Singapore

It's that time of year again! Considering the 1 daily view our blog has had these past few months (hi Mom), I think it's about time we get another entry in. And as I've probably repeated too many times before, nothing gets me in the mood to write about our travels quite like some homemade Vietnamese coffee. Bringing me back to good eats...beautiful views...cheap travels...except wait, nothing here is cheap, everything is actually really expensive. I can't afford to eat! Where am I going to sleep?? I thought I was in Southeast Asia, my safe haven for getting a lot for a little, my go-to for people who are poor but still want to travel (i.e. anyone in their 20's). But we're in Singapore now, a country that Laura aptly described as "roughly the size of this table," a thimble on the tippy-tip of Malaysia. But with such a small size, its economy couldn't be more opposite. Booming ahead early in the game to rival all surrounding cities with its ports, it now sustains itself entirely through its marketing since it has no natural resources to fall back on. It's consistently ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, which is quite impressive given its location; it's a dot of yellow in a sea of red.

One of my favorite quotes from our trip was about the red light district and how it thrives in Singapore: "The Singapore government said what you cannot stop, you should regulate." To me, if anyone asked how Singapore is able to thrive economically, politically, and socially, I would say this quote. Yes, as a result of this policy, many people refer to Singapore as the land of fines (fine for not flushing the toilet, fine for chewing gum, fine for spitting, fine for bird feeding), but 30 minutes in the city and you can easily see how successful its been. Admittedly, we were a little worried when we first landed in Singapore, making sure we didn't have any gum or food on us lest we be arrested for corrupting this otherwise clean and beautiful country. But just like when the teacher tells you the rules on the first day of class, over time it just becomes natural. You see a parking lot with a spotless floor that I could absolutely eat off of and you realize you'd choose that over gum any day.

When we first arrived, after dropping our stuff off at our hostel in Little India, we set off to explore the city. After some aimless wandering (and a slurpee in hand, have I mentioned Julia's obsession with love of slurpees?) we ended up at Marina Bay, which is where most of what you know about Singapore is located; the crazy architecture that seems to be there only to give Singapore an interesting skyline, the infinity pool, the giant ship at the top of three connected buildings, the largest ferris wheel in the world (which is about to be beaten by the newest wonder nearing completion in Vegas), the upside down light trees, the DNA bridge (okay maybe you don't know about that last one, but it's pretty cool nonetheless). It's absolutely stunning, and as I stood on the DNA bridge and looked out at the building that looks like a banana bunch to me, it looked absolutely pointless. And that's why I love it. Singapore is a place that is beautiful and weird just because it wants to be. Every building is a statement because why not? If we're going to make a theater, let's make it shaped like two durians. If we have to build a bridge, why not make it all swirly and loopy? Yay architecture! Louise, you'd fall in love with it.

So the way we saw it, there are two ways to do Singapore: 1. Spend zero money and walk around and be done in about a day or 2. Buy an iVenture card and actually see some sites while still saving money. Since it was going to be Julia's birthday, we opted for version 2, which meant our days were about to be packed. Julia absolutely loves doing research and figuring out the best ways to save money and most efficient ways to get around. I love that she likes that because I absolutely hate doing that. Thanks to her and her impeccable timing, we had jam packed days that were perfectly timed to the minute and all uncannily worked out. Day two started with the Singapore Flyer. Actually let's go back a bit more, day two started with 6 pieces of toast apiece and two eggs. You see, Singapore is an expensive place. It's a very expensive place. Yes it's still technically less expensive than America, but when you're on a Thai wage (read close to America's poverty line) and you have to spend money on food, shelter, and transportation in addition to any sites or extras, we really had to dig deep. Unfortunately for us, food is one of the first things that we're willing to sacrifice when it comes to saving money. We figured we could stuff ourselves with the free breakfasts that our hostel provided and then come lunch we would eat the trail mix that we packed. That way we'd only be spending money at dinner time, when we'd hopefully be buying the cheapest meal we could find. So day two began with enough food to last us until at least 1pm that day (by the way our plan totally worked if you ignore the fact that we probably lost an additional 5 pounds). Because we started so early in the morning, nobody was in the Singapore Flyer and it was awesome. An entire booth to ourselves as we ran around and took pictures and had an amazing birds eye view of such an aesthetically pleasing place. One of my favorite views was that of the soccer field that juts out over the water (the pictures will do it better justice). The coolest soccer field I've ever seen, though Julia said it was a bit excessive (and I'll admit she's right. But again, refer back to previous statement about being beautiful and weird just because they can). Our next stop after that was the Bird Park, which actually turned out to be pretty fun and interactive. Singapore's already famous for its three zoos (jungle cruise, night safari, and zoo) and the bird park was no lower standard. We even got to go into the breeding area where they had baby flamingos and the ugliest baby I've ever seen, a baby white cockatoo. Birds aren't just the ugliest babies of any species, they're downright horrifying. I'd like to apologize to any bird people out there reading this.

Next came Snow City, which is nothing like this and actually exactly this. Don't let the angle of the picture fool you, it's the size of a large living room with one giant ice hill. Of course we knew this going into it, what with Her Highness of Research over here, but considering that we've been living in a city with highs of 110°F and an average of 90°F for over a year, the idea of playing around in fake snow for an hour or two was incredibly appealing. It was hilariously terrible. It's the kind of place where when you first walk up, the sign is falling apart and faded. Like the flickering neon Tower of Terror sign, except in the day time rather than being spooky and intimidating, it's just sketchy and puny. Considering no one in their right mind owns any kind of clothing for cold weather, when you get there you can rent ski pants, a snow jacket, gloves, socks, and snow boots. As I said, it's mostly about the one giant ice hill that you can go down on a tube, so we did that for a few rounds. Since we were again amongst a mere handful of individuals occupying the space, the photographer took a picture of us on every single ride. We eventually discovered an igloo and spent the rest of our time making snow angels and having snow fights (but since we were too cheap to rent gloves, that involved pulling our sleeves over our hands and scooping up as much snow as we could before our fingers went numb). I should mention also that the snow is not snow-like at all. I would say it was the consistancy of sand, except it was ice, but when you touch it, it doesn't melt. Next to Snow City is the Science Center, which is huge. We unfortunately had to rush through the place so that we could get back in time to make a tour that was also part of the iVenture card, but we still got to do plenty of fun interactive sciencey things, like making a stop motion video and finding out what a composite of our faces looks like (i.e. our child). A bus and a metro back to Chinatown and we were able to make a quick visit to the MINT Museum of Toys. The Toy Museum was odd in that it was a great museum with a wide-ranging and interesting collection, it has great advertising and online presence, and it's clearly won numerous awards, but it was weirdly lacking in a way that I can't describe. Perhaps it's the odd location or just the fact that clearly not many people really visit the place, but maybe the biggest reason is that it was clearly a museum made with love and passion for collecting old toys, but it's such a specific and unique hobby that most of us probably don't understand or share the same feelings for the collection.

Our next stop, and one I was really looking forward to, was the "Secrets of the Red Lantern" tour, which is as it sounds. I haven't really been on too many tours in foreign countries but I'm certain the tour guide is really what makes or breaks the tour. We had an adorable tour guide who told jokes and stories like about how she was in Geylang, which is where one of Singapore's red light districts is located, eating dinner with her husband when one of the ladies of the night ran up and asked in Cantonese, "Can I borrow your husband?" Because it turns out the police were doing a raid of the area. Though there is a specific designated zone, the multitude of regulations makes it so there are inevitably a handful of women who carry out their job in that area but outside of the law. For example, women are not allowed to solicit on the street; they must stay inside of a designated building. Also, all women have to get monthly checkups and carry a card on them at all times that says that they are healthy and clean. Women (other than these women) are not allowed inside the buildings at all because if there is a random police raid and any woman inside the premise is found without the card, the whole business can get shut down. The Red Light District in Geylang is so extensive that some houses in the area that aren't brothels specifically have a sign over their door that says "Private Residence" after receiving too many unwanted visitors (I just think that's hilarious). Our final activity of the day was a boat tour of the Quays, which--despite the drunken Japanese businessmen hitting on us, falling down, stumbling around, and generally being drunk Japanese businessmen--was actually quite beautiful. I told you how awesome the Singapore skyline is during the day, well it's even better lit up on the water at night.

With that, we had officially gone to 7 FREE things on our iVenture card. It was an incredibly packed day that was timed perfectly and really couldn't have gone any better.

I still have to cover Days 3 and 4 in Singapore (which include's Julia's birthday!), but I'm going to post this for now so that we can all calm down about the pending blog entry. ;)