Singapore -- Me Love You Long Time

We've just left Changi Airport in Singapore, now bound for Australia. We have the exit row to ourselves and plenty of space to stretch out -- but it's one of those days where we are just glad to be flying, given the shutdown of European skies. We met a British woman at the cactus garden rooftop bar at Changi Airport (you quickly see why this airport wins every award on the planet) who had been in transit for 4 days going from London to her home in Thailand. She appears to be one of the lucky ones....the queues at the Air France and British Airways desks were massive, loads of people trying to get to Europe and clearly going nowhere. We are lucky to be heading the opposite way.

It was a brilliant 3 weeks in Asia, and Singapore was just the way to end it. It's just good living there – friendly, clean, safe, English speaking, and some of the best street food on Earth. We ate and drank our way through the hawker food centres (certainly the theme of our Asian time), lounged by the pool, and wandered through some parks and neighborhoods we missed on our last visit 14 months ago. In my mind, Singapore is a perfect example of today's Asia. Old Chinese shophouses sit underneath giant skyscrapers, and big BMWs drift by as local workers push wooden carts down the street. The old and the new, living side by side – it's a story being played out across much of the continent. There is also incredible diversity here -- mosques, churches, and Buddhist and Hindu temples share the same neighborhoods, and you see every ethnicity you can imagine on the streets. Of course with that diversity comes the amazing food – best found in the local hawker centres where the dishes run you about $3USD. And unlike some spots in Asia, you can pretty much eat wherever and whatever you want without much thought– food stalls are graded on hygiene (A to D), and Singapore is famous for strict practices. You know, a two year expat assignment here might just give us enough time to hit up all the stalls we wanted to get to. Food for thought.