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Traveldiary chapter 34 [February 2019 - April 2019] as PDF (Southeast-Asia: revisiting a booming, yet traditional region) |
Thailand | Malaysia | Singapore | Top |
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Southeast-Asia: revisiting a booming, yet traditional region
After
20 months of travelling overseas, we were on our way back to Europe and soon in
need of another break. However, as the logical way from Australia to the Old
Continent leads across Southeast-Asia, we couldn’t resist to take with us at
least another whiff of Asia’s uniqueness; ultramodern, bustling cities where
traditions are still alive, ultra clean, well-organized business districts next
to quarters, where life appears so chaotic that its nice again, and of course,
the varied, culinary delights. We were looking forward to finding out how much the
region had changed since our last visit in 2007, and even more so, to enjoy the
odours, flavours and tastes of Asia.
Already
our flight from Australia to Thailand turned out to be an experience, we haven’t
had before. Not that we fly only little and neither because we’re not used to
budget airlines. Our flight from Melbourne to Phuket with JetStar (Qantas’
budget airline) was just so much automated, we could almost not believe
it! Buying a ticket online is nothing
special anymore, we’re already used to online check-in, or automated check-in counters
at airports. But with JetStar, even the baggage drop was fully automated, as
was face recognition (comparison with the passport picture) at the security
check. Visas are now virtual too, and naturally, the computer finds out quicker
than any customs officer, how long you’re allowed to stay in the country. At
least that way, we didn’t have to explain ourselves, why we enter Thailand
without an outward ticket.
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Malaysia | Singapore | Top |
Photos | More about Thailand: chapter 8, chapter 13, chapter 15, chapter 17 |
Thailand: stuck between royal-, military- and civil governance
Our first destination in Asia
was Thailand. It’s one
of only few third world countries that have never been colonialized. Thailands population accounts for almost 69 Million, of
which 22% live in metropolitan area of the capital Bangkok. Thai people are
~95% Buddhists, <5% Muslins and <1% Christians. The Thai landmass spreads
over an area of 513.115 km².
Thailand has a long history of military
coups that started in 1932, when a small group of military officers, known as
the "Four Musketeers", overthrew King Prajadhipok. They gave the dead
knell to almost seven centuries of absolute monarchy and established a
constitutional monarchy. Then, the predominantly European educated military
officers thought it’s about time to introduce the democratic, European model
into the kingdom of Siam.
Meanwhile, the military isn’t as fond of democracy anymore, and 12 other
military coups were staged in the aftermath, the last one in 2014. Seeing how
easy it is all over the world to manipulate immature voters with skilful,
populist wordings at the expense of unguilty foreign scapegoats, a military
government isn’t probably the worst-case scenario. The Thai military probably
thinks the same. Thus, elections were held again on March 24th, 2019,
the new constitution that was approved in a more or less
democratic referendum, cements the role of the military in the new
government. Thailand’s economy continues to heavily depend on the tourist trade.
Though, the country boosts also car manufacturing and high-tech products, like
hard drives.
Phuket island:
where traditional (chaotic) life coexists with mass tourism
Phuket is not really reputed as Thailand’s prime destination for
culture- and eco-tourism, rather as a place flooded with ill-mannered, sex-hungry
holiday makers and equally uncivilised money-hungry locals, who sell (almost)
everything to get ever more of the much-beloved tourist dollars! However, as we
found a very cheap and convenient direct flight from Australia to Phuket, we
were curious to find out, whether some traditional native Thai life still can
be found. We’re aware already, Phuket is a tourist hotspot, where the beauty of
the Andaman Sea is shadowed by sex-workers, who display themselves almost in
the raw in some streets, predominantly in Patong, but
also in Kata and Karon!
Connected to the mainland via a bridge, Phuket is with 543 km² (including some appertaining
islands), Thailand’s largest island. We started our discovery with two days at Nai Yang Beach that turned out to be such a pleasant
surprise, we returned later for another week.
Getting around Phuket is easy, but only for those willing to pay
the exaggerated taxi-prices that are several fold
higher than in the rest of Thailand. There is also some limited public
transport though locals seem reluctant to inform tourists about it as almost
everybody has a friend who is taxi driver. It’s anyway often hard to
communicate with Thai people, as surprisingly few speak English well, despite
Thailand being a major tourist-destination for decades. Those with a good command
of English are often guest workers from Myanmar (Burma).
The 1½ hour journey from Nai Yang to Raweng in the south of the island, would be complicated by
bus and so we agreed with a taxi driver to include a sightseeing stop along the
way. Surprised about the dense traffic and the number of large modern shopping
malls we passed, we reached the impressive Buddhist Temple Wat Chalong. In fact, it’s not only one temple but a big
assembly of gilded temples and shrines. Thai people come here to pray and to
donate. Likewise the tourists, also the locals take
plenty of pictures. We were surprised that probably half of them didn’t abide
by the request for conservative clothing; strapless is fashioned after all,
also among Asian women.
As Phuket has a Muslim minority, there was once a while a mosque
along the way. However, the sheer number of gilded Buddhist temples and the
number of rather new cars on the road gave the impression of Phuket being
wealthier than it is, if you look behind the façades.
Rawai
Beach: not a bathing -, but a
working-beach packed with long-tail boats
Our week in Rawai Beach started on February
24, 2019. The name of this peaceful village is somehow misleading; there is actually no bathing beach in Rawai
Beach. Instead, there is a charming island-dotted bay with colourful long-tail
boats along its shore. Many are still used for fishing but nowadays most are
used to shuttle tourists to the outer islands. As most visitors bring more
money than time, there is an ever-growing fleet of high-speed boats. The times
when locals were wondering how much money young Backpackers from Europe must
have, are gone. Today, locals and Europeans are wondering, how much money
Chinese Tourists spend. Meanwhile, at Rawai Beach
most tourists come from China, followed by Russians and then there is a big gap
until Europeans appear in the statistic.
Though it’s a bit disturbing that the main road hugs the
waterfront, the owners of the uncountable restaurants that line that road still
found space to squeeze in proper dining terraces between the other roadside and
the water. Along here, you find a multitude of freshly prepared tasty Thai- to
Western-food – though it’s all a bit overpriced. Probably it’s the hazard bonus
for the personnel, who has to carry the food across
the busy main road. Surely, part of the price is also because Thailand’s
seasonal businesses often employ their staff year around, even though most would
only be needed for a few months.
The eastern end of the waterfront of Rawai
Beach caters for Chinese seafood lovers. The seaside of the alley is lined with
market stalls specialised in selling sea creatures; dead and alive. On the
other roadside, the same businesspeople run restaurants where the expensive
seafood will be cooked to order for another fortune. If you know how to handle
the beasts, you just hand them over to the chef. If not, you might lose a
finger before the crab or lobster loses its life.
If you wander away from the coast, the (Thai-) restaurants get
cheaper, unless they are run by expats offering Italian, French, Swiss,
Scandinavian, or whatever type of food. Additionally, in Rawai
you still see traditional life too, including uncountable really
cheap food-stalls where the locals eat. They are open to everyone, but
most foreigners only eat there once, because their food is really
very spicy!
A bit hidden in a residential quarter, there is pretty Wat Sawang
Arom temple. Apart from several smallish temple
buildings and a large main complex, we found also a tall, shiny white statue of
a sitting Buddha.
To us, the town of Rawai Beach was a
perfect compromise between traditional Thai life, and a low-key tourist
destination with a good choice of Thai restaurants.
Phuket Town:
a disregarded beauty
Apart from the over-touristy Sunday night-market, Phuket Town does
not appear high as a tourist destination. According to the travel books, only
die-hard adventurers and backpackers visit this town of ~ 90.000 inhabitants.
Maybe because we didn’t expect that much, Phuket turned out to be a very
pleasant surprise. First of all, we were impressed by
the sheer number of places of worship, be they for Buddhists, Chinese, Muslims
or Christians. Wherever we went, it was never far to the next temple, mosque or
church. The number of Chinese temples is striking.
The centre of Phuket is very nicely restored. It consists of many
rows of brightly painted townhouses in Sino-Portuguese architecture. Every now
and then, we also came across various stately mansions that are still in use,
be it as museum or government office.
As we like to ramble around, we soon discovered some quarters
where life appeared still very traditional, sometimes even a bit chaotic. Often,
we noticed Thai people that were obviously blended with Portuguese, of whom
many settled here as merchants centuries ago.
In a big town like Phuket, there are obviously many restaurants
and food stalls. We were delighted that the choice was much bigger and the
prices substantially lower than on the touristy places along the beaches.
Logically, everything is priced the way that locals can afford to eat out three
times a day. During our stage, a big food-fair was held. We were already
impressed by the selection in Thai restaurants, but seeing the variety and choice
at this food fair, dwarfed any menu we had seen before! This was Exotica at its
best: from the sweetest treats to the most suspicious deep-fried insects!
Another highlight was our 4km walk to Phuket’s fishing harbour.
The piers at the river mouth were chocked with colourful, mostly wooden fishing
trawlers. It was all very bustling and there were constantly some vessels
sailing in and out. It was nice to watch the fishermen and while the time away.
To us, Phuket Town was an unexpected highlight and therefore, we extended
our initial two days to four.
Nai
Yang Beach: quiet beach
between Russians, Retirees and the Runway
As Phuket Town is the
main hub of the namesake island, it is well connected by public transport.
Therefore, we thought it must be easy to take a bus back to Nai
Yang, where our Phuket trip had started. So we boarded
a Songthaeo or Songthaew respectively, a mix between a
halfway-open-air truck and a bus, where passengers sit alongside on wooden
benches on both sides of the load bed. From what we were told, we thought we’d
disembark on the main road, some 500m from Nai Yang’s
Beach. The extra money asked for bringing us down to the beach, seemed
exaggerated, so we decided to walk that bit. Following the truck’s course on
Google Maps, we realized that we came along another main road, some 5km away
from the waterfront. A bit baffled, we dismounted the truck and started walking
with our backpacks in the tropical heat. We couldn’t believe our luck, when a
car stopped by after only 200m. Without being asked for, two young Thai ladies
offered us a ride down to the beach which we gladly accepted.
So, on March 7th, 2019, we made
it back to Nai Yang Beach, a place we loved that
much, we decided to return to, after our initial airport-stopover. Again, we
could observe the planes descending and ascending from Thailand’s second
busiest airport, only a few kilometres away. Thanks to the wind, we didn’t
notice any disturbing noise. Nai Yang is a low-key
beach, popular with Thais and foreigners alike, especially families from Russia
and Eastern Europe, as well as retirees from German speaking Europe. There are
basically no bars but a good number of food-stalls and beach-restaurants. The
sandy beach invites for kilometres of walking. In fact, you can walk into the
adjacent Sirinat national park.
To our big surprise, the bathing-beach was
guarded in several sections. Well, it was all very laid back. Often, we were
under the impression that the watch tower was rather an airy, shady sleeping
spot for the lifeguards.
To us, Nai Yang
Beach was a perfect introduction and farewell to Thailand. It offered all the
Thai delicacies we like, often served on prime spots along the beach: freshly squeezed
fruit juices and shakes, breakfasts with tropical fruit, thick pancakes and
lunches with fried-rice served in pineapple-halves accompanied by a drinking
coconut, and delicious dinners with all kinds of Thai-curries eaten in the cool
breeze of a beachside bistro.
Asia’s budget airlines: only staying home is cheaper!
We
have still many fond memories of travelling around Asia in local buses. This
was certainly not the most comfortable way, though, with crowded buses and
pecking chicken on the floor, a cultural experience. Times have changed. Nowadays,
even locals resort to the unstoppably popping up
budget airiness. Prices for inner Asian flights became so cheap, the airport
transfer is often the most expensive part of the journey. Surely, it pays to
book well in advance, but even short-notice bookings outside school holidays periods
won’t make your piggy bank putting its trotters up! Even while booking only a
few days ahead, we found bargains like the international flight from Penang to
Singapore for below € 7.-! Sure enough, if you’re unwilling to leave most of
your luggage behind, you have to pay a small premium.
Even then, we normally got away with around € 25 a flight, be it domestic or
international, and this was already including taxes and luggage. Only once, we
had to pay almost € 40.- for an international inner Asian connection, but this
was a full-service airline and included a meal. So nowadays, even penny
pinchers can discover big parts of Asia by plane, without the need of having a
bad conscience – at least not because of the cost.
Thailand |
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Singapore | Top |
Photos | More about Malaysia: chapter 13, chapter 17 (Sarawak & Sabah) |
Malaysia: a modern, traditional and very multicultural country
Our
next destination, Malaysia is a federal, constitutional monarchy with a booming
newly industrialized market economy. Just behind Singapore and Brunei, Malaysia
is nowadays Southeast Asia’s third largest economy and the world’s 23rd
competitive country. The ~32 Million inhabitants spread over a landmass of 330,290
km2. The vast majority lives on the Malaysian Peninsula and some 6
Million on Borneo Island in the Malaysian States of Sabah and Sarawak, which
amount to ~60% of Malaysia’s landmass. About 61% of Malaysians are Muslims, 20%
Buddhists, 9% Christians and a bit over 6% Hindus.
After
a period with Portuguese and Dutch influence, Malaysia was colonized by the
Brits. The country got only full independence from the UK in 1963, then in
association with Singapore that seceded in 1965. During pre-colonial times, Malaysia’s
population consisted almost of Bumiputera people only
(predominantly Malay plus other smaller ingenuous tribes like Dayak and Orang Asli). The British brought in lots of Chinese and some
Indians. In 2017, 68,8% of the population were still Bumiputera,
23,2% Chinese and 7% Indians. Malaysians (Bumiputera)
control the government, Chinese, and to a lesser extent Indians, the economy.
Kuala Lumpur:
Malaysia’s fascinating capital
After a 1½ h flight from Phuket, we reached the
Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on March 14th, 2019. Our hotel was
bang in the centre of this city with surprisingly many big parks and 1,8 million
inhabitants. On the map however, KL (as it’s often called) spreads into several
far-flung down-town city-centres, all with different characters. We didn’t stay
in the financial district, but in a traditional quarter popular with visitors
from India and the Arabic countries.
Coming from Thailand, one of our first impressions in
Malaysia was how wealthy the country is and how cheap life can be, despite the
wealth. Taxi rides within the city can cost less than ONE Euro. Of course, we
noticed that food and freshly squeezed fruit-juices cost only a fraction of
what we’d paid in Phuket. The vast majority of
Malaysians eat out three times a day and prices are accordingly low. Meanwhile,
average salaries rose to approx. 700 Euros/month and this seems to be sufficient that almost every family can afford a car. About
56% of households have in fact two or more cars, on top of some moto-scooters
for faster movement in the jammed city traffic.
As the rainy season hadn’t started yet, it was quite
pleasant to walk, but if we got too tired, we hopped into a taxi or on a GOKL.
This stands for “go KL”, a free network of city buses, complementing those you
must pay for. This should motivate people to leave their cars at the station,
or at home altogether.
For English speakers, Malaysia is a very easy country
to get around. Almost everybody speaks some English, and many master it very well. Quite a few told us that they had been
to Switzerland. Despite the only official language being Malay, every sign,
every menu, virtually everything is written in English, rather than Malay or another
local language. Because of the complex ethnic mix, about 140 languages and
dialects are spoken in Malaysia. Apart from Malay, about 7 Chinese, and 3
Indian lingues are widespread. English is the common language in business and
commerce and, ironically, also at the upper court.
Quarters full of contrasts: traditional or ultra-modern
Almost every corner of Kuala Lumpur has a different appeal.
Almost all quarters are bustling, some are very traditional and laid back, others
ultra-modern and resemble any western city, except that KL’s shopping centres
are even bigger. Just next to the same upmarket shops you find all over the
world, there are local department stores and markets with an unbelievably wide
selection on an unbelievably small area. There, it’s almost impossible to get
an overview and hard to pass by without bumping into other shoppers or the
displays. Somehow, it’s an exotic mix between order and chaos.
The outskirts are packed with modern, but sterile
apartment blocks, often skyscrapers. Those who have the cash and
also the time to commute, live further out in huge quarters with terrace
houses.
We loved strolling about the different ethnic quarters,
where the scents and flavours of Asia are omnipresent. Particularly charmingly
designed was the Brickfield area, in a way a Little India. It’s modern, also very colourful, yet still old-style with many women wearing
Indian Saris. Traditional Indian products are being produced and sold. Also the Muslim quarters and Chinatown have very
pleasant, but totally different appeals.
During set hours, also tourists are invited to visit
the impressive contemporary National Mosque (Masjid Negara). Sure enough,
modest clothing is required, but realistically it’s not expected that people
show up like that. Therefore, the tourist office has some long Muslim frocks on
disposal. They were anything but light and comfortable, but available for free.
The National Mosque is a mix of modern and traditional Islamic architecture.
The dome has a 16-pointed star shaped roof that actually looks
like “a half-folded umbrella”. The large prayer hall below is surrounded by
colonnades. The windows and ceiling of the round prayer hall were richly, yet
modestly ornamented. What a difference to the pompous gilded Buddhist temples.
Probably everyone is impressed about the large, green
parks in this huge city. One of the largest commences only a few hundred metres
from the National Mosque. This park pleases visitors with a botanical garden,
orchard- and hibiscus gardens, as well as a large butterfly- and an even bigger
bird-park, both with walk-in aviaries. However, in KL you can already see
exotic animals without going into manmade habitats. Birds and little monkeys
live literally in every tree just behind the skyscrapers. We have seen
uncountable cheeky Macaques during our time in the city.
It goes without saying that we also visited Kuala
Lumpur’s modern Central Business District (CBD), with its landmark buildings
like the KL Tower and the famous Petronas twin towers, which were for a while
the tallest buildings in the world. We marvelled also at uncountable other
modern buildings in this vicinity, where new skyscrapers are still mushrooming.
The wealth of Kuala Lumpur is even more obvious in the CBD!
This does not mean that everything is overpriced. We
found a small restaurant next to, and with unhindered view of the twin towers,
and were pleasantly surprised to find the prices as low as anywhere, where
locals eat. Not far and slightly more expensive were the offerings at Tapak food park. This nightly assembly of food trucks
advertises itself as “urban street dining” and aims at the city folks who like
to taste food from all over the world. However, uncountable food stalls with
local food are being set up nightly in all areas across the city. They are part
of the pleasant atmosphere and even to us who had been to Kuala Lumpur several
times before, twelve days were barely enough to do this fascinating town
justice.
Penang: a charming
yet chaotic place
On March 26th, 2019, Malindo
Air whistled us from KL to the island of Penang (1,5 Mio. inhabitants). We
stayed at a pleasant guesthouse in George Town, which is, with a population of
~ 700.000, Penang Island’s largest town, and Malaysia’s second largest city.
With its colonial shophouses and residences, George Town appears rather
small-scale. However, the amount of traffic or the size of the shopping malls,
tells a different story. From our guesthouse, we could reach almost everything
afoot, including the area meanwhile world heritage listed for its colonial
buildings. Penang’s only unpleasant thing is the seemingly unlimited stream of
cars and motorcycles and the lack of foot paths and pedestrian crossings. Actually, there would be nice arcades along the shophouses.
In reality however, the passage is often blocked, either by parked scooters (if
not cars), or workshop extensions, or maybe by dining tables, or by residents
sitting down to read a paper, tap on the mobile phone, or even lay down and
have a nap. So, pedestrians end up on the road, squeezing past rather reckless
driven cars and bikes.
One of George Town’s biggest delights was eating out.
We always chose places where the locals eat, be it a simple food stall, or a
posh restaurant. Also the latter can be substantially
cheaper than touristy eateries which lure their clients with booze and
sports-TV. Normally, alcoholic drinks cost several times more than a simple
meal, as booze is heavily taxed in Islamic countries. Local food is always
freshly prepared and includes dishes from Malaysia’s different cultures. We
love the Malay influenced Indian food with its Roti, Nan and Murtabak, all freshly baked or fried flat breads, always
served with curries. Furthermore, there’s a surprising variety of vegetarian
snacks and curries. For Saté (meat-skewers) you go to
a Malaysian restaurant and the Chinese provide stir-fried dishes with meat,
vegetables or tofu, also pork, duck and nice-looking dumplings. Malaysian food
is very varied, comes in a multitude of great tastes and is rarely too spicy
for western palates.
Also Arabic, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and whatever cuisines have made
their way into the towns, as have steaks, burgers and Pizzas.
The locals became fond of coffee and cake, even bread
is on the rise. If it comes to drinks, our Malaysian favourites are the freshly
brewed ice coffees and ice teas, and of course the big selection of fruit and
vegetable you choose for your juice. You name it, they squeeze it!
Noteworthy, if a bit touristy, is the street art that got
quite fashioned around Penang. Here, it’s not mainly the size of the art-work that impresses, but the fact that the environment
and some objects are integrated. Tourists can sit on some incorporated real
items, like a moto cycle or a chair and sometimes, a building’s door or window is
also an integrated part of a mural.
Easier to find than the murals, are the uncountable
beautiful mosques, temples and churches around town. Furthermore, some
extraordinary temples are situated on the outskirts, like the Thai Buddhist
temples Wat Buppharam and Wat Chaiyamangalaram,
and Dhammikarama, a Burmese Buddhist temple, or Kek-Lok, a Chinese Buddhist temple.
If it wasn’t raining, it was also very pleasant to
stroll around the different ethnic quarters again and again. Unlike other
Malaysian towns, Penang is dominated by Chinese for a long time. They have
built the rows of colonial influenced, two- and three-storey merchant- and
shop-houses that line many streets in Penang. Around Saturday lunchtime, Little
India came alive and looked with the many traditionally clad people, like real
India.
Less traditional, on the other hand, is Penang’s landmark;
Komtar Tower. It houses one of the big shopping
centres of the island. As it’s often frequented by tourists too, the shop
keepers are sometimes pushy, which is otherwise not common in Malaysia.
However, rambling the local shops in the old town was much more interesting to
us. But then again, all of Penang was interesting to us! Despite having been
here already several times, there was still something unknown to be discovered,
like the Clan villages with their stilt houses along some piers on the
waterfront. We liked Penang very much and could have easily spent more than our
10 days. Including our time in the capital KL, we had 3 very pleasant weeks in
Malaysia. It was just great to dive into this multicultural country again.
Despite knowing already many corners of Malaysia, we’re always tempted to come
back.
Thailand | Malaysia |
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Photos | More about Singapore: chapter 13, chapter 15, chapter 17, chapter 18 |
Singapore: steppingstone and farewell to exotica
The city of Singapore is an independent
island state, connected to the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula with a
bridge. The 722,5 km2 large former English crown colony lies only one-degree
of latitude (137 km) north of the equator. Singapore’s 5,6 million inhabitants
are ethnically prevalent of Chinese ~74%, Malay ~13% and Indian ~9% origin. Some
33% are Buddhist, 19% Christians, 14% Muslims, 10% Taoists, 5% Hindus and 19%
irreligious. After a short period of Japanese occupation during the second
world war, Singapore became independent from the UK in 1963, then together with
Malaysia. However, Singapore separated two years later because of ideological
differences (not only because the Malaysian constitution warrants the Bumiputera (Malays) control of the government) and became a sovereign state in 1965. Under
the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore transformed
in one single generation from a developing, to a developed country.
Singapore is among our favourite
destinations. We used this fascinating city 12 years ago for about a year as
base to travel around Asia. When we returned in 2017, it was our steppingstone
too, and now in 2019, we visited again, this time as farewell from exotica.
After 1 ½ hours flight with Scoot (Singapore
Airline’s budget carrier), we
reached the island-state on April 5th, 2019. This time, we stayed
for another 9 days in this fascinating bustling metropolis.
Singapore is well organized and treats tourists the
way they feel welcome. Already at the airport subway station, somebody from the
tourist office helps new-arrivals to buy the right
ticket.
To us, Singapore is an excellent example, how well
different cultures can live and work together and make their pluralism an
asset. We loved to dive into Little India, Chinatown and the Malay quarters
Kampong Glam. As in most parts of Asia, also the people of Singapore eat out
three times every day; normally in the countless food courts, which used to be
outdoors, but are nowadays mostly housed in air-con shopping malls. Singapore’s
cuisine is even more diverse than the population and dishes from around the
world can be found. There is a vast choice of simple, or sometimes very posh
restaurants. Renting an apartment with kitchen, on the other hand, costs a
fortune. Eating out is simply cheaper.
Luckily, nothing has changed the appeal of the city.
Singapore is still as bustling, multicultural and safe, as we remember it from
our last visit 10 years ago. What did change, is the skyline. Many new
buildings have been erected in the meantime; mostly high rise of course! There
is now a new landmark, built on land that wasn’t even there 10 years ago: The
Marina Bay Sands complex. It consists of three 191metres tall, 55-storey
skyscrapers, connected to each other with a giant planted roof-garden, with a
146m long swimming pool. The impressive complex houses 2,561 hotel rooms, a
shopping centre (of course) with food-court, then a casino with 600 tables and
2,500 slot machines and furthermore, some museums and exhibition halls. Sure
enough, such a small complex doesn’t occupy the entire reclaimed land. Among
other sights, there are the “Gardens by the Bay”, a beautiful landscaped park
packed with attractions for children and adults alike.
A perfect
fusion between traditional and modern life
Singapore is a city of contrasts. There is more than
the skyline of office towers hosting international companies and banks. There
is Orchard Road, lined for kilometres with huge upmarket designer shopping
centres. Just next to it, there are quarters where traditional life still
prevails, like in Chinatown or Little India. Those quarters are bustling with
traditionally clad people, old-fashioned markets and shops, fixing and selling
anything at good prices. Haggling is not common anymore. At the many gold-shops,
it might be different, but there it might get pretty
expensive anyway – practically, a pawnshop is often next door. It’s all
very colourful and exotic smells are omnipresent. Somehow, Singapore is both:
very modern and organized yet, very traditional and very chaotic at the same
time.
Thanks to our lodging, the budget Hotel 81
Dickson, we had the privilege to stay in the middle of Singapore’s multi-ethnic
melting pot. Little India was right on our doorstep, Bugis
10 minutes’ walk away, and Orchard Road, Chinatown or Singapore’s Malay
quarter, Kampong Glam, were all only short metro rides, or half an hour afoot
away.
Unfortunately, this time, none of
Singapore’s many diverse festivities were on schedule, where foreign visitors
are few, but always very welcome. During previous visits, we had been lucky to
see the impressively illuminated and decorated roads in the different ethnic
quarters, the Malays "Hari Raya Puasa", the
Indians’ "Deepavali Festival" or the Chinese’s equally impressive
“Moon festival”. Also stunning, were the Xmas decorations around Orchard road.
The most impressive festival we’ve experienced in Singapore, respectively all
over our planet indeed, was the “Hindu Thaipusam Festival” of the Tamils. It
was more than just eye striking to see, how much self-mutilation humans can
endure painlessly, just by controlling the body by strict self-mastery and meditation.
Singapore is an extraordinary, ultra-modern metropolis
where the rat-race peacefully coexists with old way customs. This city state
delights us with its multicultural life again and again. Singapore is a
bustling, highly interesting, not to be missed city, a perfect steppingstone
to, and farewell from exotica.
Revisiting South-East Asia along our way
from Down Under back to Europe was a perfect decision. We love to dive into Asia’s
unique melting pot, time and again, it tempts to go back!
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