#1: Hong Lim Food Centre & MacRitchie Reservoir, Singapore
Hawker markets, tropical downpours, and the nuance of modernity.
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’s 52 Places to Go on Your Sabbatical. If you missed our introduction, you can find it here:#0: 52 Places to Go On Your Sabbatical Introducing sab•ba•tique
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We chose to start our sabbatical in Singapore by default given its standing as the most convenient Southeast Asian port of entry when flying from Los Angeles. 16 hours later, you’re there! And there is jetlagged in your hotel room on the top floor of a funky modern “tech” mall, across the street from a park named for a British general filled with joggers at 6am.
We wanted to treat day one of our new life chapter gently, but when you’re up and at ‘em so early, bursting with excitement, it’s easier said than done. And no matter the itinerary, you have to eat.
Singapore’s hawker markets are world-renowned for a reason. Every neighborhood has them—large, often multi-story food courts kaleidoscopic with color, taste and smell. The Hong Lim Market, just a few blocks from our hotel, was a big winner. We sampled a number of stalls, including Heng Kee’s curry chicken and the prawn bee hoon (fine vermicelli noodles) stall next door. It was one of the first meals we ate on the trip, and by the end, almost a year later, still held a solid spot in the top 10. Another standout was the ayam buah keluak (chicken, tamarind sauce, and buah keluak nuts—the nuts of a tropical tree endemic to Indonesia and Malaysia, toxic if not prepared properly) from Charlie’s Peranakan Food in the Golden Mile Food Centre. And just about everything we tried in the Seah Im Food Centre, including fried noodle dishes along with lotus root and peanut soup. Total comfort food.
While not a food center, the Little India neighborhood was home to another favorite meal—opened in 1947, Komala Vilas serves delicious dosa and paratha (that we’re still thinking about) among other vegetarian entrees. For breakfast, Ya Kun Kaya Toast is the classic spot for a local favorite: toast slathered with butter and coconut jam and dipped in runny eggs and very dark, very sweet coffee; so nice we ate it twice (along with their sweet mung bean soup).
Between meals, we visited popular sites like Sentosa Island (our tip: head to the slightly more natural southeast Palawan end rather than the big resorts in Siloso), MacRitchie Reservoir (another pro tip: do the whole loop clockwise and don’t miss the lookout towers), and the famed Gardens by the Bay with their iconic Supertrees.
The reservoir was a standout. Perhaps slightly off the tourist track, its park is a buzzing center of local life, with hundreds of runners looping its paths and an equal number of leisure visitors strolling and sitting together. We met our local friend Felix Lee (founder of ADPList) bright and early and right away spotted monkeys; large families of mischievous long-tailed macaques—unfortunately rooting around in the trash but entertaining to observe. The 11km loop trail runs over the lake bank on raised boardwalks before meandering deeper into the forest, where we felt the first raindrops fall. Our hopes of staying dry were dashed within minutes as the drops turned heavy and thick and the sky darkened, turning the trail into pure mud interspersed with ankle-deep puddles.
It’s not a tropical vacation if you don’t, at some point, get caught out in a torrential downpour in the jungle. Thoroughly soaked, we eventually emerged from the rain into hot sunshine as the trail climbed up to a sequence of suspension bridges hanging over the steaming jungle, dotted with lookout points and opportunities to spot banded leaf monkeys (and their babies) hanging out on the forest floor.
We arrived knowing next to nothing about the country, its history, or its culture. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot to learn. We won’t go too deep (most of our visits were only a few days long), but we’ll sprinkle some history throughout our posts. Singapore has long been an important trading port and thus a crossroads of culture and capitalism, the primary forces that have moulded its unique shape and standing on the global stage. (Fort Siloso, a military museum and decommissioned coastal artillery battery on Sentosa Island that we wandered around, has some very life-like mannequins to embody this.)
Even on the first day of our visit, I (Nicky) had the vision in my mind of “Singapore as Disneyland”—a highly produced, polished, and squeaky clean experience where everyone is smiling, but The Mouse is always watching (with a bit of menace?). Little did I know that this metaphor was coined by William Gibson 30 years ago in a famous Wired magazine piece. From conversations we had with locals, it was clear that many Singaporeans believe any governance tradeoffs have been well worth the prosperity, safety, and friendliness afforded citizens and residents. We got the sales pitch for the One Pass, a government program aimed at recruiting international talent with high pay and lots of perks, and on the incredible child-oriented infrastructure (the playgrounds are really something else).
It’s not easy to describe the actual tradeoffs, actually. They’re subtle and frankly probably well worth it. From an American tourist’s point of view, there didn’t seem to be any “punk rock spirit” or cultural edge that has driven so much art and innovation. I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but not obvious as it sometimes is. We visited Clarke Quay, the city’s party and ex-pat district—it left one with the impression of a PG-rated highlight reel of off-the-strip-Vegas, an anywhere-in-the-world pub street, and a high-school dance. Sex was unequivocally not in the air. It makes you wonder if everyone’s secretly crossing the border to Malaysia to unbutton, away from the ubiquitous CCTV cameras.
On our last night there, I took a solo walk while Kira took a work call (oh yeah, we were hustling from day one!). Along the way, I crossed under a bridge and came across a group of kids skating and making all sorts of ruckus. A few blocks later, I passed a large group of drunken men who seemed like immigrant workers. Neither fit the image the government is trying to project, but exemplified the chaos and nuance of modernity. What is modernity if not lessons of the past piled atop each other and decorated with a fresh coat of paint?
Singapore glistens with its fresh coat(s), beckoning to come, stay, and thrive. We did the first and can’t wait to come back. Maybe we’ll stay next time. 🍤
— Nicky & Kira
Next week — #2: Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia
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