singapore

singapore is one of those places that feels really tropical and one wonders who would go there and create a city as it feels more fit for just going on being a jungle. it's almost constantly very humid and has that sticky jungle feeling while you are amid really high, grey and shinny buildings and you are stepping on concrete and taking public transportation with freezing air-con and going in and out of fancy super modern malls.... it's strange! and that's a nice strangeness :) like a few other asian cities, it is really organized and there is so much information around that you hardly have to ask questions to find your way. as a result you also interact less and people seem to keep to themselves a lot more than in less overly organized cities. but people smile back at you if you smile at them!
for me the most intriguing thing about singapore is that chewing gum is forbidden! strange, isn't it? and if i find that a weird law... i find it even stranger that people have conformed to it - why not start a chiclets revolution?! maybe bring in international resources to fight for the right of chewing gum?!
anyway, the best in singapore were the food courts :D there you can find cuisine from china, malasya, india, thailand, vietnam, korea... all of the best food in the world - excellent!
of course for me, personally, the very best of singapore was visiting sara (obrigada for everything sara!). sara was the perfect host as we devoted the great part of our time to chating :) (and sara, i think that was the reason for the sore throats as mine got way better as i traveled a bit into malaysia and didn't have your great company to chat away!)
another highlight of my singapore days was the hot flow yoga class (thanks for that sara!). the class happened on the 23rd floor of a fancy building and we had a great view and a funny teacher :) great experience! halfway through the class i realized that the room being heated up at 40 degrees meant that it wasn't much warmer than outside!
leaving singapore was easy and straightforward and when i boarded the bus to melaka i bumped into a portuguese couple! maybe because me and sara chatted till late every night in singapore i didn't feel like talking to them. and if i don't tell people i'm portuguese, people usually won't tell that's where i come from. so i kept incognito :)