Australia - Compared to Singapore - my impression after a week

Dear Singapore lovers,
Guys, Singapore is like SO freaking different to Australia but than in some ways it isn't. I spent a week there after I finished my six months as an Au Pair. Luckily I was able to stay with my friend Eva whom I met in Adelaide in February.

Let's just get a few facts right about Australia and Singapore to give you an idea of how different they are:



1) Total area of Australia: ~ 7,692,000 km²
Total area of Singapore: ~ 718 km²

2) Population of Australia: ~ 23,657,000
Population of Singapore: ~ 5,470,000

3) Density of Australia: ~ 3/km²
Density of Singapore: ~ 7,615/km²

4) Official languages of Australia: English
Official languages of Singapore: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil

Yeah, very different. I stepped out of the plane and the hot, humid air hit me like a brick (not even Darwin was that humid) and I started to sweat EVERYWHERE! Due to the very cheap flight I arrived at some ridiculous time, like 5am in the morning. So I got through the immigration very fast and exchanged some Australian money to Singaporean money and here I got my first surprise: the exchange rate is nearly even! For 1 Australian Dollar (AUD) you only get 1.09 Singapore Dollars (SGD). Hmm...
Eva picked me up and together we made our way through the very efficient and reliable Metro system of Singapore. Singapore is a very clean and orderly city, so many rules and signs what you are not allowed to do all over the place, mostly in 4 languages. Asian-looking people whereever you look and every white person stands out. I on the other side blended in quite well :-) Really, I should have taken some pictures just of the mix of people around us.
Anyway, after an hour we arrived at Eva's place near the university and after a fresh up we got some breakfast at the uni campus. Next surprise: everything is quite cheap compared to Australia, although Singapore has the reputation of being an expensive country - in relation to other Asian countries!!!

- Food & drinks
You get all sorts of Asian food, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Malay, Indonesian but Western food is also available but definitely more expansive and not as authentic.
Fresh fruit juices, various teas and of course coffee are widely available and mega cheap, alcoholic beverages fairly expansive but about the same as in Australia. Here some examples of what I ate in Singapore. Not comparable to all the Aussie food I had.

Kimchi with beef

Seafood Hor Fur

Fish dumpling soup

Self-mixed Laksa

An assortment of Chinese sweet desserts

And here some of the drinks I had. This is Taro milk bubble juice with sea grass jelly. I didn't like the jelly...

Sugar cane juice

Red dragon fruit juice

Tiger beer

Singapore Slings

- Entry fees to attractions
Well, the entrance fees were sometimes outrageously high but you have some free things to do as well and ways to go around them if you know how to do it or when you have the right connections ;-)

This is Haw Par Villa with free entrance

This is the Gardens by the Bay, free entrance expect for the two big domes (12 SGD each)

Instead of the domes I went on the skywalk for 5 SGD

In Australia (like in the UK) most museums are free. Not in Singapore but some of them have cheaper entry fee times. Eva and I went into the Asians Civilisations Museum on Friday evening for half the entry price.

The Botanical Garden is free as well and quite nice, although Eva and I liked the one in Adelaide better. We paid the 5 SGD entry fee for the very beautiful National Orchid Garden within the Botanical Garden.

Going up the Marina Bay Sands Skypark costs you at least 20 SGD but luckily Eva knew about the Wednesday Ladies night. Entry and one drink for free for ladies :-) The best view ever from up there!

- Animals
Well, Australia is famous for housing some of the most venomous animals on earth. Singapore is nowhere near as dangerous but you still have to watch out for jellyfish at the beaches, crocodiles and mosquitos who can transmit deseases. Thanks to Dhanu who I met in Bali we got one free ticket for the Night Safari, so we only had to pay half the price each to get there :-)

I also saw this lizard or whatever it is in the Haw Par Villa. So Singapore has some exotic animals as well but not as famous as kangaroos or koalas.

- Temples
I have NEVER seen or heard about a tempel in Australia. Not a Hindu tempel or a mosque or a Buddhist tempel. This is a tempel we passed in Little India during the Deepawali festival.

This is the Holy Tooth Buddha tempel in Chinatown with 1,000 buddha statues

- Shopping
Australia has its shopping malls and streets as well but the concentration of shopping malls in Singapore is absolutely insane. From high fashion malls in Orchard street to more affordable street wear in Bugis I explored some of these huge consumation tempels. On the plus side: they have air-conditioning, food courts and very clean toilets in all of these malls.

- City and landmarks
Australia has these kind of landmarks that had me dreaming of going there from the very beginning: the Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef and the Uluru. I discovered so many more big and small landmarks in big cities and small towns. Singapore on the other hand is so small but still has some remarkable landmarks and trendy streets and unique spots to offer.

This is the skyline of Singapore

The Merlion of Singapore and Marina Bay Sands

A wild brigde design that reminds me of the Webb Bridge in Melbourne

Clarke Quay - the riverside of Singapore

Big skyscrapers with lots of green patches

Pagoda Street of Chinatown

- Islands and beaches
Singapore has quite a few islands as well but unlike in Australia it is not that unbelievably expensive to get on them (like Magnetic Island, Kangaroo Island or Tasmania). One of the most famous islands is Sentosa islands where you can even walk over. Sentosa is famous for the Theme Parks, the Aquarium (formerly Underwater World) and all sorts of entertainment.

This is the biggest Merlion statue of Singapore

The beaches on Sentosa are apparently all artifical beaches but of course very clean

- At night
I love cities at night, especially when they are so safe as well. Surely you have to watch out and there are areas you shouldn't wander about alone at night but not any more dangerous than in Australia.

This is Clarke Quay at night

This is the free sound and laser show in front of Marina Bay Sands

And this the light and sound show at the Supertrees in the Garden by the Bay

So there you see. In some ways Singapore is totally different than Australia, starting with the size, the mix of the population and the food but other things make the start there quite easy like the language and the very orderly way of the city. It isn't quite that cultural shock you experience in Singapore coming from Australia.
I had a fabulous week there thanks to Eva and Dhanu. Now I will be on my own again on my next trip: Malaysia!
Yours Singapore-exploring Stefanie