Singapore Slinging

maya watson
May 25
5 min read

Hello friends and family,

Here is the long-overdue next blog of my trip. I apologize for the wait. I didn’t realize some of you were actually waiting to hear more, but I’m happy people are looking forward to my updates. I’ll try my best to tell stories through these posts, although some of the punchlines are definitely better in person!

Day 1 – Singapore

After landing in Singapore, we unfortunately couldn’t check into our hotel right away. So imagine 21 young adults sleep-deprived, jet-lagged, and exhausted wandering around Singapore at 6 a.m. for seven hours.

I personally slept through most of the flight, but since I had a window seat, I didn’t get up much. My mind was fully awake, but my body was incredibly sore and tired. Sadly, I can’t say the same for most of the group. Everyone was exhausted, but we were still excited to try new food and experience a new city.

I ended up with a group of girls, and we spent our seven hours exploring Chinatown, the mall across from Marina Bay Sands, and 7-Eleven… twice.

After completely destroying my feet while still trying to break in my shoes, I came back to the hotel with four new blisters and what was probably heat exhaustion. Honestly, I can barely remember the rest of the day. The heat we walked into outside the airport was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s easy enough to imagine humidity, but it’s completely different to actually experience how much it makes you sweat. I still can’t decide which I prefer: dry heat or wet heat.

After finally making it back to the hotel, we were met with the disappointing news that our rooms still weren’t ready yet, one of the downsides of travelling with a big group.

To keep us occupied, Aaron (our program instructor/professor) took us to a colonial bunker museum. It gave great context for understanding Singapore’s history and the influences that shaped the country’s development. The museum focused on the war between Japan and the colonial powers, mainly Britain, fighting over Singapore. At the time, Singapore was under colonial rule, and the actual bunker we explored had been used by both British armed forces and later the Japanese military once the tide of the war shifted.

Most of Singapore’s parks were actually established during British colonial rule, which is why many of them contain plants from all over the world, or at least that’s what I understood.

Day 2 – Singapore

After our first night in Singapore, my roommate and I had already made our first observation: Singapore hotels are apparently very unsustainable… or maybe not.

The hotel rooms have a system where the AC, lights, and power outlets only work when the room keycard is inserted into a slot in the wall. Naturally, we judged this system immediately.

However, later in the trip, we learned that the giant block switches beside the keycard slot actually controlled the lights separately. So, Singapore, I formally apologize for questioning your sustainability practices.

Our first official day in Singapore started with a 10 a.m. start time. Which, so far, was basically considered sleeping in on this trip.

We spent the day visiting Chinatown again, this time with some historical context beforehand. The district itself was beautiful. It functions primarily as a community and market space, and it was obvious how much both tourists and locals loved being there. There were very few roads for cars, and the area clearly prioritized walking, exploring, and shopping instead.

Before visiting Chinatown, I also went to the Singapore National Gallery, which showcased the city’s architectural pride, sustainability goals, and plans for continuing to grow as a green city.

One realization I had while visiting Singapore was how important geography is when discussing sustainability. Singapore’s location near the equator allows it to implement sustainability practices that simply wouldn’t work the same way in Canada. Because the climate doesn’t drastically change year-round, they’re able to maintain abundant green spaces throughout the city. They don’t have to deal with harsh winters or snow as we do in Canada.

That being said, I think Singapore also approaches waste management very differently, both culturally and systemically. During my time there, I only saw one recycling bin. In fact, there weren’t many public garbage bins in general. In restaurants and shops, you often hand your waste directly to employees instead of sorting it yourself.

It reminded me a bit of Japan’s culture around garbage, where people often carry their trash with them until they find a proper disposal spot. My assumption is that Singapore may sort waste later at centralized facilities instead of relying heavily on public recycling bins, although that’s just speculation on my part. It simply didn’t make sense to me that a country so widely recognized as a leader in sustainability wouldn’t also have strong waste management systems in place.

Day 3 – Singapore

Cloud Forest, Flower Dome, and Nightlife

Today we visited the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. I’m sure most of you have either seen pictures of them or watched Crazy Rich Asians and recognized the famous gardens.

P.S. To my little cousins Jarret and Amarah:

This is the place where they started bringing the dinosaurs back from.

The Brachiosaurus dinosaur living in the cloud dome.

The area definitely felt very touristy, but I would still recommend visiting both during the day and at night because the Supertrees look completely different after dark. That being said, it’s probably not somewhere you need to spend an entire day.

The real highlight of the day was going out at night and trying the infamous Singapore Sling at the top of Marina Bay Sands. The views were incredible, and I was fully living out my kokum’s Crazy Rich Asians fantasy for her.

View from the top of Marina Bay Sands hotel.

One thing I noticed about tourism in Singapore is that it feels very different from tourism in other countries. Many of the attractions are intentionally built for tourism, whereas in places like Thailand, tourism often revolves more around natural landscapes and environments rather than man-made attractions.

Singapore is also smaller than Calgary, so we ended up spending most of our time in the same general areas, mainly around the Marina Bay Sands district, while trying different activities within those spaces.

What I enjoyed most about Singapore was how safe it felt. Because of that, I was comfortable venturing out and exploring on my own. I ate meals alone, navigated trains and buses independently, went shopping, and wandered around the city without feeling anxious.