tl;dr Traditional Singapore breakfast and learned about the city of Singapore, saw some art and some otters as well – 4 activities
Activity 1 – Kaya Toast (Traditional Singapore Breakfast):
Kaya is a type of coconut based jam and its pretty tasty (as I found out). So, after much time googling where to get the best traditional breakfast, I found Ah Seng (Hai Namm) coffee. Well, I didn’t find it…someone else did and I found their post. This place was really tough to find because its on the second level of a hawker market. After looking for about 20 minutes and having started to look for backup places, I finally found someone to ask. I ordered what’s called a “set.” Basically you get soft boiled eggs, kaya toast, and coffee. Many places have gone above and beyond the basic white bread toast with Kaya by using such things as buns, ciabatta, multigrain, but this place offered french toast. Of course I had to get french toast, plus the chef suggested it.
Sure enough, it was delicious. Shout out to mom for giving me a little pack of tissues for my trip…not all places have napkins and I definitely needed some after this meal.
Activity 2 – Singapore City Gallery:
The Singapore City Gallery is part of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (basically city planning). This place was awesome!!!! First off, in the lobby of the building, there were architectural models from students with descriptions. It was interesting to see how many of them were environmentally friendly and focused on re-using existing structures.
For example, there were a few designs for a using oil rigs as prisons (Deep Water Purgatory)
Others, covered innovative living spaces, parks, etc.
After strolling through the ~100 models, I went upstairs to the museum. I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to city planning and architecture – I just find it so incredilby amazing and interesting. A focal point of the museum is sustainability (which follows what I had previously seen at other exhibits). Singapore is unique in that it is a City-State island. The city plan for Singapore is hugely important to the future health of the city. A few highlights:
- Singapore created space deep under the surface to store military ammunition. This allowed Singapore to reclaim the land and buffer land to use for non-military purposes. So yes, walking around Singapore, you could be hundreds of feet above missiles and bombs
- Singapore has claimed land from the water, but can only do this in select areas moving forward due to the importance of its role in the global shipping industry
- Many of the buildings in Singapore have greenery (think trees, grass, bushes, etc.) to help lower the temperature – it gets hot in Singapore
- The museum has a model of downtown Singapore that captures minute details of each building
I also read a quote that I think is awesome:
I left the museum and decided to take a picture with the logo of the URA. The person I ask to take it (he was standing there and I didn’t feel like getting my selfie stick out) is actually on his way to the museum. His first question for me (before “where are you from?”) was “Are you a city planner?” Of course I’m not…but just shows you the nerdity (new word?).
Activity 3 – David Hockney Special Exhibit:
David Hockney is a British artist that had a special exhibit at the STPI. My sister has a poster of his art…so I went to the exhibit with the hopes of finding her a souvenir (first stop on my trip and I could check-off a box? Awesome). Turns out there was no real gift shop, but the art was nice.
Activity 4 – Lunch at SPRMRKT
I was in the Robertson’s Quay area and decided to try out a restaurant that seemed to be a new-comer to the scene, but already had a substantial following. SPRMRKT is actually a supermarket that opened up a restaurant. Had smoked salmon avocado salad for an early lunch. On the way back to the hostel, however, I saw otters (6 or 7) swimming in the river. I stood along the bank and watched them for about 5 minutes. During this time I saw them dive into the water and come back with fish in their mouth. Very cool experience…and im sure the other people who stopped walking to watch would agree.
Andrew's Activities 