the river before arriving to the apartment. However, my poor sense of direction decided to send me the opposite direction. I walked for about 6 or 7 blocks without any signs of the river and ended up in Chinatown. I looked at a map and realized that I was walking away from my destination, so I turned around feeling a little annoyed with myself. On my walk back towards the train station, a lady started a conversation and told me that she was going the same way, so I stuck to her and we chatted while walking towards the river. She worked at a Japanese restaurant, had migrated to Singapore from China 24 years ago, was extremely talkative and lively, and told me about the terrible smoke that engulfed the city (which I had already noticed), and how, according to her, it was Indonesia’s fault. She added that Indonesia should stop the burning of forests and instead just use machines to cut the trees. I was speechless and confused by her reasoning, but decided not to argue. You have to pick your battles. I listened silently, thanked her for her help, and continued walking on the direction she pointed. I spent several minutes trying to find the entrance to the apartment building in which I was going to stay, and then I ran into Alicia, who was just wandering in the mall across the street. Lucky coincidence! I was getting tired of walking in circles.

One of the many images of Buddha.

After dropping off my backpack, Alicia and I went in search of a Buddhist temple she wanted to see. We walked through a park, zigzagged across the city, and finally saw a large, beautiful building that housed the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. We were given shawls to cover our shoulders and then we looked at hundreds of Buddha statues in different postures, observed a Buddhist ceremony, and, as good tourists, took tons of pictures. Next, we went to the food area in Chinatown to get some dinner. I ordered some noodles and Alicia had a veggie soup. We were both unsatisfied with our orders, but after combining them, we both had a delicious spicy veggie-noodle concoction. We headed to the apartment to take showers and dress up to go check out the nightlife scene. Since I hadn’t done any research on where to go, Alicia suggested a club on the top floor of a tall building, but before going there, we walked into a bar near the river to have a drink and listen to some blues played by a band with members from Singapore, Australia, and the USA. We then walked to the bar Alicia suggested. The place didn’t really look like my kind of joint, and after being there for a few minutes, a guy trying to initiate a conversation with me called me a bitch for not being too enthusiastic about talking to him. This made me quite unhappy, and I told Alicia I was ready to go home. The night was short and we got lost on our way back, but we finally made it to the apartment and went to sleep after a very long day of touring around the city.

Buddhist ceremony at Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Performance of traditional Indian dance.

The next day we walked over to Little India to get swallowed by a sea of colors, smells, and sounds. Someone told us that since it was Sunday, lots of Indian immigrants were going to be hanging out in the streets spending their day off. Little India was packed and bursting with energy, and as we walked among aisles of colorful trinkets and incense smoke, I thought that it was refreshing to see some real people doing ordinary things. We went to a Hindu temple, got a snack at a small restaurant, and then took the MRT to the bay area. There was a festival going on at the Gardens by the Bay and there were free cultural performances, tons of food vendors, and a display of lights that made me think of Christmas. We listened to a group of Chinese ladies singing traditional songs, watched some Indian women dressed up in beautiful costumes performing expressive dances, and ate some Thai food on the lawn while looking at the colorful lights around us. On the way back to the apartment, we decided to sneak into an interesting-looking building and somehow got to the top floor to have a couple of cocktails while contemplating the amazing skyline of Singapore.

Market in Little India.

Korean coffee shop

On Monday, we got up early and walked to the building where our visas were to be handled. We just had to drop off our passports and the fees, and then go back in the afternoon to pick up our extended stay permits. On the way back to the apartment we stopped at a couple of museums, had some Korean snacks at a coffee shop, and Alicia and I separated for a little bit so I could go to another museum while she shopped for some oleh-oleh to take back with her to Indonesia. We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool of the apartment complex, and then walked back to get our passports. To celebrate finally getting our visas, we had some sushi at the Japanese restaurant where the lady I had met on my first day in the city worked. She wasn’t there though. The plan for the rest of the day was to go back to the apartment to relax before returning to Indonesia the next morning, but we ended up walking to a busy street full of shops where Alicia got some clothes (I ended up just getting one pair of pants), and then went to a grocery store to buy cheese, good bread, and a few other delicacies that are not available in Lombok (or at least I haven’t found them yet). We were exhausted and ready to drop.

When I first got to Singapore, my impression had been that it was a city so perfect, clean, and extremely well planned that it seemed unreal. I still don’t know what to think about the place… I read somewhere that Singapore is like a mini version of our global society, and I can definitely agree with that. The streets look like they were traced with a ruler, there is no trash to be seen anywhere, the noise is kept to minimal levels, and Western influences are everywhere. You can find French wine and Swiss cheese in any supermarket (unlike in Lombok), and racial, religious, and cultural diversity abound. I have mixed feelings about this place, and even though I admire the careful city planning and the huge variety you find here, I still feel like this city is like something out of a dystopian fantasy. Maybe I just got to see one side of it and I am making incorrect assumptions once again. Now I’m back in the “real reality” of Indonesia. This place is so real!

Display of lights at Gardens by the Bay.

PS. I found cheese in Mataram after getting back from Singapore! I visited the new mall and there is a supermarket with lots of imported products. I guess my cheese addiction will be satisfied after all!