SINGAPORE

I arrived in Singapore early PM, after a flight I haven’t even noticed taking off. I slept through all the journey, the moment my ass sat on the seat. It was sunny and hot when I came out of the airport. I took a taxi to what I knew would be one of the most luxurious stays of my life: Marina Bay Sands. At the check-in, I made the receptionist laugh and she granted me a room upgrade because of it. I was put on the last room-floor, on a suite with a view on the harbour. I felt like a rich ass biatch. Loving. It. A friend of a friend (Guylain) was coming to Singapore around the same days, so he could use my stay at the hotel to get access to the rooftop pool. He arrived about 10min after my check-in and we went straight to the top to sunbath in the infinite pool. To both our surprise, there wasn’t a lot of people. We had dinner in one of the fancy restaurants of the hotel, a few hours later. He ordered an appetizer that was basically a whole loaf of bread and we laugh for the whole time he was eating it, being very concerned about the size of the dishes to come. The food and drinks were delicious (but the portions indeed outrageous) -well worth the price. Then, we decided to go down to Gardens by the bay so we could see the light show and admire the city by night. We walked around for a few hours before splitting up -he had to leave to go back to his hostel while a warm bath was waiting for me in my over the top fancy-ass room. I ended up falling asleep by 2AM, because I wanted to use every corner of my room to enjoy the experience fully.

The next morning, i felt pretty sick for about two hours. I laughed internally at the fact that I never got sick from any weird looking street food in Vietnam but I got sick from a 5 star hotel meal. I took some pills and ordered a breakfast to the room- and about an hour later I was fine and ready to go explore. I walked back to Gardens by the bay to go see the Avatar exposition at Cloud Forest. It was absolutely breathtaking. I even had my eyes watering up, at some point. It was just so impressive, it felt magical. Reminded me a bit of how I felt at Universal in Osaka. I stayed there for about 2 hours and then it was time for me to switch hotel. I took a taxi for Kampong Glam -the artsiest neighbourhood of Singapore. I was already charmed, upon arrival. The buildings were all so colourful, full of textures and ceramic patterns. There was art installations in all the alleyways, paintings and murales on all the walls. It reminded me a lot of Montreal, at that time, and that feeling would just be stronger during my exploration around. I walked to a few other neighbourhood - Little India, Merlion Park, the civic district and Geylang village. Every part of the city made me fall in love even more. It was so diverse, a big melting pot of so many different cultures -and there was vegetation everywhere your eyes looked at. After stopping in a coffee shop ran by robots (sounds cooler than it actually was), I walked back to Kampong to meet Guylain for dinner. We met in one of the restaurants on haji lane -a very busy and colourful street known for it’s nightlife. We had dinner and then stopped at a speakeasy on the same street. The bar was quite small (we could fit only 10 customers inside) and the drinks we received were delicious. We walked back to the hostel and said our goodbyes after - I had a flight in the morning to go to my 6th destination.

The next morning, I took a taxi to the airport and had the chance to meet an incredible person behind the wheel. My taxi driver gave me a great insight on why Singapore is like it is- there are cameras literally all over towns and several laws that prevent people to act like dummies. Anything criminal, any begging or any agressive behaviour is not tolerated at all. The taxi driver even said that if someone is caught doing any of this -they disappear. I laughed, thinking this was a figure of speech- but he wasn’t kidding. He still said that this was making Singapore so safe and amazing to live in. I could feel his love for this country, and I have to say that even if I was only here two days- I also felt in love with everything I saw of Singapore.