(Re)Discovering Singapore

Juliet, a dear friend from my Oxford days visited Singapore over the past week, so I felt compelled to be the dutiful tour guide and show her the sights. We managed to cover quite a lot of ground - the colonial area on Tuesday, Chinatown on Thursday, the Zoo and Night Safari on Friday, Pulau Ubin on Saturday, and Orchard Road on Sunday. It was great to see Juliet again after such a long while, and also to be presented with the opportunity to rediscover or indeed in the case of places like Chinatown, discover, Singapore for myself.

The jaunt around Chinatown was especially interesting for me, as I had never really taken the effort to see the area. I was especially impressed with the Chinese Heritage Center in Chinatown. It was very tastefully designed, and effective in giving a sense of the living conditions of the Chinese immigrants when the first came to Singapore. On a more random note, while walking around Chinatown, we passed by a small sign leading up to the second story of a shop house (next to a random restaurant) which promised to be the law offices of J.B Jeyaratnam. Also fun was buying a durian and consuming it on the spot at small tables set up just for the purpose.

We also managed to squeeze in a formal Chinese tea drinking session at Tea Chapter. Discovering Tea Chapter was one of the highlights of my time at MFA (we had our typical company sponsored 'group bonding' session thing there). There is something very relaxing about going through the whole process of preparing the tea, pouring it and drinking it.

I also enjoyed visiting the Zoo and Pulau Ubin again after many years. The Singapore Zoo is much more comprehensive that the Night Safari (which though a wonderfully well worked concept, it more of a tourist thing), and it was impressive to spend a good half a day gawking at all the various animals. I remember going on a class outing to the zoo back in my Junior College days. The open concept Orang Utan enclosure, with interconnected aerial walkways for them to amble across over your heads is wonderfully thought out. The elephant show is also quite a draw, though you risk getting wet if you sit right in the front!

The last time I had been to Pulau Ubin was back in my secondary school days, on a Boys' Brigade hiking expedition. I did the more traditional thing this time round and rented bikes with Juliet to explore the island on foot. One new area which I got to see was the mangrove walk on the Eastern end of the island, including a long walkway jutting out into the ocean and a nice viewing tower (climbing up the steps wasn't all that fun though!).

You really can't got to Singapore without shopping, and Juliet set out to do just that on her last day there, armed especially with a long shopping list for camera equipment provided by her brother. In the end, she indulged herself and bought an iPod touch as her main extravagance of the trip.

So, who would have thought it possible that a visitor would come to Singapore and find 5 days insufficient? Surely not I. But that was indeed the case. Juliet didn't managed to visit the Bird Park, or the National Museum. We'll definitely save that for the next time she comes into town.