I’ll confess, many website and advertisements show that singapore is westernized. For me, a vacation in Singapore (Asia) was full of cultural shock, familiar traditions and amazing adventures. I could spend a lifetime exploring Singapore.
I’m having an overwhelming feeling of the cultural mysteries and exotic beauty of the city’s old mosques and temples. Towering overhead, Singapore glistens with the wealth of modern miracles. And when I smell incense, spice and jasmine swirling in wet tropical breeze, I can close my eyes and know exactly where I am. Sometimes I still feel I m in the clutches of the Sentosa island.
There are many things to see and do on the island, the best of the all was the underwater world (large aquarium features a long walk-through tank where you can experience sharks and rays swimming right over your head) which resembles to the Australian Underwater world (Sunshine state).
The dolphin lagoon where you see trained pink dolphins performing the show. The Merlion Statue, which is 120-foot tall symbol of Singapore dominates the skyline around much of the island. A veiw from the lion’s mouth is really mind boggling. Boating across the river to have the invincible view of the city still ponders over my mind.
With all its shopping malls, fast-food outlets, imported fashion, and steel skyscrapers, Singapore would look like any other contemporary city you have ever visited - but to peel through the layers is to understand that life here is far more complex.The outer layer are startingly Western, just underneath lies a curious area where East blends with West in language, cuisine, attitude and style. At the core, you will find a sensibility rooted in the cultural heritage of values, religion, superstition, and memory.
It’s like a pasta having all the ingredients to built up the taste, Singaporean house -- a jumble of colonial architectural mandates, European tastes, Chinese superstitions and Malay finery and in this I find my "authentic" travel experience.
Am always ready for a trip to Singapore to rejuvenate myself.