This next colourful card is from the Singapore island.

The Republic of Singapore, a sovereign city-state, consists of 63 islands (most of them are uninhabited), and this card arrived from the main and largest one. Evelyn, who sent the card, characterised the island as tiny, humid and densely populated - and that's of course true - Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, and one of the smallest. The most widely used language in Singapore is English, it's also the language of business and government. However, there are 3 more official languages - Malai, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil.

Especially interesting is the city mascot and symbol - Merlion, a creature with a lion head and a body of a fish. It is the personification of Singapore, the name of the island comes from Sanskrit "Singapura" meaning Lion City (although it is now known that there were never lions on the island), and the fish tail represents the origins of the city, when it was a fishing village called Temasek - "sea town".

Big thanks to Evelyn for sending this card!

Evelyn has a beautiful blog, where you can see lots of photos from Singapore. She has even created a mini-guide, in which she e.g. recommends visiting another island - Pulau Ubin - where you'll be surrounded by nature, or having a picnic at the Botanic Gardens (which shows perfectly why Singapore is also called “a City in a Garden”).

They look similiar, don't they? But it's not that surprising - Katie and Evelyn, who took those photos and sent the cards are actually friends and both take lovely pictures - I am so happy to have some of them in my island collection. :)

singapore

postcard sent

05.11.2014

postcard received

12.11.2014

distance travelled

~9501km