SINGAPORE IS STILL GREAT ....

---

Singapore is just like it used to be - only more so! More people, more cars, longer trains, more buildings, more reclaimed land for more buildings ...... However, the Singaporeans do still take advantage of every little space to grow something green. From the train the other day, I saw a small tree growing out of a crack in a tall building and it looked perfectly healthy.

Everything is still well sign-posted, only just not the same system as we use at home. Therefore, I am still getting lost on a regular basis - nothing changes!
It seems like every time I venture out to explore, it becomes a Burke and Will's affair. I spend time beforehand using a map and writing down directions so I won't get lost - and then Murphy's Law intrudes yet again! You can be sure, that if I need to go left outside the MRT to get where I want to be, then I go right and vice versa. And when the humidity's high, constantly backtracking, looking for the hidden underpass or the internal overpass, just to cross the road becomes a real Sherlock Holmes exercise.

Yesterday was a good example: I decided to find SimLim Square - the biggest High Tech. Electronic shopping centre here. I successfully negotiated the MRT (with two train transfers), walked the wrong way outside the train station again and asked for directions 3 times before finding it. Then I walked around and up 5 of the 10 floors before deciding that I wouldn't know what I was buying anyway, so asked the way to a coffee shop in the Centre. I was told there was one in the Basement and caught the lift downto Basement 1 (only one on the Lift panel). It took me to the car park section - no food anywhere in sight). Back up on the Ground floor, I spied a Burger King across the road and decided I might make it there without getting lost. Sat down to enjoy a much-needed cup of coffee and guess what I could see through the window on the other side of the road. Yes, you're right! A bloody big sign saying Food Court - downstairs.

Trained it back to Clarke Quay and decided to do the long River Walk, just to be near the water. Well, I'm sure 'them upstairs' heard me thinking this. Hadn't walked more than 3 minutes, when the Heavens literally opened up, followed by the thunder and lightning and I got my wish to be near the water! Was hiding from it in the pedestrian underpass, when a local lady complete with large umbrella walked past overhead. She came back and down to me and decided I needed rescuing. She asked where I was headed and since we were going in the same direction, offered to share her umbrella and give it to me when we passed her place. How cool was that! And it was - less than a minute after leaving the underpass, we were walking in 3 inches of water and a full tropical downpour. About halfway back, the lightning & thunder were overhead and constant, so I prudently stood under the shelter of a restaurant. All the tented outdoor eateries along the river were being battered - they're not designed to hold 3 tons of water in each sail . One of the waiters offered me a bar stool (must be the gray hair) and so I now had an umbrella and a grandstand view. Then he brought me a glass of iced water. All the comforts of home. He said that the weather is very unusual because it's not the rainy season, but they have been having lots of afternoon rain storms in the past 2 weeks. The rain was so heavy, it completely obliterated all the high-rise buildings and turned every stairway down to the boats into a small waterfall.
When the thunder and lightning had passed, but it was still pouring down, I decided to do a Gene Kelly, so I snapped up my travel skirt hem, and me and my umbrella we sauntered back to the nearest MRT and back home to dry out.

For me it was an insight into the kindness of the local people and a very interesting experience. And by the way, it is true that when lightning is right overhead, it makes the hair on one´s head and arms to tingle and stand up. Guess it must be electric static.

---