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I'm checking out Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, two enormous glass-roofed gardens with beautifully designed landscapes. Cloud Forest is currently being transformed into a dinosaur-themed area and is about to open, so we can already see a lot, even though everything is still switched off. Later, much of it will be animated. Animatronics, of course.

Next, we went to the Flower Dome, which recreates several climate zones. It's not quite my cup of tea like the Cloud Forest, but it's definitely beautifully done in its own way!

Today I'm mainly exploring Little India. The market is very impressive with all its colors and smells. But unexpectedly, there's also quite a bit of street art to admire.

Then we visit a large temple complex. Apparently, for every kind of wish one could have, there's a corresponding deity to worship. Our guide gives us something like incense sticks, which we light as a blessing and place in a designated spot. There are already so many there that thick, foul-smelling clouds of smoke rise up.
I am fascinated by how colorful it all is.

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And here are a few more street art impressions. At the end of the day, we try some durian, and this time I can't manage it because at that moment it looks like raw chicken to me, and with that image in my head, I just couldn't eat it, even though I had eaten durian without any problems before.
Then we get a few typical desserts, one of them also with durian, and that's okay. It won't be my favorite, though. I also found it interesting that they have a legal limit on the sugar content of drinks there, and the cola doesn't taste that different from here, but it only has half the calories – without any added sweeteners. Why can't we have that here, too?

Today I'm doing another food tour with interspersed cultural information, though this time with a stronger focus on Indian influences. We have a very friendly guide and, once again, a nice little group of participants.

We're visiting a market where it feels like you can get just about anything, probably because Singapore is so well-connected thanks to its huge port, and immigrants from all corners of the world continue to create enough demand for... everything... The durian section is easily detectable by smell from 10 meters away.

Almost everything we are served is delicious and plentiful. Our guide deliberately orders more than we could ever eat, because the surplus food is donated to those in need right there on the spot. There are volunteers on hand to help with this. Hawker Centers, which are visited by the guides who directly accept and distribute the donations. I think that's great!

That day we also visited a few temples. We also saw the Avenue of the Dead, where people used to go to die – surrounded by shops selling coffins, grave goods, and other necessities. Since it was mostly the poor who came here to die, there was practically no medical care.

In Little India, we visit the large department store where an entire, enormous floor is dedicated to Indian clothing of every kind. There must be tens of thousands of items! Right there are also tailors on site, because the clothes are all imported in one size and altered on-site – supposedly in less than an hour…

After the food tour, I ended up in a modern mall and was amazed: there's a bike path 🚲 right through the middle of it!! 😯

Since I only have a few days in Singapore, I booked a food tour to explore the local cuisine. Due to the historical distribution of immigrants across different neighborhoods, Singapore still exhibits visible differences between its various groups, which are strongly reflected in the food offered. My group consists of friendly people, and we have a guide who combines the presentation of the dishes with interesting facts about Singapore.

Afterwards, I visited the zoo, having first checked that they had fruit bats there 🦇🥰 Of course, they were just hanging around sleepily, but that's how it is with these wonderful nocturnal creatures…

Otherwise, the zoo was quite nice and seemed to offer the animals significantly more space than the one in Taiwan, which was a real tragedy in that respect.

The zoo is also beautifully landscaped.

In the evening I see a poster advertising loans, and the interest rate really blew my mind… that's actually the interest rate per month!

I've been looking forward to Borne-GO!!, the trip to Borneo with Forrest Valkai, for months now. And today it finally begins. I'm flying first via Munich to Singapore, where I'll stay for a few days. Thanks to my collected Lufthansa miles, I'm flying Business Class, which means delicious food on board and I can lie down comfortably. However, restful sleep isn't really possible for me regardless of class; even with earplugs and an eye mask, it's too noisy. And of course, I'm also a little excited because of the anticipation.

As a prelude to my trip, I chose Singapore because it's a very central hub in Southeast Asia, offering excellent connections to onward flights. And of course, because I find the city itself fascinating, with its diverse cultural districts. Here, you can experience Chinese culture in one place, and just one metro stop away, you might think you're in India. Or an Arab country. With a mosque. I had already researched beforehand that Grab is a popular taxi service in Asia. However, Lufthansa advised against it.

I found that a bit unusual, but there must be reasons for it…

After arriving, I head to a hawker center to get something to eat. These centers combine many small food vendors with a shared seating area, where you can quickly get something to eat and have a wide selection, since so many stalls are right next to each other. This culture is unique to the area and developed from the fact that there were previously many street vendors with typically questionable hygiene, as they couldn't cook fresh food and didn't have running water.