Singapore: Asia for Weenies

Singapore is a great intro to Asia. It's kind of crowded, the food is mostly Asian, many people speak Chinese, and the traffic is a bit wild. But it is quite clean, almost everyone speaks English, and most people are rich in global terms. So it's what I would call "Asia for Weenies." The average American could get dropped suddenly in Singapore and get by rather easily. Kind of like if they were dropped in China Town in San Francisco.

There are certainly some interesting things about Singapore. For starters, Rob booked our hotel (unknowingly, he professes) in Geylang, which is Singapore's red light district. I was suspicious when I first arrived and had dinner on the sidewalk at a Sichuan restaurant. (Interesting aside: I spoke better Chinese than these guys spoke English, so I ordered in Mandarin. I even knew the Chinese names for the dishes I wanted. I was pretty proud of myself.) I noticed an unusual number of provocatively dressed women wandering around alone on a Wednesday night on a kinda sketchy street. I also thought it was interesting that the hotel across the street from ours offered hourly rates. My suspicions were confirmed the next morning when I was propositioned as I happened to be walking through an alley on the way back from breakfast at around 11am on Thursday morning. I guess I naively thought that this sort of activity usually goes on at night, but apparently it is a 24-hour operation. The full scale became apparent when we witnessed the activity on Friday and Saturday night, when the working girls were out in veritable mobs, mostly around Lorang (alley) 4. Rob and I later asked Marc about this; apparently prostitution is legal in Singapore, but confined to the Geylang area.

Anyway there is more to Singapore than this. Rob and I went through the Lonely Planet, and picked out some interesting diversions, including a nearly untouched jungle island, and a Vegas-aspiring beach island called Sentosa. Sentosa is actually pretty cool despite how touristy it is. Probably a lot of this is due to the fact that I haven't been on a proper beach in about a year, when I was last in San Diego. We did some nightlife, which was fun, but missed out on the St James Power Station which I had looked forward to. Rob was not prepared for the typical Asian evening out, which means going until at least 3am and most likely 5am.

Another thing we were not prepared for was the outrageous price of beer. On our first day we did a walking tour through Chinatown and Indiatown and stopped by a pub for happy hour. A pint set us back 10 Singapore dollars (about 7.50USD), and that's happy hour. When we went out to the Marriot with Marc that evening, a pint ran 16 SGD (13USD). The taxes on alcohol in Singapore are very high which accounts for most of the cost.

Overall Singapore is a livable place. I like the clean and efficient subways and widely spoken English, but nothing in particular draws me to it. Nice to visit, for sure, but I don't think I'd jump at a job offer in Singapore.