Singapore travel info

At eight in the evening, lean on the railing at Merlion Park and Marina Bay Sands stands across the water, three towers balancing a ship on their heads. The Merlion spits water behind you, a bumboat putters up the river, and when the light-and-water show starts on the far bank every phone in the crowd goes up at once.

In daytime Singapore is sweat. You're 137 km north of the equator, highs sit at 31–32°C all year and the humidity is thick enough to lean on, so the city connects itself with air-conditioned underpasses and malls and people move from shade to shade. Incense smoke outside the Chinatown temples, a gold-domed mosque in Kampong Glam, jasmine garlands in Little India: three countries in an hour's walk.

You eat at hawker centres. Queue with a tray for chicken rice, grab ten satay sticks from the next stall and a lime juice from the drinks uncle. A packet of tissues on a table means the seat is taken. It's clean, safe and English-speaking, and fiercely strict about chewing gum, vapes and litter.

Singapore Changi Airport (incl. Jewel) (SIN)