There is no convenient way out of New Zealand, especially to Europe. If not convenient, we at least made it memorable by breaking up our trip with a full day layover in Singapore.
Landing at 7am and departing at 11:30pm, we had time for all our meals here, and we ate far more than 3.
The city used to be overrun with street hawkers whose food is delicious and cheap, but comes with health risks and a lot of single use products. To alleviate this Singapore built dedicated hawker centers, basically food courts with independent shops that have a bit over oversight. Most dishes are between $1.5-5 USD and I expected that to mean small potions, but sometimes that was incorrect! We ate a lot and I hate to say had to put a fair bit of rice to waste.
A cultural hub for Asia, the city itself is divided into neighborhoods with strong cultural identity.
Chinatown (itself representing most of east Asia: Thai, Korea, etc) is full of Buddhist temples, traditional medicine, and cheap goods street markets. We had our first and last meals here, including two of the best things we ate all day, Hong Kong rice noodle rolls, and a stir fried ‘carrot cake’ which is actually savory, and something I’d tried to cook before without ever having tried what it was supposed to be.
Arab Street (mostly Turkish, Lebanese) and Haji Lane (Malaysia, Indonesia) are vibrant with colorful murals and organized around the Sultan Mosque, whose musical call to prayer rang out. Not hungry enough for kabab or a plate of noodles, we got a cool, sweet treat, kind of a jelly made of pandan (like a palm leaf) with coconut cream, along with a strange savory Malaysian croquette with noodles inside.
Little India was full of flower markets and Hindu temples, blaring Bollywood tunes from every street corner, and a very communal vibe. Their Tekka Center was not just hawker food but produce and meat. Most of the food was Nathan’s fave, biryani, but thinking that would be too much, we tried a chili shrimp dish. It turned out to be equally massive.
Along the river you find more established brick and mortar restaurants, hotels, convention center, and a lively harbor. It had a couple odd art installations, these pink inflatable 'rocks,' and bright 'flowers' in trees which illuminate at night.
Of course the most popular site in Singapore is the Gardens by the Bay, home of the Supertrees forest, lots of blooming plants, and some local wildlife!
Equally famous, our last stop was after returning to the 'world's best airport,' basically a shopping mall with this beautiful conservatory and massive indoor waterfall.
The airport was cool and all, but for our layover, I'm glad we had the chance to get into the city itself. We got to enjoy all the sites and cheap eats, without the expensive hotels. We walked enough to actually be happy about sitting for the next 14 hours, and to be tired enough for a bit of sleep.