Singapore

Hi everyone,

It's time finish posting about the trip, so let me tell you about Singapore.

We landed on our flight from Ho Chi Minh, and entered the first world. The taxi driver's meter gave him updates about traffic conditions, the streets were lined with flowers, and the city was clean. Really clean, not pseudo, Vietnam-style clean.

Ilana's friend Peter was gracious enough to allow us to stay with him. He lives in a fantastic condo near the water. We also met up with John and Melissa, who were staying next door (what are the odds?).

The food in Singapore was fantastic, though we were shocked a bit shocked at the prices. I suppose this can mostly be attributed to the contrast between Singapore and Vietnam. The city itself is kind of an oddity; one family controls the politics and the rules are extremely harsh so everyone lives together in harmony. Let's face it, they do not have much choice. That said, it is easy to keep everyone in line when they can be promised economic prosperity, and thus many people move there from around Asia in order to make money. There were some very cool bars in the city as well, though they tax alchohol (sin tax) at an extremely high rate.

We saw a very nice temple, but apart from that there was not much in terms of culture which we wished to visit. To be honest, after Cambodia, we were not looking to see every temple and monument. We did visit little India, which was very much like certain neighbourhoods in Montreal, which would make sense, I suppose, as they're modeled after the same place. You know.. India.

Surprisingly, prostitution is legal in Singapore, at least in certain places, mostly because people in Asia have a different attitude than North Americans when it comes to the oldest profession. We walked through some of these areas, and it is amazing to what happens when an activity is (less) marginalized. It certainly helps that the crime rate in the country is so low, and thus people feel safe.

For me, it felt a little bit too safe, too clean, and too 1984. There are cameras everywhere, and the rules are much too harsh for my liking (spitting,

jaywalking etc. carry fines of almost $2000 CAD). Ilana enjoyed it more than I did, as I think she was more sick of living in less than ideal conditions than I was. Singapore is a nice place to visit, but I would not advise going there for longer than a couple of days while on this sort of trip. In fact, if you are planning to do a similar trip, I think that Singapore can be left off of the list, especially if you're not traveling to Malaysia or Indonesia.

Thanks for reading!