Tag Archives: Singapore

The Merlion

Singapore, the only thing I knew about it was that it was really neat, tidy and clean, and that they have an awesome, efficient public transport. I only stayed in Singapore for one night. I took the MRT from the airport to my hostel. The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is the main public transport and has a daily ridership of over 2 million. It is “mass” and it also is quite “rapid”, but I expected it to be more of a Star Trek like high tech experience Hahaha, which it really wasn’t.

When I took the taxi, I got this frustrated taxi driver. We got to talk and then he asked me: “What are you doing here!? Why do you want to come here!?” I was like: “Sorry?” “Yeah, Singapore is no good anymore. The government is corrupt they all fill their own pockets. I hate it here you know. How long are you gonna stay?” “Only one night”, I reassured him. “Good. That is more than enough!” Wow, what a great PR for the country. Luckily he was an exception, I later found out.

I went to the Marina Bay Sands. Here they have a large building with a big Boat on top which you can see from a distance. Quite impressive. At night there is a big Light Show and you can see the supertrees. I rushed to see the Light Show one night, but when I arrived I just saw the last couple of seconds. Colored lights, a hologram of singing people and lasers. These few seconds alone gave me a good impression of how amazing it must have been. I also visited the supertrees. These uniquely designed tree-like structures, vertical gardens of 25 to 50-metres tall have large canopies that provide shade in the day and come alive with an exhilarating display of light and sound at night. Wow! To get there I had to walk through this enormous, multi story, over the top, decadent Shopping Mall with all kinds of high end brands for display. The mall even featured a river on the ground floor, fully in Venetian style, including the gondolas. Seriously! It was so over the top, I couldn’t help but to play my cheesy 80ies playlist on my iPod while I wandered to this immense sight. And to be honest it is an experience though.

In the hostel I met a local guy called Wan. His parents went on a vacation and locked the door while he was away from home and his house keys were inside the house. He couldn’t get in the house and decided to stay in the hostel for a few days. Like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone… strange story hahaha, but we all gave him the benefit of the doubt. And mostly because he really was a nice guy! He showed me and some other people from the hostel around town the next day. We got to see another face of Singapore. We went to Sentosa where they have the Universal Studios and a super large candy store. The candy store h