This is a city with multiple personalities. From China Town and Little India’s chaos and old buildings to trendy and bustling Clarke Quay and downtown’s Jetsons style modern architecture, each part of the city is very different from the others. We spent most of our time wandering the streets in these eclectic communities. Little India, has narrow streets, pastel coloured, skinny, 3 story terraced buildings, historic Hindu temples and vegetarian restaurants.  As you enter China Town you are in a tight, crowded open market selling everything you’d never need. There are pagodas and temples that look like they’re straight from China. In contrast, the downtown area has bizarre looking ultra-modern skyscrapers. Just down the street, is the historic Raffles Hotel. The building is beautiful and feels as if you’re back in colonial times. We went here for the famous Singapore slings, but only had one since they cost $38 each!

The food in Singapore is as diverse as the people. We had our choice from Indian, Chinese, Malay, Indonesian… and the list goes on. Surprisingly, not all of the city is built up with high-rises and busy markets. There are many large parks and botanical gardens with miles of walking paths that make you feel as if you’re more than two metro stations away from the bustle.  The high humidity and scorching temperatures made us seek out these parks in the morning.

Singapore is also a very clean city, the cleanest city in all of Asia. They have very strict laws to ensure cleanliness, such as, ‘no durian fruit’ (stinky fruit) allowed on the metro or ‘no chewing gum’. Any violations of their laws have high penalties up to $5000!! Overall the city is a great entrance to SE Asia for a few days, but you don’t need more than that.

For more pics from our blogs go to Gallery at monkeystale.ca