The bus dropped us off in Singapore at 6am. I didn’t know the exact location though. I knew Singapore was a small first-world country with excellent public transit, so I completely ignored the taxi drivers vying for my attention. All I needed was to find a major intersection, and I could find my way to the hostel from the there. It turned out I was about a mile from the hostel. Since it was early, I decided to walk it. It was a fine walk.
I got to my hostel and it was a true-blue hostel. I guess this was finally an expensive-enough city to have hostels. Everywhere else in Southeast Asia had small hotels.
I let loose on my budget here. I enjoyed the fine things of first-world culture like the mall and seeing a movie. I saw Terminator Salvation. It was okay. I knew it wasn’t going to be great from the first five minutes. It didn’t draw me in at all.
It is weird here. People would converse in English with me. Although sitting in the mall’s courtyard, I only heard Asian tongues. It was like a parallel universe here. Western culture and practices on top, but Eastern culture and practices underneath. Singapore is the melting pot of southern Asia. There are strong numbers of Malay and Chinese people here. Also Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangledeshan, Indonesian, and British are represented, too. Parallel universe best describes it for me, coming from the US–another melting pot.
I walked around a lot in the evening, checking out various landmarks. It was another fine walk.
Singapore is a peaceful, safe, clean place. It’s utopia. Although, it comes at the cost of excessive laws (like no chewing gum) and reduced freedom of speech. It’s right out of a sci-fi novel. I would not live here, but it was a fascinating visit.
