Singapore Diaries: Pink Guava

In Singapore, I'm more alone than I have been in a long time.

After weeks of travelling on dusty roads, the crisp sheets of a sleek hotel room feel too new. I'm uncomfortable in my peeling skin. So I lay by the pool for hours and in the late afternoons, I take myself for a walk and for a bowl of simple noodles.

In the Buddha Tooth Relic temple, I find myself followed by a man in sharp trousers and a piercing stare. I end up running through the eerily empty corridors of the museum and when I finally find my way out of the temple, I vow to take taxis for the rest of my stay.

When I tire of the skyscrapers, shopping malls, and hotels, I walk to the botanic gardens under the blazing midday sun and carelessly spend my last five dollars to look at orchids with names I can't pronounce. When nobody's looking, I run my fingertips on their petals.