We Can Drink the Water Here: Singapore.

Singapura, or Singapore as it is know to the rest of the world, has an solid reputation as the cleanest city on the planet. We went to see for ourselves. Singapore has also been described as a "police state" with the clean streets and ordered society coming from the barrel of a gun. Our friend Celeste, who used to live in Singapore said she appreciated the cleanliness but felt it was taken to the extreme. Along with other drawbacks of living in a strictly controlled society, her final decision to leave the City-State came after seeing the military shooting birds out the trees to prevent them from pooping on the sidewalks. That being said we were surprised to not see a single police officer in the four days we were there. Even with the governments firm grip on many aspects of life, Singapore is far more liberated than its neighbors with respect to sexual expression: You can wear whatever you want, and pre-marital dating is not frowned upon.

Singapore is a young and truly international city, having been founded only 200 years ago with the sole purpose of becoming an international trade center. The standard of living is equal to any European nation and the cost of living rivals that of a mid-Western American city. It is the only country in Asia where you can drink the tap water, (straight up.) Unlike its neighbors, Singapore's economy has been based on trade for its entire existence. We're still not sure why the British decided to abandon Malacca (see last post) for Singapore. Shortly after gaining the historically significant port they concentrated their efforts on building up Singapore and Penang (Malaysia,) abandoning Malacca. British colonialism brought a certain amount of forced immigrant labor to island, however after some time foreigners seeking a better life began to flock to Singapore on their own. The majority of the population is ethnically Southern Chinese, and just like Malaysia Singapore has a healthy Indian and Malay population. Other smaller ethnic enclaves make up this melting pot; for example, in the Arab district you can find schwarma and hookah bars on Baghdad Street.

Typical scene on the ultra modern subway. Many Westerners live and work here for international corporations.

Having grown up during the media frenzy surrounding a young American teenager who was caned for vandalizing cars, (we thought it was for graffiti but apparently the issue is more complicated than that-- we wikipedia'ed it... check it out,) we were apprehensive in our daily actions. How serious is jaywalking we thought as we crossed outside of the lines. What about Max? He gets phlem, is spitting really a crime? We were walking on eggshells the first couple of days. Like we said, we didn't see any cops and received no fines, but we did notice most people followed the rules. Singapore, so fresh and so clean clean.

...or is it? This disgusting and vile ice cream container spoon combo overflowing from the trash bin clearly tells a different tale. We were constantly on the look out for the frayed edges of this reportedly seamless tapestry. We're watching you, Singapore. More evidence later.

No but seriously folks. This is the subway. Can you see the reflection of the straphangers in the floor?

Kara would to open this caption with the following disclaimer. "Normally I do not support zoos. I think they are inherently cruel and 9 times out of 10 the animals are being mistreated." The very act of confinement is cruel and unusual punishment to our animal friends. Many of them have psychological disorders. That said, we heard from multiple sources that the Singapore Zoo is a notable exception; the zoo has a very open plan with animals given a lot of freedom of movement and adequate living space. The zoo has an activist minded mandate with lots of educational signs about the conditions of endangered species and what you can do to help. They also fund conservation projects. Basically, we were impressed. Beyond that it was a lot of fun. Here is Kara excited to see some animals.

Ooooh yeaaaah. This is a proboscis monkey. The bigger the nose, the more attractive he is to the females. The zoo posts feeding times of popular animals and gives a short talk about the species. At first we weren't sure why they did this but we think this picture says it all.

We told you the animals are free to roam as they please. This was one of two peacocks we encountered walking on the same path as us.

Orangutans! Not caged! Really! "Orang" means person in Malay and Indonesian. "Utang" means forest.

This couple was snuggling pretty hard right before this picture was taken. It got pretty hot. They didn't seem to mind that everyone was watching.

Huge tortoises. They were the size of Kara. Kara says no they were not. Max says "I know she's not that big, but for a turtle...." Anyways, this grouping of turtles are endangered in many parts of the world and now even extinct in Madagascar. The Singapore Zoo serves as a refugee camp for these lovely creatures. You might remember Kara's love of the sea turtle in previous Indonesia posts. It extends to their land bound cousins. "Love you turtles and tortoises!"

Komodo dragons. Yep, they eat people. But did you know that they also eat each other? The young komodo had to be separated from this older male komodo because of this. Once the younger komodo grows older they will be able to cohabitate. Most people don't die from blood loss like with most predators. The komodo tongue, seen here, is covered in such nasty bacteria that the victims die from the infections of their wounds. We were stoked to see them here as we missed visiting their Indonesian homeland of Rinca and Komodo.

Although there is a Chinatown, it is hard to tell where it ends...or begins. Kara was convinced we were living between Chinatown and Little India, however we were no where near Chinatown. Even though Singapore has 4 national languages: English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay, the first two dominate most of the signs.

Hot pot restaurants are so popular in Asia. They are called steamboats, hot pots, and shabu shabu, but they are all the same thing. You cook your own mess of meat and veggies in a boiling pot of broth set into the center of the table. We love hot pots but its difficult to find vegetarian friendly venues. See the Xi'an, China post for information on that.

The Chinese community does support vegetarianism. Here is one of the many vegetarian food stalls. Chinese vegetarian food is into fake meat. Sometimes you can't even tell the difference between the two, at least by looks. Kara is not into the fake meat. "Its gross, y'all." Max likes it. Kara and Max are most different when it comes to food. At least we are both vegetarians.

Indian food, YEAH. Indian vegetarian food never uses fake meat. Indian vegetarian food uses good ole vegetables and grains to feed us herbivores. Max thinks this is a slanted caption but he loves Indian food too. This was a restaurant near our dorm in Little India. Our dorm room alone cost us more than our usual daily budget.

Walking along the streets of Little India.

One morning we woke up with a busy itinerary which included the newly renovated National Museum, seen above. We loved this place. We stayed here for 6 hours, a new museum record. Most of our time was spent in the history section. There are over 10 hours of free audio guide available. We thought about coming back after eating lunch but our brains were overwhelmed.

We did make it that day to the Armenian Church, St. Gregory's. The Armenian community was once small but influential, numbering about 100 families at its height in 1880. They have since assimilated into Singapore's population or moved elsewhere. St. Gregory Church was the first church built in Singapore in 1835.

Kara continues to stalk wedding parties taking cheesy photos in Asia. Here they can be seen on the Singapore river. We imagined that the buildings in the background were what Singapore's financial district used to look like.

Here's what it looks like now. Though very compact, these few blocks are home to key players in the Asian and global economy.

At night the waterfront is nicely lit. This is an old bridge from the 1800s with LED lights.

Oh man. So we walked over that bridge to find that Singapore was having a free outdoor music festival all week long. We were lucky enough to catch the last night of it. After sitting through a couple of bad bands from KL and Indonesia, the Japanese group The Condors blew our minds. They are the best live show we have seen in a long time. They don't speak English, we don't speak Japanese. It didn't matter. Despite the ultra high energy performance the crowd was about as responsive as an oil painting. They would only clap their hands when instructed and when the music was at the height of its frenzy, the most we saw were a few heads bobbing in a sea of quiet. It was bizarre. Anyways, check out the Condors.

Kara didn't realize it at the time but this is a shot of one of the singers from the band in front of the dazzling skyline.

The day before we left, we decided to take a journey out to the east side of the island to visit the Changi Museum and Prison. The Changi Prison was used by the Japanese during their occupation in WWII. It's a sad place and there was a well laid out presentation about the history of the occupation, but the site itself was unexceptional. The original prison is now only a museum but there is a modern Changi prison just next door that we would have liked to tour, but that is not possible. We kind of had a hard time locating the museum prison itself because directly in front of it sits a swanky restaurant and cafe that seems to be a favored lunch spot by local businessmen. That was odd.

Back in the city. This spiky looking thing is the Esplanade Theaters. It is more commonly called "The Durian," named after the fruit it resembles. We think it looks more like a jackfruit, but whatever. The Durian seems to be Singapore's newest defining landmark; we read that the city hopes that the Durian will become as emblematic as the Sydney opera house. We read that.

Singapore is still rapidly expanding. From the Durians we could see three large buildings in the works. These migrant workers were working at the site of outdoor soccer field that sits on a barge on the water. It is netted of course and has stadium seating on the shore with a beautiful view of the skyline.

We look well lit and cute here. There is a lion mermaid statue (Singapore's national animal?) spewing water behind us. Alright, so we looked it up and technically Singapore's national animals are the lion and the cresent sunbird. This statue is a MERLION and is a symbol for Singapore.

See? Trash. We told you. For shame, Singapore. For shame.

(We loved Singapore.)

We loved Singapore. Unlike many of our destinations whose most stunning features comes from their natural beauty or their cultural heritage, Singapore's appeal comes from its modern achievements. It was great to enjoy a city solely for what it is, right here and right now. We wanted to stay longer but its so fucking expensive.

We'll be in another country next time,
Kara and Max