In a word: relief.
Singapore is clean, modern, efficient, big yet walkable, English is spoken widely but its undeniably multi-cultural. The food is amazing (I almost cried at my first taste of coriander in months), the air is fresh (despite cars everywhere, the joy of gas versus diesel), the buildings have color, the public transit consists of a skytrain (sigh for fellow Vancouverites) that's super clean, quick, quiet (can't even compare with jeepeneys...), and the churches have been replaced by beautiful mosques, temples, shrines, and pagodas.
I arrived at my hostel in the late morning of Friday. After checking in and picking up a map I made my way to Little India with the sole purpose of finding some Indian food. Great success! Mattar Paneer with Naan and teary eyes. Then I did a bit of shopping (got totally had like a beginner and paid waaaay too much for a converter) before heading temple hopping. Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, all were easily found here.
After that I went back to the hostel for a catnap, visiting a mosque on the way.
The evening was spent wandering some more and happening upon a light show projected onto the world's largest fountain (apparently). What a tiring day, I had gotten used to the slow-paced afternoons of Tacloban, lazing away at Cafe Lucia!
For my second day, I decided to hit all the "must see" sites of Singapore before heading to Chinatown. According to the tourist map I happened upon and the Lonely Planet, here are the important things to take pictures of in Singapore:
Afterwards I headed to Chinatown, which was a tourist's mecca. All the shopping that we wanted to find so badly in the Philippines at my finger tips. Beautiful wall-hangings; great loose, comfortable clothing; carvings; jewelery... I had to stop myself from spending a small fortune (for all its perks, Singapore is expensive!). Then in the middle of Chinatown, Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple which apparently houses Buddha's actual tooth?!? After visiting many temples in Japan, this one was a surprise, though it goes very well with the impression Singapore had on me. It has a basement parking garage, air-con throughout the temple, elevators to bring us to a lovely rooftop garden in the middle of which is a electrically powered revolving prayer wheel, meanwhile the other floors are full of worshipers, old relics and historic pictures.
After all this, hop back on the skytrain to the airport and then onwards to Kuala Lumpur!
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