Singapore, Singapore – so good it… should be named twice.

I’m not a fan of red-eye flights heading east – for I can never get even a half-decent sleep on the plane. And if you’re flying around Southeast Asia, sometimes the turbulence gets so wild your whisky splashes out of the glass (can’t be having that, obviously). It was a few years ago when I figured out that daytime flights eastward are way nicer for someone who loves deep, quality sleep. But unfortunately, most airlines prefer flying west during the day, and east only at night. And since I don’t like throwing away hard-earned cash, private jets aren’t even on the table as long as scheduled commercial flights are available. So yes – I just have to put up with it…

Especially rough is when, like several days ago, it’s kinda between a night-flight and day-flight: our departure from Moscow was at 5pm, flying around eight hours to Shanghai, which means landing around 1am Moscow time – early morning local time. Who’s gonna sleep at that time? Especially since, starting somewhere above Kyzyl, turbulence kicked in big time. Grrr. Then, to top it all off – the weather in Shanghai was gray, wet and miserable ->

Still, things brightened up by the time we were coming in to land in Singapore; phew! ->

So what’s with all the ships? They’re all lining up to dock. Singapore’s one of the world’s key “sorting stations” for maritime trade. I guess it’s just a lucky spot on the map: everything on the route between Europe via India and heading to China/Japan and nearby countries (and the other way) passes through the Strait of Malacca and past Singapore.

So why is that? Just take a look at a world map: it’s the shortest sea route. Sure, you could go around Indonesia’s Sumatra, but the strait between it and Java is shallow and choppy, and then there’s Krakatoa (yep – the volcano), which occasionally decides to spice things up – albeit not that often.

So why did Singapore take this spot of geographical good-luck and turn into a giant regional hub? Better ask its neighbors why they didn’t. Like Queen sang, “No time for losers, for we are the champions”… or ABBA: “The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall” )

Meanwhile, we’re lining up to land…

Singapore’s airport (actually, Singapore on the whole too:) is so user-friendly! Stylishly-designed, wide open, clean, beautiful, and modern/futuristic.

Here, for example, is the baggage claim hall (no clue which terminal this was – there are several):

Also, if you fill out all the necessary forms online back home, immigration is practically nonexistent. Just place your passport on the smart scanner, look into the camera, and bam – done. 30 seconds (literally) and you’re through!

My mood was already wonderful, but it only got better: after collecting our bags – what did we see? ->

Then the screen changes – showing the reason why we’re here ->

Oh, and this time we stayed at that hotel. And yes – the views are just insane! ->

They’ve got greenhouses, and even “coldhouses” – but more on that later (though I might have already talked about them before) ->

Ships lined up waiting to load and unload:

Ahhh, just perfect!

That’s Singapore for you. The downside: it’s pricey! But I won’t dwell on that: my jet-lagged brain is already shutting down.

That’s all for now, folks. Time to crash and recover from the long flight…