Before I came to Singapore, everyone back home seemed to always get where I was going wrong. I was going to Shanghai, right? Seoul? Philippines? Vietnam? Everywhere but Singapore. I think this is a good metaphor for the city. It's a big, important place that everyone's heard of, but no one remembers. I feel like it's what I imagine Dallas to be like; rich and well-groomed, but characterless and boring.
Singapore is a city-state; the city is it's own country. It's on a small island, just a stones throw from the southern tip of Malaysia. (if you're really, really good at throwing stones) On a world map it looks like it sits on the mainland, but there's a small strait that divides it from the rest of Asia. Modern Singapore was founded in 1812. While there were other settlements on the island further back in history, when the British first established an initial colony, there were maybe 1,000 people living here scattered about. It quickly became an important port that challenged the dominance of the Dutch in that region. (you know you're talking about history with a sentence like that) Since there wasn't much of an indigenous population, the British brought in people from all over Asia to do the work of building a city for them. Most of them were from China, who make up the majority of the population today. There's also a lot of people from India, as well as Malaysia.
In a lot of ways, Singapore is unique in the world. It's a small first-world island surrounded by much less prosperous countries. It's truly a multi-cultural melting pot, and has no real ethnic ruling class or dominant religion. The different groups here seem to get along, and they seem to welcome immigrants whole-heartedly. The city is very clean, and very well run; the subways are one of the best I’ve ever seen, you get annoyed if you have to wait five minutes for a train. There’s millions of restaurants, and while much of them are over-rated, I’ve had some amazing food here. The architecture is great, and a lot of the new building are really beautiful. But somehow, all of this doesn’t add up to an interesting city. On the surface, there isn’t a lot of character. Everything here is about order and following the rules, and while there are plenty of exceptions to this, it feels like a place where everything is regulated and intentional. There’s not a lot of surprises here. At least not any I’ve found in the 18 days I’ve been here (The small island of Pulau Ulin being an exception)
That said, here’s more stuff I did in the past couple weeks:
Sim Lim Center (and low-end malls in general). One of the few signs of some kind of character in Singapore are the malls. In America, malls are outdated and lame, but here, they’re embraced in a way that pretty remarkable. There’s maybe three dozen malls in all of LA county, while in about a one-mile radius from our apartment in Singapore, there are probably over a hundred. Malls are everywhere, they’re stacked right next to each other, and are tightly woven into the fabric of the city. Trying to cross a major street? Use the an underpass, which is also a mall that runs five stories underground. Trying to get to the subway? Gotta pass through a tunnel lined with about eighty clothing stores and a Yankee Candle first. The malls here are where the city lives, there’s little that exists outside of them. Most of the good restaurants, grocery stores and nightlife are located in some kind of mall. They’re impossible to avoid. You use them to walk through the city, being able to cut through blocks at an angle while enjoying the very necessary air conditioning. There are malls that are high-end and fancy, and there are malls that are far from it. These crappy malls have become a small obsession, they’re like secret little pockets that are hidden away from the rest of the city. I went to the fifth floor of an infamously shady mall nearby, the Sim Lim Center. It specialized in over-priced knock-off electronics. The first floor was packed and vibrant, but by the time your reached the top floor, most of the shops were shuttered and empty, with random store fronts surprisingly open, vendors sitting behind their counters, permanently drifting off into space. They look like they haven’t seen a customer pass by there in weeks, and they don’t seem to really care either. The halls were dark and uninviting. But you’d still see signs of life, a couple people in a store talking, a guy at a desk intensely focused on repairing some ten-year old PC.
Bella Pizza. Pretty solid pizza, a little skimpy on toppings but good.
Akiko Fujita. She’s definitely the best things about Singapore. Trying to not write too much about my girlfriend here, but she’s been amazing. Adventurous, pro-active, with a terrifying ability to remember restaurants she’s eaten at, and one’s that I have too. She’s also a good person to take pictures of when we’re riding the subway.
Botanical Gardens. This is a giant park in the middle of the city, it looks like a well-manicured English garden. There’s moments that do feel somewhat wild, but most of it is very well-groomed and accessible. It’s actually a really great place, but maybe not the best idea to walk around it at noon, unless you brought a heavily air-conditioned space suit. Apparently you can picnic here too, or I just saw two actresses filming a Pinot Grigio commercial with hidden cameras.
Gardens by the Bay. A series of massive tree sculptures constructed downtown by the water. They’re huge, bizarre, and impressive. At night they do a light show to Chinese-themed ambient music, which we walked away from half-way through it.
