Singapore!

Singapore can be described as five words to me…..clean, expensive, city, diverse, and fines. The first thing that shocked us was the outrageous fines! There were signs all over with ridiculous laws. For example, under a no smoking sign the fee would say $1,000! If you ate or drank on the subway the fine was $500. If you chewed gum or sold gum the fine was $500. If you had possession of fire crackers, the fine was the cane (beatings). And if you had possession of drugs, the fine was the death sentence. Vandalism was jail and cane. And littering was $1,000. Yes, the city was clean and supposedly very safe, but geez were we scared about getting caught doing one of these things! We had to constantly remind each other not to bring a drink or food on the subway because we have gotten so used to that during other trips (like in Japan when people buy “lunch boxes” which is specifically designed for eating on the subway). But I have to admit, the city was darn clean!

The city was pretty, with so many beautiful buildings and a river walk. We walked around this area at night and everything was lit up. We also took a ride on the Singapore Flier, which is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world! It was nice viewing the entire city at night and seeing it all lit up. The food was very good and you had so many choices to choose from! Singapore is very diverse and there are people who live there that are from India, China, Malaysia, Tawaiian, etc., so there's also so many types of Asian food.

The one thing I didn’t like about Singapore, though, was how expensive everything was! Keith and I were really happy we were only there for 2 days because just like how any big city is, it’s not cheap! We did stay at a backpacker’s inn so saved a lil bit there; however food was usually about $10 or more and drinks were pretty high ($5 for a beer, $8 for wine). And there were tons of shopping centers with familiar stores than back in Chicago. Since they don’t have many huge shopping centers in Jeju (only in Seoul) and sizes are not always right, I was tempted to do a little shopping while in Singapore. I got a few things from Nike and from Forever 21! Asah.

Another thing we did in Singapore was walk around China Town and Little India. We saw several temples, ate at a variety of restaurants, and also made a visit to Sentosa Island. It was only a short subway ride and we were there on the beach! It’s felt like forever since I was able to just lay out with nothing to do! It was such a nice break from sightseeing. But it wasn’t until later that night that I realized that laying out for 2 hours without sunscreen does not work so well in Singapore, especially around 1pm. I didn’t know we were so close to the equator and was all burned and peeling the rest of the trip! Well, at least I got a lil tan.

While we were on the Singapore Flier ride (which was like a glass elevator), one Singaporean told us all about the city and some interesting information. He was like a tour guide to us. He explained to us how Singapore and Malaysia used to be joined as one but because of difference in political ideas, Singapore became independent. Also, Singapore has no natural resources, and because of this, has made business their number one importance. Business has brought Singapore to be very wealthy. It actually is a lot wealthier than most other Southeast Asian countries.

Another thing we learned while on the trip was the story of the American who messed up big time while in Singapore. The story goes like this… an 18 year old American citizen, Michael Fay, vandalized 4 cars while living in Singapore in 1994. Since the fine for vandalism is jail time and the cane, that is what he was supposed to get. However, the boy had support from back home in the US and it became a nation-wide issue whether the boy should be caned. Even President Clinton became involved and backed up Fay, fighting for the rights of the boy. Fay ended up serving four months in jail, payed a fine of 3,500 and was caned four times instead of six (the amount was reduced upon the US officials' request). Well, the boy ended up going back to the states and there he ended up getting into more trouble and serving jail time later in life. I guess this boy caused Singaporeans a lot of resentment towards Americans since his deserving punishment was lessened and because of the difference in cultural beliefs. And the joke is on Fay since he ended up not learning his lesson and continued to make bad decisions throughout life. It was interesting to hear this story and we were thankful the man told us it because from that point on we avoided telling people we were from America, and just told them Canada if they asked. We didn’t want to cause any trouble!

After two days in Singapore, we made our way to Penang, Malaysia, where we spent the rest of our 10 day trip.