Location: Singapore

Today was one of the longest travel days I think I’ve ever been a part of, so buckle up cause she’s a long one. I made a list of stuff to do, thinking we’d just tackle what we could and see where we ended up but we just never. stopped. It definitely started off on a high when we went to try Ya Kun Kaya Toast, a local breakfast favourite of perfectly toasted brown bread with thick cold slivers of creamy butter and a healthy spread of kaya (sweet jam made of coconut and eggs). Um yes. I immediately dubbed it ‘the Andrea Buckley’ restaurant after my step mom, a total butter fiend. It was heaven.

We wandered slowly (our bellies full of butter) down to Clarke Quay early in the morning. Pastel coloured shops are all lined up along the water, as little river taxis float by. Huge umbrella shaped clear covers line the streets between the buildings high up in the air. Black and yellow birds chirped from the trees as the temperature rose up to 31degrees Jesus help us. We turned into Fort Canning Park, 18 hectares of lush gardens and history on a hill in the middle of town. Interesting art was everywhere, some brick archways, some wood carvings and many many flowers displays. I could have sat in the shade there all day (maybe not in this weather but still…)

From the top near Raffles house (Stamford Raffles comes up a lot he’s credited with founding modern Singapore) we could see a lot of the city. All the buildings are built with aesthetics at the forefront and somehow match the rest even though there’s a huge mix of contemporary artistic architecture and classic colonial. We haven’t been here very long but we’ve talked repeatedly about how the city feels futuristic somehow? Partly I think because it’s an extremely high functioning society that focuses on the happiness of its citizens. What a foreign concept! There’s like stands full of umbrellas for people to use and return at every train station and comfy chairs along all the shaded parts of the waterways. Beautiful public spaces are on every single street. Four main languages and four religions all intersect peacefully and respectfully. Everything is clean and well organized AND there is greenery all over. All available spaces have grass and trees and flowers growing (even on some skyscrapers there’s vertical gardens!) and when I looked it up it turns out that Singapore aims to be the cleanest and greenest city in the world. Can I just stay here forever please? (Don’t worry mom I’m not actually gonna).

We’d been walking for a few hours in horrendously hot sun by this point and wanted to sit down for some lunch. Yong told us all about these Hawker Centres which are like open air food courts (with four intersecting cultures there’s a zillion options). Maxwell Hawker Centre has the stall Hawker Chan which sells the best chicken and rice in the city apparently- so good that it’s the first ever Hawker Stall to receive a Michelin Star. It wasn’t as incredible as I wanted it to be (probably because I’d built it up in my mind), but it was certainly yummy. Max disagreed, saying it was the best chicken he’d ever had and happily devoured the rest of it! I laughed a bit as I watched him t-Rex this meat apart, remembering that he proposed a vegetarian diet like last week. Yeah right!

Outside the Hawker Center was the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, which yes, is exactly what it sounds like. A giant temple that housed one of the Buddha’s teeth. Ladies in shorts aren’t allowed inside so I was given a brown sarong to wear overtop. (Max didn’t have to wear a skirt over his shorts!) Monks stood still in front, chanting a prayer that lasted the entire time we were there. Towering golden statues of Buddha on a stage were at the centre of the room and thousands of mini ones sat in little cubbies in the walls. There were these two foot tall statues representing guardians for each lunar year, and Max was pretty stoked when we found ours is a snarling dark-blue wide-eyed djinn. Heck yes year of the rooster all of a sudden seems a bit cooler.

Back out in the sunshine we took the train over to the Gardens by the Bay and if you haven’t heard of this I suggest you go check it out immediately it’s amazing. Do it now! The gardens all along the water were immaculate and bright and healthy. Two glass domes rose up along the edge, and we opted to see the cloud forest dome. We made our way around waterfalls, orchid halls and up to the top called ‘lost world’ where you could find prehistoric trees and plants in a faerie like setting. Intricately carved wood statues of faces and fantasy animals were in and among all the vegetation which made it all feel so otherworldly.

In the middle of the whole park was the Supertree grove, a collection of 25 to 50 metre tall fake trees with real plants growing up the trunks, and pink branches poking out from the tops. They built these trees with solar panels to make energy for the gardens, but with a net of branches to dissipate heat. We stayed on top of the main tree as the sun went down, and then bounded back to the ground floor to catch the light show that happens just after sunset. Hundreds of people laid down all over the ground underneath the trees (like a giant camp out!) and looked up as the ‘Garden Rhapsody’ started. Loud opera came out over the speakers as the trees lit up in these crazy colours and patterns in time with the music. They need stuff like this all over the world this is super cool and weird and epic. We saw so much today but this was by far our favourite part… so far.

Aaaand then we went to a board game store and Max started moving and talking at triple speed (which is how you can tell he’s excited). There were a ton of games he’d never heard of, which is abnormal, but made it all the more interesting for him. If he had the space I’m sure he would have bought a few, although I think his list of ones to research later on doubled in size! If it hadn’t been so late at night we would have stayed to play some.

After 13 hours out and about we are exhausted. I’m going to pass out on my iPad screen as I write this.

Singapore needs to be on your list if it’s not already, seriously.

Sav