How do you make a community with millions of people crunched together on a small peninsula hardly as big as Hamburg work? Establish rules for everything, have video cameras and loudspeakers everywhere and take fines up to thousands of dollars for daily "crimes", like spitting on the street or chewing gum, that isn't even allowed to import because of the dirt it can cause on the streets when left there. Even waste of food can be fined and clumsy Eike almost got caught at McDonalds at the airport, spilling the milk for my coffee on the counter. Not that the mess was an issue, no, the waste of food was...
Welcome to Singapore! Although the introduction might seem weird to a westerner, I really like this city and enjoyed the couple of days I spent there. The strict rules have their benefit. If you want Asia light with a western city and all its amenities around you, go to Singapore. Everything is clean, convenient and efficient. No lines at immigration, no dirt on the streets, no crime, no offenses or even people who try to betray you, but all this has a price: a very expensive city and people crunched together in small apartments, space being a major issue with all the skycrapers using the space above us to live and work. If you want to figure out how efficient Singapore really is, have a meal at a food court as Ellen and I did. We had the famous dim sum in a restaurant recommended by the New York Times. While you are still in line waiting for your table you are handed a paper to place your order. Coming to your table it doesn't take a minute until your drinks and your appetizer arrive. The food comes perfectly timed after, so comes the bill. While eating, there are always people walking around for refilling your drinks. All in all you are done after 15-20 minutes...Another spectacular thing to watch is the build up of their formula one track right through the city. I'm definitely gonna watch this year's race, although I'm not a big fan of formula one!
After exploring the city on the ground including our neighborhood Little India and having high tea at the Raffles Hotel, we set off to the sky with the Singapore flyer, with 165 metres the highest ferris wheel in the world, quite an interesting experience for two people who are not the best with height. I topped the experience by visiting the top floor of Marina Bay Sands the next day, a ship on the top of skyscrapers, where they have a bar and a rooftop pool ending at the edge of the building. Singapore as Kuala Lumpur is definitely worse a trip, especially at the beginning or at the end of a trip before flying home, which Ellen unfortunately did :-(, leaving me back alone, having to make plans on my own for the next couple of days, the last days of my trip after six weeks Asia for me already...