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Singapore Is A Funny Place
By Matt Falcus
Singapore is a funny place. For starters, you need rarely worry
about safety. I would say never, but you never know do you? But
the place is safe. I was told so before I arrived, and I experienced
it first hand wandering around both during the day and the night.
Women are safe. Kids are safe.
The whole island, which is wedged at the bottom tip
of Malaysia and surrounded across the waters on most sides by Indonesia,
is one well-mannered and perfectly ordered society. What a perfect
place, you might imagine.
Well this is true to many degrees. First and foremost,
the last thing you want (and often the first thing you think about)
when travelling to a new and distant land with unfamiliar people
and customs is the constant niggling about personal safety. Will
I be attacked? Do pickpockets operate here? Is this neighbourhood
a dangerous one? Crime in Singapore is managed to such high levels
of no-nonsense that you wonder why it can not be the same in all
civilised countries. But you may also wonder if it is perhaps a
little too stringent.
Before arriving in Singapore, we were handed our landing
cards to fill out. On the reverse of the card is a statement in
bold print detailing the rules about bringing drugs into the country.
It was along the lines of ANYONE CAUGHT IMPORTING DRUGS WILL BE
PUT TO DEATH. There’s nothing like making your point. The
flight attendant even re-iterated the fact after we had landed.
I found myself getting nervous over the paracetamol tablets in my
bag – would I see my family again?
On my first morning in the city I had decided to take
the bus from outside my hotel into the downtown area of the city
to do a little sightseeing. While the radio played over the speakers
of the bus – something about abortion presented by an Australian
DJ – I noticed the first of many posters advertising the city’s
blatant, almost desperate, attempts to improve the literacy of its
citizens: Do You Want To Speak Better English? it read. I noticed
these all over the city that day – on subway trains, the sides
of taxis, billboards.
While the official language of Singapore is English,
you’d be better off trying to re-educate your tongue as the
conversation barrier is at times unbelievable. How can two people
speak the same language, yet not understand each other? The dialect
is commonly known as Singlish and is interspersed with words from
Malay and Mandarin languages. The driver of the bus was almost in
hysterics at my impossible task of asking if this was the route
into the city. We gained no ground, so I simply placed plenty of
change on his tray and hoped for the best.
It seems the government of Singapore has been blamed
for a lot of the issues of which I speak. People criticise the leadership
of Lee Kuan Yew over the seeming desire to create such a perfect
society against the natural will of the people. 40 years of government
has left a lot of the youth hungry for identity, brought up in a
commercial city centred on money, business and status. Yet this
has grown out of a region that is naturally less stable than the
western cultures it imitates, and a region that is certainly less
wealthy. Would this be the outcome if China changed to a free democracy?
The whole city runs at breakneck speed – more
akin to New York City than the cities of Malaysia or Indonesia.
Modern subways dash along newly built tracks – clean, efficient,
and fast. People dash about the streets in suits, rarely acknowledging
each other, a meeting to attend. Shopping malls on the long strip
that is Orchard Road put out their Christmas decorations in October
and start piping the carols through the speakers – much the
same as they would in the UK. Yet Christianity is a minor religion
here and consumerism is obviously the key.
Looking back to the founding of the city – Sir
Raffles, establishing the community in 1819 before the island was
set up as a trading post for the expanding British Empire, set the
path for Singapore’s strategic location to be used to best
effect. First in trade and then in business as the culture had grown
up around the wealth and status here. Singapore is clearly an anomaly,
but probably more likely a symptom of itself – of a few opportunities
taken which grew at an incredible pace leaving us with the wonderfully
exceptional gem which we have today.
Despite growing up on trade and developing into a
big business centre, Singapore is now thriving on tourism. The wonderful
Changi Airport is a joy to traverse, and the city itself well connected
with public transport. The Raffles Hotel is a welcome spot of empire
grandiose and great for a spot of tea on an afternoon. The central
business district offers little other than skyscrapers, however
Clarke Quay at their base is a wonderful place to walk and admire
the refurbished warehouses which house some great restaurants and
a hint of the trading days in the city.
Upon my visit I was particularly pleased to visit
Sentosa Island a little to the south. Cable cars ride high across
the waters, past two of the world’s largest container ports
– trade still being of importance here – to the island.
Here all wealth of activities can be experienced in the setting
of the tropical rainforest covering the island. A monorail links
nature trails, gardens and a tropical aquarium.
Browsing the malls along Orchard Road is a great way
to combat the oppressive heat in Singapore, and you may also pick
up a bargain. Each mall is air conditioned and – as you’d
expect – modern. More than 150 malls are situated on the island,
with Orchard Road’s 1.5 mile stretch the most condensed.
A fairly comprehensive trip to Singapore can be undertaken
in 2-3 days, covering most sights. The island offers more than the
city, so taking a little extra time to explore the nature reserves,
zoological gardens and several unspoilt islands is wholly recommended.
In these areas the traditions and history of Singapore can still
be seen, away from the dense urban streets of the city.
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