Singapore

July 2026

Goodbye Vietnam

July 20. Goodbye Hanoi, we will miss your frenetic energy and bonkers traffic. At the hotel Jun gives us gifts of coffee, a traditional Vietnamese coffee filter, a bag of the delicious ginger wrapped dried plums; her and An chose the gifts together, they know what we like and they’re genuine thoughtfulness is touching. We’re sad to say goodbye. We get a Grab to the airport; an unexpectedly quick process through immigration and security means we are early for our flight. We land in Singapore around 5pm and it’s the first country where our arrival cards weren’t accepted. A scan at the gates, a red light refusal and an Indian lady tells us to complete them again. Hil picks us up at the airport.

Hil and Mark’s spacious apartment sits on the harbour front in Keppel Bay, views from the balconies look across the gated complex’s communal swimming pool and the cablecar crossing the river. Hil’s colourful paintings glow from the walls; I want one but currently haven’t got a wall to hang it.

We’ve recently hung out with Hil and Hunter in Vietnam but I haven’t seen Mark for 12 or 13 years when we still lived in London. Their boys were young and obsessed with parkour, backflipping from climbing frames at Blenheim Palace. Right now Hunter and Austin are in Lombok, back later in the week. We’re introduced to Alif from Indonesia, their live in helper who assists Mark (a talented Chef) in cooking a delicious dinner of wagu steak and fabulous roast potatoes. It’s the best food we’ve eaten whilst travelling, it’s the best food I’ve eaten in a few years. We stay up talking til late.

Arab Street, Art Deco & Food Hawkers

July 21. A very lazy lie in in the massive bed…I was barely aware of Dave being in it he was so far away. I finish the blog for Vietnam, Sunny the cat sneaks in, he’s talkative, jumps on the bed…I let him stay awhile. Dave brings me breakfast on a gold tray and calls me ma’am.

We sit on the balcony and watch a ferry come in to the bay. We don’t head out until 1pm, taking the MRT (subway) from Harbour Front to Bugis to explore Arab street. The Sultan Mosque dominates the area standing at the start of Kampong Gelam, it holds 5,000 worshippers under its golden domes.

We wander Arab Street and Haji street, I imagine this was once a trading area but now it’s catering to the TikTok/Instagram generation and the shops are overflowing with tat. Imitation flowers on shop doorways, fake furry animals to hang on bags…repetitive stuff for sale on every street we walk. There’s a variety of restaurants, Lebanese, Greek, Turkish, great to see after the limited choices travelling South East Asia. A large street mural at the entrance to Arab Street celebrates the original craft merchants who once populated this area.

We buy from a bakery and eat opposite the mosque. A group of ladies from Indonesia are looking at us, I smile and they immediately come over. They speak a little English but we haven’t got enough of a shared language to chat. They’re good fun, want to take a selfie with us…Dave ducks out of the one I take on my phone but he’s in all of theirs.

Along North Bridge Road we drop in to the neo-Art Deco building Parkview Square, a dark granite and bronzed monolith amongst the silvery glass skyscrapers. Built in 2002, designed by American architect James Adams, ‘The Gotham Building’ is inspired by 1920s New York skyscrapers; its modernity obvious but the design elegant and quite breathtaking. At its crown 8 muscularly powerful statues of men stand guard holding illuminated globes. The ground floor Atlas Bar with its towering gin tower, gilded brass and opulent decoration is gorgeous without being nouveau trashy…and is graciously hospitable to tourists wandering in to take photographs.

Later in the evening Mark and Hil take us to East Coast Lagoon Food Village, an open air food hawker area on the waterfront with over 50 stalls. Satay, BBQ prawns, meat cooked over fiery charcoal grills, chopped oysters mixed in to omelettes. It’s packed and messy and fun. We eat too much, stack our trays on to halal or non-halal clearing stations and wash our hands at taps…no napkins provided/less waste but bins are full of the discarded plastic cutlery.

We wander to the beach. Mark mentions the possibility of sandflies and I veer towards tarmac, recalling the sandflies of Peru which left me itching and covered in calomine lotion for weeks.

Marina Bay

July 22. Dave’s trip to the Sultans of Shave barber near Raffles Square was a pain in the arse. They moved his 10.45am appointment to 11, we took the MRT there but it wasn’t open. I’d gone for a walk to the riverside where the street of restaurants were sweeping up, putting out chairs. Large white crabs were crowded in water tanks, lobsters with their claws bound. It looks to be an area that’s crowded and noisy at night, several strip clubs were on the street leading to this one. The barber texted Dave to say he was ‘stuck in traffic’…Dave gave up.

We headed instead to the giant Lotus shaped building housing the ArtScience Museum. 3 minutes inside the Future exhibition I knew it wasn’t for me (too geared towards Instagram) so we swapped tickets for Into the Ocean: Journey Beneath and it’s fascinating. There’s a lake at the bottom of the ocean! We watch footage of underwater brine pools formed by ancient salt beds millions of years ago. Up to 8 times saltier than normal seawater, these pools don’t mix with the ocean. There is no oxygen, marine life dies if it enters but doesn’t decay, the oxygen free brine prevents decomposition. Crystal clear digital screens show various forms of under sea life…things I didn’t know existed.

I take photographs of the Marina Bay Sands luxury resort; it resembles a boat balanced across the top of three skyscrapers. Hil told us there’s a joke that it’s built for the super-rich to float away when the waters of climate change rise. Completed in 2010 it cost a staggering $5.5 billion, its rooftop infinity pool holds 1.5 million litres of water. Against an overcast sky it looks dull and ugly.

It overlooks the Marina Bay Mall, a stack of high end designer stores in which we have no interest, but at the food court we enjoy Indian food. I haven’t had a Sag Paneer in a long time. I ask if theirs is particularly spicy and I’m told it’s not at all. At the table I dip in my fork and pull out a long red chilli pepper. The place is packed with Singaporean and Indian families, excited children run between tables freed from school for the summer holidays.

Later in the evening at Hil’s, we eat Alif’s Indonesian soup and a chocolate mousse. I’ve never eaten anywhere as well as we eat here at their place. Mark is out, we sit at the dining table listening to the loud rumble of thunder waiting for a lightning display that doesn’t come.

The Odyssey and Raffles

July 23. We’ve been to Singapore a few times to visit Hil and Mark and it’s great to see them. Sure there’s things to see but nothing really that we haven’t seen elsewhere and I’m not going to lie…I don’t enjoy Singapore. Dave describes it as a shopping mall without a roof. There’s an incredible number from basic to luxury; most feature food courts and most roads seem to lead us to, or through a mall. I appreciate that in a country with months of high humidity that air conditioned malls offer respite from stifling temperatures…but mall culture almost always stifles creativity. The repetitive global brands, the endless rows of useless products. Seas of pastel and beige. It’s a feeding frenzy of consumerism and yes, I’m being a snob…but I don’t understand it and in 6 days I never saw a single bookshop.

At the IMAX at Shaw Theatres LIDO we watch Matt Damon in The Odyssey. It’s exciting with a great music score, the three hour running time flies by. Sure they could have cast the net wider across the acting pool (Zendaya and Tom Holland in yet another film together/is Jon Bernthal the only muscular bloke in Hollywood?) but Matt Damon is excellent, Samantha Morton as Circe is spellbinding, Anne Hathaway a great Penelope.

Back out in the real world we walk 45 minutes to Raffles, situated on a dull street with tired 1980s buildings opposite. Raffles sprawls for an entire block. When the Sarkies brothers converted it from a beach house in 1887, it had just 10 rooms…it’s now 120 plus shops, restaurant, bar and courtyards. The famous Long Bar has been moved upstairs, there’s a line to get in. It looks very similar to bars we’ve been to in Panama and Dominican Republic. I’d hoped to see the Colonial architecture of the main lobby but the handsome doorman Harvinder explains they only give access to hotel guests and residents. We decide against paying 39 Singaporean dollars each for a Singapore Sling (invented here). We’d talked to an Australian couple who’d booked the afternoon tea for two; 260 Singapore dollars and they finished it in 30 minutes. Madness what people will pay for a ‘name’.

Back at Hil’s place Austin and Hunter have returned from Lombok. Hunter’s flying back to England same day as us to continue his Uni course. They both loved Lombok, they’ve both come back with new tattoos.

Aquarium & Super Trees

July 24. Dave’s down by the pool. We don’t go out until 2.30pm; lunch with Mark and Hunter in the local food court. Afterwards Dave and I take the MRT to Sentosa to the Aquarium. The large tanks of jellyfish are mesmerising, we walk the glass tunnel of sharks, sit and watch 3 huge Reef Manta Rays follow each other in a massive tank of fish and small sharks. Large silver fish look so metallic that Dave nicknames them Terminator Fish; there’s little signage so we can’t identify them. One of our favourites is the tank of Weedy Seadragons…and what a fabulous name. It’s a long time since I’ve been to a large aquarium like this, I forgot what a magical experience it is.

Sentosa is an entertainment island, a Disney style set up but with too much empty space. It’s also expensive. Over 100 Singaporean dollars for our two tickets to the aquarium including the train ticket over. Everything in Singapore is expensive, it rivals New York. It’s humid but we push ourselves to stay out, going to the Gardens by the Bay for the 7.45pm light show in Supertree Grove. 18 tree like structures stand 25 to 50 metres tall with a viewing platform curving between two of the trees. The ‘trees’ are living vertical gardens planted with vines, orchids, bromeliads and exotic ferns. It’s packed with people, most sitting on the floor, bagging a space to watch the light show begin. We do the same. The illuminations are choreographed to music and for its 15 minute running time we are lost in the magic of it.

Last day Singapore

July 25. I can’t think of anything else I need to, or want to see and that’s fine. I help Alif hang laundry on the balcony. The only challenge today was finding a postbox for the bloody postcards. The SingPost office in the nearby mall is closed down, the mall is closing for good on Monday…due to be demolished. With harbour views like this and another hundred malls to choose from, I doubt it will be a great loss.

I go online to find another mailbox. We cross a busy main road, by bus stops, up steps, through (another) food hawker court finally asking a man at a money exchange for help. He asked us to wait while he went to investigate, returning several minutes later pointing us in the direction of the MRT where we mail the postcards in a tall white mail box. I can’t believe he searched it out first to make sure one was there, what a lovely man.

Stopping for coffee on the way back in Vivo Mall (there’s nowhere on the street round here) we see large groups of young schoolchildren, (boys), getting their heads shaved on a stage, raising money for young people’s cancer charity. They’re surrounded by crowds of people, the barbers turning them over pretty quick, some of the male teachers getting their hair shaved in support. The boys seem to take it in their stride, giggling off the stage and rubbing their hands over newly shorn heads.

We walk back along the harbour front, Dave refusing to play Dave Standing Under Giant Things though we’ve found one of the biggest. It’s never as amusing when I stand in.

Later that evening we order in pizza. Hunter and Austin have friends over. We sit around the large dining table telling stories, playing music (playlist Dave)…enjoying a last night with friends. It’ll be interesting to see where we wind up in the world, Hil and Mark in a similar transitional situation to us. One day we’ll find that place and will gather around another table together. But tomorrow we move on again, this time to visit our own country.