Singapore

At first, my plan for this post was to write one sentence with three words: "Singapore is boring." But then I thought, "That isn't the whole truth. Singapore is boring -- compared to India and Nepal." But then recently a friend of mine who is moving to Singapore with her fiance later this year told me that even her fiance, who grew up in Singapore, thinks it's boring. So, take that as you will. There's an emerging consensus that, yes indeed, Singapore is just a little bit dull.

But even so, I've decided that Singapore has some things worth noting, and I did have a good time there. The most important reason that I had a good time, as I alluded to in my previous post, was that Singapore was where I met up with my very awesome girlfriend, MP, who took three weeks off from work to trek around SE Asia with me. With her at my side, I was guaranteed and did in fact have a good time.

One of the things that contributes to Singapore's lack of "oomph" is that it somehow doesn't feel authentic. And in many senses, it isn't: From the land, much of which is reclaimed; to the population, much of which is borrowed (36% foreign); to the culture, which is likewise imported. The "heart and soul" of Singapore, insofar as it exists, is said to be Chinatown, with the other neighborhood reputed as having personality being Little India. When your only cultural standouts are not your culture at all, I imagine authenticity is a challenge -- especially when the Chinatown in question looks much more like the Chinatown in DC than the one in San Francisco. But then again, Singapore was built by the British as a trading port on uninhabited land less than two centuries ago, so maybe we should all cut it some slack. Okay, slack cut. (Then again, in 1819, when Singapore was founded, the US only had 22 states.)

At any rate, on our first day we wandered the city, just trying to get the lay of the land. Singapore is very modern: the first place I could drink tap water in a month without being guaranteed of getting sick (though by habit I didn't test this). We walked through Chinatown and down the river to part of the harbor. We saw some tall buildings, and one in particular that did look pretty cool and was designed to look like it had a cruise ship sitting on top of it (which apparently is an expensive bar?).






Then MP and I went to the Asian Civilizations Museum, ate lunch in their pretty great museum restaurant, and toured around inside. We saw an exhibition on the history of Singapore (summary: it was founded, and now it exists) and a few much more interesting exhibits on -- you guessed it, the culture of Asian Civilizations, notably not including Singapore's. Still, it introduced us to many of the themes we'd see throughout our time in Southeast Asia, including rice, the monsoons, Buddhism, and more rice. Oddly, there was also an exhibit on African civilization, specifically on African masks, which was interesting but not what you expect to see in an Asian Civilizations Museum. Bonus.






We kept wandering and saw a variety of buildings and monuments. A statue commemorating a visit by the King of Siam. The Parliament. The Supreme Court. A cathedral (St. Andrew's). Some temples. A monument to Gandhi. Nothing really stuck, and if I didn't have pictures of it I don't think I'd remember. We had dinner (Chinese food), wandered around looking for something (anything), and went to bed.








Then next day MP decided to hike up a hill, so we did. It was very rainforesty, though we did get a great view of a more industrial part of the harbor. It brought back fond memories of driving on the highway into Baltimore. On reaching the top we had very expensive sodas, and then went on to a pedestrian bridge that was noted for its "wave" design, where the weather drizzled a bit on us. Then we wandered around some more, had a very very expensive drink at the famous Raffles Hotel's bar, went back to Chinatown, grabbed some dinner, had a second dinner at McDonald's just for kicks, and went to bed.










That does it for Singapore. Sure, there are a few things we didn't see, like their zoo, but I don't think we missed that much worth seeing. There are a few other things I could write about, like the culture of consumerism that dominates ("shopping and eating" is what you do in Singapore) and the fascistic tendencies of their government. (For example, all movies you bring into the country are required to be sent beforehand to the Board of Censors to be approved, since Singapore bans lots of stuff, though this policy isn't actually enforced. Or, you famously can't bring gum in. Or spit. Or lean against the railings. Plus there's a "mandatory" death penalty for possession of any drugs.) But frankly even these things I learned more about from my books than from experience (thank G-d).

If you're looking for a nice, clean, safe place to escape from the nuttiness of the Third World and drink some tap water, Singapore is great. Nice and boring. But sometimes you need that kind of thing.