A Tale of 2 Cities as Different as Day and Night

Bangkok and Singapore: 2 cities so close and yet such polar opposites

Singapore CBD

Bangkok CBD

Singapore

Singapore so lush and green, tropical, clean and orderly.  Well planned. Life is easy, although most work hard and very efficient.  Houses are coated in fresh paint, in myriads of fresh pastels, crisp and fresh.  You can leave your purse on the street and still have a good chance of finding it hours later.  It is safe to walk at all times of the day even as a single woman. Mosquitoes are abated monthly, yet the tropical paradise can offer sightings of flying Timorous Beasties.  Pavements are straight, orderly and clean for the most part, no black gum spotting, no spitting’s.  Only the red mud from daily rain tracks into your front door.  Transportation is efficient and cars are limited through permits that are so expensive that most people's dream of owning personal cars will remain a very distant dream.  Public transportation on the other hand is efficient and well planned.  Air quality is good, except for neighboring countries' uncontrollable wild fires. Covered roof structures provide shelter against the almost daily sudden down-pour and blistering tropical sun.  Noise is limited to the roars of Ferraris and Lamborghinis trying to rev-up before the next traffic light: No chance to ever reach the maximum engine cpabilities on the small island-or the exotic sounds of chirping exotic birds and expressive utterings from tropical frogs.  Old traditional shop houses are juxtaposed by new slender mid-or massive high-rise condo towers, HDB government subsidized housing blocks or crisp white or pastel colored carefully restored colonial buildings.

Colonial colorful shop houses in Singapore: perfect sustainable buildings for a hot tropical climate with natural ventilation and internal courtyards

Colonial shop houses overshadowed by modern apartment buildings at Duxton Hill.

Tropical delights: Canon ball tree at bus stop on Tanglin Rd

Bangkok

Bangkok on the other hand is unruly, and has a dirty urban grit.  Diversity and difference are key differentiators for Bangkok.  The city is unplanned and chaotic, with a large amount of imperfection.  Bangkok forces and allows people to live without plans.  Chaos and a large degree of randomness is everywhere.

Urban grit and seemingly randomness.  The BTS skytrain is an ugly massive infrastructure offering very efficient mode of transportation

 Old wooden shacks are flanked by office buildings or condo towers.  Tucked away in side alleys you can find gems and oasis of restaurants and cafes, if only you know how to get there, have a car and a GPS to get there.  It is almost impossible to walk, as the Soi's (alley ways) are so narrow, sandwiched in-between cars, Tuk-Tuks, motor bikes, street vendors and utility poles with dangerous infernos of electrical wires hanging overhead, dimly lit or not lit at all at nighttime.  Walkways are uneven, tiles are broken and under seemingly constant repair-in-progress, dirty and haphazard, aligned with the fumes of street food vendors' temptations of fried fish, bananas, sausages, plastic bags of fresh cut colorful fruits, peppered by exhaust.  The city is grey and trees are far and few in-between.

Riverfront housing in Bangkok will vanish soon due to new waterfront re-development plans

Well-kept street temples and offerings of yellow and fragrant flowers, incense, fresh coconuts and orange juice or red soda for good fortune provide a poetic vibrant juxtaposition to the dirty urban fabric of unpainted buildings, graffiti littered fences and the double-stacked ugly concrete structures of time saving and quite efficient sky trains.  When in Bangkok try to live close to the BTS or be prepared to spend the next hour or hours grid-locked behind your personal car's or taxi's steering wheel.  Personal freedom means having your own car, but sacrificing your time and patience.  Grid-lock is everywhere, seemingly at all times of the day.

Erawan Shrine in Bangkok across from Central World Mall. The BTS skytrain is intersecting at this corner

Gridlock day and night

Hidden golden architectural jewels and Royal ornate buildings

Food are the favorite hobby in both cities and joyful sharing of sumptuous meals are favorite pastimes in both cities.  In Singapore Chicken-rice is the all-time favorite national food, in Bangkok crispy fried street food, spicy curry dishes or chili-flavored mango salad.  Shopping is becoming a second hobby for both cities.  New malls with ice skating rinks are alluring Bangkok shoppers to become their new destination and pastime.  Singapore offers almost nonstop shopping, mall after mall after mall competing with the same high end luxury items.

Street signs in Bangkok are an inferno, competing for massage, yoga or snatch-thief warnings. Slippers are scattered in front of buildings indicative of a favorite luxury, taking time for a cheap Thai massage or foot massage treatment on-the-go.  Every Thai I have met is smiling, welcoming and love to enjoy life.  

Offerings for the spirits: a daily ritual

When asking a Thai what he or she loves to do: party is a good answer.  

Singaporeans are more reserved and offer less facial expressions.  When asking a Singaporean what their hobby is, the standard answer is: eating and shopping.  Street signs are offering luxury lifestyle or food or luxury condo living advertisements.

Each city has so much to offer in such different ways.  In Bangkok you need to discover pockets of art and sub-culture dispersed in seemingly unlikely places, hidden in small Soi's but a rich underground culture and appreciation of design and creativity is spreading roots; design and creativity is becoming a national differentiator.  Thailand is becoming the first country in Asia to come up with the idea of establishing design as a national agenda.  Creative freedom as differentiator.

 “Bangkok and Singapore: 2 cities so close and yet such polar opposites”