HK, as a comparison, has preserved its character and charm, with life on the streets and many unique neighborhoods.
Singapore happens when you think SimCity is realistic: the primacy of the automobile, the belief that one additional Starbucks is always better than one marginal tree, the instinct that any public meeting must be broken up, unless it’s a queueueueueue (a long queue) at an Apple Store, etc.
It’s completely identical to Dubai or any of the Gulf metropolis, only with rain. The #1 Thing to Do in Singapour is taking the bridge to Malaysia, and never coming back. They think they can demolish the brutalism, but it’s already too late: it must be in the water supply. Anything built after ca 1980 is still brutalism, only with glass. When you get to Singapore, you take a $50 rise to the city center, and wonder why you are still in the airport.
Singapore is what happens when you don’t allow creative people the occasional drag of a joint: they take revenge, and make you live in it.
To the people down-voting it because you disagree, please rescind your vote and supply a rebuttal in words.
The worst is being downvoted for the dissemination of fact, ideally supported by sources.
Some lesser smart members of this fine forum seem to even downvote comments like this if they dare to go against the party line.
Then again, and as the moderators outline correctly, it's often auto-corrective and I, for one, upvote comments, which are unfairly downvoted. No matter their merits.
Edit : Clarification
My prejudices were not quite reflected in what I actually saw, since I came totally prepared to hate the living bejeezes out of this place.
It's not quite as black and white.
What impressed me most was the garden at the bay. Where they invested a cool billion to build a garden on the most expensive (reclaimed) real estate in the world.
The food is fantastic too.
I understand why my parents loved it. It's instant asia without the hangover you get in places like Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur.
That said, and while I didn't totally hate it a weekend is fine and I don't really need to go back.
The comparison with Dubai seems apt. If you're not into shopping malls it's mostly a rather drab place.
And there's always the slight undercurrent of fascism, which I intensly disliked. I got the strong impression that if you don't go with the flow you're a pariah and a social outcast.
It also doesn't help that they charge roughly S$ 20 (and up) for a bloody beer at any place, which is halfway in the city center. It's a place where happy hour really makes sense.
So, if I want a huge city with unmatched shopping oportunities, which has still a lot to offer in terms of liveability I rather chose Tokyo.
But then, I'm a bad judge of cities since I find comfort in the chaos of Delhi.
I did like how walkable Singapore is.
HN generally doesn't like 'inflammatory' comments. It's part of both the culture and policies.
I don't think that's entirely fair. The way I like to describe it is that Singapore is Asian-Sydney and Hong Kong is Asian-New York. All are world-class cities, but Hong Kong and New York have deep and diverse layers of culture and subculture that are immediately apparent to the most casual of observer. Sydney and Singapore have plenty of depth which is easy for residents to see but for tourists it isn't nearly so obvious.
(Disclaimer: I live in Sydney.)
My abiding memory of Singapore is of visiting after about five months without leaving Shanghai and feeling like I was communing with nature. Everything seemed to be either a road, a building, a tree or a park. And there was a lot of park. One day I left my hotel at eight or nine and just walked until I got to the coast. It was amazing and there is no way to do anything similar in the equivalent area of Shanghai. For six months afterwards I would occasionally think of what a hideous wasted opportunity Pudong was in terms of urban planning. Thirty years ago it was farmland and now it’s city but it’s the worst kind of horrible car centric two lanes each way hellhole without adequate parks.
When I got to Singapore in the airport I saw the slogan, “Not a garden city, a city in a garden”. I obviously thought it was total bullshit but it wasn’t, it was amazing. To be honest I’d rather live in Hong Kong because the food and hiking are better but Singapore is still a great, great place to visit.
I am not a citizen of Singapore but I am a resident. There are plenty of valid criticisms to be made but I don't recognise the city you are describing. I feel perhaps you never stepped out of River Valley.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_Entitlement
[2] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/not-a-con...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)
My advice is to avoid going back to the same places too often. There is an endless list of great places to discover; Singapore might be small relative to Earth, but it's still huge relative to one lifetime.
Their metro lines have announcements in 4 languages, and you can even get away without speaking English as a middleman langage. Majority of the people speak at least a little of other languages. It's always a mix of languages (Chinese, Malay/Indonesian, Tamil, Sinhalese, etc).
It still has to mix with the European culture though. There are far more Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, and Australian influence.
I lived there for 2 years. It's a fun place but it can get on your nerves at times. It's hot, crowded, everything (other than local food) is expensive, and the people can be petty and dogmatic. It's growing rapidly which is affecting racial and social cohesion. It's very much a "follow the rules and you'll be ok" place to live.
Are there any recommendations that is not crowded or too hot? The older I grow, the more I uncomfortable I am becoming with crowds