Singapore is Perfect..... too perfect....

When I first set foot in Singapore I was shocked. In a continent where most of it's countries are struggling to survive, Singapore bucks the trend and appears to be an oasis in the desert. Sparkling highrises, savvy metropolitan citizens, high-tech mass transit, yet something doesn't seem quite right, it's just too perfect.

We finished our last couple days in Ko Tao diving and soaking up the sun. I love that place and can guarantee that one day I will be back there. On my last two dives I even got to lead two other fun divers as our dive master said she didn't need to go down there and I she trusted me to lead. I'm glad she did because I certainly had my reservations. But with a quick study of some maps and a few deep breaths I led our group around a couple sites. My confidence in diving has taken a major step forward and I'm not as opposed to the idea of diving sans dive master anymore!

For Halloween we really couldn't find anything to wear so I did the natural thing and shaved my beard into a terrifying moustache! Movember was right around the corner after all so why not get a head start. We left Ko Tao and journeyed to Koh Samui where we were bussed to the airport. After a quick flight we found ourselves walking into the remarkably clean Singapore airport where we met the first of hundreds of friendly people. I've never been to a country where everyone is so helpful and kind. Every single sign, ad, map, menu in Singapore is in English, and the locals all speak english, every single one of them. Most people here speak a combination of mandarin and english called Singlish (no Joke) and I can obviously understand about half. Singapore on the surface seems the perfect place, but something just doesn't sit right with me, it feels like there's some dark force driving these people to be so friendly and the streets to be so clean. I had most of this cleared up for me by a man named Soon whom we met in an eating stall market near our place in Little India.

Soon said that Singapore is a "fine country" and did we know what he meant by that? Sure, we said, it's a beautiful place with a bunch of awesome people. "No no no, it's a FINE country. You drop a piece of trash, $500 fine, you spit on the sidewalk, $100 fine, you cross the street in traffic, $300 fine." Ahhhhhhhh, there's the rub! This country is so scared shitless of getting in trouble that they have no choice but to be nice and clean. It all fell into place, the stamp on the back of the country entry form that said "All Drug Traffickers Will Be Put To Death," the constant security teams marching up and down Little India, the lack of homeless people anywhere. This whole country has been forcibly changed into a Western ideal. Sometimes Singapore feels more like Vancouver than Vancouver does. I had a mocha at Starbucks, went over to Subway for a turkey sub and then watched the movie Pandorum at a giant movieplex... it seems North America has a cousin in the east to make sure road weary travellers get a slice of home.

All this being said, we LOVE singapore, despite its overly harsh government dictated rules and regulations. the only rule that really affects us travellers directly is the liquor tax which drives beer prices through the roof! Last night Scott, Emily and I went to meet Scott's friend Kaitlyn at a bar in China Town and I paid, no joke, $31 singapore dollars for TWO beer!! that works out to be about 25 bucks Canadian, but still, it's completely ridiculous. We've stuck to buying most of our beers from 7-11 which we've endearingly nicknamed "Club Sev".

We're staying in Little India which is chock full of, you guessed it, Indians! It's been delightful, I've had more genuine Indian food than I've had in my whole life. What fun! Indian people are also EXTREMELY friendly, like the fellow who called me over from across the street to point out that he and I had the same dirty moustache. Awesome. I've never had much desire to travel to India, now I do.

The other day we went to the Singapore zoo and Night Safari which was just incredible. The zoo here even outshines Calgary's, which is no small feat. All the enclosures are massive and there are no fences between you and the animals, just a dry or wet moat. Thus you get unobstructed views on these incredible creatures. When night hits then the night safari opens up and you go on a tour I would call a cross between Jurassic Park and the Jungle Safari at Disneyland. You tour around for about an hour and see so many amazing animals at night, lions, tigers, elephants, jackyls, hyenas, leopards and bears (oh my!). After about 9 hours at the zoo we were left a little tired.

It's raining right now, which has a tendency to happen in this place, but the rain comes and it goes. Tomorrow we're all going our seperate ways for a while. Jesse is beginning his long journey home, Scott and Emily are flying into Yogakarta, and I am flying to Bali to meet up with Marlise and Evan, two Canadians we met in Ko Phi Phi. The adventure goes on. Singapore, we're on to your tricks, but we love you anyway.

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