Singapore: Asia on Rules

I get the feeling that Singapore was created by someone who found other Asian countries to be very annoying. Everything that could potentially annoy you about Asia is illegal in Singapore. You can’t stand on toilet seats, you can’t bike or use your motorcycle on the sidewalks, you can’t harass people to buy things on the street when they are eating at an outdoor kiosk, and you cannot ask for money at religious sites without having a legitimate offering box. You don’t like this, you can pay a fine. That’s Singapore: There are rules, there are signs, and there are fines.

After spending a day in Singapore, I got to thinking that all of this order, predictability, and price transparency shouldn’t go to waste. If only there were some way to export it…So here is what I was thinking: First, we bring in engineers, city planners, business people, and government officials to Singapore from across the globe. Then, we give them a list of things that they must accomplish throughout the day (such as visit a number of different sites using public transportation, seek medical care, go to the bathroom, and buy alcohol). Once they have accomplished all of these daily necessities, they will be required to do the same thing in their own country. I believe this could be enlightening. I don’t think we are going to get anything crazy out of it, like clean, air-conditioned buses throughout the developing world, but if we could even get a few more rolls of toilet paper in public bathrooms, I would be satisfied.

Despite Singapore’s lack of disorder, the country isn’t as sterile as you might think. There is a Chinatown where you can buy all of your name brand products at knock-off prices. There is a Little India that has bright Hindu temples and wonderful food. The downtown is full of shiny, high-rise buildings. There are colorful neighborhoods along the river that have cute, brightly colored, yet overpriced, bars and restaurants. There are some beautiful parks where you can see that Singapore is not all concrete. And throughout the country are food stalls and hawker stands offering cheap, and maybe even sanitary, eats.

So you’ve got the culture, the food, and the quaintness, but you don’t have to deal with a lot of the things that makes traveling in developing countries so difficult. Of course, all of this comes at a price and this means that Singapore is much more expensive than any other Southeast Asian country that I visited. So, while I do enjoy the toilet paper and kind of got excited about bus schedules, you can plan to see me in Thailand.

My last stop in Singapore, ironically as you will later see, was to Siloso Fort, a former military stronghold, on Sentosa Island, a tiny piece of land-turned-resort town right off of the coast of Singapore. The Fort is now a museum devoted to telling Singapore’s version of WWII, including their account of the Japanese invasion. This version was notably different from the version I got in my next stop, Hiroshima, Japan…