Singapore!

After spending the weekend in Hong Kong, I flew over to Singapore where I spent a week taking in the sites, culture and people. I had a fabulous experience in Singapore, the people, food, and scenery was extraordinary. The people of Singapore are comprised of three main ethnicities: Chinese, Indian and Malay. The business language is English (British), which everyone speaks with an accent and has been jokingly referred to as “Singlish”. The reason people have an accent is due to the fact they do speak their native tongue at home and only speak English to communicate with other nationalities or in the workplace.

The three words I would use to describe my Singapore experience are food, shopping and cleanliness.

I had no problems finding Halal places to eat since there are many Malay cuisines which observe the Halal dietary restriction. I had a chance to eat Korean BBQ, Nasi Lemak and Nasi Goring, the latter two dishes are Indonesian/Malay. At the site where I was working, I even ate roti at lunch, something that people avoid at workplaces in North America.

The people of Singapore love to shop. It is an industrialized country and people work extremely hard for their living, sometimes too hard, according to the local taxi drivers. You can usually get a pulse of a nation through its taxi drivers.

Singapore is an extremely clean country; a common perception of Singapore in the West. Spitting and chewing gum is banned in public. In-fact, you cannot buy gum in the country unless you need it for medical reasons. A fruit called Durian is banned in public due to its extreme smell.

Singapore is an expensive place to live. The majority (80%) of the people live in flats, only the elite can afford houses. Foreign cars are almost 2-3 times the price found in North America and the government does not allow cars older than 10 years on the road.

Other places of note that I visited was the Night Safari, Singapore Harbour (Clark quay), and Little India (it really felt like India). I did not take my usual number of pictures since I spent most of my time with colleagues from work, but I was still able to sneak in a few. You can check them out here.

Hong Kong!

I had a chance to visit one of the most unique places in the world a few weeks ago… Hong Kong! If I had three words to describe my Hong Kong experience, I would use: skyline, shopping, and efficiency.

Hong Kong is considered the “Manhattan” of Asia because of its numerous high rise buildings and skillful hard-working group of citizens. The skyline is spectacular, especially at night when the buildings light up the sky with neon lights. In-fact, 4 of the 15 tallest skyscrapers exist in Hong Kong. The population of Hong Kong is just under seven million in an area of 1092 square KM, close to the size of New York city (786 sq km). The limited land capacity and large population has caused the government to build on mountains and ocean water.

Hong Kong is a free port with goods from across the world that are not subject to export taxes. This makes it an ideal place for shopping, especially with a strong Canadian dollar. The moment that you exit out of the airport, you are greeted with flyers about shopping in Hong Kong. I spent an entire day shopping, moving from shop to shop in one of the most efficient subways in the world. The people in Hong Kong do not like to wait for anything – 2 minute wait for a subway is 2 minutes too long. Even the escalators move extremely fast compared to the usual speed in North America. Paying for items with cash will get you an annoyed look from the merchant because with a swipe of the Octopus card (prepaid cash card supported by almost all vendors) you will be quickly on your way.

Hong Kong is a unique place in the world and wish I had spent more time, however, in this short time period I still took my share of pictures.