Stuff your Eyes with Wonder

October 20th 2016

10:15 — The Alarm goes beeeeep

Unfortunately, the objectively perfect wake-up time of 10:04 was too early for Nils.
That's not true, we were planning for 10:00 originally — it's just that Jan is a psychopath with no regard for the natural order of things.

We are still incredibly tired, but we do try to adjust our sleep-wake-cycle to the environment. When we sleepily head out of our room towards breakfast, there is classical music playing from a record player in the living room that Jan expertly classifies as 'maybe expressionist'.
We move on to the LRT station, which is the light rail train that connects us to the main metro system in small cars on elevated tracks weaving in between the housing complexes. Every time we pass by a window front particularly closely, the windows of the train fog up to maintain the resident's privacy, which continues to fascinate us both time and time again.
Our first stop today is the National Museum of Singapore, where there is a lot to learn about the history of Singapore from ninth century to colonial times and Japanese occupation up to the modern-day city.
Additionally, the lower floor is home to an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art, which Jan is especially excited for (hear the irony? — Next time I'll drop him off at Småland or something...).
(I'd really like to be there instead...)
From the museum we walk about 300m into the jungle — which really is the Fort Canning Park, but it looks enough like a jungle to us.
Originally we planned to visit the Zoo today, too, but time is running out for that, so instead we check out the other side of Marina Bay. Here I spontaneously start the photography series 'Posing Asians' before we get something to eat in one of the so-called Hawker Centres (that's the Food Courts that Jan already mentioned). If you find yourself in Singapore at some point, you can't miss that! The variety of different foods is huge, we rarely have any idea what exactly we are eating, but everything tastes great.
After sunset we sit down at the edge of the bay and marvel at the incredible skyline lighting up in front of us. And just as we are about done taking in the view, a spectacular light (, water, and fire) show begins at the opposite end of the bay. While you might not find the world's tallest water fountains here, the light effects are on an entirely different level.
After that spectacle is over, we move on back towards the Gardens by the Bay to take a look at the Supertrees at night — and once again, we are in awe of what we find: We arrive just in time for a light show with music that makes the trees come alive, surpassing even the show at the bay.

Asiatenraten

at the National Museum
"Look, those tourists over there — where are they from?"
"Hmm sure don't look Chinese."
"And we would've recognized spoken Korean, no?"
"Mhmm-hmm"
"It's not Thais, either."
"So that pretty much only leaves Japanese, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, look, she's got a cat backpack — checks out."

We spot a JTB tag on a backpack and some quick internet research confirms: They are indeed Japanese. It's a game we like to play here as we tour the city — and by now we are pretty good at Asiatenraten (or at least we think we are).