Singapoor

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Fast facts:

*Originally owned by the Brits. Singapore is not part of Malaysia, although it was for a couple of years in the 60s. It’s a republic; a modern day city-state. 80% of its citizens are Chinese.

* 4.3 million people live here in an area of 650 sq. kms., about 3.5 times the size of Washington. However, it’s getting bigger. But because there’s nowhere else to expand, they’re constantly reclaiming land from the sea. After reclaiming it must lay vacant for 10 years before it can be build on.

* Only 136 kms north of the equator

* Lamb is very expensive here

After short flight from Phuket, we arrive in Singapore airport. Clean, quiet, bright. No hustling. Clear information about transportation. Quick luggage, quick immigration and quick into a clean cab on the way to the hotel on a clean street. (You might have picked up on the word clean. It will become a theme. Get dropped off at Marina Mandarin hotel. Looks clean. Grand check-in with hostess, wonderful architecture. Average room. Starved and rush to the lounge at 2sh for light lunch. Get cleaned. A cold sandwich, a mini-quiche and a bottle of mineral water is almost $50 Cdn.. First hint of the cost of being here. Vow not to eat in this hotel again but against our better judgement we’ll end up eating breakfast here each morning. Three slices of toast $5, continental breakfast $20.00 per person. We decide that the three days here is a great time to begin a diet.

We find one of the dozens of shopping centres is attached to the hotel. Browse around a bit. Huge. Lots of specialty shops. That night we find a waterfront outside our back door with choice of several cafes, and bars. End up with a beer and light supper for $50. (We’ll learn that no matter what you eat or where you eat it, it will cost $50. I think it must be a law) Early to bed. Clean bed.

(Sidebar, eight beats. To Adam: The Esplanade complex adjacent to the hotel and the waterfront is getting set to host the Singapore Jazz Festival. Afro Cuban All Stars, Pat Metheny (I know, I know but he does do some creative things) and a number of European and Asian performers. Looks like a big deal. It starts the day we leave. Poor planning. Next time.)

Next morning, not knowing where else to go, we eat toast at hotel. On the way back to the room we check out the tailor shop in the lobby. We’ve heard good things about Taylor Mades coming out of Singapore. Two hours later I’ve bought a suit, jacket, slacks and 7 shirts. I don’t know about how good a tailor they are but great salesman. The price ends up being less than half of what I’d pay for off the rack in Canada and this is all made to measure including the shirts. (With all the money I save we abandon diet.) We leave the store at around 12:30 after looking at material. (Detour to tailor experience >>>At 7:00PM that day, we drop back in for trial fitting. Since noon hour, he’s made a pair of pants and a dress shirt which I try on. Fits like a glove. Well, fits like a shirt and pair of pants, but fits well. We agree to drop back in at 6:00PM the next day. When we return then, the slacks have been adjusted and finished and the jacket is done and fits like a,,,, it fits perfectly. The rest of the stuff will be shipped home and theoretically should be there when I return. Of course, he has all the measurements on file. We also have looked at a couple of other pieces of material. I can email him anytime in the future and he’ll make up slacks, jackets, shirts, whatever and send them along within 30 days.).

Back to day two. After leaving tailor shop we take the Hop-On / Hop-off Bus. With our boarding pass from flight, this only costs $3.00. Get a decent overview of the city. This is one beautiful city. Along the harbour and the Singapore River, wonderful streetscapes. Not a speck of litter. Past Chinatown ( Since we’ll be going to China, we decide to skip). Go past Little India (Since we’ll be going to Big India, we skip) and several other stops. We end up getting off at Orchard Drive, the 5^th avenue of Singapore. This city is a (cliche coming) shoppers paradise. Shopping centre after shopping centre after shopping centre with product from expensive high end brand names to moderate quality stuff. Mostly we just window shop. Don’t really need anything, too much variety and we need to conserve cash for food. After a couple of hours hop back on the Hop-On / Hop-Off and proceed to Raffles hotel. We are told we just have to stop at Raffles and have a Singapore Sling, since it was invented here. We find the Long Bar in this Indian (the other Indian) / English kind of place and have our Singapore Sling. Other than it was weak, sweet, and dinky and cost about $12 each, it was great. Skipped the tee-shirt and back to the hotel. After my tailor trial we walk about 15 minutes along the waterfront to Boat Quay (which along with Clarke Quay houses more than 50 restaurants, cafes and pubs, most with outside dining. Have excellent fish and chips and a beer ($50) and walk home. A good day!

Next morning we’ve booked an early half-day city tour so we only have time to eat in the hotel. Grrr.! Tour takes us to Little India and lets us off for a visit. Then we go to China Town; lets us off for a visit. Takes us to the quay across from our hotel. Lets us off for a visit. We’re having a problem getting out of the box here when we’re let off at the Mandai Orchid gardens within the Botanical gardens. Lunch on our own and we go through the Orchid display. Claire finds her new passion. I try to smell the roses. We’ve abandoned the tour bus at this point, and as old hands we know the Hop-on / Hop- off picks up at the Botanical Garden so we walk through with our $6.00 in hand. Driver jumps off for a washroom break as we approach and we completely scam the system. Pocket $6.00. One of us will be able to have toast again tomorrow. Back at hotel for some R&R. Way too hot out to wander around any more (34 degrees and humid) and anyway, we have to get prepped for the night safari.

The tour revealed some things about what makes Singapore work. One is the approach toward citizens’ responsibilities. Crime is simply not tolerated, is prosecuted mercilessly and punishment is severe. As evidence we read one newspaper article that talked about a first time money launderer conviction. His punishment was 21 months in prison and a $130,000 fine. Oh yeah, and 12 lashes.

The second thing that came out in the tour was approach to funding certain social economics. All citizens have 20% of their earnings deducted and contributed to a fund. The employer matches that times three. And the gov’t matches the 20%. So the 100% goes into a fund which is partitioned into a housing fund, an education fund and a health fund. When someone wishes to buy an apartment (the gov’t manufactures 85% of the apartment housing in Singapore) they can use any funds they have accumulated in their housing partition and they can mortgage the rest, the mortgage payments to be paid out of this fund. The education fund is self evident. Pays for their kids. And if they don’t use it, they lose it. The health partition is available for people to draw out of ad they access services such as hospital, doctor drugs etc. The spin here is that if a surplus is allowed to build up, it isn’t forfeited at death but is passed along to other family members and added to their pool. In this way each family manages their own access to the health care system and is motivated to use it caringly but sparingly.

Night safari. Kind of neat. (Had been recommended by an Aussie couple that we’d shared a cab with in Phuket.) Picked up at hotel and join a tour bus that ends up at a zoo that specializes in nocturnal animals. In mini Disney kind of entrance we grab some Chinese food and a couple of beers ($50) Actually, very good. Eat at picnic table.

Get on a tram which takes a 40 minute ride through forest in the dark. At various locations along the way we can view groups of animals livin in their own environment with only some subtle lighting. No cages. Elephants, rhinos, jackels that kind of thing. Running commentary by a hostess. There were three walking trails and you could disembark and walk in the dark quiet trail and see some of the areas from a different perspective. Supposed to be great but, our agenda is full. Jump off the train and go to an outside amphitheatre for a 30 minute “show” featuring trained wild (??) animals. Kind of fun. Then back to entrance area for a native dance and fire show thing and its time to catch the bus back. Get in at 11:00. Which means, because we have to catch a mid-morning flight we won’t be up in time to go anywhere else in the morning for breakfast. Double Grrr!

Next morning. Toast and cab to airport. Next stop Beijing, China.

We like Singapore a lot. It was clean, lots of restaurants and cafes. Good access to river, harbour and green areas. Clean air. Very walkable but good transit system. Good ethnic mix. Only real downside that I can think of is the cost of eating and drinking. We’d go back. We’ll just pack a lunch.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY

I learned that a large city doesn’t have to be smoggy and polluted. Singapore has tackled this problem and with some success. Some of the initiatives they’ve applied:

*High cost of passenger car ownership. Just to be able to buy a car, one has to purchase a permit for $10,000 which expires in 10 years. Motorcycles acquisition permits are between $2,000 and $3,000.

*Public transportation vehicles and taxis have an engine conversion package at a cost of around $10,000 to burn fuel more cleanly.

*There is a commitment to many large green areas with lots of trees on the premise that it produces large quantities of clean air

Of all the large cities we’ll end up visiting, not only is this the cleanest, there just isn’t any sense of unclean air at all. Clearly there’s a particular economic cost to all this but Singapore feels that the overall net cost is lower and it’s citizen’s health is worth it. Refreshing in more ways than one.

What I learned today is just because a city is large and high density doesn’t mean that it has to be polluted.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY (PART TWO)

It’s very hot near the equator.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What’s the deal on Malaysia? I had this vague notion that Singapore was capital of Malaysia but on reflection, although it sounds familiar, I don’t know anything about Malaysia.. Is there anything of any interest in Malayasia. Anything with which a Canadian might be able to relate?

(Follow up to earlier quiz. Post cards are on the way to Betty and to Hills. (both the dynamic ones and the other ones since, ghill doesn’t help much.) Betty asked the question whether there is a special prize for most wins. The answer is that some people have a life and can’t just get to this so quickly. Given this we have a new rule. Any prior winner can answer but if there is a reasonable answer from somewhere else in the world within 24 hours, they win.)

Postsript: We're getting a little behind. I have 3 locations with journals due. We're making further progress that suggested.