Singapore: Capital? City? Country?

Singapore is all of these.  The island is 45km by 25km.  In this space, live around 4 million people.  Singapore is bordered by Malaysia to the north and surrounded by Indonesian islands.  The country has four main cultures: Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Western.  

       One of things I liked best about Singapore was the food, and if you visited, you would see why!  There were many different types of food in the capital: Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, and Western.  If you love Asian food, like I do, then you would love to go to a Hawker Center, which is a set of outside stalls under a roof. You could get a cheap meal from anywhere in the world for only $2.

  You could be sure that the food was safe to eat, unlike a lot of other Asian countries.  You could also go to the food courts, which had very good food too (not like North American food courts with all their fast food). The difference between a food court and a Hawker Center was that food courts were air-conditioned, which could be very nice in the sweltering heat of the day!!

  There were also a lot of fresh fruit places where you could get different kinds of fruit juices for only $1.50 each!   

      During the month we stayed in Singapore, we lived at an apartment called Dover Parkview (!LINK!).  It was a great apartment with four swimming pools which we used daily, a workout room, ping-pong table, karaoke room, hot tub, barbeque pits, jogging paths, and a playground.  We were also near the MRT (metro), and bus station, which we used to get around.

  Using the MRT, we went to Chinatown, Little India, the Zoo, Bird Park, Night Safari, Science Museum, and Sentosa (a fun island with beaches).  We also had Holland village, a 10-minute walk away.  In Holland village they had shops, restaurants, and a food court.  It was a great place to go for dinner!    

      While we were in Singapore, we visited Malacca, Malaysia for 

Caroline's birthday.  It was a 4 to 5 hour bus trip, or 2 hours by car.  

      Before we left Singapore we discovered something we hadn't seen yet…. the airport!!! We had some friends tell us that they loved to bring their family to the airport to play, and that we should go early to explore it!  There were gardens, cool architecture, huge TV's, movie theatres, free Internet computers, hi-tech gaming centers and huge malls.  It didn't feel like an airport…. more like a luxury resort.  Too bad we didn't take our friends' advice and go earlier!

    I loved Singapore for its heat; delicious exotic fruit; our wonderful apartment (and pools); our walks to Holland village; our outings we took with the metro to Chinatown, Zoos, Safaris, and museums; the wonderful friends we made, and much more!  I would love to go back to Singapore some day!!!