Hello everyone, JHMedium here, and today we are in Singapore. In this new travel series, I am in my favorite part of the world outside of home, Southeast Asia. In this episode, we're going to explore the three elements that I think make Singapore such an incredible country: The multicultural society, the mouthwatering cuisine, and Singapore's most famous label, Garden City. But of course, we must start with everyone's favorite thing, food at a hawker center. For our first meal in Singapore, we are here at the Maxwell Food Centre in Chinatown, and of course, we are here to try their Tian Tian Hainan Chicken. We also got some char kway teow and a fresh coconut. Let's dig in! Just the chicken by itself is already delicious, so tender. But we have to try it with the sauce. Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay both had high praise for this chicken rice. I mean, it's definitely really delicious. But is it a lot better than the other chicken rice I've had? I don't think so. Now let's try the char kway teow. Spicer than I thought. It has that char taste and wok hay aroma. After feasting our stomach, it's time to feast our eyes with a Singapore city walk. Immediately I notice all the colors scattered around the city. Rainbow buildings, grand murals, and the unique architecture that make up the cityscape. From the qubba of the mosques, to the gods of the Hindu temples, to the rows of multicolored Peranakan houses. This city seems to be a blend of styles and cultures smashed into one, but yet, none of it feels out of place. We are at Kampong Glam, which is a Malay and Muslim quarter in Singapore, and behind me is the Sultan Mosque. Surprisingly, this is actually my first time visiting or even seeing a mosque in person. It turns out we are here during prayer time so non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the mosque. A little sad that we cannot explore the interior, but even from the outside, this is surely one of the most beautiful buildings in Singapore. For the second stop of our multicultural city walk, we made our way to Little India. The whole feel of the neighborhood is completely different from Kamping Glam. As we are here just a week before Deepavali, the streets are covered with decorations for the Festival of Light. Since it's scorching hot outside, we have to go indoors to have a snack and a cold drink. This is Tekka Centre, the biggest market in Little India. We ordered a chicken biryani and this drink called chendol, which is a mixture of coconut milk, palm sugar and pandan jelly. The biryani was, of course, delicious. But, man, that chendol. I don't think I've ever had a drink this good before. We seriously have to find more of this in other markets. I have to have this again. A Singapore city walk is not complete without checking out the gardens. In 1967, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew introduced his vision for Singapore to be a garden city. From the rain trees standing nearly ten stories tall, to the literal forest inside a modern hotel, to the massive Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay. instead of gardens in a city, Singapore really feels like a city built inside a giant garden. The Supertree is actually a fifteen story tall vertical garden housing over 200 plant species. Just like plants during photosynthesis, the Supertrees can also harvest solar energy to power the garden. For our next stop in Gardens by the Bay, We have made it to the Cloud Forest, which is now an Avatar themed exhibit. Whereas the main garden is free, special exhibits like the Cloud Forest need an additional ticket. And actually it's quite expensive at S$53 for foreigners. But I think the Cloud Forest is well worth the price. Much like many places in Singapore, the Cloud Forest is a vertical garden, a garden that looks like it's floating in the clouds. Since this is now an Avatar themed exhibit, we're going to Avatarize ourselves and see what we look like if we were in the movie. This Cloud Forest is really stunning. But to be honest, I think if you remove all the Avatar features like these fake Avatar plants, it will be even better. I can definitely see why Cloud Forest can be compared to Pandora in Avatar with all the exotic plants and floating mountain like design. But come on, I don't think it's completely necessary. The biodome itself is already well worth the visit. We finished the Cloud Forest, and now we're inside the Flower Dome. And honestly, it's a little bit lame. I'm sorry to say. but the Flower Dome just feels extra artificial to me. Yes, all of these domes are manmade, maybe it's the layout or the current exhibit but it just feels a little messy and underwhelming. Anyways, let's move on to something better. At night the Supertrees put on a beautiful light show, brightening up the garden with vibrant colors and music. Day two in Singapore, and before it gets too hot in the day, we are at another must visit spot in the city. I'm with my friend Johnson, and we are at the Singapore's Botanic Garden. This botanic garden is so well protected that it's considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are so many different animals in this botanic garden. There's lizards, there's otters, and also for some reason, there are chickens. After eating some roasted Hainan chicken and chicken wings for lunch, The weather is now too hot to stay outdoors. Thankfully, there are many indoor activities to escape the heat, like the National Gallery. The exhibits are interesting, but personally, I'm more fascinated with the architecture. They somehow combined the former Supreme Court and City Hall into one new building with a glass cover in the middle. This is a great symbol for Singapore's past European history, with its current ultra modern image. We are at the Newton Food Centre and we're going to try two of it's most famous dishes, Hokkien mee and carrot cake. First up is the Hokkien mee. I feel like this dish definitely tastes a lot better than it looks. I mean they hid all the prawns and the garnishes underneath the noodles when we got it, so it looked a little bit sad. But once you mix it all up, it's actually quite delicious. Next up, we have the carrot cake. So you know the dim sum dish, luo bo gao (raddish cake), basically this is that but chopped up and fried with egg. It's something very familiar to me made in a completely unfamiliar way. Singapore food is fusion Asian food. Nice. As far as hawker centres go, Newton is very overpriced. We did come back one more time, since we stayed close to here. But continue watching to see which hawker centre is my favorite. Day three in Singapore, and today we're taking the bus a little further away from downtown to the Katong neighborhood. First up, breakfast at the most well-known laksa shop here. We got a seafood laksa and a chicken laksa. I like how all the vermicelli noodles are all chopped up so you can eat this entire dish with a spoon. That rich coconut flavor and the seafood paste, just wow! While it is a little bit spicy, the sweet coconut flavor balances it out. I know this restaurant is made famous by people like Gordon Ramsay, but like think even without that, this is one of the best laksas I've ever had. That was a terrific bowl of laksa. I mean these restaurants made famous by celebrities, they're usually a bit overrated, or people say that it's not as good as it used to be. Well, at least for someone who tried it for the first time, I still love it. The main things to see in Katong are the beautiful Peranakan houses on Joo Chiat Road and Koon Seng Road. Peranakan is the Malay term for Straits-born. Also called Baba-Nyonya, the Peranakan have Chinese fathers who settled in Nanyang and local mothers. These buildings here have a blend of Chinese and Western influences. But before we could admire the buildings some more, the weather had other plans. Without any warning, the rain started pouring down. Typical Singapore weather for you. So now we're just waiting here until the rain dies down a little. The rain did not get softer, so we found another indoor activity, the National Museum. Unfortunately for us, half of the museum is under construction. so only one permanent exhibit is open. But here, we learned a lot about Singapore's history, which definitely helped me in writing the script for this video. After a short visit to the National Museum since half of it is under construction, we are here at Fort Canning Park, only to realize that the famous photo tunnel is also under construction until next year. But nevertheless, this park is still really beautiful. As the sun is starting to set, it's time for dinner. We are back at Chinatown. And as we enter the market, look what I found, more chendol. But this time in an ice dessert form instead of a drink. I think this is actually the more common way to eat chendol. Dessert before dinner, why not? Dinner today, we found two really good looking dishes. We got half pork satay and half chicken satay. This is eggplant with some minced meat. Soft but with a really nice char on it, and the sauce makes it even better. Now let's try the eggplant. This is actually a common dish we make at home, but not like this. Here, the clay pot makes the heat distribute more evenly. This makes the braised eggplant extra soft and delicious. I can eat many bowls of rice with it. It is our last day here in Singapore, and we are at the Sentosa Boardwalk. Originally, we planned to go to Universal Studios Singapore. But then because of the weather, we decided against it. Because I don't think we can stay outdoors in this heat for the entire day. Nevertheless, I think we're still going to check out the Sentosa area. But first, we have to try a typical Singapore breakfast. Kaya toast with eggs. It's so sweet, wow. But this is for sure better than just regular butter. I love everything with coconut in it. There are of course, many activities on Sentosa, such as the aquarium, the casino, Universal Studios, as well as shops and entertainment. But I guess for me, This is more of a trip to see what it's like 15 years since I last came here. But also to enjoy the ocean view. For our last hawker meal in Singapore we are at the Tiong Bahru Food Centre. I got some Hainanese curry rice with curry chicken, cabbage and fried tofu. Rika got some fishball soup and some mixed noodles. I'm going to try a spoon of the curry rice first. This is delicious, the curry is not overpowering. A little bit spicy, but mild flavor. And you can choose your own side dishes, which is always great. This plate is only S$4. How are the mixed noodles? They are quite similar to Xiamen mixed noodles, but not exactly the same. You can taste the vinegar and chilies inside. Fun fact about Singaporean food. There are many dishes in Singapore with region names in front such as Hainanese curry rice, Hainanese chicken rice, Hokkien mee, which are all undoubtedly Singaporean dishes, even if their origin can be traced back to other places. But there's one dish I really like in Singaporean restaurants outside of Singapore called xing zhou chao mi fen, which means Singaporean noodles. We tried to find it here, but it turns out that dish is not from Singapore at all. It's actually a dish made by Hong Kong people to serve in Hong Kong restaurants using some flavors of Singapore. So that's really surprising to me. I know we only tried a few dishes, but I think overall, Tiong Bahru is my favorite hawker centre on this trip. Affordable price, clean, fewer tourists, nobody touting or badgering us to try their stall, and of course, delicious food. After lunch, we briefly checked out the Asian Civilisations Museum. Not my favorite, but it has some cool artifacts from different Asian societies. Now it's finally time to visit arguably Singapore's most iconic destination, Marina Bay. And yeah, the Merlion is under construction, so we cannot see the symbol of Singapore. How unfortunate. But for me, a diehard Formula One fan, the most exciting place in Singapore is this, the Marina Bay Street Circuit. We got to take a picture with the only man to beat Red Bull this year. Here we can see the final corner of the Marina Bay Circuit. And it looks like they're still tearing part of the grandstands down. But the pit building over here looks like a permanent structure. Yeah it's already a couple of months after the race, but it's a street circuit, so all the corners are all still here to see. As a Formula One fan, it's so nice to be able to see all of this up close, to be able to walk on the pit lane, walk on the actual circuit. Marina Bay at night really is something else. It's crazy to believe that when I last came to Singapore as a kid, nothing in this view existed. Marina Bay Sands is one of the most impressive and luxurious buildings i've ever seen. My favorite part is definitely the Apple Store, that looks like it's floating on Marina Bay, even though it's actually connected to the mall underground. This really is a night to remember. And before heading back, there is one last surprise, the Spectra fountain light show. No trip in Singapore is complete without a visit to the Jewel. So before our flight in the afternoon, we're going to explore the best airport in the world. Top tip, check if your airline can do early check in at the Jewel, so you don't need to carry your luggages all day. Opened in 2019, the Jewel at Changi, much like the rest of Singapore, is a nature themed complex. So when travelers enter and leave the country we're once again reminded of Singapore's image as Garden City. Jewel's centerpiece, The Rain Vortex is the largest indoor waterfall in the world. and this thing is a true spectacle. There is everything you can possibly want in this airport. We sent our postcards away in Terminal 2, and now we're taking the Skytrain to Terminal 3. This train actually goes through the Jewel next to the waterfall. At Terminal 3, you have to check out The Slide. Our half day tour at Changi passed by really quickly, but now it's time to say goodbye to Singapore. When I told people I'm going to Singapore as part of my world trip, most ask, why? Isn't Singapore small and boring? Small, for sure. But to be honest, what impressed me the most about Singapore are not the many sites to visit. It is instead its city identity and image. In a world where big modern cities start to look exactly the same, this country has somehow created a look that's distinctively Singapore. All the nature around you lets your mind and body feel relaxed even when walking through a bustling metropolis. The culture here makes me feel like I'm in China, Malaysia and India all at once. And of course the food, well, that's surely some of the best in the world. Obviously, all of this is just my observation and what I learn as a traveler in Singapore. At least from an outsider point of view, Singapore really feels like the perfect city model. I'm sure there are many negatives as well. I can think of three from the top of my head, the price, the cost of living, and how much money you need to survive here. But jokes aside, no country, no city is perfect. And the heat prevents me from ever wanting to live here long term. I've been lucky enough to live in some of the biggest cities in the world, Shanghai, New York, Hong Kong. But somehow, Singapore is still the one that impressed me the most. Thank you, Singapore. And thank you to my buddy Johnson for hosting us. See you soon. And now it's time to go catch our flight. Comment down below where you think we are headed next. And be sure to subscribe for more travel videos coming soon. Bye bye.
