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Singapore

Singapore was unbelievable- quite literally! A city of ‘perfection’! Everything was perfectly painted, the streets pristine clean, each building unique in its architecture and everything in its proper place! Whilst walking the streets of Singapore, I felt like I was strolling through a video game or in some sort of alternate reality or even in a futuristic film. If you have ever seen The Truman Show I can assure you that we felt EXACTLY like Truman, a bit confused as to how we ended up living in (well…more like visiting) this perfect, constructed reality in this ‘ideal’ city- EVERYTHING was absolutely perfect and clean and too good to be true. Catherine and I discussed this dream- like world at length. I guess this beautiful city is the way it is now due to more strict and funny rules like no chewing gum and no durian fruit on the subway etc. Walking through the extremely clean, calm Singaporean streets was a complete contrast to walking the polluted, smelly, loud streets of Bali from where we had just come the night before. In Bali, it is difficult to go 3 steps without being whistled at by the local shop keepers to buy their products, loud music banging at all hours of the night or having some strangers sing ‘my heart will go on’ whenever they see white skinned people. However, we hadn’t noticed how annoying this was until we experienced the beautiful, sophisticated feel of the streets in Singapore, walking more than a few kilometres in the peaceful silence and high- rise building lights. Bali is like the world’s heavy metal rock music and Singapore is like its Mozart inspired classical piano music!

We covered most (if not all) of the main attractions in Singapore in only 4 days. We tried around 4 different ‘Hawker food centres’ which had hundreds of stalls selling many different foods and cuisines from around the world. I read somewhere that Singapore is the ultimate food hub for Asian cuisine because it has so many other Asian country’s dishes, you can try them all in Singapore. We didn’t find anything too exotic, however we did try a very interesting custard textured jelly (similar to sago pudding) topped with soy beans and red beans. It wasn’t as sweet as we imagined it to be but it is definitely very delicious and a must try when in Singapore. Singapore is not only enriched with yummy food but also enriched with many different cultures.

Some attractions we visited included going up the ‘Singapore Flyer’ (big wheel), visiting the Buddha relic tooth temple, other temples, the city museum, Chinatown, Little India, the beautiful and famous Hajji Lane and Arab street, impressive Bugis shopping malls, Marina Bay Sands (The famous hotel that looks like a ship on stilts), we took an open air bus tour around the city (the best way to see lots in a short space of time) and of course the most beautiful and impressive attraction in Singapore- the ‘Gardens by the Bay’. It was amazing to see all the futuristic looking tree structures standing tall before you! They were even more wonderful when their lights turned on in the dark. Every night the gardens put on 2x 15- minute light shows. Catherine and I went to see this same show 3 times- we loved it so much and it truly made our trip! ½ hour before the show starts, everyone gathers beneath the metal pylon tree structures and prepares themselves to experience a beauty they’ve never experienced before. Everyone (including us) lay on the ground looking up at the colourful dancing lights of the gardens in the clear night sky. All our senses went crazy with happiness- it was really a spectacular light show- truly one of my highlights in Singapore.

Another extremely memorable highlight from our trip was watching sunset at the top of a famous building of residential development called ‘The Pinnacle @ Duxton’ as recommended by our Filipino friend we met who was working as an architect in Singapore (helped to design P@D). This remarkable building contains the world's two longest sky gardens, each 500 metres. The view was spectacularly magnificent! Who would ever have thought that at 18 years old, I would be standing at the top of a 50 storey skyscraper in the middle of Singapore overlooking the whole city light up just after the sun sets on the stunning skyline. If anyone had told me I’d be there on Valentine’s day 2019 I would’ve laughed- my younger self would’ve said that’s too young, too wishful and too far away from home...but I guess life takes you on its own adventure!

We stood at the top of this high rise, admiring the beauty of this city, realising how lucky we were to be able to travel and study in such incredible countries, how lucky we were to be standing here at a young age, seeing so many stunning sights that others can only dream of. Singapore’s beauty opened a piece of our mind to appreciating the rest of the world and realising how closed minded we can become when we don’t open our eyes and expose ourselves to the world’s most amazing wonders!

This perfect place was one of my favourite places I’ve visited so far! I would 100% recommend visiting Singapore- a great place to tick off the bucket list- it’s so totally different and unique to other places around the world, it’s so worth it!