Chapter 12 - Singapore

We really don’t like long flights, so we always plan trips with destinations that are no more than a four hour-ish flight. Kathmandu to Australia needed an interim destination so Singapore was it.
Singapore. Bright, modern, clean, awesome Singapore.
The last time we visited there were Christmas decorations yet flowers were still blooming. This time it is autumn and even more flowers are blooming. We are 1.5 degrees from the equator and the weather report predicted three days of rain, but nary a drop so far!

The first difference we noticed was how very high-tech and futuristic everything seemed! Where we were used to waiting in long lines for passport control, and customs, here it was all automated. You walk up to a kiosk, insert your passport, answer a few questions, smile for the camera, and you’re in!

Then in the hotel, we saw an adorable kitchen rumba we dubbed “Rosie” (anyone remember the Jetsons?), who (which?) brought trays of food and took away the dirty dishes. Amazing!

Compared to Kathmandu, driving here is very sane and normal. The cab ride from the airport felt like we were driving at home, albeit on the wrong side of the street! Imagine our surprise when the car in front of us was rammed at an intersection! Go figure!

We spent the day at Gardens by the bay, which is an enormous collection of flowers, shrubs, and trees, both natural and man-made. The cloud forest contained an Avatar exposition, which was fun. We got to become Navi for a little while. Ahhh! Life is good!

The Super-tree grove was a fantastic collection of man-made trees covered by vertical gardens. At night they became a light show.

We also visited the Flower Dome another massive climate-controlled conservatory that contained gardens with plants from every corner of the globe. Each garden featured amazing artwork.

Thanks to a certain FB post, a gastronomic trip to the Chinatown Hawker center was in order for dinner. What an adventure in food! A Hawker center is a collection of tiny food stalls that generally specialize in just one or two dishes. Think “food court in the mall” and expand that to about 260 stalls. Lest you think these are mere street foods, some of them are Michelin rated. You could tell which ones were by the long lines. We bounced from one to another, and enjoyed satay, yam cakes, (which looked a lot like gray tofu, but were delicious!), sour plum juice, green bean rice dumplings, and popiah. You could watch each cook make your food to order out of absolutely fresh ingredients. There were piles of zucchini, yams, fruit, and many things we could not ever identify – but all very fresh. We looked hard for frog porridge, but we were told that porridge, otherwise known as congee, is usually eaten for breakfast.

Thank you, Suzanne!

We have to also mention our amazing hotel. It wasn’t until we were here a while that we realized what an effort in sustainability this hotel represents. It has an indoor skylit atrium that contains over 2400 plants, trees, shrubs, and ground covers. It has 210 solar panels installed on the roof. Motion detectors turned off the lights and adjusted the temperature once we left the room. The rooms also have filtered water systems. And behind the restaurant, the“urban farm” grows over dozens of fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers used in the hotel's restaurants. And we can attest to the deliciousness of their salads and veggies.
And the architect? None other than John Portman of RenCen fame!

All in all, Singapore was a lovely, relaxing stop on our journey.
And still no rain!