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The term “hot and humid” does not do Southeast Asia justice. Since landing in Singapore on Thursday evening I have been in a constant state of perspiration. As soft as cashmere, Singapore was a nice cushiony introduction to SE Asia. I was able to easily adjust to the time change, experience a photo tour of my future menu choices, and tune my ears for Asian dialect. Singapore is like diet SE Asia–all the heat, diversity, and noodle soups you could ever want but in English and super safe.

A relatively young country, Singapore is amazingly developed. Constant construction is an understatement; turn 45 degrees and your bound to see a crane. Contemporary architecture–whether 1970 geometric concrete and slender windows or 21st century ultra-sleek glass–every single skyscraper is “modern”. There is an upside and downside to this: the up is each building is a unique shape–angular, curved, pointed, stacked, etc. etc; the down is the 15 or 20 year old buildings are eye sores next to their newer, bigger next door neighbors. A few exceptions were in the Colonial District and Chinatown where the buildings were more true to period. Yet even in these areas there were massive modern structures.

Personally, my favorite aspect of Singapore has to be how the city was laid out. Usually compared to megatropolises like New York and London, Singapore outshines with grand green spaces. Fort Canning Park, while there is an escalator entrance (thank god, it was a 30 degree uphill climb otherwise), was an oasis in the middle of downtown. Along the waterfront near Parliament, the Supreme Court, and National Museum there’s huge cricket field and an esplanade (yet, unlike Boston’s it’s full of lush trees and landscaping). The Singapore Botanical Garden was the only place I went where the noise and shining gray mega-structures seemed to disappear. A free park, the many rolling fields and gardens were full of families, friends, tourist, and runners enjoying a respite from the hustle and bustle of urban life. The Orchid Garden was breath taking, I took about a billion pictures…though couldn’t find any seeds, sorry fam.

Diverse. Diverse. Diverse. Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Black, white–Singapore is a melting pot that makes NYC look like Chicken broth. Hopefully by the end of my ventures I’ll be able to tell all the different Asian cultures apart. And with so many different types of people come infinite food choice–thankfully most menus come with pictures. The last night I was there I had to die for shrimp and pork dumpling in a handmade noodle soup at Din Tai Fung. It was so good that the restaurant doesn’t even allow pictures, otherwise there would be an accompanying montage **is that the right word? after hearing broken English for a week my vocab is starting to slip–no good***.  On my way to the Botanical Garden, I bought a Malay ice cream sandwich concoction: a brick of raspberry ice cream in-between a few wafer cookies; quite possibly my new favorite dessert. While at the Thaipusam festival in Little India people were handing out a bright orange something or another–I thought it was going to be cold and possibly shaved mango or orange, but my imagination and the heat got the best of me–it was warm, ricey-esque, made with gelatin, and not sweet.

As complex as the people and buildings are the roadways and thus bus system. My first day I attempted to navigate my way from one side of city center to the other and, well, failed miserably. While on the bus it started raining and I was enthralled by the new buildings and the driver (who I told where I was going in order to pay my fare) made no attempt at pointing me in the right direction…long story short I ended up riding the bus to the train station. Okay, fine, no biggie the visitors guide had a list of buses I could take so I hopped on another. Oh and how I was doomed, instantly I became car sick…instead of vomiting on the old Chinese lady sitting across from me, I hopped off the bus and ended up in a residential area not on the visitors’ map. It took about 45 minutes to hail down a cab. All the taxis in Singapore have signs on the top of them that read “Hired”, “On Call”, “Busy”, or “Taxi” I’m still unsure how I feel about this…it was a tad bit discouraging only seeing “Hired” sign and after “Hired” sign…I almost wish I didn’t know. Thankfully the underground was much easier to figure out, actually it was near idiot proof. At the self serve kiosk there’s a map with all the stops and you simply press where you want to go and it tells you the fare.

Side note: It’s 5:33 in Jakarta and I can hear the Mosques projecting evening prayers.