Same Same but Oh So Different: Singapore and the Rest of Southeast Asia

Just returned from a fast and furious weekend in Singapore. The following should give you a decent impression of what I saw and thought. For more, check out my pictures, which are now posted on a new website: http://cbgypsypics.shutterfly.com/


Ways in Which Singapore is Unlike the Rest of Southeast Asia:

1. It is clean. Super clean. Might actually consider eating something I just dropped on the sidewalk, “Oh my word! Is that a cigarette butt?!? How did that get there - someone is going to pay.” clean.
2. It’s efficient. Not only does the mass transit system WORK, but it is also AIR CONDITIONED. Bringing us to point number 3…
3. It is air-conditioned. From the highly overpriced backpacker hostels we stayed at, to the malls the size of small Pacific Islands, to the most wonderful little Indian restaurant where we talked jovially with a sweet Indian woman from Malaysia before lapsing entirely into food-induced euphoria. It was a cool place – literally.
4. You can eat cheap food without worrying about growing worms in your belly or digesting part of the rickety cart that makes up the street food vendors makeshift food wagon because in Singapore they have ‘hawker stalls’ – basically glorified food courts that not only appear much cleaner than the SEA street food generally dripping in dirt and grime but are also either nicely organized and generally efficient and/or (you guessed it) air-conditioned.
5. No one stares at you for being silly enough to walk around being white. I had forgotten what it was like – and what a simple joy it is – to walk down the street without ever man, woman, child and dog ogling you like you just stepped off a UFO with two heads and antenna. Of course, if you decide to spend a morning swimming in the ocean that is spitting distance from the equator with no sunscreen after months of living a hermits life in an industrial cave you call home and therefore rendering yourself the same shade as the famous Singapore Sling, you can prepare yourself for a few odd glances. But that is self-induced and does not count.
6. I saw no men pissing on the streets. For you lucky, lucky Americans who never have to deal with this travesty outside a college frat party or drunken bum in the subway, please let me tell you that all the non-profit organizations, all the government money, all the humanitarian efforts in the world will be a failure until the last man pisses on the streets of Southeast Asia. Until this disgusting habit is broken, we cannot consider ourselves to have made any leeway in creating a better world. Singapore found a more permanent solution: a $5000 dollar fine (and probably a good caning just to make sure you got the point…).
7. There are no mopeds. Or at least precious few. Awaking to the blessed silence that is not broken by the WWWWAAAHHH of a moped was pure ecstasy. I don’t know how they managed to stop the spread of that dreaded two-wheeled killer of serenity but I am beyond grateful.
8. Alcohol is taxed 100%. This is the only negative I could see. That and the fact that you apparently lose some of the exotic excitement of a culture when you add efficiency and modern comforts. The city was amazing – it is true. But it did have the feel of a perfectly planned resort. Nice for a weekend get away from the roar and chaos of a developing country but decidedly predictable.



Ways in Which Singapore is the Same as Other Southeast Asian Countries:

1. Personal space is still a foreign concept.
2. Cutting in line – or ignoring the line – is still considered ok - by older woman in particular.
3. While none of the babies actually cried at the sight of me – I still think I scared a few. Maybe it’s not my whiteness…Maybe it’s me?
4. There are still too many people.
5. There are still things that just don’t make sense to my western mind. Case in point: To save a few bucks, Molly and myself decided to play street bums and buy a couple cans of beer to consume on the corner. Fearing fines above and beyond reason and even possible canings, Molly inquired with the friendly neighborhood 7-Eleven man as to whether this was considered kosher. To which he replied with a big smile, “Oh yes. You may consume alcohol on the street as long as you do not disturb more than two people.” Don’t ask me – some things I will simply never understand.