First day in Singapore. I left the hotel in Krabi Town at 8:00 am and arrived at the Krabi international airport at 8:30 am. After checking in and dropping off my luggage, I got to the gate by 9:20 am, and boarding started at 9:30 am. The flight was short and sweet. I landed in Singapore at 12:30 pm.
I immediately could feel the difference between Krabi and Singapore from the airport. The place was sparkling clean modern, and the airport I landed in was the smaller less luxurious one. I quickly went through customs, picked up my bags, and met up with my buddy Erwyn Lam whom I’ll be staying with while in Singapore. He graciously offered his place for the four days I’ll be here.
We grabbed a SIM card and went to his place to drop off my stuff and head to lunch.
The culture in Singapore is very diverse. There are many Malay, Indian, Chinese, Caucasians, and of course Singaporeans here. The food was delicious but heavy. I think I’ll leave with a pot belly by the end my time in here.
After lunch, we checked out my buddies country club and waited for his friend to pick us up to check out more of the country.
His buddy Alan picked us up, and we did a little site seeing. They are both fish enthusiasts, so we stopped by the fish store and then headed over to the reservoir to see the scenery. It was impeccably clean, and the landscape was pristine.
I asked a lot of questions regarding Singaporean culture. I discovered reasons why Singapore is so clean and well kept. The biggest reasons are severe repercussions for disobeying laws and monitoring of many places to keep citizens in check. There are cameras through the country that will catch you if you do something illegal. There are trade-offs with having such a clean and organized country. Even though the laws are strict, there is very little interference with religious freedom. There are Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Athiest, and Buddhist here. They are not persecuted for their religion and have the freedom to pursue whatever religion they wish.
After checking out some parts of northeastern Singapore, we went for some coffee and then off to dinner at a hawker center (Food center is an open-air complex). We had a traditional fish soup hot pot, fried egg with oysters, and veggies. All the food here is delicious. It’s hazardous for someone trying to eat healthily. I scarfed everything they ordered down.
After dinner, we headed back to the place to settle down for the night and get ready for tomorrow. I’ve been in vacation mode for the past week while in Ko Lanta, and I’m recharged to get back into work mode starting tomorrow. My buddy has a coworking station, so I’ll be working out of there and checking out a bit of downtown Singapore.
Off to bed.