So I’m posting this mostly for the benefit of the people who did not get a chance to see Singapore during their short trip to and from AFA, for those who want to know more about Singapore, and also for those Singaporeans who are expats, and miss home. (Yes, you chun!) Considering that Singapore is the next most proliferant anime hub this side of the english internetz community, it makes sense to know more about Singapore’s people, and its infrastructure and land. I’m not going to delve into the history or its culture. You can find all that on wikipedia or something. I’m more interested in covering the more important aspects… the food, and the shopping!
A typical morning breakfast traditional amongst the Chinese group, you get various forms of deep fried dough, or Chinese doughnut, some with fillings such as red bean paste, or crushed peanut. Served with a side of sweet soy milk. (warm).
A pancake! Very similar to Tayaki, this one contains a delicious chocolate filling.
A typical food court in Singapore. This one is located at Changi Villiage. Changi is where the airport is located, which is the eastern side of Singapore. Each food stall is privately owned, each stall renting from the people that own the entire complex. Typically, the owner of the complex is also the stall that sells beverages. Beverages make the most money in the complex, charging nearly 40% more for their drinks. Everyday, these people toil, day in and day out, while the patrons are local regulars with their own jobs and problems. This kind of cycle has been ongoing since forever.
More of the food court. This particular one is a massive pyramid-type building, with stalls lined all around, and more stalls filling the center.
Just outside the food court is a sort of open restaurant. It’s too early for dinner at the moment. But these kinds of restaurants function exactly as it would a typical asian restaurant, with menus, servers, bus boys, etc. Since Singapore weather is hot and consistent all year around, this type of business is sustainable.
Just outside the food court, you get a nice view of some trees. This is combined with the residential blocks around the area. Nothing really special except it shows what the edges of Singapore are like.
Lots of motorcycles. Purchasing cars are very expensive in Singapore due to import taxes and such. The total is typically TWICE the cost of buying a car in North America – the price of a luxury sports car like a Porche Boxter would get you a crappy Kia in Singapore. Motorcycles are a cheaper alternative. But even though there his a high price luxury for cars, there are still a lot of them in Singapore.
The central area of the food court. The one in pink with the bag is my wife! The photo isn’t clear, but there is a lot of smoke in here. It’s incredibly hot with everyone cooking their food. There is no air conditioning. Couple that with the extreme heat, and you’ve got a recipie for a headache.
A stray cat. Stray cats are a lot more typical in Singapore. They’re like the rats of Singapore so to speak, so as such, there aren’t many rodents around.
They were out of chicken rice, and everything else was either spicy, or unappetizing to me, or it was fish. Mostly fish. I made the mistake of settling for western food, and was also given this strange cakebread. That part isn’t white. It’s green. And that part in the middle isn’t chocolate. It’s bread. I don’t know why it looks like that.
The fries were decent, but the porkchop tasted like nothing. The good thing about it was it was a screaming deal.
Sugar Cane drink. Freshly squeezed! It’s incredibly refreshing and delicious! First time I’ve had one! Doesn’t top the Bandung though.
The back side of the food court. This is not a storage area. These are actually retail shops. It’s a huge reality check of what life is like for these people who share the same 42km wide island with other Singaporeans who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on merchandise. No offense meant by that statement.
Further along outside of the food court, we get to the beach. This is an inlet on this side actually.
Shot from the other side of the inlet. I wish I had brought my DSLR.
Yeah, the effects of a point and shoot just don’t do this area any justice.
Walking further we get to the beach proper. Lots of transport ships and things happen around here, so it’s rarely a peaceful horizon, but the breeze is cool, and the air is clean. The sand is also quite white and fine. It’s very relaxing here compared to the bustling life of Singapore’s downtown life. Many people purposefully travel out here to escape the busy lifestyle once in a while.
No idea how grass is growing out of the sand, but it’s very cool.
Feels like Singapore. 🙂 Changi Village is situated near the Changi Airport, so every so often, you’ll see an airplane fly across the horizon from behind these trees. Like so:
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TPOMAPgaI[/pro-player]
Switching gears, here I am at one of Singapore’s countless shopping centers. I tell you, there is a shopping mall in some form at virtually every MRT station. MRT is Singapore’s “monorail” transit system (it’s not really a monorail, but it’s the most common descriptive I can think of at the moment. Singapore’s malls are just as proliferant as Singapore’s anime fandom blogging on the internet. I absolutely love shopping in Singapore. This is a shot of a restaurant called Long John Silver’s. Perhaps you’ve got one of these where you come from, but not me. As such, I haven’t had LJS in like, 4 years or something!
One of the many Kopitiam food courts. Kopitiam is sort of a franchise food court. It works similar to the rural food court where stall owners rent the stall from the building owner, but Kopitiam is on a much larger scale, with franchises in malls everywhere. I’m under the impression that Kopitiam also does some sort of quality control on the food they allow.
Watermelons. I’ve never seen a watermelon that’s yellow inside. Never in my entire life. From what I know, these are actually quite commonly found in Malaysia. Unfortunately, these unusually colored melons don’t taste as refreshingly sweet as their red counterparts.
Hand-pulled noodles with chicken cutlet, and a side of chicken broth with egg. I must say that it’s the best chicken cutlet I’ve ever had. Very crispy, not at all made soggy by the noodle sauce. The noodles were just the right consistency with a nice “bounce” to the chew. The savory sauce was just right, not too salty, and not too dry or wet. The veggies were also very fresh and tasty. All this for like, 5 bucks!
Fish soup. Piping hot from the “I sell fish type food products!” stall. It’s interesting how each stall specializes in one thing.
A true traditinal Singaporean breakfast. You can’t say you’ve truly lived in Singapore without having one of these – Kaya Toast (Kaya is like a kind of marmalade) Kopi (Singlish for Coffee!) and half-boiled eggs.
When I mean half-boiled, I mean very runny. Pour some soy sauce on it, stur it up, and drink! Mmmmmm!
Unfortunately, nobody seems to carry Orange Qoo anymore. Grape is an unworthy substitute.
Typical Singaporean mall design – lots of floors up. What I find absolutely incredible is that this used to be a double floor, totally ignored hole in the wall shopping center with a Value Village type of clothing store coupled with a low-end electronics store. Less than 4 years later, it’s now a bustling shopping mall featuring the latest and greatest merchandise, food, and even a two storey upside down xmas tree!
Singaporeans truly amaze me in terms of their constant updating, expanding, and augmenting. Heck, one of the department stores I used to go to (Metro) was torn down, and converted into a gauntlet of specialty boutiques! I couldn’t recognize it anymore – it was like a whole new mall!
zero percent “alcoholicity”. I found this product quite interesting, as what’s inside wasn’t alcohol, or even a beverage…
… but an umbrella. Innovative because you don’t need to place your wet umbrella into an umbrella stand, or hang it on your chair dripping wet. And you don’t have to wrestle and put it into a flimsy wet sleeve either. Just roll up, and put it into the plastic container. Done.
Cute asian products are cute.
This is an arcade “dress up your doll” game, where children can create an avatar, and literally buy clothes for it. The data is stored on the card. Thanks for ruining the young generation, Sega. 😛
A new DJ Max of some sort. The entire thing is touch screen based with a bar that swipes over. There are prompts to tap, slide, and make patterns. I’d say this game is a combination of Project Diva meets Ouendan/EBA.
The latest new LG Chocolate. I believe it’s targetted towards the female market, as the adverts feature runway models. It’s got an ultra-wide screen for you to video capture those ultra-wide cat-walks. Honestly, I think it’s a very slick and sexy phone.
This ends my first post of Singapore. I apologize for my crappy photography, as most of these were taken in the spur of the moment, and mainly to remind me of what to write about. It gives you a general idea of what Singapore is like, but it most certainly doesn’t beat actually being here and living and breathing it (humid air and all).
But before I go, Singapore is an interesting balance between different worlds, different lives, and different goals, yet it all coexists together on this small island. It’s moments like these that are magical:
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IizxqvQdV5M[/pro-player]
Stay tuned for my next post, as I visit Vivo City and other places!
I was on Yahoo and found your blog. Read a few of your other posts. Good work. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
Tom Stanley
I went to singapore many years ago for a week as part of a family holiday before moving to Malaysia for 2 weeks and then, finally, to Hong Kong.
It was the first time I had experienced 30 degrees C and 100% humidity so that was a real slap to the face when I walked out of the airport.
I remember it being a strange mix of stuff yet Malaysia was a similar mix but more extreme so it stuck in my mind more.
The one thing I do remember about singapore (other than the weather) was that essentials, like food and other stuff, were cheap but “luxury” items like electronics, games and general Gadgets were insanely expensive for an Eastern market with prices equalling or exceeding those in the UK at the time (and we’re not called ripoff britain for nothing!!!)
Oh and the masses of merlion merchandise and the stuff poking fun at the tag “Singapore is a fine city” as you get fined for anything and everything. Just how do they know that it was you who didn’t flush the public toilet to fine you anyway?
Do singaporeans know what chewing gum is? etc…
That must have been quite a number of years ago! Nowadays, the temperature goes beyond 36 degrees at times. Electronics are comparable to prices in North America now, though in the laptop department, they seem to be 1 generation behind. (So don’t buy laptops in Singapore as of this writing).
I’m shopping for a new digital point and shoot camera, and it is cheaper getting one here in Singapore. Plus they’ve got free gifts and stuff, making it a much better value. I’m guessing all these price drops have something to do with balancing the economy, with the sheer number of shopping malls around now.
Tourist merchandise isn’t as common anymore (either that, or I just don’t hit the tourist hotspots anymore). But Singapore continues to be a “fine” city. It’s not as bad as people think though. Now there is more signage for being courteous to your fellow Singaporean. While it’s much more positive reinforcement, it’s seemingly useless in my opinion.
Just the other day, some woman was fined for eating candy on the MRT. I don’t think many Singaporeans know what it’s like to chew gum. 🙁
Yeah, it was. Think it was around 10 years ago now. I’ve been back to malaysia a few times since then but we’ve never felt the need to spend time in Singapore. As a family, we preferred the greater diversity in malaysia or, for the whole “city” feel, we go to hong kong. Stuff is cheaper there too!
The Price parity with the US is probably due to the current economic climate as a whole. Singapore has always been a city for work and shopping and not much else so the increase in malls is natural. As the economies recover, I suspect that the prices will rise again.
you’re right about the economic climate of Singapore as well as how the city’s economic model works. It’s almost like a nature show, how everything seems to be in some sort of balance, with a steady growth (I guess that’s typical for any thriving city).
whut no popiah? 😛 this one the puppy (?) one is so cute LOL! In image 32.jpg
Also miss the rotiprata, hokkien mee (over here it’s just different :P) and the vegetarian noodles (specific stalls) and carrot cake…. omg *Drool*
ha ha ha! I hope you liked the rotiprata pic from the previous post! And I did have hokkien mee the other day too! So delicious!
While the first picture isn’t popiah, it’s kinda like that, no? Just no veggies and extras. That one is peanut filling.
I also had some vegetarian noodles as well, so delicious. Oh yes and carrot cake! yum yum yum! Don’t worry chun! I’ve got pix! ^_^
You know I actually found Vivo city kinda boring cos it’s shops which can be found here 😛 LOL I think the first picture it’s probably called something else. Popiah, I haven’t seen anyone attempting to replicate it in Vancouver lol! Must… save… up ^^;;;
Oh sure, Vivo City is a little boring in terms of what shops they have, but wow the design. It’s very nice, very modern looking.
I’ve never been to out of the country much let alone Singapore, so your post is very insightful. I think you’ve done a great job especially embedding a Youtube video to show a little into the experience. \(^_^)/
One question though, how is the air quality there? besides the heat, I’ve only experienced HK air and got terribly sick when I got there because of it, Canadian air has definitely spoiled my immune system.
Great food shots, it makes me hungry. I haven’t had a more traditional Chinese breakfast in a long time!
The malls look pretty sweet, and the variety of merchandise is awesome, I really like the idea for the umbrella. I agree, cute Asian products are cute and HAHA Love and Berry, I seen that before only on Mechafetus (There’s a little bit of disturbing stuff, so obligatory warning if you’ve never gone there before, http://visublog.mechafetus.com/), but had no idea what it’s about. Now I know… (>_>);
It’s unfortunate you didn’t have your DSLR, but I think these photos are still pretty good, I can’t wait to check out your next post!
I’m glad you enjoy the post! ^_^
The air quality here is very good. I’d say it’s comparable to downtown Vancouver. But when you start going further out to where the industrial areas are, it can get a little bit bad. I think the whole reason for the good air quality is because Singapore is essentially surrounded by water, and the wind blows whatever out. There aren’t any large manufacturing plants here either. The air is humid though.
I hate Hong Kong’s air quality. Actually there are a lot of things I hate about Hong Kong now, unfortunately.
Go get yourself some chinese donut! Fortune Garden has it on Sundays, and it’s good quality! 🙂
The mall pix I’ve posted are nothing to write home about (lol) yet. I’ve got some of Vivo City and that’s pretty incredible. I’ll get to that in the next post! 😀
Haha! Changi Village! I remember playing around there with my classmates a lot during the weekends. Kinda miss those times.
You have to be careful while being at the beach though, I’ve encountered plenty of hidden glass shards. (* 0*)
Seems like you’re having a lot of fun in Singapore! When will you be going back?
Yo! It’s been that long for you? I guess there isn’t too much around there really, and it’s a great spot for high school kids to just camp out for fun there.
It seems that they’ve kept the place a lot cleaner now. There were no glass shards, and the sand is beautifully white and fine.
Yeah! The last time I went there was.. 2 years ago? LOL. (“° -°)
Thanks for all the pictures! And I agree with Pyauki, Canada has spoiled me in terms of air quality.
Canada’s air quality is quite amazing. I love it. Especially in the Rockies, and going up to Whistler. I’m glad Singapore air is clean. 🙂
I would go to Singapore just to eat lol. Nothing like good tasting food that’s cheap :P.
I wish I had a Long John Silver’s where I lived again. I only learned of the place late in life and tried it once before it closed down T-T.
I’ve never seen yellow watermelon either ^^;;. Need to try it at least once to say I have xD. I’m a big watermelon fiend :P.
Singaporean food is definitely one of the many reasons you should come here. Since Singapore is so multi-cultural, and caters to all those cultures, you get a huge variety of food. It’s staggering!
LJS a sister company to Carl’s Jr. I believe. It’s definitely good. And it’s good to see that LJS is popular enough around here to be maintained.
Watermelon fiend, lol. Yeah I love watermelon, especially the red kind. 🙂
Toilets, need public toilet reviews.
LOL! Please don’t make me!
I think Singapore Tourism Board should pay you for this lol 😀
I second kodomut review of public toilets!
It would be nice to get paid for doing this! I should hit them up! 😀
Aaagh! Public toilets! O_O;
Fooooood. Yummy fooood. The traditional Singapore breakfast is very interesting… although I find half-cooked hard boiled eggs a bit too soggy @_@; (but I like sunny side up eggs ^^; )
As for the umbrellas, there are a bunch of sidestreet stores here that sell those kinds of umbrellas… and they’re pretty cheap too. I love the concept!
As for the retail shop owners… IMO, some keep it simple but actually make a pretty good living for themselves. It depends… It sounds a bit elitist but I don’t think there is a country where there are no poor people.
LOL the dressup arcades are cute, we have that here in our country too… and DJ MAX TECHNIKAAAAA~ I love that game though I suck at it ^^;
Thanks for this nice mini-tour of SG that isn’t found in Wikipedia :3c
lol half-cooked egg is what they love! I prefer mine completely hard-boiled, or scrambled. Nothing else will do.
I agree with you. Every country has poor people. But it seems to me that the majority of Singapore is either middle-class, or lower… more so than other places. Yet Singapore appears to be a very high-consumerist society. A lot of the middle-income buy countless things. It seems more so than other places I’ve been to. Especially considering it’s like a new mall is popping up every week or something.
I do have to try me some DJ Max Technicha sometime. It looks very interesting. I hope a home version will come out on DS or iPhone.
Stay tuned for the next post! More food, more shopping, and more quirky products!
Well, you can’t really determine if those who spend a lot have really been born in SG or those who just went to SG to work. A good portion of those in our country to work abroad go to SG. Oh, and there’s the tourists too. I can definitely relate with the new malls popping up like mushrooms… pretty much the same thing is happening over here, but I can confidently say that our economy, as well as the poor here are in worse shape than those in SG. ><;
I do hope a similar version of Technika would come out for the DS! But AFAIK, DJ Max games are for the PC. Technika is the first of it's kind. It's fun, but it's confusing too ^^; *still gets confused*
Well, the majority of the people around are either Malay, Chinese, from Sri Lanka, or nearby places. You can usually tell who the locals are and who are the expats. And since I take public transit here, I know where the majority of of them come from, how they dress, where they live, everything. I’ve gotten pretty good at profiling people sitting on the MRT to guess which station they’ll get up and leave from. (have to do that if I want to sit down sooner).
DJ Max has had portable versions for PSP for quite some time now. It’s not nearly as content-heavy as the PC version of course, but that does mean there’s promise of Technika or similar showing up on a portable system.
i love Qoo!
It’s the best! >w<
lol public toilets… >.<
wow.. u went all the way to Changi Village!
and even I have never seen cake bread on western foods… ^^;
it's sweets on oily food! haha
It’s the second time I’ve seen this cakebread thing. It’s weird, it looks like cake, but the whole thing is actually 100% bread. I didn’t bother trying to eat it though, as it looked too weird to me. ^_^
Finally someone that knows whats truly important about the country: the food! 😛
Thanks so much for this article since It gave a little insight into a country I know so little of yet have contact with over the net quite often.
Food looks yummy and those kittens were quite cute :3
I’m glad you like the article, Blowfish! In Singapore, it’s definitely all about the food. It’s interesting though, the tourist hotspots don’t seem to offer this kind of food – only the typical “western style” or “westernized-exotic” foods. (talking about Clark Quay).
Cute kittens are cute. :3
Look forward to my next post! 😀
“I hate Hong Kong’s air quality. Actually there are a lot of things I hate about Hong Kong now, unfortunately.”
I know this will bound to come up from someone soon or later. Seeing Hong Kong becoming less competent, and having taken more and more influence from mainland China. It hurts reading this as an overseas Hongkonger I gotta say.
As zenical has told me, maybe it’s something got to do with English-speaking people not used to other side of the world (afterall Hong Kong is a predominantly Chinese-speaking place – you hardly know bloggers there right?) She even used the phrase “too blessed” to know how the other side is like. On the other hand, once you know a place for too long, you will bound to know more and more of its ugly side.
I digress. Anyway it’s been a while since I’ve read up a post on Singapore itself from someone not from Singapore, so this is something new to me, as I have no idea what to expect from there. Food-wise there are some in common with Hong Kong, and the environment seems more open as well (which is explained by its larger area too). Still I think I may have to go there to experience how it is like for myself.
I apologize if I have offended you. 🙁
I used to go to Hong Kong almost every year because I have relatives there. And every year, it just seems like the whole “atmosphere” of Hong Kong was getting worse and worse. The people grew less friendly, the air became worse, the city became more crowded, and there were more people ripping people off. And then due to personal reasons, I stopped going to Hong Kong entirely. It’s sad that the last impressions I got of Hong Kong were not positive ones.
I haven’t seen what Hong Kong is like in recent years, so I have no idea how things have changed.
“Stray cats are a lot more typical in Singapore. They’re like the rats of Singapore”, I find it a bit offensive to compare cats, who are in terms helpful and cute, to rats, who are destructive pests.
Hahah, Those yellow Water melons, used to be an old joke in Philippines comedy shows.
I guess my analogy is a bit off. I didn’t mean it as that, but meant it as simply “There are a lot of strays running around, much like how there would be a lot of rats running around in other cities.” this is also to say that as such, Singapore is much cleaner, since yes cats are not destructive pests. ^_^
What was the joke about yellow watermelons?
Always feels really nice when a foreigner writes about Singapore ^^; Any bad experiences so far?
So far, no bad experiences. The food is great, the shopping is great, and the people here are very welcoming and friendly! I was fortunate enough to spend a day with a group of very nice locals too! 😉
I would love to go to Singapore. Especially right now, since the weather is so cold. 😉
OwO Dats Mai Country. You Failed To Mention It Was Scorching Hot Year In Year Out. Anyway Thanks For Dropping By.
lol I’ve mentioned the scorching hot thing a lot, in previous posts. 🙂