Christmas time on the Pacific always brings me special joy. 

Having grown up on the Island of Guam, I spent nine holiday seasons celebrating with illuminated palm trees and water buffalos in place of the conventional pine trees and reindeer. There was a sense of bittersweet joy in spending the month of December under a blanket of sunshine and humidity while Mariah Carey’s Christmas song filled the island’s air conditioned shops, malls, offices, and automobiles. I knew Christmas was all about time spent with family and friends but, I must admit, my childhood memories of Christmas were slightly skewed by the absence of the snowmen and arctic creatures often cited by radio songs. Wintertime in Singapore is very much like wintertime in Guam.

Becca, Michelle and I flew in from San Francisco by way of Hong Kong International Airport. Despite the 15 hours of economy class air travel, it was an otherwise smooth trip. The view from the plane during the second leg of the flight was particularly memorable. A peek out the eight by twelve inch portal revealed a deep blue ocean sprinkled with freight ships and green grids of agricultural land. The moment we got off the plane at Singapore’s Changi Airport, we were greeted by a level of humidity that our bodies immediately confused with summer.

Changi Airport was truly a sight to behold. It gave me the impression that we were walking our luggage through an immense tropical forest. Highly functional international airport or, Jurassic Park: The Next Adventure? Our journey to find a luggage carousel and exit the building was a bit like a stroll around the huge lobby of an arboretum. Little did I know, this propensity for encapsulating nature within gallery-like glass walls would be the theme of our Singapore experience.

Just before exiting the airport, we stopped at the food court for a delicious hawker style lunch. This first experience, despite being, “just an airport vendor,” ignited what soon became an insatiable desire to explore the many wonders of street food over the course of our trip.

It took us about 40 minutes to transport from Changi Airport to the hotel in the Novena neighborhood. The view of residential buildings in the city of Changi reminded me of the clusters of condominiums that I used to walk past on my way to school during the early Heisei-era in Japan. I was pleasantly reminded of the Singaporean film Ilo Ilo that I had happened across 5 years earlier. As we traveled, I had flashbacks of the film’s portrayal of the life of an immigrant worker who served as a housekeeper for a middle class Singaporean family. Singapore is a progressive and fast-developing city. That was quite easy to discern from a quick scan out the car window.

On the first night, having been separated from my companions by the beginnings of the wedding celebrations and bridal party obligations that had brought us to this distant land, I decided to set off on my own. I hired a taxi for a short ride to Ann Siang Hill, a neighborhood situated next to the Maxwell Food Center and Chinatown that I had heard is known to come alive at night. My first stop was White Label Records, a chic record store that has a dual function as a cocktail bar/DJ space. From the record store, I wandered my way down the hill towards Maxwell Food Center and to Potato Head on Keong Saik Road.

Perhaps it was a faulty perception of a jetlagged mind, thinking it was day instead of night. I was surprised to find the city so mellow. Each street was glowing with amber and magenta lighted signs that lured me deeper and deeper into the sound of evening. I had nowhere to go but, I had everywhere to explore. So, I dropped a pin on Chinatown and decided to continue down on Keong Saik Road with the hope of finding the notoriously brightest neighborhood for night photography.

Chinatown was dimming in the early phases of the afterhour. Many shops were already closing down. The few open shops housed tired-eyed keepers rolling up their sleeves and getting ready to wrap up. I saw some shopkeepers sitting and chatting behind the cartons of fruit, puffing out cigarette smoke. As they noticed me, they pointed to the leftover durians still emanating their unmistakably strong odor. Despite having been offered a heavy discount, I declined and continued through the dungeon of Chinese lanterns and vacant market streets.

Lunar New Year was only a month away, and the extravagant glow of lanterns and celebratory ornaments hanging from each store ceiling reminded me of the story that the taxi driver shared with me on my way to Ann Siang Hill. The driver taught me that Singapore is truly a diverse country where every ethnic group and religious belief can coexist with mutual respect and understanding. Singapore has many ethnic quarters that celebrate special cultural holidays. Little India lights up in glorious illumination on Diwali and Chinatown lights up on Lunar New Year. The driver also happened to mention that this year’s Christmas decorations weren’t as big as the previous years’. I thought the elaborate miniature ornaments of Santa Claus all around the streets of Clarke Quay were more than impressive, but I got the sense many of the Singaporean people have very high standards and expectations for their city’s holiday celebrations.

Taking a night walk is my favorite activity when visiting new cities. At night, the city speaks in a voice that often gets muffled by the daytime busyness that fills the streets. Even the lifeless objects on the street corners, vending machines and new years’ ornaments are sources of intrigue -pulling each passerby closer with their silent glow. Each city reveals itself with entirely new faces in the calmness of the night.

Thank you for reading my first post of this travel series! I will post photos from our surprise discovery in Orchard Road and our first hawker stall experience in the next post.

Shiok la bro!

Written by: Kosuke Haga
Edited by: Rebecca Hoover