Singapore is very mediocre. It appears to dodge any spark, intrigue or excitement as a dreaded threat that might make it interesting, and successfully becomes the only entry on my ‘major Asian cities to avoid’ list. Despite bad press, I really enjoy the madness of Asian cities and Singapore might not be completely sane but in a very different way to the others. I spent my first evening with a Singaporean girl who disliked everything about everything and tried far too hard to demonstrate how ‘western’ she was (my first contact with that delightful stereotypical judgemental Singaporean), a really nice but really new-to-travelling Oz bound English girl and a couple of English pilots and their dubious Thai girlfriends. I can’t claim the most auspicious start to the trip.
The next morning things got better as I was amazed by the beautifully cheap and efficient MRT or subway system for the city but this turned out to be just as well as I checked out Little India, Chinatown and the Orchard Road shopping area and was back in time for lunch. This leads me to my main problem with Singapore-it is just dull. One morning and I found myself considering the Zoo despite 24 hours beforehand cockily saying something along the line of ‘I don’t really like Zoos, and anyway that’s something you can do just about anywhere in the world so why waste your time?’. The cleanliness is always commented on but it really is remarkable and a little creepy and left me wondering where they put the undesirables as I never saw a single beggar, tramp or the like in my time there and I began to think that even here there must be some people who slip through the system and so where the hell are they…?
Not wanting to move on quite so soon after my usual mammoth 3 legged flight out I somehow managed to pass another day. My third morning, not normally one to rush on but feeling that I had really stretched out what Singapore has to offer, I decided to catch the bus to Melacca but somehow managed to miss on the timetable that there is a three hour lunchbreak on their hourly schedule and had to sit for 2 1/2 hours with no remaining Singaporean money, nothing to do and no-one to talk to-time which I reflected could neatly sum up my entire Singaporean experience. A young Malaysian woman turned up with half an hour to go, bought me a coke and chatted amiably away which meant I left for Melacca thinking it was a good step forward.
