In 2018, after our year in India, we desired a little break in a location where we didn't need to be so alert when walking the sidewalks, and so opted for a week in Singapore. 'Twas an expensive week, but we really enjoyed it and left it with opinions differing from all the criticisms we had heard - such as it is a 'boring' and 'clinical' city. We stayed quite central in a high-rise hotel but still were surrounded by streets of low rise shophouses full of hipster cafes, street art and trendy bars with live music each night. Certainly not the Singapore we had been warned about.
At other times, we enjoyed and appreciated the manicured perfection that characterises Singapore's public spaces, with their granite walkways, litter-less squares and trimmed greenery (it is a garden city after all).
It's a particularly good city for eating and drinking. There were several different streets of restaurants throughout the city in addition to the hawker centres where, to 'clean up' the city, Singapore required street food vendors to coalesce into indoor or covered 'centres'. The older streets are quite beautiful, with covered walkways under the shop-houses, and their eclectic selections. We experienced both deliciously cheap satay and high-end haute cuisine, with the formal restaurants mainly being a mix of Malay, Korean and Chinese dishes. There was also a lot of Middle Eastern such as Lebanese and Turkish as well as Indian, a remnant from when the British used Singapore as the region's trading post (gaining independence in 1963). We also were lucky enough to have one of the very best meals of our lives, set in a glassed restaurant in the middle of the last few hectares of rainforest in the Botanic Gardens of Singapore.
We loved Kochi and we loved Singapore too, but obviously for different reasons. One day, we could easily see ourselves staying in Singapore for an extended stay.
Please enjoy the gallery of photographs by clicking the photo or visiting:
~ Vientiene
P.S. For any photography enthusiasts or professionals reading: I use a Panasonic G5 (micro four-thirds), a 20mm f1.7 pancake and 42.5mm f1.7 portrait lens (40mm FF and 85mm FF equivalent respectively). Previously, I mostly used a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens and a 45-200mm f4-5.6 OIS from 2013-2017 (FF equivalent 28-84mm and 90-400mm respectively). It was in early 2017 when I replaced the kit lens with the much faster 20mm prime allowing the capture of much more light, as well as an increase in saturation, a reduction in size and a significant boost in sharpness. Due to weight and size I left the telescopic behind in 2018 when I added the portrait lens with its razor thin depth of field. I may regret it, but at least now all (both) my lenses fit in my small camera bag.