Singapore is the first country we’ve visited in which we stayed in a single location. Still, in that time we managed to eat our bodyweight in Kaya toast, Indian food and satay in celebration of our last stop in Southeast Asia.
Carbon 🚆
In Singapore, we travelled less distance than anywhere else on our trip (which makes sense, since it’s nearly 4000 times smaller than Kazakhstan, for instance!), so our carbon footprint was minimal.
Public transport in Singapore is quick, clean and affordable, which also helped keep our emissions low. In fact, public transport is so good that riding the city’s Mass Rapid Transit ranks as #5 on TripAdvisor’s list of top attractions in Singapore!
Cost 💰
Singapore felt surprisingly expensive relative to Kuala Lumpur, its respective capital in Malaysia, which is only a few hours away by car. Our expenditure was driven primarily by accommodation costs, which was responsible for nearly two thirds of our total spend in Singapore. This was a bit of a shock to the system after a couple of months of very affordable travel in the rest of Southeast Asia, but probably also a good introduction to the higher costs we’ll experience in the next chapter of our journey…
Cats 🐈
Singapore came in dead last, with 1.33 cats per day 🙁 We kept trying to justify this by saying that we were in the middle of a sprawling urban area, but then again, think of Istanbul…
🏅Sleepiest spiritual leader
Sara’s already raved about the Temple Cats of Singapore, but we think this is a religion we could get on board with! This affable and sleepy chap definitely deserves an award.
Illegal behaviour ❌ 🐦 🍽 🐱
Singapore is famous for its draconian attitude toward cleanliness, which stretches to issuing steep fines for chewing gum or bringing a durian on public transport. However, we were a little more surprised to see signs that threatened fines of up to 10,000 SGD (approximately 6000 GBP) for feeding a pigeon. What would the Singaporean authorities think of Trafalgar Square?! Other activities that risked a fine included not clearing your table at a hawker centre, or simply being a dog, cat and bird in specific public areas 😔. Then again, our friend the temple cat was asleep right next to a sign banning cats, and no one seemed to be issuing him with a fine.
As our Southeast Asia chapter comes to an end, our New Zealand chapter is about to begin. We plan to fly to Auckland where we’ll meet my good friend Mario, before spending a month hiking, cycling and eating our way down to Stuart Island in the far south. We’re hoping to complete the majority of the north-south journey by bus and train (no mean feat in a country with limited rural public transportation), although I’m aware that we might need to hire a car to get around some of the more remote parts of the south island. After Mario’s departure, we have a further three weeks to travel north back to Auckland, during which we hope to fill in the gaps of things we missed on the way down.
We’re ridiculously excited to be moving onto the land of kiwis, mountains and Tim Tam Slams!