Singapore

I hadn't been abroad for about a year and had massive travel withdrawal. So over the winter holidays we visited Singapore. I didn't know much about it and had the image that it was a sterile city with no character. Not to let preconceptions get the better of me and tempted by the warm temperatures even in December, I went for 5 days between Christmas and New Year.

To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. It was like a mini-Tokyo but more international. There were Chinese, Arab, and Indian areas of the city. Food was a mixture from these places and surrounding countries, like Thailand. There were even shops and brands you see in the U.K, and most of them weren't 10x the price as they seem to be in Japan. Everything worked efficiently (not really the norm in S.E Asia), there didn't seem to be any kind of crime or social disorder, and as English is (the?, an?) official language it was easy to communicate. Food was cheap too and it was nice to be able to eat a lot of fruit and veg for pennies.

Some of these features highlighted that despite the advances in technology it seems that Japan's geographical isolation still plays a major part in the country's economy and culture. There's not much space and no surrounding countries which produce a lot of fruit and so the costs are much higher due to transportation costs. Boo to high priced fruit!

As with most cities I've ever visited, about 3-4 days seemed to be about enough time so we struggled to find things to do towards the end of the trip. Not a big problem though. It was quite nice to do a bit of shopping and just wander around a bit more.

Do you remember how to see more photos? No? Pshhhh....just click the title of this blog post dummy!