Singapore Sling

It'll be good to recover from the chaos and noise of Indonesia, we told ourselves. And so we planned on staying in Singapore for five days. It was different alright.

For those who are not familiar with this tiny country that is actually just a big city; Singapore is a very wealthy and extremely clean island in the middle of not so wealthy and not so clean Southeast Asia. It gained independency some fifty years ago and since then it developed as a very western city.

The fact that it's so clean is thanks to some severe laws. Chewing gum is not sold anywhere. Littering costs you about S$1,000 plus community service. Smoking in public places can cost up to S$2,000. Spraying graffiti means getting caned.

Not flushed the toilet? Walked around your house naked? Crossed the road when there was no crossing? All reason enough to get seriously fined. But there's more. Gay relationships can end up in a two year jail term and dealing or trafficking drugs is good for the death penalty.

The upside of (some of) these crazy laws is that you get to walk around one of the cleanest cities on the planet. Not bad if you think there's 5.5 million people living on this island. Also social security, housing, finding a husband/wife, basically every aspect in life has been taken care of and is controlled by the government. Efficiency is the keyword here. It feels like this is what a country would look like if it was run by a CEO.

More craziness? On Orchard Road, the huge malls are already four floors underground, but due to the lack of space, Singapore is now working on a masterplan to build appartments underground. Already they have gained a whole lot of land from the sea to build the Gardens by the Bay and the gigantic, 200 meter high Marina Bay Sands Hotel, with the swimming pool and restaurant on top of its three towers.

And the people? Are they happy in their little bubble? No idea, because most of them were watching their little smartphone screens all the time. No one speaks to each other in the metro. In shops, restaurants and bars it's not necessary anymore to be friendly or to greet or to thank. We heard a lot of people talk about stress.

And indeed, walking through the CBD at lunch time, it very much felt like everyone was caught in a rat race without remembering what really matters in life. And the worst thing of all (and we only realize now we're in Thailand): no one smiles.

So although we thoroughly enjoyed our time in this little slice of hot and humid Asian West, we were equally glad to leave again, ready for the slightly more chaotic and slightly less clean, but much more vivid Bangkok.