Singapore: A Fine City

Whenever I thought of Singapore I am imagined old pirates, capital punishment, and many rules. When I was planning my trip I ended up having to fly to Singapore because it is very cheap to fly in and out from. For example I flew to Kuala Lumpur for only 30 USD. I decided that if I was going to the airport, I was going to see the city. I was so surprised with all that happened there. The city of course was very clean and ran very efficiently. The public transportation is amazing. Navigating it was so simple and the transfers were so well planned out. To get from the airport to my hostel only took 40 minutes despite having two transfers. And it only cost $1.50. The hostel was very clean and relaxing. It was in an area of town known as Little India. There were many Hindu and Buddhist temples around. The riverfront was really nicely developed, restaurants didn't hold all space and there was a nice trail running along it. The only bad part about biking it is that you have dismount your bike every time you go through a tunnel or risk a $1000 fine. I was surprised that despite being a small island/city-state, there were many green spaces. It did not really have the claustrophobic city feel that places like Seoul, Hong Kong, and Hanoi have. The city area was a set of dense towers on one part of the island and the rest was divided into very localized neighborhoods. There were even some rural areas of Singapore. I went to one island called Palau Ubin off the northern coast. It was wonderful, and so easy to. It only takes about an hour to get there and then you are alone. Now, when I think of Singapore it will be more than canings and hangings.




Fines that you could get while riding on the public transport.


There is no biking through the pedestrian underpasses, please.



Some graffiti. I didn't see much.




Medicine horns.


Some of the medicines bugs.



This is the Singapore skyline. It's actually quite tiny compared to the rest of the city.




Clark Quay. There were lots of bars and restaurants along the river. The river is salt water, but I heard that there is a plan to build a desalination plant and make the river into a reservoir since Singapore has no fresh water resources of it's own. Right now all of the water is coming from Malaysia, but the contract runs out soon, so Singapore needs to figure out another way to get water.


A street in Chinatown very early in the morning.


The MIC Building.


The durian shaped opera house in Singapore.


This is going to be the Sands Casino, but it is like 3 years behind schedule.



I went and got drinks from one of the local houses. There was not water, only soda. It was not very cold.


This is a lizard I saw at the jetty. I saw some huge lizards, but they ran across the road too quickly.







This was part of the bike trail that went through a palm filled area. It was so nice to get on a bike someplace clean and beautiful. City biking just doesn't compare with a leisurely ride through areas where you smell clean water and plants...


Some house on the island.


My bike for the day. I rented the cheapest one possible. It was just my luck that it came in orange.


That's right, things fall.


Downtown Ubin.





This was a lake I biked passed in the center of the island.



This tree looked so creepy.





The monkey was crawling on the bike racks. There were so many monkeys, i wasn't expecting to see any wild animals in Singapore. I was just biking along when I stopped to have a look at the map. I heard some noise behind me and there were dozens of monkeys crawling down from the trees and into the bike parking area. When I moved in closer, and most of the monkeys scurried away. Only one stayed and made a show. The wild boar wasn't very scared either.



This was the wild boar. It was sniffing the ground something fierce, so it was difficult to get a good photo.


Thanks for visiting Singapore! Is something wrong here?