Singapore: First Impressions

Just when I was thinking that I’m not getting chances to travel around, I had an opportunity to visit Singapore last week. Unfortunately, my trip started on a Monday morning and ended on a Friday evening (yes, not an ideal itinerary to explore any place). And on top of it, since it was a business visit, I was confined till evening attending meetings & trainings. Even then, after long hours at the office, I somehow managed to sneak out of the four walls a couple of evenings and roam around. Here are a few observations/ impressions – (my observations are more or less like a blind man commenting on an elephant just by touching one part of it)

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Marina Bay Sands

An isotope of the UK
The moment I got into the taxi at the airport and started towards the hotel, I felt I was in the UK. You take a big bustling city from the UK, cut it out of the country and throw it away into the sea somewhere near the Equator – that’s Singapore for you. Having spent some time both in England and Scotland, I couldn’t stop myself in comparing the two countries. I saw so many similarities – infrastructure, the tubes & buses, driving rules, unpredictable weather. And yet the place is so different in many ways – the culture, people, the languages.

World shrunk into an island
Talking about the people and culture, Singapore is a place where the world is shrunk into an island. You find people from all over the world, of different countries, races, and speaking various languages. I heard quite a few different languages from different parts of the world. And as with the world’s population ratio – it’s not surprising that there are more people of Chinese & Indian origin.

Wi-Fi yes, Sim card no
Most of the roaming around on the evening of day one was spent in searching for a prepaid Sim card for me to use. But the search went in vain, maybe I was searching in wrong shopping malls since they were not in the regular tourist area, and they were close to the hotel I was staying. Surprisingly, I was connected all throughout thanks to Wi-Fi networks – I could find Wi-Fi networks almost everywhere I went, but not Sim. After looking out for the Sim for two days, I decided not to buy since I could live without one for next 3 days.

Architecture
One of the evenings, I found myself in front of Marina Bay Sands and then decided to roam around aimlessly. Perhaps the best thing I did during my stay there. The walking around went on for a couple of hours, close to 10 kilometers. I was left gaping at the buildings with amazing & wide variety of architecture – starting from the Marina Bay Sands, Esplanade, many more buildings unknown to me.

It’s raining, no it’s not
Being closer to the Equator, Singapore doesn’t have distinct seasons – it rains, shines, thunders 365 days a year. On the first, I looked out the window to see dark clouds gathering, and within no time it started pouring like I had never seen before. After 10 minutes, there you go, there was no sign of a single cloud and it was a clear sky. When I stepped out for lunch in another 30 minutes there was no sign of a single drop on the ground as if it had not rained for weeks!! And if you are not a sound sleeper, you are bound to get awakened by the loud thunders during night 🙂

That was Singapore through my eyes. I might be wrong here, but that’s how I got to see the island country.

14 comments

  1. Loved it!
    You said it so rightly. Weather is just like that. 😛
    Clean city with no fuss. Buying SIM card should not have been difficult. I myself bought one from Bugis area where I was staying.

    1. Thanks Nisha. Yes, a clean city/country – totally forgot to mention it. SIM – as I mentioned probably I was searching for it in a non-touristy area.

      1. You could buy the sim from airport, bugis, little india serangoon, tampenes, clementi, or any market kind of place, bus bays.
        It is more easier to buy it in singapore than in bangalore.

          1. I must say, its amazing. You have actually captured the real beauty of Singapore. Good job.

  2. First day I was there, I felt it was a part of the US! No wonder you feel it to be a part of UK..
    A few days into it, it became a part of India for me! Yes, another Chennai, or another Bangalore, with its friendly people, lovely parks, huge temples, crowded lanes, and the Musthafa mall!
    Around the Marina Bay sands, there is a monument for INA (Indian National Army of Subash Chandra Bose), I guess you did visit it in your lonely aimless sojourn there.
    Singapore is a place to live and experience, nothing for a tourist as such.
    Srik

  3. Hi,
    Been to singapore couple of times and you have captured the beauty of this place with your words, It was not a very congested place couple of years back, but it seems to be now.
    All in all its a must visit place, which is much safer for people belonging to all ages. There are no issues being reported by the women and this makes it even a better place to be.
    Thanks
    Rajeev

  4. Nice article…
    Great blog….thanks for sharing latest updates……
    Keep going on….

  5. I’m originally from Singapore; now living in the U.S: Interestingly, the first time I visited London and stepped out of Heathrow, I said to myself, “hmmm… this looks like Singapore”… it was like I was “home”, even though I knew wasn’t. I guess the remnants of British colonialism lingers in the soul of the city-state.

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