Singapore

Singa (ain't) Poor

Singapore - August 03, 2006

A Singaporian bride poses for a wedding shot.(Apologies for the title). It's great to finally be back online! We wanted to apologize for the site being down earlier this month. Honestly, we were just as surprised as the rest of you to find the site in the condition it was. That, of course, is not the most pleasant thing to deal with when you are on the opposite side of the globe. But we are happy to say that all the loose ends have been tied and there should be no more problems in the future. A big thanks for all the people involved in helping us resolve this issue, especially our webmaster Josh Lehman and friend John Mies. It's likely we might still be offline without their help and persistence.

We are in Singapore at the moment. This is undoubtedly the cleanest country I have ever seen in my life. Highways, streets, alleys... nearly everything is well kept and beautiful. There are high penalties for littering and even jaywalking. And until recently, gum was even forbidden (apparently now it is allowed in "limited" amounts, but I saw no one chewing it). The government has obviously gone to great lengths as well in the amount of planned vegetation. Even the medians of highways throughout the majority of the country have an impressive array of color and foliage. Public transport in Singapore (or MRT) is also second to none in efficiency and passenger consideration. In fact, most of the MRT stations look more like convention centers (seen in the photo below).

View of the immaculate mass transit system.In just 40 years, Singapore evolved from a developing nation to first world status. In the late 1950s, this young nation faced problems such as mass unemployment, housing shortages and lack of land and natural resources. Between 1959 and 1990, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's administration immediately curbed unemployment, raised the standard of living and implemented a large-scale public housing program. The country economic infrastructure was developed, the threat of racial tension was eliminated and an independent national defense system was created.

Some interesting facts on Singapore:
Singapore is the second most densely populated independent country in the world, behind Monaco. As a result, more than 8 out of 10 people live in public housing.

Singapore has consistently been rated as the least-corrupt country in Asia and amongst the top ten cleanest from corruption in the world by Transparency International.

The local colloquial dialect of English is called Singlish, having incorporated vocabulary and grammar from various Chinese dialects, Malay, and Indian languages.

Amnesty International has criticized Singapore for having "possibly the highest execution rate in the world" per capita. Some offenses can lead to heavy fines or caning and there are laws which allow capital punishment in Singapore for first-degree murder and drug trafficking. (Wikipedia)

Monk near the famous Merlion statue.Besides seeing a bit of this beautiful "garden" country, our time here has been spent running from Embassy to Embassy trying to get the final visas we need to enter Vietnam, China, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Russia. We expedited our visa request for China and received it with no hassle within the day. One thing that I particularly enjoyed today was the warm welcome we received as we entered the United States Embassy. It almost felt as if we were royalty as we were whisked to the front of every line with no hassle or questions. Once we entered the Embassy, we were taken past a very busy corridor and immediately to a side room set apart for US citizens. Our visit, which could have taken nearly an hour or two, was over in less than 10 minutes!

P.S. For those of you traveling that haven't heard of Couch Surfing, check it out! During our time here, we have been incredibly blessed by two families that have opened up their lives and their homes and hosted us. We would not have enjoyed the laughs, the great food and the fellowship without the connection Couch Surfing provided us.

-Lee
-written August 3rd

View Comments