Singapore Interlude

by Neil

We arrived in Singapore on March 29th and entered a world I could never have imagined. Nothing anyone could have told me would have prepared me for this experience. Singapore is Wow, just Wow. It is hard to find an appropriate adjective, but take your pick; exotic, energetic, diverse, world class, world leader, innovative, the list goes on. Perhaps the best for me would be overwhelming. Although we were only there for six days, I loved every moment of it. Our hotel was situated on the edge of Kampong Glam and just a few blocks south of Little India, both of which represent a historic chapter of Singaporean culture, containing architectural styles that were under threat from modernization until legislation provide protection through Heritage designation. That is a good thing, because from a tourist perspective, they are gems. Here you can find mosques, temples, silk merchants, coffee houses, restaurants, bars and myriad other delights. It is truly incredible, but it is just a drop in the bucket of the diversity of Singapore. One of the things that is visually staggering about Singapore is the boldness of some of the architecture, in both design and scale. Words don’t do it justice and pictures are pale reflections. Truly, you have to see it too believe it and even then you may not. However, Singapore gave us even more than we had ever expected.

Travel for us has been a pretty managed process, but serendipity has played a most wonderful role for us on occasion. In Singapore, it brought us back together with some dear friends we have not seen for about three years. Meeting up with Melanie and James was one of those incredible coincidences that no amount of planning could have made better. I especially love the fact that even after long interludes between visits, we seem to be able to pick up right where we left off and have a great time doing so. Best of all, this time there was a fabulous birthday celebration!

After that, Singapore could never be anything but Wow, just Wow!