Christmas Vacation: Singapore

Now that I'm back from the Christmas vacation, it's time to report on the goings on. When I left Holland for the 12 hour flight to Singapore, it was in the midst of the 3rd straight day of freezing fog. You could barely see anywhere, and everything was slowly accumulating a hard crust of ice. Had the sun been out, it might have looked pretty, but without any light, it was just miserable. The plus side to this, though, was that a lot of the incoming flights that were trying to connect with mine didn't make it, so there was lots of extra space on the plane to spread out.

Singapore. Singapore was awesome. I didn't have high expectations for it, thinking it would be just another big city, but I really enjoyed it and could totally picture myself living there. It's clean, modern, efficient, and everything is in english (though a lot of people struggle with it). One of the best parts of Singapore was the people. Everywhere I went I felt special and important; from museums to restaurants, there were always people around being helpful and checking to make sure everything was going well. That was really nice. Getting around was also really easy as the taxis were very cheap and plentiful.

It's quite a scenic city at night and everywhere was decorated for Christmas (and everywhere was playing non-stop carols...)



Day 1 was spent visiting Sentosa Island, Chinatown, and Little India. Sentosa has an acquarium, historic fort, and outdoor activities; while Chinatown and Little India have impressive temples and lots of little shops.


Day 2 was spent walking around the downtown area and visiting malls. Shopping seems to be the national pastime of Singapore, and there are tons of huge shopping malls everywhere, some general malls, and some that are devoted entirely to specific things like computers or electronics.


The weather during the trip was hot and humid, with a predictable monsoon storm in the afternoons for a couple hours. But, there were 7-elevens on every corner where you could buy a cold drink or a slurpee. Better still, in Singapore everything is air conditioned down to freezing cold temperatures, very nice:) If you're ever in the neighborhood, you should definitely pay Singapore a visit.

Oh, and they have Carrefour there too, unlike Holland...

The rest of the pictures can be found here.