Setting Sail for Singapore

This weekend we are heading to Singapore few days R&R. My darling has been there once but this will be a first for my son. I have been there quite a few time but not for five or so years and never on holiday.

Singapore, it almost sounds exotic and, for much of my young life I guess it was. One very clear memory of my childhood is of talking to the patriarch of the family that lived next door. He was a merchant seaman of the old school, before crews came from the Philippines and when ships moved a lot slower. For long months at a time he would sail around the world aboard cargo ships stopping at exotic ports. Back in those days much of the cargo was handled by deck cranes and manual grunt so the crew got to go ashore to explore the various port towns they found themselves in.

One time, when I was about 12, and he was full of brandy, he looked me in the eye with a knowledgeable look and said “You can find anything you want in Singapore, and a few things you don’t”. Sage advice. I was thinking about exotic goods and criminals. I guess he was talking about something altogether different. But that was Singapore of the past, a place where you could get shanghaied, hard drugs or sexual favours in any flavour very cheap, long time, no problem.

The Singapore that I visited (and will visit in an few days time) is very different. Clean, modern and morally upright. You just fell safe there. Everyone goes about there busy business on the shiny clean streets. I can only remember one occasion where I saw a group of youths hanging around in a plaza. On my menace scale they rated about a four (bikie gang with weapons 10, group of girl scouts 1). While I watched a police man moved them along. They have strict laws and enforce them strongly. There is even a fine for not flushing a public toilet after use.

There are three dominant cultures in that small city state and a dozen minority ethnicities. It is diverse but with an apparent unity of purpose – get rich. They all get on and do their stuff. In business dealings Singapore rates lower than many ‘western’ countries in terms of corruption. Don’t get me wrong it can be a pain getting things done there. There is a culture of procrastinating that is painfull.

I am sure if you scrape the surface or travel across the causeway to Malaysia you could find some of the old city but it is well hidden from the casual visitor. That's the attraction for me, slightly exotice but totaly safe (being over 40 is just so boring). Any how I will see the sites, eat some interesting stuff, swim in the hotel pool, do a bit of shopping (I need a new battery for my MP3 player) and relax a bit.

I am sure I’ll find everything I want.