Southeast Asia has heard your roar
The whole world's learning who you are
Your streets filled with myriads
Each wanting a slice of the pie
Dashing between the cars your game
Quiet will certainly never be your bane
Pictures dancing across your building walls
Techno reigns
Business cut, the dress of day or night
Capitalism and consumerism your mantras
Languages galore heard upon your streets
English for business and not just for the elite.
Chinese, Malay, and Indian dominate your heritage
Despite the obvious stamp of English Colonialism
Singapore, as you hunt the golden grail
Be not deceived
Do not fall prey to the false scents
Followed by so many
Thereby losing your soul
Singapore is known as the Lion City. Along the river a huge statute of a Merlion (head of a lion and the body of a fish) guards the island. The early Malays who founded the city centuries ago saw an animal that they thought was a lion and so named the village. (It was not a lion.)
My trip was one of contrasts. This city-state provided the greatest contrasts from Bali with its emphasis on politeness and the importance of spirituality to Singapore with its tremendous emphasis on consumerism and traditional big city behaviors.
The Lion City has the highest standard of living in Southeast Asia and compares favorably to the U.S., Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia just to name a few.
For the first time I ran into daily rain and, of course, intense humidity. Luckily, every place you went was air-conditioned. Outside, this Ohioan slowly melted. Business dress was the derigueur including long sleeves for the men. After my first breakfast in shorts, I slunked back to the room and quickly changed into long pants.
As the tour guide said, the two major passions of Singaporeans are eating (wonderful restaurants) and shopping (You name the store, and they have at least two from Gucci to small family stalls). There is a tremendous focus on technology constant noise on the streets from the ads and videos being displayed on the building walls to the ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) system on the downtown motorways that automatically deduct a toll from your debit card as you pass by. Cell phones everywhere. In the banks you take a stub, have a seat in a cushioned chair, and wait for your number to flash letting you know that it is your turn.
I enjoyed wonderful food some of which I was unsure of what I was eating. My chopstick skills, which were very rusty, improved greatly. Costs there were more expensive than Bali but still less than the U.S. A gourmet meal ran me about $20 U.S. including a Tiger beer or a glass of wine. (I know some of you may question beer and gourmet. Frankly, some of the meals were complemented better by beer than wine.) Patrick would have loved the shopping. I also caved in. Besides some small purchases, I ended up buying two tailored-made suits and a tailored-made sport coat and pants also included were three silk ties and three tailored made shirts. The total price was quite reasonable.
While touting is illegal (hustling for business), it happened all the time. I must have had tourist written all over me.
Crossing the streets was a challenge. Stoplights were few and far between. Following local protocol, I would make "a dash for my life." Orchard Road where my hotel was had 5 lanes, luckily one-way. The traffic was incessant. I thanked God every time I made it across. It usually took me about 10 minutes to make the dash the pros did it in several minutes and seemed so calm about it…:-)