The southern outpost of Puteri Harbour, Malaysia, offers just two things, really. One, easy port clearance. The marina itself is very inexpensive, and they do all the paperwork for clearing into the country. They charge just a few dollars for this, and it saves a lot of walking around and waiting. Two, once cleared in, it is then easy to leave again. Just a short Grab (Uber) ride away is the border crossing into Singapore. A Grab ride, a short bus ride, immigration clearance, and a long subway ride took a total of about two hours from marina to downtown Singapore hotel.

Monitor lizards are all over the place, and watching them swim around in the ocean provides plenty of nightmare fuel for anyone who isn’t a fan of reptiles in the first place.

Not quite the grocery store we were looking for near the marina, but at least now we know what all those fishermen are up to out there.

The Singapore subway. Clean, fast, and efficient. Of course, we jumped on the train like typical Americans and tucked into the croissants we’d bought in the station. Then we looked around and realized nobody else had food, and the number one rule on the signs posted all over the train was “No Eating or Drinking. Fine $500.”

We visited the Asian Civilisations museum where we were happily surprised to find the Tang Shipwreck exhibit, also known as the Belitung Shipwreck. Turns out, the island we just left with our friends had a remarkable discovery made by local fishermen in 1998 just around the corner from where we had been anchored. In just 56′ of water, a 1,200 year old Arabian dhow had sunk with a cargo freshly loaded from China. Apparently it was rather quickly covered in sediment, almost perfectly preserving the ship and everything in it.

The ship was carrying some 60,000 bowls, among all sorts of other cool things. It’s hard to believe this stuff sat underwater since ~826 A.D. (one of the items found had the date inscribed in it).

The whole museum was beautifully displayed.

The Amazonia photo exhibition at the National Museum was awesome. My favorite exhibits at any museum are always the photo exhibits, and this one was up there with the best.

I don’t know if the Chicago Bean was the first, but it sure seems like these artworks have popped up everywhere lately. They are perfect for the selfie generation (of which, judging by my group’s body language, none of us belong), I suppose.

Not far away, I was reminded of Chicago again. The Fullerton Hotel looks like it would fit in perfectly along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.

No trip to Singapore could ever be complete without a visit to the Merlion, the official mascot of Singapore. Drawing attention away from the merlion, though, were two otters, who were devouring a fish just a few feet away.

We walked to the ArtScience Museum expecting to check out the Studio Ghibli exhibition. Funny us, thinking we could just go do something like that without planning and buying tickets well in advance.

Walking around the Kampong Glam and nearby Little India neighborhoods.

Good people watching, tons of interesting street art, and good food.

The Sultan Mosque.

Our waiter laughed at me when, after ordering, I asked, “Do you think eight naan is enough?” In my defense, every flavor sounded amazing.

The Gateway building looks like a 2D flat panel as you walk down the street. Standing on the sidewalk staring at this building it’s hard to get your head around the illusion. While looking up the name of the building I learned that the architect also designed the Louvre’s pyramid.

The view from the Skypark.

A big chunk of Singapore is built on reclaimed land, but it’s hard to imagine that this landfill going on right here, right across half of the pedestrian Helix bridge, is going to add something positive to Singapore’s skyline. Unless it’s going to be a nice public park, in which case I apologize.

A bit of Singapore’s F1 track and paddock. This must be an amazing city to watch a race.

The Flower Dome and Cloud Forest are engineering marvels, and are pretty cool to walk around in, but holy hell do they ever pack in the people.

Ouest almost paused long enough for a still photo.

Our one quick walk to the shopping district. We picked Ouest up a pair of shoes, and we stopped for a Singaporean ice-cream sandwich. Singapore is the only place I’ve ever seen these, and I can’t figure out why. So simple, so delicious.

No durians. You see these signs all over the place in SE Asia. Durian, the delicious fruit, is also incredibly smelly.

And… that’s it. A few quick days in Singapore complete. We walked a gazillion miles, despite the cheap Grabs and handy subways, and our feet and legs all hurt. We visited a ton of museums, and wandered as many neighborhoods as we could. Overall, Singapore really isn’t my cup of tea. It would likely hold my interest for a week or two, but would quickly devolve into just being a busy place to spend a ton of money. I suspect I would always feel like a tourist here, regardless of how long I stayed. I really did like their museums, though. And I wouldn’t mind hitting up those Indian restaurants a few times a week. And that PizzaFace pizza was worth becoming a regular patron. I also appreciated the abundance of 7-11s. And if I’d stayed longer I’d really like night picnics along the riverfront. And hey, for street photography, this is a great place to wander around, probably indefinitely. So, anyway, back to Malaysia, and the boat, we go.