From The Lawlessness of Thailand to The Complete Opposite

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The flight to Singapore was in a whole different league to Aeroflot. The food was edible, there were life jackets under the seats and they even did that little safety speech at the start of the flight, something that the Aeroflot flight attendants couldn't be bothered with.

Singapore is one of those places that you either hate or you really hate. From the moment we left the terminal building, we were glad that we were only there for three days, although that was two and a half days too long. It's not that the place was a hole, it was absolutely pristine and that was its problem. Everywhere you looked there were signs saying "$100 fine for doing this", "$2000 fine for doing that". All right, dropping litter is dead out of order and deserves a fine, but you can do without all these signs everywhere. The poor old Singaporians, or whatever the hell they're called, are reduced to moving gingerly around hardly daring to breath in case they might get fined for something.

I can understand why Nick Leason wanted his trial in England!

The contrast to Bangkok is unbelievable. Not only is it infinitely cleaner, but the traffic actually sticks to the correct side of the road and stops at red lights (I dread to think what the fine would be driving a tuk tuk on the wrong side of the road, or driving a tuk tuk full-stop for that matter).

The house we were staying in was like the rest of Singapore, immaculate but covered in signs. We also had to pay a deposit, so some fines are obviously payable in advance. We didn't rate our chances of getting that back. There would probably be a deduction for creasing our sheets or something. There were two Americans also staying in the house and their opinions of Singapore were the same as ours. They seriously disliked our landlady, judging by the Hitler salutes every time her back was turned.

Singapore was basically good for one thing - shopping. If you like shopping for Japanese electronic goods then Singapore is the place. Our main objective while we were there was to pick up a Walkman each and possibly a camera.

We saw the sights of Singapore, which took a good 20 minutes (the Raffles hotel and all that), and then we thought we would check out a sort of amusement park / historical museum called Samosa Island. There was some good stuff on the various surrenders during the Second World War, but that was about it. Madam Hitler had recommended a musical fountain that gave some sort of show in the early evening. We decided that we wouldn't bother and she was most put out when we arrived back early, obviously treating her advice with the contempt it deserved.

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Photos

Raffles Hotel
The Raffles Hotel in Singapore

Singapore Cricket Ground
The central cricket ground in Singapore

Office Buildings
The towers of Singapore city

Raffles
The statue of Raffles

British Surrender
The British surrender Singapore to the Japanese, shown on Samosa Island

Japanese Surrender
The Japanese surrender Singapore to the British, shown on Samosa Island