Singapore

Hello from Singapore. That's me at the base of the Singapore skyline by the merlion (half-lion, half-fish mermaid) that is Singapore's mascot. My hair is a little out of control, but I got a haircut at the mall last night so that's taken care of now.

Singapore is a rich gleaming futuristic clean little orderly metropolis and while I was skeptical of how I would feel about what some have described as its sterility, I must say that I am quite enjoying myself here. Singapore is probably the cleanest nicest little place on Earth.


There's really not much to do in Singapore besides eating and shopping, but there's enough amazingly delicious cheap food and shopping malls seemingly on every street to keep you occupied with that for quite a while. [Above, one of Singapore's many malls]
Singaporeans love their food and they have a rich tradition of street food just like the rest of Asia but having actual street vendors would ruin the orderly clean streets that the government has worked so hard to create. The solution has been to corral all the food vendors into hawker centers, which are basically food courts spread all over the city. But to call them food courts in the way that we might understand them would be a gross understatement. Each hawker center has over 50 or 60 different vendors selling all kinds of delicious food. I've been eating way too much here, but it's so delicious... [Above, a hawker center near the central business district. I was there right after the lunchtime rush but there were still a few business people hanging around, eating their food]

Today for lunch I went to Chinatown and at the hawker center, had duck rice, shanghai soup dumplings, and almond paste for lunch. I also chatted in Chinese with some of the vendor ladies for a good hour or so, including this nice Taiwanese-Singaporean woman below who runs one of the drink stalls.

Cutting up little pieces of fruit for shaved ice desserts. She was fun to talk to.

Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Hand-made noodles

Chopping up duck

Singapore is an interesting social experiment. It is, like Malaysia (with which it shares a common history), a multiethnic society but one in which the sense of Singaporean nationhood is strong. The government is notorious for being overbearing (with strict rules and fines for minor infractions and the highest per capita death penalty rate in the world!). Signs of Singapore's continuing experiment in social engineering abound everywhere. On the MRT (subway), which is probably the nicest mass transit system I've ever ridden on, they play a corny video about what to do if you see a suspected terrorist . It is so over-the-top cheesy that I burst out laughing but it seems to be common fare here. Some more pictorial examples of this "social guidance" below:

Not sure what kind of animal this is supposed to be, but as part of the "Singapore kindness movement" it is reminding you to apologize...

Amazingly, Singapore does seem to be actually litter-free...

These corny pictures are posted on the subway doors to remind you to let others out first...

Off to the Night Safari at the zoo tonight and then tomorrow flying to Bali. My 2 weeks in Bali are to be the captone of my trip and I plan to spend them learning to surf, diving some more, chilling out on the beach, and exploring Bali's magical culture.