SINGAPORE: A British Indian traveller listed Singapore in the bottom five among the 40 countries he’s visited so far, and some commenters on his TikTok post have said that perhaps he expected the Little Red Dot to be the same as other Southeast Asian countries.
Tharsh Balenthiran, who runs The Journal of an Explorer accounts on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, posted a list of his five least favourite destinations early last month. The list has gone viral, with almost 5 million views so far.
In it, he says his bottom five countries are Germany, Romania, Ireland, Singapore, and Slovakia, in that order.
And for Singapore, in particular, here is a list of what he dislikes:
- It’s a very small country, not much to do, could do everything within two to three days.
- Very expensive, especially considering it’s in Southeast Asia.
- Felt like it’s a bit too westernised, didn’t really get the vibe it was an Asian country.
- The weather was also unbearable, way too hot and humid.
In another post, though one with fewer views, Mr Balenthiran wrote that his top five are Vietnam, Iceland, Croatia, Thailand, and Norway, also in that order.
As is common in this type of subjective list, some people wildly disagreed with the traveller, defending the places they love and saying he may not have only had limited experiences in the countries he visited.
Germany, Ireland, and Singapore, in particular, are well-loved by many people who travel.
Some commenters felt that Mr Balenthiran’s dislike toward Singapore may have had something to do with prices—the country is one of the most expensive in the world, after all.
Several TikTok users said that, since Singapore is located in Southeast Asia, he may have expected it to have the same price range as other countries in the region.
They may be on to something. In Mr Balenthiran’s top five list, he mentions prices in four of the five destinations.
In Norway, he said, everything was expensive, while Thailand was “very cheap” where the pound sterling went a long way, Croatia was “pretty cheap,” and for Vietnam, his number one country, he commented that it was “crazy how cheap it is.”
One commenter, however, disagreed about Singapore being expensive, particularly in terms of food, saying that “amazing food” could be had for less than 10AUD (S$8.92) and adding that some of the best things in Singapore are free. /TISG