Kuala Lumpur reminds me of Houston in a lot of ways. It’s huge and ever sprawling. There always seems to be a major construction project between you and where you need to be. The diversity is obvious and everywhere. Mostly it’s a city that you grow to love. Our first time to KL we cut things short and went to Thailand. By the time we left Korea we were extending our stays every time we passed through. We spent so much time in KL we pretty much entirely stopped going to Singapore. Which is why it had been nearly a decade since my last visit when we went last January.
Singapore was still Singapore. “Asia for Beginners” as the local expats jokingly say. Colonial architecture up against ultramodern buildings all set in a tropical paradise that is orchestrated down to the length of individual blades of grass. In truth there is a lot more to it than that. But we didn’t get to delve too deeply this trip as it was about friends, not travel. We went to see our awesome friend J, her amazing husband S, and their precocious daughter (and I mean that in the best possible way) A. Though SM had passed through a couple of times when traveling for business this would be my first time seeing them since before A was born.
Singapore treated them well. J looked a.maz.ing. As always. Practically a yogi our beautiful, brilliant friend treats her body like a temple. Mostly. And it shows. Her husband looked great and their daughter, a little older than LB, was even more adorable in person than on Facebook. But, y’all aren’t interested in that.
We didn’t worry about finding playgrounds in Singapore as we knew we would be spending a lot of time at our friends’ place. Pools are ubiquitous and the one at their tower was large and fabulous. They also took us to their beach club. It was the wrong time of the year for splashing in the ocean, but the beachside pool was quite busy. The first evening we met up at the Light to Night festival, which was okay. According to J and S, the light show was much better in previous years. The girls got to run around in pretty dresses and the adults got to wander and talk so it was still a pretty wonderful night for us. The festival included free entry, food stalls, live entertainment, and extended hours at the National Gallery on special weekends.
Street food in Asia is legendary and Singapore is no exception. Like its sister Malaysia Singapore is a mix of cultures. There are the indigenous Malay people, a large population from India, another of Chinese, a mostly European remnant of its legacy of colonization, and expats* from all over the world. This comes together in an amalgamation that is eternally delicious. And, because it’s Singapore, you feel safe eating from the most random of food carts. Next post I’ll delve more deeply into the food, expand upon hotels (have I got a story for you), talk about Universal Sentosa, and end with a trip to the Gardens by the Bay.
*On this blog there are two connotations to the word expat. One is class. Expats are middle class and up. Is this classist? Perhaps. It’s also descriptive. The second is the transient nature of their stay. To be an expat is to be temporary. Now temporary can mean months or years or be due to the nature of the visa. One cannot have generations of expats in one locale. Permanent residents and citizens are not expats.