Small Island, Big Plans: Singapore

We walked by Chinatown and Little India, then moved quickly past Orchard Road on our way to look at downtown, before making our way around Marina Bay, all in just a few minutes. We identified the central arteries linking these neighborhoods, dotted with high-rises, and viewed the major parks and waterways that are integrated into the urban environment. Seconds later, we gaped at the impressive display of architectural marvels, from the Marina Bay Sands, to the Oasia Hotel, to the National Stadium.

OK, Singapore is small, but not that small.

But here, at the offices of the country’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Singapore City Gallery and its impressive detailed model of the entire island at a scale of 1/1000 allowed us to saunter through the country’s streets and buildings with ease and admiration in just minutes. The Lego-building children deep inside of us were jumping for joy.

Daniel Burnham, the legendary Chicago architect and urban planner, famously said, “Make no little plans.” Singapore (originally Singapura, Sanskrit for “Lion City”)—a country, city-state, island, and expensive cocktail, that is only slightly larger than the Windy City—has taken that moniker to heart.

Thoughtful, long-term planning has taken Singapore from an important British trading hub on the maritime Silk Road to one of the busiest ports in the world today. Planning has also given the city an impressive arsenal of infrastructure, from its train system and airport (omg, Changi!), to its civic amenities and numerous parks and museums. And planning has given Singapore something that we can only hope to achieve here in California: a significant amount of affordable housing. Over the course of our three days on this island nation, we admired these engineering feats and works of art along with our friend from college, Ming Siu (who had also joined us in Malaysia), and Karen’s cousin, Hazel. In this way, our time in Singapore felt a lot like home—hanging with friends and family, walking around a modern city, and eating. A lot.

The make-no-little-plans thing is evident from the moment one arrives. Singapore’s Changi airport is enormous, beautiful, and—as expected given the country’s reputation—exceptionally well run. Security is conducted at each gate, both for those getting on a plane, as well as for those coming off it. Since every flight is an international flight, they take advantage of this literal gateway into the country to control for what comes in and out. Their notoriously strict rules are immediately obvious—some positive (no guns allowed in the entire country whatsoever), and some more intrusive on personal freedoms (can’t bring in chewing gum, but the city is exceptionally clean, so we’ll deal). Changi also offers a pleasant sendoff when flying out, since, despite being one of the busiest airports in the world, there are no centralized security lines to stand in for hours. That gave us more time to explore the hub of the airport, the Jewel. Even Daniel Burnham could not have fathomed such a colossal structure when designing the Chicago World’s Fair. The Jewel is a giant biosphere with a massive waterfall/rain vortex at its center and monorails zipping through it on their way to various airport terminals, making it feel like a cross between The Jetsons and the movie Avatar. It’s weird to have such a popular attraction located at an airport, but in fact, we were the odd ones out—actual travelers lugging our packs around the Jewel’s tiered stairways, snapping photos of the waterfall, while many others were there just hanging out, spending their Saturday night at the airport. The Jewel is more than just a portal that connects us to other universes; it is also a mall. Like its neighbor Malaysia, Singapore has a ton of malls (despite it being kicked out of the Malaysian Federation in the 1960s, the two countries, connected by a bridge, have a lot in common). We spent our last meal in Asia at one of the many East meets West encounters that happen in Singapore, at the popular Taiwanese restaurant chain with mall locations throughout the western United States, Din Tai Fung. The Jewel has everything.

At the City Gallery, we learned that much of Changi is actually erected on reclaimed land built out into the Johor Strait. About a quarter of the country’s current land area is reclaimed, a process that dates all the way back to the city’s founding by British imperialist Stamford Raffles. Since the country is so small and physically constrained, good urban planning is the key to maximizing use of the land they do have. Therefore, they have a master plan for the entire country, on display at the exhibit, looking out 20, 30, even 40 years down the road. A different large scale model and light show showcased these plans: all the subway lines, parks, housing, and high-rises that will be built in the future. (Fun fact: our current landlord in San Francisco worked on a subway tunnel project in Singapore, and confirmed how far in advance they are planning. He told us that a transit official asked him to relocate two specific columns in their station design, since another subway line would eventually run through there… in thirty years!) The exhibit also had wonky urban planning games that visitors could play, such as designing the ideal streetscape to promote a “car-lite” society. In it, one gets points for designing one less parking space, which frees up more land for usable open space for residents…every square foot matters in Singapore.

In fact, more landfill is still being created to accommodate the country’s growth. Large scale developments have been built out of these endeavors, including many of the industrial port areas that make the country such a major trading hub. But significant parts of the central city are also founded on reclaimed land, including the Marina Bay district, laid out by the renowned Chinese American architect (and MIT alum) I.M. Pei. The signature feature of Marina Bay is Gardens by the Bay. Another Avatar-like creation, Gardens by the Bay is a beautiful park with trippy futuristic features that have a bit of a designed-for-a-Mars-colony quality to it, with manicured landscapes, multiple biodomes, and a floating baby (which clearly represents the different gravitational force on the Red Planet). Not unlike our own design of Kauai Mini Golf, it features different gardens that represent the different peoples of Singapore, including Chinese gardens, Malay gardens, Colonial gardens, and then, out of the blue, a stand of magnificent exotic bulbous trees in an open meadow. However, the most impressive trees are, like the land beneath them, manmade. The “Supertrees,” as they are called, stand 150 feet tall, with trunks covered in colorful plants, wiry appendages for branches, and a looping suspended skyway connecting them, allowing well-heeled tourists to go up to the canopy level and hug the trees. The Supertrees felt a little like the types of replacements we’ll be creating when there are no longer such things as trees in the future, but they are beautiful nonetheless. At night, the Supertrees light up and twinkle to the tempo of classical and operatic music in a “Garden Rhapsody.” (Of all the underwhelming light shows we’ve seen on our trip thus far, this was surely the most underwhelming of the bunch. Sorry, Supertrees.)

Adjacent to the park is the highly recognizable Marina Bay Sands casino and hotel. In what must be a statement on sea level rise, the building looks like a boat got stuck on top of it, lending credence to the idea that Gardens by the Bay is a dry run for building that colony on Mars. The Las Vegas-style hotel cost $6 billion dollars to build, has an absurd 2,500 rooms, and holds many “world’s largest” titles, including world’s largest casino atrium and world’s largest cantilever (the boat).

Across the country, the Singapore Botanic Gardens are also perfectly cropped and manicured. Strolling its outdoor bandshell, lakes, frilly palms, and striking orchids with Karen’s cousin Hazel, we found ourselves amongst locals enjoying their evening just as New Yorkers revel in Central Park—jogging, picnicking, birdwatching (though here, we were monitor lizard-watching!). Needless to say, the Botanic Gardens are also meticulously planned, with clear wayfinding, informative placards, and clean public bathrooms.

Finally, a more humble and less obvious planning effort—at least to the outside world—is Singapore’s housing development. Ming Siu, aware of Michael’s work in affordable housing, took us to see Toa Payoh, one of the first “new towns” built by the Housing Development Board, the agency responsible for housing production in the country. At the HDB headquarters in Toa Payoh, another impressive planning exhibit surprised us—they proudly honor and showcase urban planning so much! This exhibit told the history and future of Singapore’s public housing development. Essentially, there was a housing shortage in the 1960s right after independence; Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s founder, recognized the severity of the issue, and then, uh, you know, did something about it. Imagine that! In just three years, HDB built 30,000 housing units by creating brand new towns such as Toa Payoh from scratch, which alleviated the immediate severity of the crisis. But they didn’t stop there, as they recognized that on a small island with finite real estate, a lack of affordable housing would continue to be a problem, so they, uh, you know, built more. To date, over one million apartments have been built by the government, housing over 80% of Singapore’s population! Even more amazing, 90% of those living in public housing own their flats, giving the country one of the highest homeownership rates in the world, all subsidized by the government.

Toa Payoh, part of the first generation of new towns, is basically a whole lot of high-rises that all look alike, stretching as far as the eye can see—effective, but utilitarian. However, there is a lively town square centered on a mix of office buildings, a bus terminal (with a subway station), and the all-important hawker food stalls. But the next generation of new towns, which HDB is continuing to build today even though 80% of the country lives in public housing already, look incredible. Each have significant amounts of open space, living up to Singapore’s nickname of “The Garden City.” After a few hours of geeking out at all the cool renderings and models of the new new towns, we grabbed a delicious bite to eat at said hawker center, one of the many we would visit in the city.

Of course, there are downsides of having such strong centralized planning authority. In some ways, Singapore’s downtown felt sterile and artificial. The streets lined with old shophouses had the potential to be attractive and historically unique, but many are covered with a glass canopy to help protect pedestrians from the oppressive heat and monsoon rains. While a useful feature, the canopies made us feel like we were walking through another planning exhibit, and not the actual city itself. Clarke Quay, a strip of bars along the Singapore River that was bustling at night, was similarly covered, giving it a mall-like feel, and one not nearly as impressive as the Jewel. Singapore’s ethnic neighborhoods also felt contrived. It was as if the planners said, “let’s put the Indians over here, and the Malays over there.” Each of these neighborhoods has a cultural center to explain their ethnic history on the island and their contributions to the country, which is nice and well-intentioned, but it also comes across as the government wiping their hands clean of other pressing ethnic issues, such as the steep inequality between Singaporeans and the migrant laborers who work in the service industries (though there is a progressive policy to keep the public housing diverse on both a racial and income level, which is positive).

We spent much of our time in the city walking around these neighborhoods. Chinatown, which seems a bit redundant given that 75% of the population is ethnically Chinese, features the formulaic entry gates and lanterns strung across the street like you might see in a U.S. Chinatown (once again, often under glass-covered streets). Little India was colorful, with the standard shophouse and mural fare that we saw in Malaysian cities. But unlike in Ipoh or Georgetown, there wasn’t a whole lot of activity on the streets. There was no street food, no outdoor markets, and little hustle bustle on the roads in general. It’s possible that the coronavirus had something to do with this, because even though the country was not in lockdown while we were there, residents were careful to avoid going out unnecessarily (which helped them stem bad outbreaks early on). Still, at times, we weren’t sure if we were in a real neighborhood or inside Epcot’s World Showcase. Arab Street, the main drag of the Muslim quarter Kampong Glam, felt similarly manufactured in its peddling of tchotchkes. We walked around the trendy neighborhood with Hazel, passing traditional Malay shops—you know, breweries and tattoo parlors. We quickly hurried past the tourist traps and settled into Zam Zam, where we ate murtabak, a massive pancake stuffed with meat and vegetables. We did see some impressive architecture on our stroll through in the city though, from the literally green Oasia Hotel and the Park Royal building, to the amazing National Gallery, reconceived out of the old Supreme Court house and old City Hall.

After much wandering, we finally found the action when we stumbled into the Mustafa Centre on a search for a new iPad keyboard. Now this is the Southeast Asia we know! The massive, blocks-long department store that basically takes up half the country sells everything, with clothing, shoes, electronics, and food piled high in all directions. Everything, that is, except a good iPad keyboard, so we somehow left emptyhanded. We later heard from Ming Siu that after we left Singapore, hundreds of coronavirus cases in the country were traced back to the Mustafa Centre’s tight aisles, so we’re thankful that we didn’t get infected while there (as far as we know).

Perhaps the quieter street scene is the tradeoff for a lively hawker scene. If life in Singapore revolves around food, then the hawker centers are the de facto centers of life. Hawker centers are basically food courts where street food stalls are located, not in the streets, but rather, in a regulated, organized, and clean setting, i.e. very Singaporean. Some hawker centers have hundreds of small stalls stretching up and down multiple levels, serving mainly Chinese, Malay, and Indian food, but other Asian cuisines such as Japanese or Korean, and even some Western foods, can also be found. All are busy with both tourists and Singaporeans of all ages, seemingly all the time. Hawker stalls are not just important cultural centers, but they are also where the best food in the city can be found!

The Chinatown Complex is such a maze of hundreds of stalls that we almost couldn’t find the original Hawker Chan, the cheapest Michelin Star restaurant in the world. For only $2.80 Singapore Dollars (about $2 USD), one can enjoy a heaping portion of soy sauce chicken and rice; it is only $3.30 SD for roast pork and noodles. The chicken is tender and delicious, but the siu yuk (crispy Cantonese roast pork belly) is mouth-wateringly fantastic, and was well worth the hour wait. (We got two of each, or four meals, just for the two of us, because why not when it’s a $3 Michelin dish?) Other hawker stalls were similarly satisfying: we devoured Singapore’s famous poached chicken rice, Malaysian rojak (mixed fruit and vegetable salad), Fujianese popiah (spring rolls), and Korean fried chicken at the Maxwell Hawker Center; a breakfast of congee, steamed egg and pork, and traditional Chinese chicken herbal soup at the Hong Lim Market hawker center across from our hotel; chwee kueh snacks (steamed rice cakes with preserved radish) with more pork belly and rice at the Toa Payoh stalls, and dim sum in Little India.

One of the few times we went to an actual restaurant instead of to a hawker stall was for delicious curry crab (with lots of bread to dip into the sauce) with Karen’s family, at Jumbo Seafood in tony Dempsey Hill. It was great to spend time with this branch of the Tang clan (Michael had never met them before and Karen had only met them a handful of times), and hear more about their parallel experience of emigrating from Hong Kong to Singapore, while other members of Karen’s family moved to the U.S. or Canada. Sitting outdoors with crab-eating bibs tied around our necks, we learned a bit more about their lives in Singapore, which seem as good as advertised. Cousins Arthur and Heidy were educated abroad in the U.S. and Australia, but both chose to come back to Singapore (well, Arthur is technically in Hong Kong now, but comes back to Singapore almost weekly). They, along with Uncle Peter and Aunt Molly, live on the other side of the country (20 minutes away, ha!), and have interesting jobs as professors and lawyers and consultants. Hazel spends a lot of time scuba diving around the world, everyone seems to love travel, and, not surprisingly, they eat a lot of good food. Their future in Singapore seems bright—especially since much of it has already been thoughtfully planned by the country! It’s always a fun thought exercise to think about how different life would have been if Karen’s parents had, like this branch of the family, chosen Singapore instead of America.

The Tang family also made their appearance at the spectacular Asian Civilisations Museum (British spelling), at least inadvertently. Ironically located in a colonial era building, the Asian Civilisations Museum showcased Singapore’s role as a trading port connecting the East to the West. Some of the earliest evidence of maritime trade between China and the West dates back to the 9th century, as evidenced by the Tang Shipwreck found off the coast of Indonesia, whose cargo was displayed at the museum. Historians believe the boat was bound for Middle Eastern markets, since it carried a treasure trove of Chinese ceramics with the distinctive blue and white design. While we now associate this design with Chinese porcelain, the style actually originated from the Islamic world, whose merchants commissioned these patterns out to Chinese potters to produce the wares. Even a thousand years ago, China was making customized products destined for the rest of the world.

Having spent the past six months in Asian civilization, the museum was a fitting recap of our travel experiences on the continent. We wandered through the Silk Road exhibit, tracing the overland journey of the caravan routes while thinking back to our own time following the trail live, from Tash Rabat, to Bishkek, to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, and then through Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva in Uzbekistan. The museum also highlighted the equivalent maritime Silk Road route to the south. As merchants of old charted their course with astrolabes, we had followed a similar path on our travels—albeit with GPS—down the Vietnamese coast to Malaysia and Singapore, before heading across the Indian Ocean (we didn’t go that far). Besides goods, these trade routes also helped spread new ideas and religions into Central and Southeast Asia, which we also witnessed over the past several months. Our knowledge grew as we saw Buddhist temples at Bagan and in the quiet corners of Thailand, Hinduism at Angkor Wat and Bali, and Islam in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

We associate many of these places today as isolated corners of the globe, but that is only a modern, Western assessment. To Americans, the Vietnam War pegged Southeast Asia as a forbidden jungle and the Khmer Rouge further cloaked the region in silence, while Central Asia was a blank spot on the map when it fell behind the Iron Curtain and remained insulated under their post-Soviet regimes. But as we saw, this part of the world had been interconnected for centuries before the West was even a player on the global field. The amazing Central Asian hospitality of taking in strangers and housing and feeding them, which we were humbled to experience, is steeped in this exact nomadic and merchant history. And while Singapore is at the center of these trading networks today, we were surprised by all of the unexpectedly diverse communities that we saw across many other parts of Southeast Asia, as well, which opened our eyes to the region’s long history of integration and openness.

The Chinese, perhaps due to historical trade connections or geopolitical aspirations, has always understood the importance of these intermediary land and sea connections, and their current efforts to reintegrate these regions and links back into the world’s fold was visible throughout our travels. For example, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, which some have dubbed the new Silk Road, has built significant infrastructure in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan just as Central Asia is beginning to open up politically. We also saw China’s investment in Southeast Asia: road and building projects in Myanmar and Vietnam; a train line across the Mekong and through Laos to link China to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore; and major port construction in Cambodia. While more global connections are great and it is good to see these regions reclaim their trade positions from days of yore, we also observed it cautiously, as it’s hard not to see China’s efforts as merely influencing and building a Greater China in the region.

When we chose Singapore as our last stop in Asia, it was mostly a decision of convenience, because it had the best international routes and flights toward our next stops in Europe and North Africa (Changi #ftw!). We hadn’t appreciated that, as a true confluence of old and new Asia, East and West ideals, and traditional values enveloped in modern development, Singapore would provide the perfect finale to reflect on our entire six months through Asia.

But the trip continues on from East to West. And as we say, make no little travel plans.

Karen & Michael

March 5-7, 2020, Singapore