After landing at Changi airport the first thing happening is an anouncement of the crew, informing their happy passengers about existence of death penalty in singapore for several drug offences. Of course I knew about this but nevertheless it's a bit disturbing on such a bright sunny day with blue sky and 35 degree celsius... (puh, it's r e a l l y hot there!)
After a while one gets used to loads of advises and regulations everywhere, like don't smoke, dont litter, don't cross the yellow line, be kind to everybody and don't bring durian fruits into this building (durian is a quite popular but very smelly fruit)! Actually I have to admit, Singaporians are creative about how to spread the messages: Just have a look at the text of the re-entry stamp for Ministry of Sound (picture area): "Drugs. If you play, you pay." And: It was not allowed to receive the stamp on the inner side of the wrist, no no no! It had to be on the back of the hand, so each time I took a sip from my drink I were forced to read it! Cannot imagine that someone did not get the message...
I love this city! It's like a mixture of London, Paris, Bangkok, Tokio, Dubai and Bangalore!!! To live there must be great and I must admit to have envied some of the people I met who came to work there. I stayed at the arabic quarter and unlike any other big asian city I know, life is there incredibly s l o w .... People were walking slow, cars were driving slow, someone passed veeery relaxed on a bicycle and everywhere people sat around small tables in small groups or on couches in front of the little houses. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry, reminded me really of Bahrain. Very pretty buildings, everything of course superclean and every 10 metres a place offering nice food for 3 - 5 SIN$ (1Euro=2Sin$).
Then, Little India is totally different and also is Chinatown. To me these places were more authentic compared to same quarters in other cities. Sort of real indian life, sort of real chinese life. And on Orchard Rd, the commercial center, you are back to the crowds of Bangkok, the huge shopping malls of Ginza in Tokio and the people who push you aside when queueing like in Beijing.
Food is one of the best things, one day I went to a hawker market where about 200 or more different food stalls offer their various dishes. It's difficult what to choose, everything looks interesting and in fact most things were really tasty.
Ui, and a big difference to other places in asia: You can drink water from the tap without getting ill!
The beach pictures are taken on Sentosa island which is just a 10 minute cablecar ride away from the harbourfront, but they look better than reality. All beaches there are artificially created and the water is not so nice. Well, after Thailand no beach will be nice, maybe...
Therefore, next Stopp: Koh Samui!
