Heat and shopping

Singapore can be summed up in two words – heat and shopping – according to my taxi driver. I’ve concluded that the two are related, as I kept popping into air-conditioned shops just to escape from the heat and humidity. The other effective way to cool down was to go for a dip in the Metropolitan Y hotel’s outdoor swimming pool, which I had all to myself. It was hard to get my head around the fact that only on Tuesday, I was wrapped up against the snow at my parents’ house in Kent, and now here I was in a T-shirt and flip-flops.

After my two-day visit, what I’ll probably remember most about Singapore, apart from the heat, is the architecture. There were attractive and unusually-shaped buildings everywhere I looked, and they made the cuboid ones that I’m used to seeing seem uninspired. The place was much greener than I expected, and there was a pleasing balance of buildings and exotic plants.

The people were also very kind. When I was looking for a bus from the airport, a man made sure that I knew which one to catch. When I was on said bus, and I needed coins rather than notes for the ticket machine, someone (I’m not sure if it was a girl or boy) came over and gave me a generous handful of small change, and refused to take a note in return. When I got off the bus and walked to the hotel, and arrived a Sweaty Betty on the verge of passing out, due to struggling with my heavy bags in the heat, the receptionist fetched me two glasses of water.

English is widely used in Singapore, but it was good to be temporarily somewhere so different to home, from the calls of the birds in the palm trees to the smells coming from the restaurants as I walked down the street. I tried to fit in, and use chopsticks to eat my rice, but after getting it everywhere except my mouth, I was forced to resort to cutlery. I saw very few Westerners, and heard little Western music. I noticed that one of the streets was called Exeter Road, and another was Devonshire Road, but although I paid them a visit, I didn’t stay long in case it started to make me feel homesick.

Although I saw most of the highlights, including the Singapore Flyer observation wheel, the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay and the National Museum, I didn’t go in, due to time. However, I did stop for a famous Singapore Sling cocktail in the historic Raffles Hotel. The drink tasted nice enough, but at about £15, it was a bit of a tourist trap.

The atmosphere was buzzing at Boat Quay and Clarke Quay, the popular places to go for food and drinks. As I approached, I could hear Whitney Houston blaring out from a loudspeaker. I wondered if it was some sort of tribute event, but as I got closer I realised that, for some reason, the largest aerobics session I’ve ever seen was underway in the street. It made me smile.

 

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