2009 FirstStep.me Gap Year Article of the Year!  
 
Roaming Newton Chapter 8:
 
Next stop Singapore!
 
Boarding a Singapore Airlines flight is awesome. Cool service, good seats and good onboard entertainment. As I depart the blue skies of Johannesburg on a ten hour plus flight, I begin to kick back and reminisce on the previous Roaming Newton Adventures, from Mozambique, to the UK, to Dubai its all been truly epic, my imagination tries to prepare me for what lies ahead, however nothing consistent comes to mind and I am left in the unimaginable as well as the literal unknown!

We touch down during a flight in which I float between sleep and several movie channels. I look through my cabin window and think “damn this place is clean!”
 
I enter the airport, checking myself on a tour of Singapore, I don’t have much time as it’s a stop over but I only leave the next day, so for once I can do the tourist thing and just check out the sites.
 
Seven things I found in my 24 hours in Singapore!
 
1. The Singapore Airport is huge! It’s like something out of an 80’s television show but cooler, you would expect to find a “Tom Selleck type” wondering around with one of those Hawaiian palm shirts half open. Check out the Changi Singapore Airport website!
 
2. As soon as you leave the airport, the heat hits you like slap in the face. I started to leak and I use that term because I was literally leaking sweat not dripping. Pretty gross, but you get used to it. Check out the Weather Channel and their updates on the Singaporean weather.  
 
3.  Height! I felt so much taller than everyone around me. Maybe it was just me, but people kept looking at me as though I was a giant and I am just over six foot.
 
4. Shopping opportunities, this was super cool. The malls provided trendy brands in their stores and they even had a Superhero store (DC Superheroes) where you could buy superhero type gear, from Batman Shirts to Superman jeans to a Gotham City Police Department outfit! The informal traders provided lots of smaller gear and tons of t-shirts, so it was a good balance.
 
5. People and buildings!  Singapore is jam packed with human traffic walking and buzzing through the streets. The buildings brought to life an old school yet modern architecture which I found breathtaking! Check out Emporis.com for famous buildings of Singapore!
 
6. Fat Free Water! Don’t ask, but I bought bottled water which was Fat Free!
 
7. Tom Selleck, well not exactly but I met this Kiwi dude who looked just like him and wore a Palm shirt too…I guess he was New Zealand’s Version of Magnum P.I. Funny chap who kept telling me about Amsterdam!
 
Singapore was a quick pit stop and a destination worth checking out or even venturing to live in, it has so much energy, it was a pity I couldn’t stay longer. As I boarded the plane to New Zealand, I realized that I had left my suit jacket at the hotel room. Dashing out at the last minute with crazy ambition of finding my jacket without missing my flight I was amazed to find that some crazy hotel staff member tracked my flight down and made sure “my precious” was waiting for me at the departure gate. Singaporean people rock…I love my suits! Oh well let’s go check out some sheep…