SINGAPORE – American football star Travis Kelce has gone on record to praise his visit to Singapore, calling the city-state “hi-tech”, exceedingly “well planned out” and “more interesting” to him than Sydney, Australia.
Kelce, 34, was in town between March 7 and 9 with pop star girlfriend Taylor Swift for the last two nights of her Eras Tour run in Singapore.
On the couple’s itinerary was dinner at upscale Japanese restaurant Koma Singapore and, evidently, as shared in a chat with brother Jason in the March 13 episode of their New Heights football podcast, a gander about Gardens by the Bay.
In what appears to be a reference to the Cloud Forest attraction, Kelce said: “I got to check out the world’s largest greenhouse. How about that?”
The Ohio native, who plays for National Football League (NFL) team Kansas City Chiefs, made the comments in a nearly 10-minute-long segment on his Singapore stay.
He added: “I’m a big plant guy, love seeing flowers and trees. They had the world’s biggest waterfall in a greenhouse, too.
“It was awesome, man. The way the whole thing was laid out. It was a very controlled space and everything was blooming at the same time. It was so unique and so nice.”
When asked by his brother – a football player himself who recently announced his retirement from the NFL – if the “futuristic” pictures of Singapore were to be believed, Kelce said the country was just “as advertised”.
“The architecture is crazy, they have that one hotel – the Marina Bay Sands – where it looks like a boat is on top of three pillars. That thing is as advertised as well, cool as s***,” he said.
Kelce was particularly taken with the “lighting” in public spaces, remarking: “You’ve got the street lights but then you’ve got the building lights, the bus stops. Everything is just nice.
“We don’t have that in America. Everything over there is just high-tech and you can just tell it’s well planned out.”
Kelce also made nods to Singapore’s “diverse” cuisine and the “100 degrees” heat.
Asked to make a choice between Sydney and Singapore – two cities he visited Swift in – Kelce said: “I feel I got to see a little bit more of Singapore, so I’m going to say Singapore was a little more interesting for sure.
“I was only in Australia for a couple hours.”
In a previous episode of the New Heights podcast, which the brothers co-host, Kelce had said that he went to the zoo in Sydney with Swift.
The couple returned to the US on March 9.
In a rare prelude to her song Marjorie on the opening night of her six sold out Singapore shows, Swift revealed that her grandmother – for whom the song is named – used to live here, surprising local fans.
Under a clip of the moment posted to Instagram, Jason Kelce commented he had been moved to tears.
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MCI (P) 066/10/2023. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No. 202120748H. Copyright © 2024 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.
