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Published: October 2nd 2005
I have seen the future, a giant shopping mall interconnecting small residential enclaves, parks and roads. The mall reaches in every direction, polished floors gleam, shop fronts sparkle, a temple to consumerism, every need and desire can be met by the purchase of a 40inch plasma screen TV or a computer so smart it doesn't need an operator. The streets, those that are not part of the mega-mall-opilis are clean, empty of all but traffic which flows orderly, controlled by lights indicating lane and speed. People are well behaved, come from many different ethnic origins, speak in a variety of tongues but share a common language in English. The future is controlled, everything is legislated for, government departments encourage breeding of the people through the SDU (Social Development Unit). In certain places; no food or drink to be consumed, no smoking, no littering, no flammable goods and no durian. Bringing durian on to the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) system is a crime with no listed punishment, perhaps the ultimate punishment is reserved for crimes of this nature. The durian king of fruits, nemesis of the MRT.
But this is no Orwellian nightmare, it is today's Singapore, and it's quite nice
Mass Rapid Transit Fines
What is the punishment for Durian?really. The city-state is clean, efficient, but it does seem like one gigantic shopping centre, it seems a little sterile. Too controlled, too tame. Everything segmented, one area for enjoyment - Sentosa Island. One for Wildlife - the world famous Singapore Zoo, complete with the worlds smallest rainforest. One for Chinese and one for Indians (China Town and Little India respectively). Finally one for money, the CBD (Central Business District) and the skyscrapers, temples to the power of money and the success of capitalism.
Spending time in Singapore is easy, friendly clean hostels, lots of nice easy things to do and see. But where was the wow? Where was the reason to come? Am I jaded by too much travel, too many things that have stolen Singapore's thunder? Probably.
Singapore Myths Dispelled
Litter - I saw an old lady dropping litter in the street in broad daylight. She was not shot on sight, in fact no one but me took any notice.
Chewing gum - the kids buy and chew chewing gum.
Drunkeness - I saw one guy lying spread eagle at the entrance to a shopping mall, around 5pm very obviously passed out from
drink
Smelliness - old men on the metro smell of pee, just like everywhere else in the world.
So, nice things I did and saw:
Shopping: great shopping, what ever you want you got it. I wanted a very small USB external hard drive - I got it - for about the lowest price I'd seen on the Internet.
Raffles' Hotel: whereas most of Asia wants to forget it's colonial past and look forward to it's bright future, Charles Raffles the founder of Singapore is celebrated. A trip to the namesake hotel, up to the long bar for $18 (£6) Singapore Slingers, and enjoyment in throwing peanut shells on the floor while drinking expensive cocktails.
Sentosa Island and Cable Car: Nice views, nice island, shuffle through gift shops until you find the giant Merlion, symbol of Singapore. Visit small fountains and sculptures and other nice things.
The Merlion: on the Singapore river mouth out into the harbour is the Merlion, mythical beast half lion, half fish - but all concrete 😉
Riverboat tour: Sit in a traditional Chinese diesel engined river boat and listen to pre-recorded descriptions of the riverboat, voiced by the
Raffles Hotel
Nice but expensive, quick shot - there are much nicer ones out there... see Cumberland Sausages - though they risked life and limb to get it... most sarcastic sounding Asian-American male I've ever heard, I think the script had requested sincere.
The Singapore Night Zoo: use the tram to get an overview and see fleeting glimpses of some of the worlds favourite animals, I waited 3 years to see a Tarsier, and got a brief suggestion of some hamster sized monkey disappearing away from the light head first. I got to see the arse end of a Tarsier - true they do have eyes that are bigger than their brains - true they are very elusive.
Well I'm sure I only scratched the surface of the many lovely things that Singapore has to offer. Despite finding nothing that wowed me, I had the funny feeling that I could live in this city, for a year or two anyway. It would be a great base to see the rest of Asia and work wouldn't be so hard to come by... maybe I'll dig out a few cards from former contacts in London, go sit in one of those ice cold refrigerated skyscrapers? Or maybe I'll continue on to Melaka in Malaysia and then over to Indonesia - stay tuned for the next travelblog...
Tips for shopping for high-tech goods:
These tips work for anywhere in the world, I've used them for shopping in the high-tech malls in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Paying by credit card will add an additional 2%! (MISSING)
Common sales techniques include showing no prices on items, or very high prices, making offers that are only valid right now, if you pay cash. If you get an offer like that - ask yourself why they would make an offer today that they wouldn't honour tomorrow?
1)Find what you want, haggle, get a price, note down the model number and take a card or two from the shops.
2)Go to an internet cafe, use
Froogle to find low internet prices, search for reviews, and read them, make sure that the item you are considering purchasing is a high quality item, this is because your warranty is unlikely to be valid internationally.
3)Take the Internet quotes and convert them into Singapore Dollars, use
XE.com to do this, they quote mid market rates, so consider +1%!a(MISSING) fair price. Is the quote that the salesman gave you still good?
4)Go back a make sure that you get about the same
as the quotes you got from the Internet.
In my experience the best price you'll get is the lowest that you'll see on the Internet. Regardless of the location no one sells at a loss, the prices that the shops buy in at is likely to be the same as those suppliers in the US (found on froogle) and they have very low profit margins. Voilà - now you know if you have a good price.
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