Singapore - Perth's Asian Cousin

Singapore. Imagine your straight-laced uncle. He gets married to a hooker, and has two kids. One kid is a total career minded overachiever - respectful of authority, wants to settle down and raise a family, and has been brainwashed since birth that spending 80 hours a week for 27 years just to get to assistant manager is a good thing. The other kid is a dirty, alcoholic, artist who can cook like a demon. At the moment, the nerd is getting all the attention. But, that kid, that dirty, alcoholic, artist, is the real future of the Singapore family. What makes the whole thing work, is the entire family gets along fine. Both kids wear thick glasses, take photos, enjoy chicken rice, fish head curry, and bak kwa. That, is Singapore. The whitest of all Asian cities



Singapore has a food scene that ranks amongs the worlds best. Architecturally, new projects in Singapore are big and bold. The city streets are busy day and night, with people eating, shopping, and drinking, in an almost crime-free environment.

The subway system is efficient, and will get you around the city and outskirts fast, and cheap. Singapore is compact enough to do a lot of walking around, but with stifling humidity (by gweilo standards), and many interesting inner city areas, the subway is a great mode of transportation.

Food Centers (hawker style) are everywhere, and offer hundreds of different dishes. Often, Beer is available, and its consumption is encouraged. Smoking, no problem. Closing time? Sometimes never. There are also thousands of traditional stand-alone restaurants to choose from, representing food from around the world.

Architecturally, Singapore is undergoing a boom. The soon to be completed Marina Bay Sands, is an 8 Billion (SGD) city development featuring three 55 story towers, all interconnected by a one hectare out-door sky garden on the roof. In the photo below, you can also spot construction of the worlds first "DNA", or double helix, bridge. It will be 280 metres long, and cost 68 million dollars (SGD). The photo below also sports a floating soccer field, and a Formula One Grand Prix circuit. Yes -  buck, wild.

Don't take my word for it, visit for yourself. From Perth, the only other place you could fly to cheaper is Adelaide. Its going to be hard to not make a joke at this point. So, without further ado, here is a shit-load of photos taken in Singapore over the last couple of weeks. Enjoy.

Part two in series of three. Part one can be seen on The Worst of Perth....

This post is dedicated to Sanj.