Naomi's travelbug adventures: A touch of class in Singapore

For such a tiny place, Singapore is a city of superlatives -- it has the world's busiest port, its airport recently was ranked by world travelers as the second best airport (just losing out to Hong Kong, their Asian rival), its beautiful zoo rakes in tourism awards every year (including the coveted 5 Stars Happy Toilet Awards for cleanliness, functionality and creativity!). It's also the cleanest, safest and most expensive city I have visited yet and in my opinion far from being dull or sterile. I spent three jam-packed days wandering through excellent museums, sipping cocktails at the historic Raffles Hotel and sampling yummy cheap street food.

As a trundled through the skyscrapers and 19th century British colonial buildings I found myself comparing Singapore not with other Asian cities but with Toronto. Just how does Toronto stack up?

Food - Singapore's street food is delicious and cheap, specializing in Indian, Chinese and Malay, and although I didn't partake, I'm sure its high-end restaurants are world-class. But Toronto wins points for its sheer diversity -- Jamaican jerk chicken, Greek souvlaki, Mexican mole, etc. I'm waiting for the day that Toronto starts serving this stuff on the street!

Zoos - I like Toronto's zoo, but the Singapore Zoo is hands down one of the best zoos I have ever visited. Beautifully landscaped, enclosures designed to look like the animals' natural environment, but what makes Singapore's stand out is the proximity of the animals with the spectators. At one point, I wandered into a biodome, looked up and two feet above my head hung a sloth, starting down on me and slowly chewing on leaves. In another area, the gibbons swung freely in the trees along a path, with no fences or barriers. And at night, you can visit the Night Safari, where you can walk along paths lit by soft lights to visit nocturnal animals at their most liveliest.

Museums - Singapore's museums are interesting, diverse and engaging - with an emphasis on using creepy wax dummies to recreate moments in history or to highlight the cultures of Singapore. In one memorable museum in Chinatown, the curators have constructed a life sized 19th century Chinese shophouse, which you can wander through and peak into the tiny rooms that housed dozens of poor immigrants. You really get a sense of just how horrible the living condition were for the earliest settlers, and you can't help but admire what they managed to build in today's sparkling city. By contrast, I find Toronto's museums to be static, a bit sterile with items encased behind glass. It would be hard for a visitor to get a taste of Toronto through our museums.

People - the people of Singapore are courteous, decent and exceedingly helpful. As a traveler, I was helped numerous times by the friendly locals whether it was getting change from an elderly couple when I boarded a bus with only a $10 bill, or when I misplaced my camera (yikes) at a museum and had the manager and all of his staff scurrying around to look for it (I got it back, phew). I'm trying to think about how helpful Torontonians would be toward a lost tourist? I'm actually not sure...

Freedom - no contest, Singapore is one of the most regulated, restricted places with severe penalties for littering, spitting etc. Drug dealing receives an automatic death penalty, possession garners lengthy prison terms and homosexuality is outlawed. Freedom of the press, freedom of expression - these do not exist in Singapore. You really have to appreciate Toronto's openness and tolerance!

Here are some of my favourite photos of Singapore: