I like Singapore. I find it exciting to discover new things and explore what Singapore has to offer.
The last few days we have been seeing some of the famous sights.
For example, we visited Merlion, the iconic statue of the city. Merlion is a statue with a lion's head and a fish tail. We found a guide in a cafe on how to pose with Merlion, and as tourists, it was our duty to follow that guide! Of course it was our duty as tourists to follow these instructions!
You can find the pictures in the photo album, the link is at the end of the post.
Between the typical tourist attractions, we made sure to explore off the beaten path. For example, instead of taking the metro, we walked to see more of the "everyday" life. It may not be ordinary for us, but it's everyday life for the locals. Singapore is very multicultural. The majority of the population is of Chinese ethnicity (around 77 percent), followed by Malays (around 14 percent) and Indians (around 8 percent) at a significant distance. All other ethnicities combined make up less than 2 percent of Singapore's population. I find it cool that Singapore provides many signs and information in four languages: English, Mandarin (Chinese), Malay, and Tamil (Indian).
Especially because people of European/American descent are rarely represented in the population, I find it fascinating that Singapore partly reflects a very European cityscape. In the city center, metro stations, and malls, everything is new, clean, and shiny. Especially in downtown amidst the skyscrapers, as a person from Frankfurt, it feels very familiar. One could even say that Singapore is "better" than cities in Germany because it's even cleaner, more modern, and has better infrastructure. The architecture here is simply bombastic. There are so many great buildings here and especially so many green buildings, it's crazy.
However, just a few streets away, it looks completely different. The Asian heritage of the city is unmistakable there. However, most Singaporeans live in high-rise buildings. Low small buildings, the facade looks dilapidated and run down. Most Singaporeans live in high-rise buildings that are reminiscent of our 1980s prefabricated buildings. At least they look in good shape from the outside...
Oh, and there are malls everywhere. Really everywhere. It's not a problem if three malls stand next to each other. Most of them are as we know them, but there are also more "Asian" malls or we were, for example, in one with a gaming theme. And you can really find everything, everything in a mall. A gaming internet café? Yup. A bouldering hall? Absolutely. Mini-offices where you can work? Of course. Skatepark in a mall? Yep.
📷 pictures how we pose at Merlion, and pictures of the malls, the architecture... EVERYTHING you will find in the photo album
Aaaaand the next post will come from Thailand!!!
We've been here in Thailand since January 27th :) It's beautiful here to unwind, and we finally had the peace to publish all the impressions from Singapore on the blog.
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