Going Around the Singapore City

I landed in Singapore early in the morning around 7 am.  It was foggy to begin with, and after a long over 20 hours of a flight stopping in Moscow, Russia; this was a welcome stop.  I still have some hours of flying time to get to the Motherland.  But that won’t be until 7 pm in the evening.  I have a full 12 hours to myself.  Why not explore Singapore?

So, I quickly browsed the best singapore hotels I could get so last minute, booked a room and got a shower to myself.  Had a most refreshing shower until a rather large shower fountain.  One thing you will notice is that Singapore is very clean.

Refreshed and with a news set of clothes, I set off to find a tour to Singapore.  Well, it turns out there is a FREE Singapore tour for 2 hours.  Well, its a bit less than 2 hours, but its still worth it given that it’s free and you get a chance to see main city attractions in a rather short time span.  Also get some commentary on the history and demography of Singapore.

For one thing, this city-country is just 42 kms East to West, and 23 kms from North to South.  If you go from East to West, you could have run a marathon!  It has the third highest population density.  But if you go around the city, you will just not know it.  It is so clean and well kept and not crowded at all.

In fact it is so green that it seems unbelievable!  And like the guide very proudly said – you don’t know whether they have built gardens in the city, or it city inside a Garden?

74% of the population is ethnic Chinese, 14% are Malays and 9 percent are Indians.  It has 4 official languages – English, Mandarin, Tamil and “Bhasa Malay”. Singapore likes to pride itself on its international presence, with international education opportunities being available for expat’s children at places like stamford american international school throughout the nation.

How did it get to be called “Singapore”?  Well, long back a Hindu king came to its shores and as he stepped off, he saw a lion seeing whom, all his soldiers ran away.  But he didn’t.  As the king and the lion looked at each other, the latter turned around and left.  The Hindu King named this place the “Lion City” – Singha-pur.

Somewhere, Singapore as a country and city mirrors its airlines – Singapore International Airlines (SIA).  The SIA is very different.  It has the head of West but the heart of East.  They are efficient, but they will go every extra mile that they can to make your life really better than it was when they started attended to it!  I would go to say that SIA is EXACTLY how every airlines should be.  And it doesn’t take money to be like them.  Just a little bit of intelligence and something beautiful in your heart!

Places I would like to see in more detail, if I stay over a day?

Well, Marina Bay Hotel for one – it has three towers of 200 feet, with a large aerial park at the top with a 150 feet swimming pool (Olympic sized is 59 ft).  In fact while swimming in the pool, you can see all the way to the bottom in some areas!

Another place would be “Little India” and Chinatown.

I think the Observatory wheel is also something cool and very different.  It is a large ferris wheel, which rotates around and takes 30 minutes for one rotation.  28 people can come in one cabin.

Overall

I like the city.  People are great.  Very friendly.  And above all, the city is very clean.

However, I don’t think there is much to see or do in this city.  So at most 4-5 days is all you need to totally explore Singapore.