Singapore was the last stop on my SE Asia trip in 2023. One of the things I am fond of doing when presented with one of those "50 best cities for expats" or "The world's most powerful 100 cities" is to run my finger down the list and say "been there", "been there", "not been there". For years now, always, no matter the list, the first city I had not been to was Singapore. It felt like Singapore was the most "significant" city I had not visited. So now I have. Actually, Singapore is interesting in so many ways. A city-state run as a kind of benevolent dictatorship, it is very tightly controlled. The city makes sense in the way that a city designed by a very few powerful people might make sense. The subway system is expansive, beautiful, and efficient. The downtown core has clearly defined business areas, very good heritage protection, and makes sense. The city is good for bicycling, for walking, and the traffic is not nearly so bad as nearby cities. Singapore outranks Canada in many significant ways, such as life expectancy, good universities, crime and corruption. I found the city fascinating as a planning exercise, but it was also awfully pretty.
Photo List - (Total 698 Photos) Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Central Business District (104 photos) - This gallery features a lot of tall buildings, as it includes the highrise district just south of the Singapore River. It more or less moves in a circle, starting at the ParkRoyal, moving to the Elgin Bridge, moves along the Singapore River on Boat Quay and shows some of the lovely low-rise heritage buildings along the water, and then some tall'uns, including the OCBC Centre (which for me was always the symbol of Singapore). It continues along Boat Quay, including shots across the water to the north side of the river, the back into the heart of the financial district, meandering to some of the buildings in the south of the CBD. It ends at the City Gallery, a museum devoted to urban planning. Note that some of the best skyline views of this area can be seen in the "Civic District" gallery below, from north of the Singapore River.
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Marina Bay and area (99 photos) - This area, on infill next to the ocean, is just being started to be developed and it's interesting to see subway stations that are in empty fields, but which will certainly be surrounded by skyscrapers some day. This gallery starts with the shiny Helix Bridge, crossing the opening of the Singapore River. It continues to the ArtScience Museum and the pedestrian walkways on the water's edge beside the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, and beside the Marina Bay Sands. A large part of the gallery shows the Gardens by the Bay, which is quite beautiful. The Gardens has a number of attractions - I visited two, the Flower Dome and I ascended one of the gimmicky but impressive Supertrees. The gallery ends with a visit to the Red Dot Design Museum.
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Chinatown (64 photos) - My hotel was in Singapore's Chinatown, which is quite a bit more restrained than Bangkok's. I found Chinatown very pretty, the historic buildings are in fantastic shape, often painted in bright colours. Almost this entire gallery is street scenes around Chinatown, showing low-rise commercial buildings. The gallery ends with a visit to Lorong Limau, which is definitely not Chinatown, but is an art deco area that was one of the Singapore's first housing projects.
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Civic District and North of the Singapore River (176 photos) - This large gallery includes everything that is immediately north of the Singapore River. This area is quite diverse, but it includes many of the "official" buildings and attractions of Singapore, like the Parliament, many large museums and galleries, the National Library, and other attractions. The area offers up lovely views of the Central Business District from north of the river. The gallery starts in the west with Fort Canning Park, moves through the Civic District, and continues east to the mouth of the Singapore River. It includes visits to the National Gallery, the Arts House, and the Asian Civilisations Museum.
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North (81 photos) - These photos are everything that is a bit north of the central city, generally north of Bras Basah Road. I went up into this area a few times. It includes the National Design Centre, the Bugis Street Market, The Sultan Mosque and the sad nearby Muslim Cemetery and Old Malay Cemetery. I cycled quite extensively on the paths along the rivers in the north, and it was very pretty, though on a grey day.
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Mount Faber and Area (65 photos) - I got up early and cycled out to Mount Faber, a mountain in the same way that Mount Royal in Montreal is a mountain. I was hoping for a small early day break in the clouds, which was not to be, but I very much enjoyed the effort of getting there and the views from on top. The gallery continues through the very cool Henderson Waves, through the Telok Blangah Hill Park, to a few buildings nearby including the Interlace, and then down to Labrador Nature Reserve. I rode back on fairly unpleasant bike paths that followed the MRT line and the West Coast Highway, and stopped at the Singapore Art Museum. Singapore was at the tail end of a Biennale, but rarely have I been so unimpressed by the offerings in a gallery.
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Further Afield (109 photos) - My flight home started at 1:30am on a Saturday, so I had a full Friday as my last day in town. My tendonitis was bad, and I turned my bicycle in at 10am, so I spent the day on the transit system heading to destinations a little further away from the centre of town. This gallery starts at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, continues to the Star Vista complex where I had lunch, and then to Nanyang Technological University. Lots of subway shots here, as it was my one day to really explore the system. The gallery ends with some photos at Changi airport, both when I arrived, and hwen I left, and including the waterfall feature.
