A little over 15 months ago while we were touring around India, Simon, Jamie N and I were in the lake city of Udaipur in Rajasthan. While Jamie was doing what Jamie does best (the shut-eye Olympics), Simon and I were having another one of our high stakes discussions up on the hotel's rooftop terrace restaurant. On this occasion, the topic had been "What are your favourite 10 cities in the world?". Given that we'd both been to a lot of places the other hadn't, there were plenty of inevitable differences. However, what stood out for me was that Simon hadn't put London first.
There are lots of things I like about lots of cities - indeed many are perfect in their own little way - but at the end of the day, London is King. And more annoyingly for other people, it's one of those topics where I generally refuse to accept an alternative view - instead entering into a long and largely pointless debate until either the other party gets bored (the most regular outcome), or we're forced to "agree to disagree". But as far as I'm concerned (and various academic studies have agreed), London exists on a scale that makes it incomparable to any other city except New York - the sheer comprehensiveness of what is offered is almost unique. With this in mind, London always topped any and all other cities I've visited including, and with New York-resident Yankees Paddy and Lex agreeing with me, NYC.
Until now.
In less than 48 hours, Singapore has blown me away. My Dad came here on business a month ago and told me I was gonna love it, but I'm fairly sure that was largely based on how good the food was going to be (it's always good to know I've inherited Dad's sense of priorities!). However, the food is just the beginning. Singapore somehow manages to combine everything - old or new, western or eastern, cheap or expensive, historic or modern - be it in terms of cuisine, culture or architecture. The fact that its four national languages include Chinese and Tamil - purely because of the amount of Chinese and Tamilian immigrants - gives an idea of how open a country Singapore is, but it yet maintains a national identity around this openness. Little India, where I'm staying, is exactly what it says on the tin - the shops play Hindi music, you can buy paka South Indian curries at any time of night, and the street-side markets might as well be in Chennai. Strolling around early morning, I even found a place frying panpalehs (the same ones as previously mentioned) - in India you're hard pushed to find them anywhere outside Southern Karnataka, but here they were in Singapore, fresh as a springtime morning.
If you walk 10-15 minutes south, however, you head into the Civic Area - the historic part of town that houses the Government buildings and landmarks such as Raffles Hotel (which boasts a history to match any hotel in the world). Down here, you get a real appreciation for the depth of Singapore's history since Sir Stamford Raffles founded the city in 1819 - things have been beautifully preserved (perhaps thanks to extended British rule?) and complemented with modern projects to revitalise the area with leafy boulevards and pathways. I was lucky to have another fellow Pembroke E&Mist and Singapore resident Rui Min to give me a thorough guided tour that began around Chinatown (Little India, but Chinese - surprisingly enough), worked its way down to the ultra-modern waterside performance stage at the Esplanade, then zig-zagged north-west along the Formula 1 night-race circuit to check out the Civic Area in depth.
I will always remember turning right onto St. Andrew's Road opposite Singapore Cricket Club, looking back north-east to the background of skyscrapers in the (old) financial district, before heading down to Raffles' Landing Point on the Singapore River, flanked by century-old buildings that housed pretty much every historic moment in city-state's 200-year history. Down on the river, the Landing Point looks across at a scene that typifies Singapore - a row of old, classically eastern buildings lining the riverside area known as Boat Quay; behind them the towering glass structures of the Marina Bay "new" financial district . Old and new, east and west, historic and modern. All rolled into one bite size city-state. Great stuff.
If you walk 10-15 minutes south, however, you head into the Civic Area - the historic part of town that houses the Government buildings and landmarks such as Raffles Hotel (which boasts a history to match any hotel in the world). Down here, you get a real appreciation for the depth of Singapore's history since Sir Stamford Raffles founded the city in 1819 - things have been beautifully preserved (perhaps thanks to extended British rule?) and complemented with modern projects to revitalise the area with leafy boulevards and pathways. I was lucky to have another fellow Pembroke E&Mist and Singapore resident Rui Min to give me a thorough guided tour that began around Chinatown (Little India, but Chinese - surprisingly enough), worked its way down to the ultra-modern waterside performance stage at the Esplanade, then zig-zagged north-west along the Formula 1 night-race circuit to check out the Civic Area in depth.I will always remember turning right onto St. Andrew's Road opposite Singapore Cricket Club, looking back north-east to the background of skyscrapers in the (old) financial district, before heading down to Raffles' Landing Point on the Singapore River, flanked by century-old buildings that housed pretty much every historic moment in city-state's 200-year history. Down on the river, the Landing Point looks across at a scene that typifies Singapore - a row of old, classically eastern buildings lining the riverside area known as Boat Quay; behind them the towering glass structures of the Marina Bay "new" financial district . Old and new, east and west, historic and modern. All rolled into one bite size city-state. Great stuff.
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