Living in Singapore: Then and Now (+ Travel Insights and Singapore FAQs)

Hi there!

I'm Maddie, a recent graduate from the University of Colorado Boulder. I'm also Sherpani's newest team member as a Key Accounts Specialist! When I learned that our blog publishes employee travel stories, I was eager to share an experience I had as a girl that changed my whole life.

 

From the Slopes to Singapore

I was a spunky little fourth grader enjoying Colorado ski season when my dad asked me how I felt about moving to Singapore. He tactfully did this on the chair lift at Copper Mountain, so I couldn't dart away down the mountain and outrun this world-changing news.

I was hesitant, but when he explained how living in Singapore would allow us to travel to amazing parts of the world, like Thailand, Japan, and Australia, I started to soften. I don't think I was fully sold on the adventure until that summer when our family of five boarded the plane.

If you haven't had the pleasure of flying on Singapore Airlines, I can tell you it is one finely tuned operation. This is impossible to miss, even as a child. The picture-perfect flight crew—along with the upgrade my dad's company had arranged—had me thinking my ten-year-old life was about to change Princess Diaries style.

The journey to my new home was the perfect representation of the culture I was about to be immersed in. Singapore is widely known as a clean, well-organized place, and I can confirm those rumors are 100% true. But how did it get this way?

 

A Brief History of Singapore

I'm not the person to speak to the thousands of years of history that have played out on this tiny Southeast Asian island. But I'll do my best to summarize the last couple of centuries.

In 1819, the British recognized Singapore, then inhabited by the Malay people, as a key place to establish a colony for trade. Immigrants flooded to the port in search of work, predominantly from China, but many from India and other countries. Singapore remained under British rule until the tragic and bloody Japanese occupation of the colony during WWII. After the war, Britain resumed control of Singapore, but the momentum to secede was already underway. Singapore seceded from Britain in 1963 when it briefly joined the neighboring country of Malaysia, but due to significant cultural differences, Singapore was established as an independent nation in 1965.

Singapore's complicated history tells us several things about life there today. The first is that Singapore is home to a melting pot of cultures, each contributing its own influence. The second is that Singapore, as a country, is less than sixty years old! In its short lifespan, it has developed into one of the most modern and technologically advanced places in the world—as well as one of the wealthiest.

 

Culture Shock

Hop back to little me, arriving in Singapore and knowing none of this as a kid on her very wildest adventure. My younger siblings and I oohed and aahed over the differences between our new home and our previous one: the humid climate, the exotic food, and the incomprehensible fact that our house came with Thelma, our live-in helper.

Culture shock is a fair statement, but looking back, I'm amazed at how adaptable children are. Mamas, take this as your sign to travel with your kids! I promise they can handle it, and expanding their worldview will change them for the better.

My biggest fear was starting school in a new place and feeling like an outsider. Back home, I was a proud little fashionista, so I wasn't thrilled about conforming to my new school uniform. The requirements didn't end with our clothing, either; we all carried the same school supplies—right down to the branded pencils!

This level of organization may seem rigid, but it has its benefits; right away, I felt like I belonged. It was an international school attended by students from all over the world. The orderly structure really leveled the playing field for the K-12 student body.

 

World Travel

Little me was sad about missing the fifth-grade trip I had been promised back home. While many things about life in Singapore were different, this was a similarity I never would have guessed. Not long after moving to Singapore, I set off again. I took a class trip, alongside fifty of my new peers, to the remote island of Telunas, Indonesia.

This was a golden first experience as a solo female traveler! Of course, I was a mere child, traveling in a well-maintained group with Singapore-standard chaperones. Still, it was the first time I traveled without my parents, which felt like a big deal. To get to take this trip "on my own" and in such an exotic place set the stage for my independence. It also stoked the flames of my growing wanderlust.

In Telunas, we met the locals and learned some of their native language. We also hiked through the jungle and jumped in the South China Sea! Telunas cracked my ten-year-old world right open. Today, I am still in contact with some of the friends I made on this incredible adventure.

This wasn't the only place that Singapore life led to seeing. My dad held true to his promises. Over our two years in Southeast Asia, my family ventured to Japan, Thailand, Bali, Malaysia, and Australia's Gold Coast. Experiencing these places at a young age was nothing short of magic, and I'm so grateful that my parent's adventurous spirit introduced me to world travel in childhood.

 

Let's Talk About the Gum Thing (and Other Singapore FAQs)

Of course, living in Singapore was different from visiting. But when I hear about other traveler's experiences, they align with what I remember from living there as a kid. Here are my responses to the comments and questions I hear again and again:

Living Abroad as a Family

Speaking of parents, I can only imagine how our time in Singapore played out for my mom. While navigating life in a foreign place as a mother of three, she managed to get super involved in our new community. She volunteered at our school, lobbied to install a speedbump in our neighborhood, and frequently went to Malaysia to score bargain deals (and gum). Our first December, she even managed to track down a Christmas tree!

Seriously, is there anything Moms can't do?

I must confess that Christmas in Singapore fell a little flat for us snowbird, Colorado kids. So, the following year, we made the trip back to the US—this time as a family of six!

By this point, Thelma had become part of the family. She was part nanny, part big sister, and part much-needed link between our worlds. That said, Thelma wasn't originally from Singapore. She was a Filipino immigrant working there to support her real family back home. Before accompanying us to the US, she had never traveled anywhere besides these two places.

Bringing Thelma to Colorado for the holiday season was so special. I watched her eyes light up over a bite of mashed potatoes, giggle over the concept of "Mall Santa" behind my younger sibling's backs, and make her first-ever snowball. For me, forming a deep connection with someone from another culture is the most precious part of travel. We are still in touch with Thelma today.

 

Then and Now

All my memories from those two precious years bring a giant smile to my face. I am incredibly grateful I was old enough to have solid memories of life in Singapore. My little sister Ava was only five when we arrived there; she has little memory of it all. She feels a big pull to return now and is hopeful it will jog her memory.

I had plans to visit, but they were disrupted by the pandemic. Maybe someday, I will see my other home again. There's no question that Singapore is my other home; it shaped me into the woman I am today.

I am no longer a spunky little fourth grader but a college grad embarking on a different kind of adventure. During my last year at CU, I had the honor of serving as the president of my sorority. This experience required meticulous organization, and I'm sure you can guess where I picked that up! I wouldn't call myself fearless, but I am a long way from fearful—traveling as a child is the sole reason this is true.

 

Travel Insights

I'd like to leave you with three things that I think every traveler should know:

1. The world is so much bigger than only Europe.
2. Don't underestimate children's ability to handle travel.
3. There are unique and profound lessons to learn from every culture.

Yours from Boulder to Singapore and beyond,

Maddie | Sherpani Team Member

 

Discover More from the Sherpani Travel Blog

For more from this part of the globe...

Read about Hilary's adventure in Cambodia!

Check out our buy guide of the perfect travel bags for Southeast Asia.

Discover the tour you cannot miss when visiting Vietnam. 

 

By women for women, the Sherpani Travel Blog talks about all things travel (& all things Sherpani!). Explore topics like solo travel, destination guides, women's travel safety, personal essays, and much more! This is a space to amplify female voices and celebrate our belief that travel restores the human spirit.