In the "Lion-city" / Singapore

After an amazing trip through Australia I spent a few days in Singapore, which is also called "The lion-city". Why? Honestly, I have no idea... :-)
I used the time to reorganise my stuff and plan my further trip. Of course there was also time to explore the city. And for sure I must admit that it is the cleanest city I have ever seen and one of the safest in the world as well!!
Here are the highlights of my days in Singapore:

Haw Par villa:
The Haw-Par-villa was built by two brothers, who are the founders of the Tiger-Balm products.
It is more like a park than a villa and there you can find many statues of characters from the Chinese mythology. As well as some animals and other weird constructions. It seems like you are walking through a fairytale-world.
Very cool was the "Ten courts of hell"-cave. There you can see which punishment awaits you in the "hell" for the crimes you committed during lifetime. Very interesting and cruel/brutal as well!!

 

China town and Little India:
Did a free walking-tour through "China town", a city-district in Singapore. It was quite hot that day so it was very tough to walk through. Saw some Chinese temples (very splendid with lots of gold) and lots of Chinese street-food to taste...
The next day I did a walking-tour through the "Little India"-district. Went to an Indian temple, tried typical Indian food as well as the famous "Durian"-fruit. It smells so disgusting (like meat lying for days in the sun) but tastes quite good... :-)

 Funny fact: Because of the smell it is not allowed to bring Durian-fruit in the Metro of Singapore. :-)

Marina Bay:
One day I visited Marina Bay, where there is much to explore.
The Marina Bay Reservoir is the first thing which will catch your attention. The big hotel complex consist of three skyscrapers, connected with each other on the top. Looks like a big ship on three poles. You can get to the top by paying 25S$, but sometimes it works as well when you are entering tower 3, pretending you are a guest in this hotel and take the lift up to the top-restaurant for free. :-)
On top there is also the famous "infinity"-pool, from where you must have an amazing view of Singapore. And each night there is a free Laser-show from the top of the towers, best watched from the other side of the Marina bay.

At the bay side there is also the "Merlion". The emblem of Singapore and probably the reason why it is called the "Lion-city"...

But the highlight for me were the "Gardens by the bay". There you can find the "Super-trees", which looks amazing during the day and even more spectacular in the night when they got illuminated.
They are between 25-50m high. Using Photovoltaics the trees produce electric power for the illumination and the cooling systems of the glass houses next to them. Furthermore they collect the water of the rainy days in Singapore, which is used then for watering the plants in the glass houses.

There is so much to do in Singapore and lots of things are surprisingly cheap or for free.
Of course there are nice things where you can spent your money on, like the Singapore-Zoo or Sentosa Island. (An island with a big water-park, the largest aquarium in Asia, the Universal-film-studios, ...)
But I personally liked it much more to simply walk through the city watching the daily life of their inhabitants. Trying different kind of street-food, looking at stunning skyscrapers, which have floors only for green plants and trees or watching a method how you can dry your clothes even if you are in a small skyscraper-flat... :-)

After four days in the "Lion"-city I decided it's time to move on and booked spontaneously a flight to Bali - Indonesia...