Singapore - 2 weeks in

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I haven't written before now because I really didn't like it here at first. At all. But I felt it was unfair to judge the whole country off of that...so I've waited 2 weeks. 😊

What I don't like can be summed up by the 5c's, what one of my professors said was the aim of most Singaporeans: Cash, Car, Credit Card, Condominium, Country Club.

If I were to write a book/screenplay/poem about Sing here are some working titles:
- An Ode to Shopping
- Why do laundry when you can just buy more clothes?
- Asian Disneyland with the Death Penalty

It's mall after mall. Shopping bags everywhere. And food - they do love to eat and do that well. For vegetarians this is the place to be. The shopping by itself isn'tthe probelm, it hte lack of other experiences or things to do that the populations seems to be okay with that I find troubling. Or better said - just not for me. Tokyo felt like Japan. Modern or tradition, fancy hotel or ryokan - there was no doubt you were in Japan. Sing feels like someone took any random American downtown, and just replaced all the white people with Chinese, Malay, and Indians. Outside of that, nothing feels different.

Except for my hood, Little India. Here it feels like you woke up in India. mostly because Little India exists for Indians, not tourists, although it happens to be something of a backpacker ghetto also.
Another professor said Little India is the only authentic quarter here..."Chinatown? Why do we have a Chinatown? The whole country is Chinatown - that's just for tourists."

But it's not all bad. I can't really let go of the "fake" feeling though. I mean c'mon - even the beach (Sentosa Island) has imported sand. Still, I've had some nice days and fun evenings here, so I'll rehash those in a different post - but this...this was my first impresison.

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Comments

[Shannon]

Hey!
There you are! I've been checking for updates and was starting to get worried about you. :) I can't wait to hear more when you're ready to write your next installment!