BE KIND TO ONESELF!

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This is something I would often told my girls when they were trying out their wings and forgot to pack their parachutes! As I dusted them off, I would say; "You'll get to Z from A just as surely if you go from A to B and then C ....."

It's a long way from Australia (there's the 'A'), to Spain and South America. And there is only 'me, myself and I' on this trip. So Singapore is a good place to try out many new things. Customs & Immigration in a post-September 11 world, hostel life, huge crowds of people everywhere and wrestling with the combination locks on my small case. Necessary, because I've left my glasses inside and I can't see the numbers!

The Singaporeans are a smiling, friendly, very multi-cultural group of people. Just as well, for I am continually stopping them to ask questions. Like "Where is the.....?", "Is this the train to ...?", "The ticket machine has eaten my card ... (again!)", "Can you tell me how to ...?" Sounds very familiar, only this time I'm the student, not the teacher.

Some things I have observed here:
the longest queues are not in the banks as they are at home. They are start at the mobile phone shops and stretch from the counter, outside the shop and down the arcade! They love their phones! Only the older Chinese people don't own them.

The distance to work from home is much greater for them than for us. The daily train journeys are for talking to one's friends on the phone and catching up on lost sleep - getting to work is an incidental. However, their phone manners are better - they talk quietly and listen a lot.

Here, trains never travel at ground level. Passengers are either looking down from the heights, or travelling through the darkness of long tunnels. And the stations have layers like a birthday cake. It is not uncommon to find 3 levels of tracks laid one level on top of another and
just when you think you've reached the Exit level, you find another one to ascend. They make good use of escalators and lifts! Their MRT system is really good. One train is usually never more than 3 - 5 minutes behind another and they are at least 10 to 15 carriages long - usually full. They are also very fast, unlike our suburban trains, probably because they have to cover much greater distances.

So there are some of my thoughts about the beginning of my trip. Will add to them as I go along.

Love
Ibu

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