Impressions of Singapore
4 May 2011 22:08![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronI stayed over last night in Singapore, planning to meet up with my old friends Kate and Martin in the evening and then spend the day exploring the city. It's a very interesting place.
On the way out I had a longish stopover in Changi airport and because it is trying really hard to be the best airport in the world, it is unquestionably the best airport in the world. There is just so much stuff around for you and a lot of it is free- right now I'm at a little laptop desk plugged into a free power outlet using the free wifi to type this from my own machine, but there are loads of free internet terminals, games consoles, gardens, cinemas, gyms and that's before you get to the shops, which rival many medium sized shopping malls. Suffice to say I wasn't bored.
Last night worked out a little late as Qantas had mislaid our jet for a few hours, but they found it again and the main consequence was that we had very late dinner. Traditional Singapore eating ap a pears to consist of buying a selection of food from different small specialist vendors in a marketty kind of set-up.
Also "Carrot Cake" is a kind of radish omlette and "Otah" is not otter, although phonetically identical. Tasty stuff!
My hotel room would only switch the lights on when I put the key card in a slot by the light switches. The keycard slot did not light up to inform you of this until the card had been inserted. That made things quite dark for a while.
Today I realised I would need more cash and somewhere to stash my luggage, so after failing to find a working ATM I decided to go back to the airport and use the left luggage there, trusting to being able to find a taxi who I could pay by card in case I didn't have enough cash on me, though it turns out I did. Also the ATMs at the airport didn't work and it turned out the problem was that the bank thought I was a fraudster, although I had told them I would be here, so I may be asking them to pay for the time I spent on hold as I expect that to be pricey.
I took the train to town. That cost me under three dollars and I got one back for returning my ticket card. That is how public transport should be priced.
Singlish is the best language ever.
Other cities take note, Singapore has a building that is three skyscrapers with a massive boat along the top of them. You need to up your game.
When it rains in Singapore it really rains. I have never seen rain fall like it. A short dash between one shelter where I was still getting soaked by splashback and a drier location was enough to drench me.
There are lots of malls here, many of them themed so for example one is almost all electronic stuff.
In the more out of the way areas the food on sale gets more interesting - "Pig Intestine" being on offer in one place. Also apparently Peking duck is supposed to still have it's head attached.
Other cities take note: Even underpasses here have escalators. You need to up your game.
Today I have probably travelled a total equivalent to the height of Everest just on escalators.
You know it's humid when you walk out of your hotel and your glasses steam up. I guess we're only a hundred miles or so from the equator here, so it stands to reason.
I think I would like to see more of this part of the world.
Other cities need to up their game.
On the way out I had a longish stopover in Changi airport and because it is trying really hard to be the best airport in the world, it is unquestionably the best airport in the world. There is just so much stuff around for you and a lot of it is free- right now I'm at a little laptop desk plugged into a free power outlet using the free wifi to type this from my own machine, but there are loads of free internet terminals, games consoles, gardens, cinemas, gyms and that's before you get to the shops, which rival many medium sized shopping malls. Suffice to say I wasn't bored.
Last night worked out a little late as Qantas had mislaid our jet for a few hours, but they found it again and the main consequence was that we had very late dinner. Traditional Singapore eating ap a pears to consist of buying a selection of food from different small specialist vendors in a marketty kind of set-up.
Also "Carrot Cake" is a kind of radish omlette and "Otah" is not otter, although phonetically identical. Tasty stuff!
My hotel room would only switch the lights on when I put the key card in a slot by the light switches. The keycard slot did not light up to inform you of this until the card had been inserted. That made things quite dark for a while.
Today I realised I would need more cash and somewhere to stash my luggage, so after failing to find a working ATM I decided to go back to the airport and use the left luggage there, trusting to being able to find a taxi who I could pay by card in case I didn't have enough cash on me, though it turns out I did. Also the ATMs at the airport didn't work and it turned out the problem was that the bank thought I was a fraudster, although I had told them I would be here, so I may be asking them to pay for the time I spent on hold as I expect that to be pricey.
I took the train to town. That cost me under three dollars and I got one back for returning my ticket card. That is how public transport should be priced.
Singlish is the best language ever.
Other cities take note, Singapore has a building that is three skyscrapers with a massive boat along the top of them. You need to up your game.
When it rains in Singapore it really rains. I have never seen rain fall like it. A short dash between one shelter where I was still getting soaked by splashback and a drier location was enough to drench me.
There are lots of malls here, many of them themed so for example one is almost all electronic stuff.
In the more out of the way areas the food on sale gets more interesting - "Pig Intestine" being on offer in one place. Also apparently Peking duck is supposed to still have it's head attached.
Other cities take note: Even underpasses here have escalators. You need to up your game.
Today I have probably travelled a total equivalent to the height of Everest just on escalators.
You know it's humid when you walk out of your hotel and your glasses steam up. I guess we're only a hundred miles or so from the equator here, so it stands to reason.
I think I would like to see more of this part of the world.
Other cities need to up their game.
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no subject
Date: 4 May 2011 16:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 May 2011 17:36 (UTC)I like the key-card-light idea. That would seriously cut down on lights being left on when nobody's in the room!
Signapore is one of the most on-purpose civilized places in the world, I've heard lots of people attest to that, and I really want to see it (but am afraid of the gum police -- and I don't even chew gum). Much of China is too, but in a much more awkward way that doesn't quite pan out the same. At all.
WTF, "Otah" is not phonetically identical to "Otter". Otter is pronounced, "AW-ter" and rhymes with daughter.
no subject
Date: 4 May 2011 20:56 (UTC)Man. Singapore sounds amazing. Particularly the butterfly house in the airport...
no subject
Date: 5 May 2011 10:07 (UTC)I didn't see pig uteri, but they did have pigs ears all lined up in a row, maybe also pig tails. It certainly didn't seem like much of the pig went to waste. It sounds gross when you see it on the menu with little pictures, but I guess we eat all that stuff whenever we have sausages...
no subject
Date: 5 May 2011 10:07 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 May 2011 10:08 (UTC)