6 days in Singapura

This past Tuesday evening, I returned from a 6 day trip to Singapore, which is known as "Singapura" in Malay. I don't know why the Malay name isn't used - Singapura is a cool name - it would undoubtedly place the island city-state on the tip of the Malay Peninsula on the list of the coolest place names in the world, right up there with Mombasa, Mandalay, Krakatoa, Kota Kinabalu, Katmandu, and so on. Anyhow, my job in Singapura was to think up of activities for 26 Thai High School Students from Chiang Mai to do to force them to use English in real life situations (Singapura has four official languages, and English is one of them and the one most commonly used - more on this later.) The kids were excellent, and their English level is superior to that of most of my students. However, they are Thai, and so they walk in the Thai way. For those of you not familiar with Thai walkers, most Thai people it seems, for some reason or another, walk with no awareness whatsoever of what is going on around them. It's not uncommon to be on a busy pedestrian bridge in Bangkok, and all traffic stops when some woman or man in the middle of the steps answers her or his cell phone and stops dead in her or his tracks, oblivious to the people behind her or him trying to get by. Well, anyway, they don't do this in Singapore, so it was rather embarrasing at times, such as when a student stopped in her tracks, pointed at something, and nearly smacked a passerby right in the face on Orchard road, a rather busy street.

Singapura is a much-maligned city state, notorious for its harsh laws and even harsher penalties for breaking such laws. For example, the fine for chewing gum on the subway is S$500 (or about $300 in the US.) As a result, finding gum in Singapore is perhaps as difficult as it is to find marijuana (by the way, the penalty for posession of Marijuana is hanging. Yikes! Don't go there!) The fine for littering is S$1000. As a result, it's about the cleanest little city-state you'll ever see. The laws are kind of amusing, in a way - it's like their government had all sorts of different pet peeves, and decided to crack down on them with great prejuidice. As a result, Singapura doesn't really feel like Asia, despite the obvious Asian background of its citizens. It's more like visiting a city in Canada or something, if Canada had a city in the tropics. I've been told that in Thailand, many of the Thai people call Singaporeans "bananas" - yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. Many Westerners, and even some of the people there whom I spoke with, disparage Singapore as boring, especially when compared with places like Bangkok and Hong Kong.
However, it's hard to argue that this is not one of the best-run cities in the world. In the six days I was there, I found it a nice change of pace - order and cleanliness, a break from the chaos and grime of BKK. And we were fortunate enough to have our visit correspond with three festivals within the various ethnic communities of Singapore. It was a good time, and I wouldn't mind going back or even living there someday (even though I'd have to cross to Malaysia from time to time and smuggle in some gum!)
To the pictures!The street where we stayed...

...and this is why the street has such a name. The Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, which gives services in both English and Mandarin.

High rise apartment buildings. Such buildings seem to cover 70-80 percent of Singapore's built environment. If you look carefully, you can see numbers on the sides of these buildings - otherwise people wouldn't be able to tell them apart. 86% of the population lives in buildings like this. This may seem depressing to some, but Singapore is physically the same size as Madison, Wisconsin, but with 4 million souls crowded into it (Madison has about a quarter million.) It is far more sustainable than the silly urban-spawlopolis model favored in the US. There is lots of greenspace on the island, making it even more of a pleasant place. In fact, there is still some primary-growth rainforest in spots, I've been told.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs. Singpore has more public service announcement signs than any place I've seen. It also is the only country in the world with a national dating service, aimed at boosting the population of the country's post-industrial society with extremely low birth rates.

This sign shows the four languages of Singapore: English, Mandarin (Chinese,) Tamil (a language of Southern India, where most Indian-Singaporeans come from,) and Malay.

Orchard Road in Singapore. This is the major commercial area of the city-state. It kind of reminded me of Harajuku in Tokyo.

Old-school departures sign at Singapore's Changi Airport

The grand old Raffles Hotel, the place where the Singapore Sling was invented. Sadly, it costs S$16 (US $10 or so) to get one here. Needless to say, I stuck to Tiger Beer.

Okay, if you insist! Just don't cane me...

A polar bear in Singapore's Zoo. What the hell is a polar bear doing at 1 degree north lattitude? I really don't understand this - it seems cruel, but they do have an air-conditioned den and cooled water to swim in. That would be like having orangutans outside at the Antarctica Zoo, if there were such a thing. Yes, he does look miserable, doesn't he? Anyway, some of my students told me I look like a polar bear. I have always liked polar bears, so I've latched on to this thing. Singapore's Zoo, by the way, may be the best I've seen.

A mosque in the Malay section of the city. 7 or 8 percent of the population is Malay.

The skyline of Singapore, with the Merlion, Singapore's symbol, spitting water in the foreground. Singapura means "Lion City," and with it's proximity to the sea, they decided to put a fish's tail on the lion's head. The haze is from slash-and-burn farmers in Sumatra, across the straits of Malacca, and wildfires, as it is dry season in Indonesia.

A less-blurry Dipawalli picture.

A blurry picture of a street in Little India. It is decorated for Dipawalli, the Hindu festival of light. Something like 11 or 12 percent of Singapore's populace is Indian.

Hindu Temple in Little India. If we had been able to stay here until 1 am, we could have seen people walking over broken glass and hot coals to test their purity. Bummer.

Taken from exactly the same spot as the picture below, only looking to the right instead of straight ahead. I really like this picture.

On the street in the colonial district of Singapore. Singapore was a British colony until Malaysia gained independence in 1960, and then five years later, it gained independence from Malaysia.

A dragon in the Mid-Autumn Festival Parade

a drum in the Mid-Autumn Festival parade, one of the three festivals I mentioned earlier.

Red Chinese Lanterns in Chinatown. 77% of Singapore's population is Chinese.

Some of the cool Chinese lanterns on display in Chinatown for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

Some guy's foot

Suvarnabumi (pronounced "suu-WAAN-a-poom) Airport, Bangkok's brand-spankin' new (it opened Sept. 28) International Airport that just opened last week. Despite some seemingly needlessly long hallways, it is actually a pretty nice facility.