Vladimir & Suzdal: Quaint, Charming Towns in Russia's Golden Ringby Randi / July 3, 2017
June 28-29, 2017
Middle of Russia
Middle of Russia
Dear Little Laptop Diary,
Well. The St. Petersburg-Moscow sleeper really spoiled me and set my expectations too high. Hell, 2003-era New Jersey Transit set my expectations too high. Our first superlong train, the 24 hour sleeper from Vladimir to Yekaterinburg, was a bit dismal. The cabin was fine, it really was, and we had a very nice older Russian lady in with us who helped us make our beds when we proved completely incompetent on that front (the mattress pad doesn’t go IN the duvet-cover looking thing, YOU do! Or nothing does! Still unclear!). But that first sleeper to Moscow was oh so special. They gave us slippers for crying out loud! Our beds were made for us! They were comfy! There were no slippers to be found on this one. And thank the lord I brought flip flops, because the toilets were the most disgusting I have seen since our non-sleeper train throughout the countryside of Bosnia. At least on that train I didn’t have to take my contacts out. On this one I did. It was horrific. The floor was wet and coated in sludge, the soap dispenser was dry, and the toilets were reminiscent of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor ones. I should have remembered Amtrak the first time I had to use the sink, because I wasted 10 minutes trying to get it to work by turning the spigots as you do normally before I finally asked a Russian lady to help. It was the kind of sink you had to push up with your palm to get a trickle of water out. My god. On the Moscow sleeper I accidentally brushed my teeth with the train water; I wasn’t thinking because it was all so clean and nice. We were definitely using bottled water for this one.
Scenery’s nice
The samovar, one in every carriage. So you can always get boiled water for instant meals and tea. |
Down the hallway of our carriage. Rooms to the right, samovar straight ahead, toilet after the samovar, my exercise barre to the left, cigarette smoke everywhere |
At about 9pm I realized that the lady had fallen asleep, which is like wow I wish I could fall asleep with all these Russian children shouting. And someone nearby is smoking, which is not allowed but I guess Russia goes in the way of Greece where smoking isn’t ‘legally’ allowed but it is culturally always allowed and just ugh smoking is disgusting.
It’s the rockiest train journey I’ve ever taken, the kind where you are tensing your whole body so you don’t fly off the seat. Of course I couldn’t sleep like that! I was being thrown around my little bed mat by every bump and turn. It also made a lot of overnight stops, and when the train stops it’s like the world is stopping. The huge brakes made the loudest banging noises like we were being attacked. At least 30 times during the night I thought the train was going off the rails, it was that bumpy and uneasy. At the 5:30am stop, our second stranger cabinmate arrived, for the bed above mine. She had to stand along the side of my bed in order to make hers. Needless to say I didn’t sleep until maybe 7am, until 9:45. What a great rest. The other woman, the older one who seemed so nice, had the attendant close our cabin’s window because it would blow on her neck on the top bunk. But like. We are four people in an enclosed closet and you’re shutting off our air supply? Nyet nyet nyet! Also, fresh cool air is the only thing that really helps my constant motion sickness, so taking that away from me meant a restless night of severe nausea, discomfort, strangers, and tears.
Also, the sun is still rising like it did in Helsinki and all through Russia so far — at 3am. At some point in the night I lost my eye mask.
When I gave up trying to sleep, I brushed my teeth and washed my face with bottled water (hard to do the latter). The stranger above me was ready to eat her food which means she had to sit on my bottom bunk and use the small table that Husband and I both banged our heads on repeatedly during the night. So I just kind of stood in the cramped hallway for a few hours by the open windows out there (yesss) as more people smoked illegally and I tried to relax. There’s a bar running along the hallway so I did some barre exercises which a small boy found HILARIOUS. I felt a lot better after doing them though. The nausea got a little better with the fresh air and I had an orange that I brought for breakfast. I reclaimed my table and wrote for a few hours before a lunch of dehydrated vegetable crackers I got at Veggie Bro in Vladimir. Interesting day, I must say. Happily, I didn’t realize that 2 of the 26 hours of this train journey were just time zone changes (we are going through so many time zones jesus this country is enormous) so we have only 6-7 hours left! Ugh I can’t believe this is only the first of its kind. Once we land in Yekaterinburg, we have a night in a nice hotel, which seemed like a really sweet idea at first, to pamper ourselves after all these hostels and immediately after this first gross train – and immediately before our big 3-day gross train – but I think it might just feel like when Lewis Black talked about how the government one year gave refunds of $350 to people with kids to help out with that and he said it would have been nicer to them to just knock on their doors and piss on their feet. What I’m saying is I think a hotel might just make me feel worse about going back to close proximity with strangers for 3 days and the grossest bathrooms ever. At least not using my contacts for that long will be good for my dry eyes. Man alive.
People are still smoking, which is just like really cute for all of us. I love when people flout rules and common decency. At least some of the scenery is starting to get pretty. We just passed a big river which was nice. And we passed Chaykovskaya station, which is where the composer Tchaikovksy was born. It’s fun not having to worry about how to spell that in English anymore because it’s just made up transliteration. Like Chanukah! Spell it however you want when it’s not in its real language. Anyway, so Chaikoffskee was born near this station so they named it after him. Our guide book says that historians now believe that instead of dying from cholera, he was blackmailed into taking poison when his affair with a nobleman’s nephew came to light. So I guess that is worse than all these gross train journeys. As long as I don’t use the tap water. Oh also I figured out why the toilets get locked at every station besides trying to make me explode – because they ‘flush’ just onto the tracks so they don’t want the station tracks to be disgusting like the countryside tracks. Seriously the flush is a lever you step on that just opens the bottom of the toilet and you can see onto the tracks. I need to stop thinking of my clean bathrooms at home, my lovely clean bathrooms with potable water. I’m having a hard time remembering why any sane person would leave those bathrooms. Oh right to see the world.
We are at a longer stop right now called Perm, which is where they do fun curly hairdos that work on 9% of women, so most people disembarked to buy food from the babushkas selling all kinds of things on the platform. I am guarding our stuff. Outside my window right now, there is a babushka singing a traditional Russian folk song (I mean I’m guessing but come on it’s not like it’s a Nicki Minaj song) and intermittently she will stop singing to scream at someone who crossed her. I can’t see any of the babushkas with food, but I do see the ice cream cart (everywhere you go in Russia!) and it is swarmed, of course. Z money just came back and said the babushkas failed him and only had ice cream and soda and bags of chips and stuff, which is laaame. Luckily we brought tomatoes, cucumbers, and bread so we will make sandwiches. Sure to be better than my dinner last night of plain bread and cinnamon-y cookies I found at a supermarket (sure of their veganness this time because they also had English ingredients!!!) .
Overall, I’m grateful that the strangers are nicer than they could have been, I’m grateful that older lady allowed me to open the window for the daytime, I’m grateful to Iberia for our last flight when the soap dispenser wasn’t working and they showed me where they kept the single-serve liquid soap packs and I took a lot for this trip because we will DEFINITELY need them, and I’m grateful that I’m not being blackmailed into taking poison. I will keep repeating this to myself as a reminder that it’s not so bad, that we could smell worse, that I could be really sick and I’m not, that everything could be worse. As it is, I’m just on a kind of gross train through Russia and out of my comfort zone of silence and cleanliness. It’ll be okay.
Okay older lady just shut the window again goddammit.
Our cabin with two strangers. Would end up being one of the better/nicer experiences of its kind! Stay tuned.
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Dubrovnik & Montenegro: Cliff-Jumping, Kayaking, & Beaching
After spending a lot of time inland and in Bosnia & Herzegovina, I spent almost 5 days in Dubrovnik, the lovely crown jewel of the Adriatic. If coming from Mostar, like I was, you can take a pretty comfortable bus for a few hours and stop halfway through to see the sight above. How freaking beautiful is this. After the week in the mountains, it was nice to see the crystal blue water.
Old Town Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is such an interesting little town, really unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is entirely walled in (or at least the Old Town is, where most tourists will remain), a tiny fortress of a town surrounded by steep cliffs and the beautiful ocean. You’ll enter the Old Town by one of three gates, most likely Pile Gate, the main one from the major road outside (which leads up to the fancy Hilton). I’ve never been in such a densely touristed place.
Strolling on the Stradun
Dubrovnik is a really easy destination for frightful travelers, because it is 100% for tourists. No locals live anywhere nearby – it is all the tourist trade. It’s pretty safe, and it’s incredibly easy and manageable. Kind of like an inoffensive Disney World but with history.
The main thing to do is mosey along the Stradun, the main boulevard through the Old Town, and wander all the little streets leading off of it. You can’t get lost; you’re walled in. The streets are filled with restaurants, cafes, shops, gelato purveyors, and, of course, cathedrals and museums. People-watching along the Stradun is first-rate, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Franciscan Monastery Cloisters
One of the first things you’ll see upon walking through Pile Gate is the Franciscan Monastery Museum. It’s a pleasant little stop off the Stradun with charming cloisters, providing some calm from the throngs outside. It also houses one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe, and it’s still operating today.
My favorite activity in the Old Town was walking the city walls. For 50 kuna, you climb atop the city and stroll along the walls for a few hours, all around the city, and catch the most incredible views. I recommend going just before last call, around 6:30 pm, as it’s less crowded and you get great light as the sun sets.
My favorite activity in the Old Town was walking the city walls. For 50 kuna, you climb atop the city and stroll along the walls for a few hours, all around the city, and catch the most incredible views. I recommend going just before last call, around 6:30 pm, as it’s less crowded and you get great light as the sun sets.
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The pictures you take when walking the walls (all of the above) will pretty much be the standouts of your entire trip. You see everything and it’s all so perfect. It also helps you get a handle on the city, so it’s not a bad idea to go early in your visit.
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The guide and my boyfriend jumped off this cliff, from about where the sun hits at the top.
My other favorite activity? Kayaking! This might have been my favorite part of the whole trip because I love to be active and kick ass. And I kind of kicked ass.
The picture at left shows a little inlet that we pulled into about halfway through the ride, so we could swim. Also, the guide (and my boyfriend, because crazy) jumped off of that cliff. I know. It’s really high.
Outside Pile Gate, you’ll find tons of guys handing out fliers about kayaking trips from different companies. I’m pretty sure they are all generally interchangeable. I chose a late afternoon trip, hoping that the sun wouldn’t be as brutal. We kayaked about 3 hours, on a surprisingly far-reaching route circling Lokrum island. You kayak in 2-person boats, and most people had never kayaked before. (If you are alone, you’ll probably get paired with a guide, so that’s a plus.) It can be as easy or as strenuous as you want. I definitely recommend doing this if you can! It was pretty exhausting but so enjoyable. The company provided sandwiches (and packed fruit for me!), plenty of water, and had waterproof tubs for cameras and such. Once we were back on land, the guides opened a few bottles of wine for everyone to share while we chatted about our travels and backgrounds. We had such a great time!
The picture at left shows a little inlet that we pulled into about halfway through the ride, so we could swim. Also, the guide (and my boyfriend, because crazy) jumped off of that cliff. I know. It’s really high.
Outside Pile Gate, you’ll find tons of guys handing out fliers about kayaking trips from different companies. I’m pretty sure they are all generally interchangeable. I chose a late afternoon trip, hoping that the sun wouldn’t be as brutal. We kayaked about 3 hours, on a surprisingly far-reaching route circling Lokrum island. You kayak in 2-person boats, and most people had never kayaked before. (If you are alone, you’ll probably get paired with a guide, so that’s a plus.) It can be as easy or as strenuous as you want. I definitely recommend doing this if you can! It was pretty exhausting but so enjoyable. The company provided sandwiches (and packed fruit for me!), plenty of water, and had waterproof tubs for cameras and such. Once we were back on land, the guides opened a few bottles of wine for everyone to share while we chatted about our travels and backgrounds. We had such a great time!
View during the ride up
Another fantastic thing to do? Climb Mount Srd! Ok, not with your feet, but in a cable car – even better! (I found one of the funniest ever admonitions against doing something in the Rick Steves guidebook. It says something like, “If you are in great shape, and it’s not too hot out, you might consider taking the cable car up and walking down the mountain.” Hahahaha. So yeah, don’t try to hike up it. Also, cable cars are fun!) The cable car entrance is a bit tricky to find, about a 10 minute walk outside Ploce Gate. The view from Mount Srd is so worth this ride.
View from Mt. Srd of the Lapad peninsula, where many big hotels (and locals) live. Kind of far but a nice area. |
View of Old Town Dubrovnik. You can see Lokrum Island to the upper left. |
Buza, the beach/bar carved into the cliff face.
My last must-do thing to tell you about is Buza, a bar carved into the cliffs that doubled as a beach!
Dubrovnik doesn’t really have beaches (you go to the islands or to Montenegro for that). However, this little cliff bar-beach was even better – no sand, no hassle, just drinks and jumping into the water! So much fun! Also, the bar has one of the best drinks in the Balkans – Schweppe’s Bitter Lemon soda. I don’t usually like soda, but I loved this.
You reach Buza from the corridors near Ploce Gate. It’s a little tricky to find. Ok, a lot tricky. I don’t remember how we finally found it, but it was worth the trouble! You just sit at a table, order a drink, walk a few feet towards the cliff edge, and jump!! Then you can climb back up to your seat, relax, enjoy your drink and the view, and then jump again! Lather rinse repeat. It’s really the coolest. There were people of all ages enjoying the spot, and there are many rocks of various heights to jump off of. I was a little skittish at first, and I didn’t go very high, but I still had lots of fun.
Dubrovnik doesn’t really have beaches (you go to the islands or to Montenegro for that). However, this little cliff bar-beach was even better – no sand, no hassle, just drinks and jumping into the water! So much fun! Also, the bar has one of the best drinks in the Balkans – Schweppe’s Bitter Lemon soda. I don’t usually like soda, but I loved this.
You reach Buza from the corridors near Ploce Gate. It’s a little tricky to find. Ok, a lot tricky. I don’t remember how we finally found it, but it was worth the trouble! You just sit at a table, order a drink, walk a few feet towards the cliff edge, and jump!! Then you can climb back up to your seat, relax, enjoy your drink and the view, and then jump again! Lather rinse repeat. It’s really the coolest. There were people of all ages enjoying the spot, and there are many rocks of various heights to jump off of. I was a little skittish at first, and I didn’t go very high, but I still had lots of fun.
A shot of Buza beach/bar from atop the City Walls
The town of Kotor
Speaking of Montenegro…
Definitely go on a day trip from Dubrovnik to the Bay of Kotor! It’s beautiful, and it’s a really easy and fun side trip. There are plenty of tour companies around the Stradun, and most of them have affordable, small-group van tours to Montenegro. We drove on the famous road featured in “Casino Royale” to get to the Bay of Kotor, and our driver told us every Montenegrin hated the movie because shooting shut down this very important road for people who actually had to use it. Stupid Hollywood! The Bay of Kotor is so nice to drive around. Then we spent about an hour touring the nice little town of Kotor, during which I hit my head so badly that I thought I had internal bleeding, so that kind of colored my experience. I think it was the concierge at Hotel Vardar who helped me and got me medicine and ice, so shout out to her! Thanks for saving me! After Kotor, we played on the (painfully pebbly!) beach of Budva. Such fun times!
Definitely go on a day trip from Dubrovnik to the Bay of Kotor! It’s beautiful, and it’s a really easy and fun side trip. There are plenty of tour companies around the Stradun, and most of them have affordable, small-group van tours to Montenegro. We drove on the famous road featured in “Casino Royale” to get to the Bay of Kotor, and our driver told us every Montenegrin hated the movie because shooting shut down this very important road for people who actually had to use it. Stupid Hollywood! The Bay of Kotor is so nice to drive around. Then we spent about an hour touring the nice little town of Kotor, during which I hit my head so badly that I thought I had internal bleeding, so that kind of colored my experience. I think it was the concierge at Hotel Vardar who helped me and got me medicine and ice, so shout out to her! Thanks for saving me! After Kotor, we played on the (painfully pebbly!) beach of Budva. Such fun times!
The Bay of Kotor
And on the way back to Dubrovnik, we got to take a ferry! I don’t know why that’s so exciting!
Our group included about 7 people, including two couples on their honeymoon. Everyone was pretty cool! We ate lunch together in Budva, where most restaurants have the ubiquitous ‘vegetarian platter’ of cooked nightshades.
Our group included about 7 people, including two couples on their honeymoon. Everyone was pretty cool! We ate lunch together in Budva, where most restaurants have the ubiquitous ‘vegetarian platter’ of cooked nightshades.
I probably wasn’t allowed to take this picture.
Once back in Dubrovnik, we were lucky enough to catch an outdoor performance of the opera Cosi Fan Tutte, as part of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. What a wonderful show! I love opera, and I love seeing it in other countries. This festival performance was lovely. The cast was really talented, and I thought it was a solid production, especially given the difficulties of performing an opera at night outside! If you are thinking of going to Dubrovnik during the summer, go during the festival!
If you’ve looked into a visit to Dubrovnik at all, you’ve probably learned that renting apartments, rather than booking hotel rooms, is the way to go. There’s a big fancy Hilton outside the main gate, but staying in the Old Town is so much more convenient and fun. We stayed in the lovely and well located Amoret Apartments, in every guide book, located near the Cathedral. It was a very nice, but I have reservations about recommending it, because the woman who runs it is kind of a lunatic. She was well aware of our expected arrival time, and we planned to meet then so we could get the keys from her, but still we had to wait nearly an hour in the hot sun, standing in front of the Cathedral with our luggage. At one point, I asked a waiter at a nearby restaurant if I could use the bathroom. I explained that we were to be staying in an apartment just above us, but the woman was keeping us waiting. He asked, “Oh, you mean Branka?” and I said, “Yes! That’s her. You know her?” He replied, “Unfortunately”, and pointed me to the bathroom. I mean, it was too late to do anything about it, but dayyyyum. We wasted a few more hours over the weekend waiting for her for various reasons, so if your time is precious to you, I recommend you go elsewhere.
However, I do recommend that you stay somewhere in the Old Town, because it’s so convenient and because crazy random things happen at night, like this acrobatic troupe performing on our corner!
If you’ve looked into a visit to Dubrovnik at all, you’ve probably learned that renting apartments, rather than booking hotel rooms, is the way to go. There’s a big fancy Hilton outside the main gate, but staying in the Old Town is so much more convenient and fun. We stayed in the lovely and well located Amoret Apartments, in every guide book, located near the Cathedral. It was a very nice, but I have reservations about recommending it, because the woman who runs it is kind of a lunatic. She was well aware of our expected arrival time, and we planned to meet then so we could get the keys from her, but still we had to wait nearly an hour in the hot sun, standing in front of the Cathedral with our luggage. At one point, I asked a waiter at a nearby restaurant if I could use the bathroom. I explained that we were to be staying in an apartment just above us, but the woman was keeping us waiting. He asked, “Oh, you mean Branka?” and I said, “Yes! That’s her. You know her?” He replied, “Unfortunately”, and pointed me to the bathroom. I mean, it was too late to do anything about it, but dayyyyum. We wasted a few more hours over the weekend waiting for her for various reasons, so if your time is precious to you, I recommend you go elsewhere.
However, I do recommend that you stay somewhere in the Old Town, because it’s so convenient and because crazy random things happen at night, like this acrobatic troupe performing on our corner!
And in the mornings, a market pops up near the Cathedral, with fresh produce, delicious candied nuts and other goodies, and lots of souvenirs. Those candied nuts were so good. Unfortunately, I ate all of mine way too quickly. (And they were supposed to be gifts, too.)
As the city is so touristy, the food can be really overpriced for the quality you get. But I did eat at two commendable restaurants, Moskar Konoba and, of course, Nishta, the only vegetarian restaurant.
As the city is so touristy, the food can be really overpriced for the quality you get. But I did eat at two commendable restaurants, Moskar Konoba and, of course, Nishta, the only vegetarian restaurant.
Most people focus an entire trip to the region on the Dalmatian coast, and with good reason. I’m so glad this trip allowed me to experience the rich history inland and in Bosnia and Montenegro, but Dubrovnik was a fantastic place to end. I’ll definitely need to return so I can see the islands, Split, and Plitvice lakes.
Singapore Some Sugar on Me because I LOVE IT HERE
Recently* we took a gigantic trip to Australia, which is hella far away, and we faced the exciting decision of where to plan the layover between all the super long flights. To help with the expected debilitating jet-lag that comes with flying around the world all the way to the far end, we planned to spend a few days in our layover destination, so we wanted somewhere new and exciting (sorry Qatar) and somewhere we could easily enjoy with only 2-3 days without wanting to bag Aussieland and stay there forever (sorry Bangkok (we wuv u)). Out of all the options, Singapore easily won. All the interesting history, all the super rich people, all that amazing food, all that CLEANLINESS? Easiest decision ever! We were ready to be:
Singapore is a unique lil babe, known for its strict rules, diverse population, and incredible food. It can seem a little daunting if you only know it for headlines like “CHILD EXECUTED FOR SPITTING”, but as a tourist, it seems pretty nice. Yes the government needs to CHILL on a lot of things, and it’s not exactly a prime example of democracy, but that’s an issue for a different conversation (also I wanna go back so shhh). Its populace is a mix of mainly Chinese, Malay, and Indians, plus expats and workers from all over the world, making it culturally and gastronomically fascinating. Because of this diverse population, there are four official languages: Malaysian, Mandarin Chinese (which I took an intro class in last week and the Chinese professor said I had a knack for it and thought maybe I studied it before which readers and I surely find HILARIOUS considering my history with trying to speak in China), Tamil, and English.
Obviously we are happy for that last one given our mmm not so successful history with the Chinese yazik, but it’s the result of colonialism. Singapore was founded in 1819 as a British trading post by Sir Stamford Raffles. Then this poor lil bab was treated like a ping pong ball once the British East India Company collapsed: it was ceded to the British Raj (the British rule in India) and then occupied by Japan and then became part of Malaysia and then said peace to Malaysia and only became sovereign in 1965! I bet you have jeans you haven’t washed for longer than Singapore has been independent and that’s gross. Despite its age, Singapore has become a global economic leader (and a tax haven), as well as a leader in education, technology, innovation, safety, lack of gum, and throwing lavish parties for super rich people and hiring synchronized swimming teams to perform in rooftop pools even though literally no one is watching.
But first, let’s get there. To get over as much of the jet-lag as we could before continuing onto Oz (does anyone actually call it that, is this okay), we planned a solid three days in Singapore, which is both the country name and the city name, it’s a lil baby city-state, like rull small but it makes up for its size in per capita wealth (gross) and amazing food (amazing). Our flights from London took us through Dubai, which has the WORST airport for a fast transfer because you cannot find water or regular snacks, like sure there are luxury cars and jewelry for sale but what normal traveler actually needs that when you are going from one long flight to another in less than an hour? More like Du BYE BOY. Also, I find it super hilarious that the flight to Dubai is about 7 hours and then the flight to Singapore is another 7 hours! Shit’s far!
At first, I thought the coolest thing about this itinerary was that we’d have to fly Emirates, which I’d never flown but always wanted to because Bryan Safi always raved about how fancy it was on the “Throwing Shade” podcast and I guess because of JAniston’s commercials for them (though they always made me a little mad, like why is she doing airplane commercials (and ads for Aveeno and water?) after making a million $ per episode?? did she blow all her dough on pilates (it IS expensive but dayum Jen)). Suffice it to say, nothing has ever been as disappointing as Emirates was. Okay maybe not nothing but everything about it was a letdown except the bathrooms, which were normal. The service (atrosh), the comfort, the everything, all totally meh or worse. Yes we were in the economy trough and I am sure the first class extravagance is what makes it famous, but for regular people, Emirates is some overblown b.s.
When we finally got to Singapore, the smallest, coolest dot at the tip of Malaysia, the airport was so adorable it almost cured all my travel woes. Like most of Singapore, the airport was decked out for the Chinese New Year – and it was going to be the Year of the Dog. Can you imagine how happy I was after so much plane time to see these giant babies upon landing?
Because we are Serious Travelers, we took the time in our exhausted stupor to figure out the metro system to get into the city. It was frustrating – we had to go up and down many flights of stairs to get to the right ticket booth (it was early, things were closed) and then back up and down to go to the platform, but we did it. It was fine. People were looking at us, but we’re used to that. It was about a 15 minute walk from the metro station to our hotel, and once we came up from underground in the city we were greeted with some real heat. Coming from London in winter, the Singapore heat was perfection (almost making up for the inability to bring into the country what Chandler and I also consider perfection: gum (though of course I snuck a few pieces into my toiletries because I like to live dangerously) (but truth is officials don’t care as long as it’s a small amount for personal use)). We stayed at the Park Regis Hotel because it was nice, had a pool, and we could pay entirely with otherwise-worthless-for-Londoners Avios points. Unfortunately, we arrived at 9am and the room wasn’t ready until 3pm (!!), but we had access to the pool and the pool showers (and the wifi while we planned our day). Not a bad deal. It was a small pool, and it was so early that it was kind of chilly and windy by the water (and in the shade), but still, I can’t really complain about outdoor swimming in February (although yes I did just try to).
Once we were ready, we had a lot to see. As I said, we had just about three days to see Singapore, and for the cursory overview we were doing, it was the perfect amount of time. It’s a great place for a short trip as well as for multiple visits; I for one cannot wait to go back – but that’s mostly for the food, which will be a separate post (there’s a whole lot to cover).
A great introduction to Singapore is to do the river walk (the river is called the Singapore River, which is easy I guess but boring), winding through the various quays and into the well-known sights of Marina Bay. We began our meandering tour at Clarke Quay, which was close to our hotel and, more importantly, full of great food. It’s always nice to walk along the water and gaze upon the fancy hotels (so many), the grand museums (which, strangely, never came up in any of the Singapore recommendations we researched, leading us to uncharacteristically just skip museums), and the perfect blue skies.
The River Walk will bring you to Raffles Place, which good old Stammy Rafs established in the 1820s as the main mercantile district, called Commercial Square originally but renamed for Stams in 1858. Raffles Place became a popular shopping district as well as a commercial and financial center for the region. For at least a century, this was also where migrants established themselves. Many South Indian traders and bankers set up shop in this area. It was also home to Singapore’s only underground mosque, established in the 1950s so the many Muslims working in the area could pray, and now still underground in the basement of the UOB Plaza.
You’d think Raffles Place would be near the Raffles Hotel, or at least I thought that, but the famous hotel is north of the river in not the most convenient location. We visited the famous Raffles Hotel because that’s where you are supposed to get the Singapore Sling, the gin-based drink that the Raffles Hotel bartender invented there in 1915. It’s just the thing to do, to get one from where it was first made. Hilariously, it’s said that the bartender, Ngiam Tong Boon, created the drink so that all the fancy ladies could drink alcohol in public, so I guess it was like the early cosmo? appletini? only far garls! Unfortunately, we were greeted with this:
Raffles Hotel was closed! And FYI, it is still undergoing this extensive refurbishment and is not due to open until August! The original Long Bar was closed, with only a gift shop open where you could buy a book about the hotel and a kit for making your own? I mean not that I actually wanted the Sling anyway but it was a downer for the husbo to not get to do the done thing. Fie, Raffles.
Oh well, back to the water, which I will always prefer over alcohol. The river walk takes you past the iconic (their word but true) Fullerton Hotel (which seems like it should be extraordinarily expensive considering the location and the name recognish but I just checked and it’s like a decidedly decent value for how nice it is given the average hotel price in Singapore?? next time babies), which once upon a time was the General Post Office Building (noice) and was built literally just for centennial celebrations? (extra noice), and past all the banks’ skyscrapers and down into what you’ve been waiting to see – the Marina Bay, home of, well all the famous things but especially that iconic (my/everyone’s word) triumvirate of Singapore’s skyline, the Marina Bay Sands.
Oh let’s zoom out a little and let y’all see what it really looks like.
So many people! It’s just like China (but so much cleaner!). Even though this is a hotel (and a casino now), the Marina Bay Sands to me really is the quintessential image for Singapore. I mean that’s where Race Across the World had its big finish; you can’t argue with that! And you definitely can’t argue with the greatest movie ever made, Crazy Rich Asians, which also features the MBS prominently and has the aforementioned RIDONK synchronized swimming performance on that incredible/terrifying roof. SO FUN.
While I think of this as the unofficial symbol of Singapore (I mean given the financial sitch there it kind of makes sense that the symbol would be a super fance hotel), the official symbol – I’m sorry, ‘mascot’ – of Singapore is even better. It’s a MERLION. Perched right on the east side of the bay at the Downtown Core bit of the city, the merlion statue is a mythical creature (duh) with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It’s used to represent Singapore and Singaporeans in tourism, branding, sporting events, everything. And it’s awesome, because hello, the national thang is a merlion? Only Scotland and its unicorn tops that!
Of course, continuing the trend that the Raffles Hotel started, the Merlion was UNDER CONSTRUCTION during our visit. This is like how people coming this year to London feel when they see Big Ben all covered up, except 1000x worse because Big Ben is just a dumb clock and this is a MERLION.
The city set up a smaller copy nearby so that tourists could still get their picture with the merlion, but it’s small and fake so it’s nice but also kind of a kick in the pants.
So, disappointing, but it’s hard to stay mad when you’re in this fabo city. I mean, look at how great the sign behind Faker Merlion is:
I also really enjoyed this sign on Cavenagh Bridge, even though I don’t really enjoy the feeling that a ‘u’ is missing from that name:
Behind the Marina Bay Sands is one of my favorite things about Singapore, the Gardens by the Bay. I love an immaculate man-made super weird yet pretty garden-park, what can I say. The GbtB is 101 hectares of land right smack in the middle of the city, with beautiful flower gardens and interesting conservatories. Kind of like a Kew Gardens if the creators of it had their Pimms before instead of after. It’s free to walk through a lot of it, and costs $28 (Singapore dollars) to go into the conservatories, like the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest.
I love it!
Another day, we went into the Little India neighborhood, called Tekka in the Singapore Indian community. Contrasted with our experience of the downtown areas, the Indian neighborhood felt much more like a real city with real people living there, and not just working/visiting. Under the original Raffles plan for Singapore, ethnic Indians had to live in the Chulia Kampong region because Brits loved them some ethnic segregation/racism/being shit. That area became too crowded, and many Indians brought the overflow to what’s now this vibrant area. It may have developed around a former settlement for Indian convicts, but now it’s home to all kinds of people and businesses, as well as places of worship for several different religions.
It was hard to take pictures amid all the traffic but it was a really nice area to see. You don’t want to just stay in the shiny downtown.
When in Singapore, you’ll inevitably spend a lot of time in Chinatown, a hub of activity at all times but even moreso during Chinese New Year! We were fortunate to be there at this time of year (and it was the Year of the Cute Wittle Doggo Such a Good Boy) and Chinatown was CELEBRATING! It was so fun to see all the excitement and the random dance parties and all the decoration.
Chinatown is home to the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. Early in Singapore’s history, the temple gave refuge to Indian immigrants, and the temple had the only priests with the authority to perform Hindu marriages. If you won’t be in town for Chinese New Year, try to come in the fall, when the temple holds its super famous fire-walking ceremonies, where devotees walk on hot coals as a test of their devotion/skin burning point.
I didn’t get a great picture of the temple because of ALL OF THE PEOPLE but you can sort of make out how crazy cool the decor is, with the facade pretty much covered in statues and figures of gods and stuff.
Running through the heart of Chinatown is Smith Street, which we learned a forking harrowing lesson about thanks to some helpful/horrifying street signs. I love street signs giving information but dayum. So Smith Street, at the turn of the 20th century, was lined with brothels, like lots of them. The number of male immigrants far exceeded the number of female so brothels did a booming trade, but the prostitutes were subjected to a horrible life (#legalize) with no legal recourse when clients would almost certainly beat them, stiff them, and/or murder them. This unassuming street sign told us how men would usually just murder the women (prostitute and/or brothel owner) instead of paying. Since this was a living hell, many prostitutes killed themselves by jumping off buildings or overdosing on opium. COOL FACTS GUYS. now we all know.
Alright to cleanse the palate from that I’m going to share one food-ish picture, of my favorite thing, to remind us all that Singapore is full of wonderful things, not least of which is bubble tea!
Some of you know how I feel about bubble tea, and Singapore did not let me down. It was, rightly so, everywhere.
Funnily enough, even though we really enjoyed Singapore, the most memorable experience was waking up super early one morning to go to an Australian bar to watch the Super Bowl. I know, you’re like…wat? But the Philadelphia Eagles were playing (hence the * in the opening sentence when I said ‘recently’ but hey time is relative life moves at you fast &c) and that’s MY JAWN, B! This was the first time I watched the entire thing all the way through, and it was well rewarded with the Eagles winning! We made lots of friends that morning, with the bar entirely filled with American expats and tourists, just a hilarious experience.
It was pretty special to share such a random experience in SINGAPORE with a bunch of people from Pennsylvania (and a bunch of New Englanders too who got shown what’s what). I don’t really care about football and the NFL is MONSTERS but I’m still allowed to celebrate Philly mmker? Here’s a picture of my dog celebrating the Eagles’ win AND the Year of the Dog so you can’t complain.
We really enjoyed Singapore, even though we didn’t live it up like the craziest and richest of Asians but more like the normallest of travelers. There’s so much great stuff left to talk about next time – the food.
