Singapore Sling

A first-time visitor to Singapore attempts to sample everything the city has to offer.

LIKE MANY AMERICANS, I grew up with highly inaccurate notions of what Singapore was all about. To my untraveled Midwestern brain, the famed island republic was a vaguely mysterious, crazily futuristic, and prohibitively distant metropolis — the kind of place that existed in songs and movies, but not a place that one might actually go and visit. After I started to travel more as an adult, Singapore continued to hold this funny sway over my imagination, mostly as a place I never thought I’d have the occasion to visit. It wasn’t until a friend coaxed me into joining her on an ill-fated surfing getaway in Bali that I finally found myself in Singapore, courtesy of an extended layover — most of which was spent stumbling around the massive airport in a jet-lagged haze, having missed my connecting flight. This perception of Singapore — as a kind of layover city — is one that Singaporeans are quick to disabuse me of. As locals point out, Singapore’s dazzling variety of tourist-friendly attractions, spectacular hotels, and unbelievable dining experiences more than qualify it as a destination unto itself. During my action-packed week spent there, everyone I came into contact with — from the hotel concierge, museum curator, or chatty taxi driver — was eager to convince me of this fact. After only a few days, I no longer need convincing.