I’m in love with Singapore

You know that old cliché about how efficient Singapore is? Well, oddly, the cliché seems to be grounded in truth. We landed half and hour early at the very beautiful Singapore Changi Airport- all hushed cavernous spaces, spectacular tropical planting and… efficiency. We wandered off the plane, straight through border control- where we were the only people in the queue-, directly to baggage claim where our bags arrived at precisely the moment we did, and finally, turned around to see our shuttle driver waiting for us. If that wasn’t enough to make two weary travellers happy, we arrived at the hotel at 7am expecting to have to wait quite a few hours to install ourselves in a room. But no. Within 10 minutes of arrival- just enough time to clean teeth and visit the toilet- we had a room. I’m officially recommending Hotel Miramar, Havelock, Singapore. Lovin’ it.

Anyway, we have spent today orientating ourselves around Singapore. We didn’t do a great deal (ok, any…) preparation for coming to Singapore and so have spent quite a bit of time looking at maps and figuring out where to go and what to do while we are here. It’s hot and humid but we’ve found the city very enticing. Singapore has a wide, open, spacious feel to it. It’s a city that has had some attention to town planning and everything seems logical and sensibly thought out; roads go where they look like they should and it’s all signposted for idiots. Singapore has a very relaxed, global feel to it and the almost universal ability of people to speak English makes it an easy city to get around in. Today’s wander was through the streets of Chinatown- much like Chinatowns world-wide, I’m sure- but colourful and fascinating, none-the-less.