Singapore

Singapore hit differently from anything I'd expected. Coming from Kathmandu, I'm used to cities that feel lived-in and a little rough around the edges — Singapore was almost the opposite, this impossibly clean, glass-and-green city where the skyline looks like it was designed by someone who really wanted to show off. Standing at Merlion Park with that wind off the bay and the CBD towers stacked up behind the fountain, I kept thinking: this is actually real, not a render.

Orchard Road during Christmas season was another world entirely. The Cartier Ferris wheel spinning in front of a Dolce & Gabbana LED facade, Dior and Tiffany decked in red and gold inside the mall — it was excessive in the best way, that kind of over-the-top festive energy that Singapore just commits to fully. The air-conditioning blasting out of every door, the smell of food from the basement hawker levels, the whole thing.

Sentosa was genuinely fun. Universal Studios has this Ancient Egypt zone where the prop statues are absurdly large and the whole set feels more real than it has any right to. We ate at Din Tai Fung twice — those xiao long bao are the reason. I'd go back to Singapore for the food alone, honestly.