“Because we are different, we are one.”
That is what I heard over and over again in Singapore. This country is a lot like the dreams I had as a kid where everybody, people and animals, lived together in peace. Where even is Singapore though? Even I didn’t know where it was until my father took me there. It’s this small speck of land wedged next to Malaysia and cornered by Indonesia. It would have been a seventeen hour flight if we went straight from San Francisco to Singapore, but we wanted to make things cheaper with the mileage we have. Instead, we had to stop in Japan’s Tokyo airport before paying Thailand’s Bangkok airport a visit as well and finally getting to Singapore. That took about twenty four hours of just flying and waiting at airports. As exhausted as we were, our energy seemed to spark up out of nowhere due to the warm welcome we got from a local there. We were provided with food, water, a ride, and a very petite but comfortable apartment to stay in.
The Birds
The air was warm enough to make you feel sticky, but the breeze from the bodies of water surrounding Singapore made the walks so pleasant. There was so much green vegetation and everything smelled so floral. There was a mix of tropical and boreal forest biomes put into one ecosystem. Speaking of ecosystems, Singapore is known for saving and protecting wildlife from becoming endangered or especially extinct. The first animals I encountered were hundreds of bird species at the Jurong Bird Park. I remembered being flocked by many different parrots just because I bought them some syrup to feed on. They walked all over my shoulders, sat on my head, and slightly dug their claws into the my hands just to get at least one sip of the syrup. Thankfully, I was covered in vibrant feathers instead of bird poop in the end! I left the aviary happy because I saw these rescued birds in good conditions and a beautiful new home to recover in.
The Sharks
In the same day, I managed to also pay some aquatic friends a visit. I have been a shark activist for many years now but have never gotten the chance to have a close encounter with one. I was lucky enough to make it in time to the S.E.A. Aquarium to meet these beautiful predators eye to eye. Just between you and me, I actually have a great fear of them! I was shaking like crazy when I looked down into the tank to see them swimming in there. I was about to jump in there? No way! I was pushed. The professional diver would help me move around in the water with the heavy diving equipment on me. I hopped around the bottom to familiarize myself with the massive tank and its marine life. Once I was comfortable with the aquatic environment, I felt this surreal feeling of having a connection to the sharks in the tank with me. They were peaceful and very calm when I swam next to them. How sad it is to see these creatures stereotyped as some sort of monster when we are the ones killing millions of them. When I finally decided to step over my fear, I hesitantly reached out to a sleeping shark on the sand to gently pet it. This would be the most indescribable texture I felt in my whole life. There was such a connection between me and this animal. I felt this shark breathing, moving its muscles, and coming to life while I could not bring myself to stop petting it. Once it started moving again, I let it swim off to mind its own business. I am now even more motivated to protect this keystone species because I do not want to live to see them wiped off the face of the Earth for such a ridiculous reason such as shark fin soup. Sharks are the wolves of the waters and are highly important to not only their ecosystems, but to us as well.
The Trees
One thing that is extraordinary about Singapore is its Gardens by the Bay. This a huge nature park on a manmade island consisting of one of the biggest greenhouses in the world and is home to Singapore’s solar-powered supertrees. There are just so many different species of plants there that it can sometimes be too much for just one trip! There was artificial fog inside that made you feel like you were truly in a tropical forest despite being indoors. There were even caves you could walk through where waterfalls would pour down to the ground. Since I was visiting I was visiting during a big event known as the Chingay parade, there were probably twice as many flowers there than usual. In Malaysia and Singapore, this is a street parade in celebration of the birthdays of the Chinese deities or the Goddess of Mercy’s procession as part of Chinese New Year. When it got dark, we went up to the solar-powered supertrees to watch their spectacular show of where their light decorated branches dance in the night sky.
The People
One of the last things my parents and I did in Singapore is go to Chingay parade. This was not like any other parade I have ever went to. We were standing in the pouring rain for this event. You’d think we would retreat and go home if that was the case, right? No. Instead, the locals encouraged us to stay and kept a positive attitude even with the rain getting in the way. The enthusiastic announcers would make the people cheer for all the different Asian countries’ floats to keep going and convinced that the rain meant that there would be a lot of good luck the upcoming years. For each country’s float, they had so many different dancers, musicians, actors, singers, and lights to impress the audience with. Each float kept getting better than the one before and the final one was one of Singapore’s floats saying, “Because we are different, we are one.”
