Weekend in Singapore.
Hi lovelies, hope you are doing well. Thank you for all the emails at krazykenyan@yahoo.com to check up on me and to talk about my last post. Thanks for all the kind words, it warms my heart :) Oh btw who watched the Nigeria vs Argentina match yesterday? Whoooa my friend organised a group of Africans-mostly Nigerians to go to Score Bar to watch it live, and again I had so much fun watching it!! Although they lost 2:3, they played quite well. It was an awesome night :) Today I want to do a quick catch up post about when I went to Singapore for a weekend last year. It will be short but picture heavy :)
I find Singapore a very interesting country. It is quite small, one of the smallest countries in the world, and I also find the fact that it went from being a third world country to a first in literally about 50 years quite mind boggling! Singapore is very modern, I knew this before I went, but I was not prepared for what I saw. The first thing you notice is the airport. Changi airport is massive and very very modern. There's game rooms inside, movie theaters, very fast wifi etc. Once you leave the airport the next thing you notice is just how extremely clean this place is. I mean, it was crazy. Also you notice the cars...there are no old cars in Singapore. I think one can only keep their car for 10yrs or something ridiculous like that. There's very strict laws here that are enforced without hesitation. For smaller things like spitting in public, not flushing a public toilet, littering or chewing gum, people are just fined. But they are fines shit loads, like $500-$2000 depending on what it is. And there are cameras everywhere, that's how they keep watch on these. For other crimes such as petty theft etc people get caned! Yes, caned! And it is some serious canning coz I heard people usually faint :0 For bigger crime such as drugs and murder etc, they get the death penalty, as in this place is no joke. But all this has definitely paid off as it is one of the cleanest and safest countries on earth.
The other thing I noticed was just how expensive Singapore is. My God. Coming from Cambodia where I live in a 3 bedroom house for only $200, to see people living in just a room in a shared apartment paying almost $2000 for it seemed ridiculous. And not only the rent was expensive, but drinks too. I went out with a friend and couldn't believe the prices on drinks. It was ridiculous. The cheapest mug of beer we got was $8!! What? I could get that for $0.50 in Cambodia lol.
Coming from Cambodia, many times it felt strange to be in Singapore, coz these two are polar opposites. All the skyscrapers...and the fact that I did not see any poverty in Singapore. I kept insisting to my friend to take me and show me the "horrible" parts of town, but I was astonished to see the cheap building areas were just as good and clean as the other places, wow. Also there were so many malls in Singapore. Seriously, mall after mall after mall, and these malls are big, as in HUGE malls. And sometimes you could use some underground stairs or what not and end up in another mall...sometimes I felt like I was in one big mall. Also the number of designer outlets was ridiculous. Any designer label you could think of is there, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, etc etc. And people actually buy these stuff..every few seconds I saw someone with a legit designer label as part of their dressing...either shoes or clothes or handbags etc.
I did not do much while I was there, I did explore Singaporean food at the many and cheap food courts, I went to little India- which was crazy coz I do not think I have seen that many men in one area ever. If I was alone i would have been a little scared- although there's no reason to be. I went to the bird park. I went to see the Merlion which is a statue of a lion head with a fish body. It is the symbol of Singapore. I walked a lot.
My friend and I met up with a big group of expats and we did a pub crawl. I met really amazing people from all walks of life and got to experience the Singapore night life with them. We went to several bars one of which was the cold room- or something like that. It was seriously soooo cold inside it some people had to have on jackets :)
I had so much fun in Singapore, and since this is one of the very few countries that is visa free for Kenyans, I will definitely go back again and again and again :)
I find Singapore a very interesting country. It is quite small, one of the smallest countries in the world, and I also find the fact that it went from being a third world country to a first in literally about 50 years quite mind boggling! Singapore is very modern, I knew this before I went, but I was not prepared for what I saw. The first thing you notice is the airport. Changi airport is massive and very very modern. There's game rooms inside, movie theaters, very fast wifi etc. Once you leave the airport the next thing you notice is just how extremely clean this place is. I mean, it was crazy. Also you notice the cars...there are no old cars in Singapore. I think one can only keep their car for 10yrs or something ridiculous like that. There's very strict laws here that are enforced without hesitation. For smaller things like spitting in public, not flushing a public toilet, littering or chewing gum, people are just fined. But they are fines shit loads, like $500-$2000 depending on what it is. And there are cameras everywhere, that's how they keep watch on these. For other crimes such as petty theft etc people get caned! Yes, caned! And it is some serious canning coz I heard people usually faint :0 For bigger crime such as drugs and murder etc, they get the death penalty, as in this place is no joke. But all this has definitely paid off as it is one of the cleanest and safest countries on earth.
The other thing I noticed was just how expensive Singapore is. My God. Coming from Cambodia where I live in a 3 bedroom house for only $200, to see people living in just a room in a shared apartment paying almost $2000 for it seemed ridiculous. And not only the rent was expensive, but drinks too. I went out with a friend and couldn't believe the prices on drinks. It was ridiculous. The cheapest mug of beer we got was $8!! What? I could get that for $0.50 in Cambodia lol.
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| $98 Singapore dollars is $78 USD. I could get a tower of beer for $10 in Cambodia!!! |
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| $48 Singapore dollars for a cocktail??? Thats $38 USD btw!! |
Coming from Cambodia, many times it felt strange to be in Singapore, coz these two are polar opposites. All the skyscrapers...and the fact that I did not see any poverty in Singapore. I kept insisting to my friend to take me and show me the "horrible" parts of town, but I was astonished to see the cheap building areas were just as good and clean as the other places, wow. Also there were so many malls in Singapore. Seriously, mall after mall after mall, and these malls are big, as in HUGE malls. And sometimes you could use some underground stairs or what not and end up in another mall...sometimes I felt like I was in one big mall. Also the number of designer outlets was ridiculous. Any designer label you could think of is there, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, etc etc. And people actually buy these stuff..every few seconds I saw someone with a legit designer label as part of their dressing...either shoes or clothes or handbags etc.
 |
| Look at that bus!!! |
I did not do much while I was there, I did explore Singaporean food at the many and cheap food courts, I went to little India- which was crazy coz I do not think I have seen that many men in one area ever. If I was alone i would have been a little scared- although there's no reason to be. I went to the bird park. I went to see the Merlion which is a statue of a lion head with a fish body. It is the symbol of Singapore. I walked a lot.
My friend and I met up with a big group of expats and we did a pub crawl. I met really amazing people from all walks of life and got to experience the Singapore night life with them. We went to several bars one of which was the cold room- or something like that. It was seriously soooo cold inside it some people had to have on jackets :)
I had so much fun in Singapore, and since this is one of the very few countries that is visa free for Kenyans, I will definitely go back again and again and again :)
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