Singapore: The Lion City

Warm and humid air welcomed our group as we stepped out of the Changi Airport a little after two in the afternoon, much, much warmer than the 5 degree Celsius gasps of wind that we left behind in Amsterdam. Our group proceeded to the Mercure Roxy Hotel in Parkway Parade, which served as our home for the next five days before we transfer to the Stamford Hotel (which was much closer to the city centre) at the end of our trip here in Singapore.

The moment I inhaled the warm breeze of Singapore, I can’t help but feel closer to home. Although Singapore is much cleaner and organized than Manila, the tall buildings, the traffic, the warm people and the abundance of shopping malls simply made it all too familiar to me. I can’t help but get excited every time I see something so familiar like 7-eleven, Bread Talk, gravy being served in KFC (I know, I shouldn’t have eaten KFC, I was in Singapore for heavens sakes, but I got too excited about the gravy!), mangosteen (some of which I took with me back here in Amsterdam), The Coffee Bean, shops opened after six pm and so much more! It was like being in Manila, but then again not being in Manila.

Our second day in Singapore was devoted entirely for exploring the city. The very first stop of our tour was the famous Merlion. According to our very nice tour guide, Merlion is an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and body of a fish which symbolizes the fishing village that Singapore once was and Singapore’s original name “Singapura” which means lion city.



Our tour went on and our tour guide pointed several streets that are historic and buildings which are landmarks in Singapore. We also went to Little India, and quite timely, a couple days before our visit, they have celebrated Deepavali or the festival of lights, so a lot of streets and corners are still decorated with beautiful light displays.

We really had fun during the tour and I have to say, although Singapore is a very small country, it holds a lot of treasure to be discovered and it has a lot to offer. I agree with one of the posters we saw in the city which says “In Singapore if you’re bored, it’s not our fault.” True enough it would one’s own fault if he finds himself with nothing to do in this very exciting city.