Singapore: Yes, the Rumours You've Heard About Chewing Gum Being Illegal Are True!

In one of the malls we went into, there was a Lego display. This one was celebrating the Soccer World Cup taking place in Germany.
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Singapore is a great place.  Unfortunately, though, Singapore seems to have gotten a reputation as being a bit of a hard nose country (I mean that with no disrespect).  You may remember the case of the American student Michael Fay, who in 1994 was sentenced to six lashes with a bamboo cane (called a caning) for spraypainting some cars.  They take their laws pretty seriously here, and it results in a pretty clean, well mannered city.

We were interested to learn about some of their laws.  Here are another couple:

Heather felt quite sad to be in such a place on a backpackers budget. She vows to someday return with a bigger amount which she's allowed to spend.

We like the Lego men
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It is illegal to chew gum.  Not only that, it is illegal for stores to sell gum.  The only exception is gum that holds medicinal values.  Don't tell the customs officers, but we did mistakenly bring some Extra gum from Malaysia.  It was in our carry on bag and we just didn't even think of it, I swear!  At least we didn't chew it when we were there.

It is also illegal to walk away from a flush toilet or urinal after using it and not flush.  I'd like to see someone get caught for this.  Imagine an officer just going into the john to take a leak, and he just happens to see someone not flush (imagine his shock if they didn't wash their hands too!).  He'd prabably want to finish and zip up pretty quick to catch the dirtbag.

Mike and Tay discussing the childhood loves of Legos
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Odd laws aside (odd to us at least), as I've said, Singapore is a great place.

We asked our friend Tay / Ivan what Singapore is best known for and he said, "Two things: shopping and eating".

Shopping first:  If shopping was a religion (some might say it is), then Singapore would be it's Mecca:  it's holiest of holy places.  There is such a strong emphasis on shopping as evidenced by the sheer numbers of shopping malls throughout the city.  In fact, while we were there they were holding their annual "Great Singapore Sale", where stores across the entire country held big markdowns.  Heather felt quite sad to be in such a place on a backpackers budget.  She vows to someday return with a bigger amount which she's allowed to spend.  We did actually make some purchases, taking advantage of our good Canadian dollar exchange rate here.  We're now the proud owners of our very own Creative Zen Vision multimedia players (competitor of Ipod).  We got these for a very good price, partly because of the Great Sale, but mostly because they're manufactured right here in Singapore.  Good deal.

The National War Memorial. Singapore was occupied by Japan during WWII. Tay told us some of what happened as told to him by his father who lived through it.
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Food wise, Singapore is a very multicultural place, and this is evidenced by it's restaurants.  You name it, you got it, cuisine wise.  Not only that, but Singapore has managed to make it's own unique style, borrowing from the ancestries of the inhabitants (Chinese, Indian and Malay) and fusing them into one Singapore flavour.  Tay treated us to some unique Singapore food, most of which we enjoyed.  One thing that we just couldn't stomach was durian, but I'll save that for the next entry.

Within the War Memorial
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We were so greatful to our good friend Tay for showing us around.  We even got to attend church with him, something we haven't been able to do since Easter Sunday back in April.

We can't wait to come back someday.  Thanks again Tay.  You were a great host!

Michael and Heather