Day One: Singapore

            I have to admit that Singapore was not necessarily on my ‘must see’ travel short list and I did not do my due diligence to prepare for my journey. Reading nothing and not being a very seasoned traveler, I began my voyage relying heavily on the fact that I was traveling this first leg of the trip with my boyfriend Geoff and that I heard that Singapore was a safe city. So safe in fact, that I was told that it was illegal to chew gum or spit on the sidewalk. Sadly, that makes it relatively risky for a gum smacking, bubble blowing, pre-teen behaving girl like myself, but I thought is was worth the risk considering I already shelled out the cash for the ticket and it just so happened that Geoff was working in Singapore this week and had a seat on the same flight!

            So sharing a 15+ hour flight with your boyfriend to an unknown land sounds like a romance novel fantasy, right? Well, let’s just say we didn’t exactly have seats together. He sat 35 rows in front of me reclined, with feet up, and resting for his busy workweek and I, well, I was Santa Cruz zero-boundaries friendly and shared my lap with my neighbors elbow, half his meal tray, and possibly a bit of his drool while he fell in-and-out of fitful sleep (although, I’m still clinging to the possibility of a random in-flight rain storm that, although fairly unbelievable, quieted the little germ-a-phobe voice that allowed me to continue to wear the same clothes throughout the 20+ hour travel day).

            Arriving in Singapore I was amazed by the beauty and efficiency of the airport and immigration process. My last trip “out of the country” was to the loud, crowded, bustling, nightclub style airport of Puerto Vallarta, but this airport looked more like a well-kept museum and hosted a similar scant number of visitors. The process from exiting the plane through grabbing a taxi out of the airport took only minutes.

After checking in to the hotel and a quick wardrobe change it was off to explore. When I say ‘explore’ don’t be confused by the inevitable leap to images of lush rain forest or beautiful countryside, instead I found myself lost in an urban jungle trying to make my way through an ocean of humanity. The buildings climbed the skies all around me with Vegas style blinking billboards scrawled across their sided. Cars and busses scrambled inching forward through the traffic, wedging themselves edging between each other and honking the familiar language of dense population. The streets were populated like New Years Eve in Times Square meets Black Friday. The endless shopping malls embraced one another as far as the eye could see with every possible recognizable American name brand and advertizing. Starbucks, 7-11, Coldstone, Gap, Victoria Secret, Prada, Chanel anything you could ever want to find in any mall or high-end shop in the states are all conveniently located just a few short flights across the world.

Usually, when I travel, my first moments are spent trying to find the similarities of the place I am visiting with my home. Maybe it is a need to ground myself in the familiar or find some common ground to sooth the secret fears that creep up in my mind when I’m faced with the unknown.  Today I was scrambling to find what about Singapore was different. I know there is a unique culture, interesting architecture, and endless things to discover and learn, but for now, at this moment, I am over stimulated, over tired, and over whelmed with the chaos of the concrete construct of commercialism engulfing my senses like napalm. A good nights sleep, fresh perspective, and a decent travel book might make all the difference…