Finally, the third part of the report of our trip to Singapore. I was quite busy working on another project you might hear of soon. But back to topic…and sorry for not having a lot of photos for some headings again.

Crocodiles and Monkeys

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in front of Malaysia

The Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is in the North East of Singapore, directly at the border to Malaysia. Getting there was easy by taxi, on the way back we’ve been challenged by the public transports.

Covering an area of around 200qm and consisting of several trekking trails, the reserve lets you experience a huge biodiversity. It’s a place many flora and fauna can call their home, with many mudflats, ponds, and mangrove forests, offering perfects conditions for the different species to live. Walking through this landscape, hearing birds and observing the wild animals from a safe and comfortable distance creates a nice ambience. Only the mosquitos and the construction noises coming from Malaysia’s city Johor Bahru are not really adding to this atmosphere…

Just a few hundred meters water between Singapur and Johor Bahru

Furthermore, we could see and capture animals that in Germany can only be found in zoo’s. That include crocodiles and monkey, as you can see in the photos below, but also snakes, lizards, spiders and more. While some relaxed on a tree branch, making it more easy for us to create images, others used their freedom to run around, challenging us more :-). Nevertheless, we enjoyed it watching the animals in their natural habitat. Even some birds that we had seen a day before were greeting us in freedom now, in addition to kingfishers and sunbirds.

Asian water monitor resting on tree limb

The recently build Visitor Center provides some additional information on the species and the history of the reserve and makes it an even more informative place. Overall, it’s a must-visit for Singapore tourists that are interested in flora and fauna usually found in this part of earth.

Crab-eating macaque family

Red hot design

I must say, I’m really a noob when it comes to design. But that does not make it less interesting for me. As a car-enthusiastic person, I love unique and great design, not only on cars, of course. I think, it’s the language of products and as well as architecture, it’s getting increasingly important in a time when there are endless amounts of different products, buildings, tools and also User Interfaces in our daily life. Imagine everything looking the same…

It’s been in 2005 when the red dot design Museum Singapore opened for the public. The award itself is even 60 years older than the museum. Every year the jury from the Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen in Essen, Germany gives away several prizes. Awarded are many fields of manufacturing, from furniture and cars to machines and tools.

red dot Museum

The museum in Singapore is easy to detect, as you can see in the photo. It’s one of three museums, adding to the ones in Essen, Germany and in Taipei in China. You can admire a selection of the red dot award winners from the past years. That includes popular products from well-known companies such Apple, Siemens, or Bose. as Additionally, a selection of inspiring books listing even more winners is provided.

I could have stayed even longer than the several hours we’ve been there and for design enthusiastic people, I can definitely recommend a visit. But we need to move on, since we wanted to visit another quarter.

Arab hospitality

The Arab quarter and its heart, the Arab street can be found in the Downtown of Singapore. The central point features a beautiful mosque and the calls of the muezzin added to the feeling of ‘Little Arabia’, nearly as authentic as Chinatown.

We were looking for a restaurant for dinner and found a nice looking Lebanese one. Together with our ordered typical Arab food, Arab hospitality was served as well, consisting of a great service and two complimentary dishes. I was speechless and impressed, as well as confirmed in my plan visiting Arab countries one day.

But for now, it’s been enough cultural impressions from the middle east and so we headed back home to Luang Prabang the next day. Singapore’s sky was crying for us, but no need to: I hope this hasn’t been my last time in Singapore…