Arrival in Singapore

So I got into Singapore about 4am on Saturday (crossing the International Date Line really messes things up). Andrew, who is currently working nights, was able to go in early and work from 3pm to 3am so he could meet me at the airport. We cabbed back to his place, and I quickly unpacked a bit and he showed me around. From there we went for a walk around the area.

One thing I’m always amazed of in warmer climates is their water infrastructure. This would never work somewhere that had freezing temperatures.

Singapore has some very strict laws and such and is sometimes called the ‘Nanny State’. For example anyone caught bringing in drugs gets the death penalty, no matter the amount. To limit the amount of vehicles, you have to purchase a license in order to buy a car and they cost between S$75,000 and S$100,000 (one S$ is about $0.75CDN). That is just to have the ability to buy the car, you still have to buy the car on top of that, and it’s only valid for 10 years, when the government takes the car away from you to keep old and outdated vehicles off the road. As such they are also strict on health regulations, and don’t have street vendors per se. But they do have hawker markets, which are like glorified street vendor conglomerates/food courts. That way the government can ensure the safety of the food, etc. Being there at about 6am on Saturday morning, the night stuff was closing up and day stuff was opening. We were hoping to get some chicken rice (a quintessential Singaporian dish) but that stall had just closed, so we got some Won Ton Noodle.

We asked for it really spicy, and it was still mild, but it was really good. It is some pork and veggies and deep fried wontons on noodles with a kind of sauce and a side of wonton soup and side of spicy (which were fairly mild) peppers. The drink is a lime juice and it was so refreshing and good in the heat and humidity (at 7am it was already 26°C and the humidity made it feel like 37°C (and according to Andrew it was a dry day).

From there we got a sugarcane juice on the way back to Andrew’s apartment. They actually put it in a piece of sugarcane in large press right in the stand right in front of you.

They also put the cup into a plastic bag for all the condensation that results. However the juice just wasn’t quite my thing.

We got back to Andrew’s about 8am and got to bed around 9:30. Part of my acclimatization and time change strategy is to sleep through the hottest part of the the first day and have Andrew show me around a bit more on his way to work.