The travel suggestions here are based on a trip that Lummi and I took in December and are by no means exhaustive. In fact, they’re quite basic, since we had only a few days to explore the city and I was working during the week. That said, I really enjoyed my time there and would absolutely go back.

In no particular order, here are some suggestions for enjoying Singapore.

Food Centers

Also known as “hawker centers”, these bustling markets of street food should be on every traveler’s itinerary. The food is incredibly cheap, fast, and delicious. Each center has different specialties, so try to hit as many as you can! Maxwell Food Center is known for Tian Tian chicken rice, so my friend Laurie and I made sure to get some when we visited, along with dumplings, bok choy, sugar cane juice, cendol, and passion fruit juice. Lummi and I went to Newton Food Center one evening on our way home – only because it was the closest food center to our Airbnb – not realizing it was the large, outdoor center that’s featured in the beginning of Crazy Rich Asians. We treated ourselves to fried crab, an oyster omelet, and “carrot cake”, a local specialty that’s absolutely nothing like what you think.

Drinks

We didn’t go out for drinks too much on this trip, but Operation Dagger is a must-go for anyone who appreciates cocktails. It’s very pricey, but the underground space is trendy and the drinks themselves are incredibly inventive and tasty. And for a bit of a WTF curveball, the bathroom has a fake CCTV camera inside and a TV outside that shows the “feed”.

Joo Chiat

This neighborhood has a lot of history, culture, architecture, and mixing of ethnicities – which is an excellent microcosm of Singapore – but is also going through an almost hipster resurgence, with lots of new, modern restaurants and shops. A walking tour is an excellent way to see the neighborhood and learn about the history and I highly recommend Jonathan on Airbnb. You’ll see temples, classic shophouses, Peranakan culture, historical residences, street art, and even the North Korean embassy. Food-wise, you better come hungry, because Jonathan will introduce you to Katong laksa, roti prata, Nyonya sticky rice dumplings from Kim Choo, and putu piring, a delicious dessert made with palm sugar and shredded coconut.

Other honorable mentions for the area include Guan Hoe Soon, the oldest Peranakan restaurant in Singapore (Anthony Bourdain went there in the Singapore episode of Parts Unknown), and Cat Socrates, a really cute and fascinating shop with lots of great Singapore-themed gifts. You will not come out of there empty-handed.

Marina Bay Sands

Of course you’ll end up here at some point, since the massive hotel that looks like a ship (or spaceship, I think) is the undisputed icon of the city. If you’re lucky enough to be staying here, make sure to spend some time in the most famous infinity pool on the planet. If you aren’t, then go up to the rooftop lounge a bit before sunset, order some tasty cocktails, and watch the sun set and the city lights come alive. Singapore is most definitely a city that looks its best at night and Marina Bay Sands is by far the best place to gawk at the skyline and the water below.

Gardens by the Bay

Another staple on every Singapore itinerary, come here to marvel at the supertrees, a uniquely Singaporean experience. Your best bet is to come at night, when the weather is a bit cooler and the lights of the trees are magical. Try to catch one of the shows as well, where the lights dance in sync with the music.

The plan with Lummi was that I would go to Singapore a few days before her, so I flew across the Pacific, arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and subsequently had a Welcome to Singapore, bitch moment when I got trapped in the local grocery store by a sudden downpour. I took my bags and waited it out at the neighboring coffee shop, then went back to the Airbnb, made instant noodles for dinner, watched the thunderstorm from the patio, and passed out from exhaustion.

On Sunday, I worked on my blog in the morning, then met my friend Laurie – who moved to Singapore from San Francisco – for a hawker center lunch. We went to Maxwell Food Center for Tian Tian chicken rice, dumplings, bok choy, sugar cane juice, cendol, and passion fruit juice.

Afterwards, we met her friends for coffee at Merci Marcel, a cute French cafe in Tiong Bahru, before I set out for my Airbnb walking tour in Joo Chiat. Jonathan (the host) took me around several of the neighborhoods, interleaving the city’s history with modern history and, of course, lots of eating: Katong laksa, roti prata, Nyonya sticky rice dumplings from Kim Choo, and putu piring, Malaysian (Halal/Muslim) sweets with palm sugar and shredded coconut.

Monday was a workday, so I checked into The Hive and had a pretty productive day, publishing a blog post and catching up on actual work. After work, in the interest of immersing myself into the city, I went to a data visualization tech talk at Google HQ. No networking happened, but it was a really interesting talk and also really nice to walk around the Google campus and surrounding area. While walking back to MRT, I stopped in a mall food court and had some surprisingly good, surprisingly spicy curry mee. Of course there’s a mall on my route, of course there’s a food court, of course the food is amazing, and of course it’s cheap.

On Tuesday after work, I took MRT to the airport and picked up Lummi, then we had wine and dinner with her old roommate at Ginett. The next day, Lummi and I took MRT downtown so she could get her bearings and go to Din Tai Fung for lunch. After I was done with work, we went to Marina Bay Sands for cocktails, then the Gardens by the Bay to see the supertrees and the Christmas light show, then Newton Food Center on the way home since it was only one MRT stop away. Upon arriving, we realized it was outdoors and the food center from Crazy Rich Asians! Clearly we hadn’t done our homework here, so this was a pleasant surprise. We had fried crab, an oyster omelet, and “carrot cake”.

Thursday evening, we had hotpot with Laurie and her boyfriend, then cocktails at Lantern, then super fancy cocktails at Operation Dagger, a great cocktail lounge with real mixologists. The bathroom has a fake CCTV camera and monitor for an extra bit of WTF.

Friday evening after I was done for the week/year, we walked around Joo Chiat, sort of trying to recreate my walking tour from Sunday. We had dinner at Guan Hoe Soon, the oldest Peranakan restaurant in Singapore (Anthony Bourdain went there in the Singapore episode of Parts Unknown). We wandered around the neighborhood afterwards, went to the always excellent Cat Socrates, ate some vegan soft serve, then turned in early.

See Singapore for more!

Koh Lipe

Our time in Singapore was over, so we hopped on a flight to Hat Yai, checked into a surprisingly nice local hotel just for the night, then treated ourselves to some cheap eats and shopping at Greenway Night Market. The next morning, the minibus picked us up thirty minutes before we were supposed to be ready. The subsequent speedboat to Koh Lipe was as expected, including a stop at some kind of lovers’ arch on a neighboring island. Once we were set up in our hotel (Cabana Lipe Beach Resort) adjacent to the gypsy village, we had the usual routine of lunch, massage, walking around, reggae bar, and dinner.

Our first morning on the island (Christmas Eve), we joined locals, expats, and other tourists for the weekly Koh Lipe trash cleanup. The armada of long-tails took a while to get to a beach on the north side of Koh Rawi, so we had plenty of time to check out the wrinkly package of an old man who sat at the front of the boat and wore trunks that were a bit too short. Once we arrived on the island, we worked up quite a sweat picking up garbage for an hour. So much trash! Mostly plastic and foam, but also a lot of light bulbs for some reason. The garbage trucks hauling away the trash spewed a ton of smoke into the air, so I guess we’re trading trash for air pollution? I accidentally stubbed my toe in the jungle and it was bad enough that it was bleeding for a while, required attention for the rest of the trip, and was still healing weeks later.

On Christmas Day, we had some morning beach time, massages, and then lunch down the beach. For dinner, we went to Forever Restaurant on the other side of the island and had a fantastic home-cooked meal. The rain on the tin roof was really loud, the stray dog in front got really happy when the husband came home, and the bathroom in the woods required a flashlight and a sense of adventure. We had a blast at Maya for the rest of the evening: a party family with terrible DJs, “El Max” tequila, fire poi, fun house music once the real DJ started, and some G&S teenagers (glitter and shots).

Wednesday was a classic beach day – sun and sand and surf all day long. We went to the reggae bar in the evening and smoked a joint of crappy who-knows-what and watched the light and shadows of the fire poi in front of us.

On Thursday we hired a boat for a private trip to three beaches and saw this awkward French-Thai foursome (two couples) at two of them. We took lots and lots and lots of photos at Monkey Beach, then had a photo session back on our beach at sunset, which was the best of the trip.

See Koh Lipe for more!

Bangkok

On Friday, our last day on the island, we woke up early to catch the sunrise and take lots of great photos before our transfer to Bangkok. Funny that on the way to the island, there’s a rest stop and a stop at the lovers’ arch, but on the way out there’s nothing. Basically: “You’re not spending money here anymore, so GTFO!” Once in the city, we checked into our Airbnb, ate really good duck red curry at the hotel restaurant next door, then walked to Vanilla Sky for a couple of cocktails.

Before heading out on Saturday, we stopped by li-bra-ry (yes, that’s the name) and had our first taste of pandan, in the form of curved, three-dimensional waffles. Afterwards, we went downtown and wandered the malls around Siam, making sure to check out Yayoi Kusama’s art installation at CentralWorld as part of the Bangkok Art Biennale.

We had our big party night that evening, which started with a few drinks – including a coconut negroni! – at Havana Social, a Cuban-inspired cocktail lounge with a secret entrance that requires entering a password into a phone booth. We then walked to our main destination of the evening: Sing Sing, a gorgeous nightclub decked out with dark wood and red Chinese lanterns.

On Sunday, we basically spent the entire day at Chatuchak Market, one of the largest open-air markets in the world. We bought some clothes and incense and other little things, had a lot of snacks and drinks, and even had an “emergency” foot massage in one of the aircon tents nestled amongst the shops. After making it back to our Airbnb and resting for a bit, we got dressed, headed out, and rolled up to the Banyan Tree Hotel in a tuk-tuk – like a boss! – so we could go to Moon Bar for drinks. It was surprisingly busy on a Sunday, even late.

On our final day of the trip, we went out to Terminal 21 for some more shopping and ended the evening/trip with a deadly 2-hour massage. We ended up staying in after dinner and having a low-key evening since Lummi was basically half-dead at this point from all her injuries. We watched some local Bangkok NYE coverage, watched the fireworks from the balcony at midnight, then went to bed. It was a wonderful, very memorable trip and ended with a reminder that Bangkok is not for the faint of heart!

Singapore

Let’s backtrack a bit. About three weeks ago, twenty hours of flights and airports culminated in an arrival in Singapore, the city that’s somewhat famous for being the reluctant stopover for Southeast Asia backpackers. It’s not that Singapore is a bad place; it’s actually very clean and modern and safe. The reason it’s a less-than-ideal destination for backpackers is that it’s just not that interesting. It’s a city of transplants and mostly generic culture. It’s sterile. For travelers, it’s temporary. Fly in, stay the night, move on.

Nevertheless, we decided to stay the entire weekend and soak up some of the city’s famous nightlife. For me, Singapore was a great transition to Asia; it’s very much a modern city and it’s easy for Westerners (English is the official language). We rode the metro a lot, ate some good food (including some great Indian food in Little India), and stayed out late in Clarke Quay both nights. I really can’t think of much more to say; Singapore was fun but forgettable.

Bangkok

On Sunday we scrambled to barely make our flight to Thailand, where we had one night in Bangkok (yeah, for real). After wandering through Silom for a long time, we finally managed to find our guesthouse, owned by a very friendly American expat named Mac. We treated ourselves to some noodles and spicy tofu salad, which was legitimately amazing, something I never thought I’d say about salad. We considered heading out for a night on the town, but once we realized how tired we were, we opted for the massage recommendation from Mac. He walked us a few blocks to his favorite local spot, where we indulged in an hour-long session for the ridiculous price of $5 a piece. It was at this point that I realized how cheap Thailand was going to be and that I was going to be spending more time getting massages than eating. Game changer.

Koh Samet

We weren’t meeting Sabina’s friend Sonnie until the weekend, so we decided to head to one of Thailand’s many islands for the days in between. We settled on Koh Samet, an island close enough to Bangkok that it’s a popular weekend destination for Thais. The bus ride from the city was about four hours and our timing was accidentally perfect: our ferry ride from the mainland to the island (about 45 minutes) was just before sunset and was very picturesque.

Since it was a weekday (early in the week) and there had actually been an oil spill in the area only a few days before, we decided to play hardball a bit and shop around at a few of the places. In Thailand, the price of almost everything can be haggled and we felt that we had some leverage in the situation. I was more than happy to turn Sabina loose and sit with the bags while she visited a few bungalows and talked pricing. Eventually we settled on a small operation after she was able to talk them down to less than half of the starting price. It was a simple bungalow, but it was clean, close to the beach, and close to town.

The next morning I woke up at 5:45 to go for a sunrise run on the beach. It was overcast, quiet, a bit moody, and actually very pleasant. At the start of the run, I was a little lethargic and my muscles were tight, but after ten minutes I started feeling pretty good. That is, until I ran past a pack of resting dogs, evidently spooking one, who freaked out, lunged at me, and sunk his teeth into my leg.

Let’s stop here a moment. This is Day 7 of the entire trip, Day 5 in Asia, Day 3 in Thailand, and basically Day 1 on any kind of beach. Also, I didn’t get the rabies vaccine before we left because the odds were so low that I would run into any problems. Here’s a more accurate transcription of my thoughts on the matter:

IT’S MY FIRST DAY ON A THAI BEACH IN THE FIRST WEEK OF A MULTI-MONTH BACKPACKING TRIP AND A MOTHER FUCKING STRAY DOG JUST BIT ME. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!

I hobbled back to the bungalow and as I entered, Sabina asked “How did the run go?” My response was “Not good”, at which point she noticed that my hands and lower right leg were covered in blood and I was feverishly cleaning the wounds with antibacterial wipes. After stopping most of the bleeding and crudely applying some bandages, we walked to the international clinic, which was about fifteen minutes away on the other side of town. The clinic wasn’t open yet, so we called the emergency number, which went to the doctor’s cell phone. I could tell I had just woken him and once I said I had been bitten by a dog, he started mobilizing immediately. Luckily he lives above the clinic, so he and one of his assistants came right down and ushered me in.

As they started cleaning the two holes in my leg, they gave me a tetanus booster (slightly different than the one I received before leaving the States) and started me on the post-exposure rabies vaccine, which is a series of five shots spread out over one month. The doctor also explained that if I received immune globulin (basically a shot of antibodies), the odds of getting rabies would be “practically zero”. The only catch with this shot is that it’s expensive. In Thailand, a poorer country, the shot is $1,500; in a rich Western country, the shot could be anywhere between $2,000 and $7,000. Thank you Thailand for being poor!

Obviously I had secured a travelers’ insurance policy before leaving and I had even opted for the zero-deductible option because I had a feeling that something was bound to happen eventually. Knowing that I would be reimbursed for all expenses, I didn’t hesitate to order the immune globulin. It took a few hours for it to be shipped to the island by boat, at which point I went back to the clinic and they administered it. They also started me on ten days of antibiotics.

Here’s the synopsis of the situation: I am very confident that I will not contract rabies because the medical staff was able to take action very quickly and because the stray dog that bit me had a collar, implying that it wasn’t as wild as it could have been and probably doesn’t have rabies. I have received four out of the five shots of the rabies vaccine and will be immune in about two weeks when I receive the final shot. I have been going to a clinic every day (with one exception, see below) to have the wounds cleaned and the dressing changed. The injury has never really hurt that much except when I accidentally hit it or when it’s being cleaned.

It sucks that I have to go to a clinic every day and I can’t go in the water at all (for fear of infection), but I see two silver linings to this cloud. One is that I’ve gotten to see a part of Thai culture that I wouldn’t have normally seen. Before leaving the States, I had read that Thai hospitals and clinics are very good and very well respected and now I can see why: I have been receiving excellent medical care everywhere I’ve gone at a fraction of the price back home. Everyone has been very professional and helpful and most of them speak English too. It’s been a very positive and eye-opening experience, especially given all the talk of health insurance back in the States.

The second silver lining is that I’m now (or will very soon be) immune to rabies, which opens the door for previously unavailable volunteer opportunities for working with animals. Even though I’m a bit gun-shy now around stray dogs, I still love dogs in general and will be looking into some volunteer work next month at a Bali animal shelter. At least one of the dog shelters in Ubud requires the rabies vaccine, so I see this incident as something of a blessing in disguise.

Once all my treatment is done, I’ll be submitting a claim (and a lot of itemized bills) to my insurance company. I expect that everything will be completely covered, so I won’t be any worse for the wear, except for a couple small scars on my leg and a good travel story. And all the antibiotics has forced me to go into a detox, which is something I was hoping would happen anyway.

Aside from having my flesh ripped open by dog teeth, Koh Samet was actually very pleasant. We spent our days eating, sleeping, laying on the powdery white sand, and walking along the beach. In the evenings, we would sit on bean bag chairs a few feet from the water, smoke hookah under the stars, enjoy the perfect weather and the sea breeze, listen to music, and watch the local children put on fire poi shows.

Bangkok

Once the weekend came around, we caught a bus back to Bangkok and checked into a nice hotel in Riverside (Tongtara Hotel). The hotel was running a deal to attract tourists and we ended up paying only $30 a night. We spent the weekend exploring Riverside and Silom and hanging out with Sonnie and her husband Randy in the evenings. I would leave during the day to walk the city and go to a clinic while Sabina would visit temples. It was really nice to walk around Bangkok and get a feel for the culture, though I was often frustrated by the size of the city. I got lost several times because I thought I had overshot my mark, when in fact I hadn’t walked nearly far enough.

Both Friday and Saturday night we ended up on Khaosan Road, a Westerner-catering shitshow reminiscent of Bourbon Street. The road extends for several blocks and is filled with bars selling cheap beer and buckets of mixed drinks, hookahs, the same American party music played loudly and repeatedly, street vendors with piles of bugs (for eating), racks of cheap clothing, ladyboys, and hawkers trying to convince you to go see ping pong shows. The party goes well into the night and makes for some pretty fantastic people watching. The novelty wears off really quickly though; after one night, you’re pretty annoyed with the entire scene.

On Sunday, we ventured out to the Chatuchak weekend market, one of the largest markets in the world. We walked around for hours, looking at food, art, clothing, toys, and knickknacks, and probably saw only one-tenth of the entire market. It’s massive. Again, the people-watching was fun. The weekend market is a really great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and be productive with some shopping at the same time.

Koh Phangan

After the weekend in Bangkok, we decided to head south to the island cluster of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao. Each island has its own reputation and all three are major tourist destinations. Spas, world-class diving, restaurants, bars, beautiful beaches, and the infamous Full Moon Party all beckon travelers from all over the world. Initially we thought of going to Koh Samui, but after getting an idea of how developed (read: expensive) it is, we opted for Koh Phangan instead. We hopped on a flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani, took a random bus to a random hotel, ate $1 pad thai at the night market while dogs and rats ran the streets, took an hour-long bus ride to Don Sak, hopped on a multi-hour ferry to Koh Samui, then took a 30-minute ferry to Koh Phangan. I fell asleep on the deck of the ferry to Koh Samui and treated myself to a pretty righteous sunburn.

We found ourselves some nice mom-and-pop bungalows (Blue Lotus) that were $14 a night. Yup, you read that correctly. A bungalow on a peaceful part of the island only feet from the water is $7 per night per person. Add to that $3 dinners and $7 massages and you’re starting to see why Thailand is pretty great. What’s funny is that we haven’t run into any other Americans on this trip, just Europeans and Australians and the occasional Canadian or Kiwi. I’ve had this same conversation with locals and other travelers and none of us can explain the absence of Americans. They just don’t come to Thailand for some reason.

The next week at Blue Lotus was very peaceful, filled with eating and walking along the beach and exploring the island a bit. It was at this point that something in me finally gave out and I succumbed to some tummy issues. Sabina pointed out that taking antibiotics for ten days probably killed off the good bacteria I needed to cope with everything, leaving me vulnerable to foreign stomach bugs. After vomiting some pad thai one morning (which did not taste nearly as good the second time around), I spent the better part of two days floundering in bed with stomach pains and nausea, feeling completely lethargic and dead to the world, and making some less-than-ideal trips to the bathroom. Luckily I had procured some Thailand-specific antibiotics before we left, so once I started popping those, I started to feel better very quickly. However, I didn’t make it to the clinic during those two days and without my daily cleaning, my wounds became infected. Uuuggghhh. When I finally did make it into the clinic, the doctor prescribed me four days of two new antibiotics, which I just finished up yesterday. Let’s hope this cycle doesn’t repeat itself.

After some discussion, Sabina and I decided we should split for the rest of the month (i.e. the rest of Thailand). While I was sick and praying for death, she went out and enjoyed the nightlife and was now sort of over it, so she wanted to move on to another island. On the other hand, I felt like I needed to settle down with a single clinic and a single doctor so I could more effectively close out my medical issues before moving on to the next country. Also, I decided that I wanted to be in Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party, knowing full well that it’ll be a sloppy, drunken mess filled with annoying 20-somethings. I figure that I’m here only once in my life, so I pretty much have to attend. Even if it is an annoying spectacle, I’d like to come to that conclusion myself. Besides, how often do you get to party until sunrise on a Thai beach with thousands of people?

I think that pretty much brings us current. Sabina is enjoying the island paradise of Koh Phi-Phi and I’ve recently moved into a bungalow at the famous Sanctuary, a holistic/wellness/yoga resort in the jungle accessible only by boat. I don’t think I’ll have the time or energy for any yoga or cleanses or fasting, but I will happily take advantage of their location and their restaurant menu, which is probably one of the best in the entire country. Full Moon is tonight and this feels a bit like the calm before the storm. After Full Moon I’m planning on bouncing to another part of the island since my current commute is annoying, considering I have to trek to the clinic once a day. More to come on that later.