LLWorldTour

As I’ve traveled around the world over the last several months, I’ve definitely logged quite a few hours transporting myself from one place to another. And of course a lot of this time is spent waiting…at the airport.

Most of these international oases, I’ve been to are fine and give you the ordinary standards—restaurants, duty-free shopping (“I like to stop at the duty-free shop”), and uncomfortable chairs. But Changi Airport in Singapore was, by far, the best airport I’ve ever been to, not only on this world tour, but in my entire life. Now, granted I was there from about 2:30am to 5:30am when my flight to Dubai departed, so, of course, it was nice and quiet. But one of the first things I noticed was most of the airport was up and running like it was the middle of the day. Many times I’ve had odd flight times and get to an airport to find there is no where to eat because everything is closed up. Not here. Nearly all the restaurants and food courts are 24 hours. And there is an amazing selection of food. There are also free internet stations all over the place—they have more than 300 terminals where you can log on and check your email to say that last goodbye to that special someone before you take to the skies. For gamers, there are free Xbox terminals. There are plasma screens scattered everywhere with sports channels, news channels, and movie channels to watch while you wait. But wait, it gets better–each screen is set up like a home theater has with big comfy chairs grouped around it and each chair comes with it’s own set of speakers built in. I would just come to this airport to hang out and relax! Some of the bars have live bands performing. And if you have a longer layover or delay there’s a rooftop pool, a Jacuzzi, a spa, massages, and even ‘nap areas’ where you can doze off and not sleep in metal chairs like I had previously in an airport awhile back in South America. When you wake up, you can work out in the fitness center, take a shower, and be fresh and ready to go for your flight. There is even an actual movie theater where you can sit back and enjoy the latest flick—for free! Besides all this, the airport is clean, modern, and beautifully designed. Leave it to Singapore.

“We are now boarding all rows on the Gulf Air flight to Dubai.”

Oops, final boarding call! Sadly I have to leave this airport. I never thought I’d say that.

Just south across Singapore’s harbor is the beachy-island getaway of Sentosa. Locals come over on weekends to have some fun and sun. You can get across on a ferry, cable car, or I took the new Sentosa Express monorail. In less than five minutes I was out of the city center and on an island paradise. It’s an idyllic resort island with beautiful white sand beaches, resorts, bars, and fun attractions for the whole family. Admission to the island is just $3 and that also gives you free rides on Sentosa’s trams and buses. I actually walked the length of the whole island, but the tram is nice to get you from one end to the other.

For a Sunday and for a big city like Singapore, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the ‘less than crowded’ beaches that I found. After recently being in Thailand where it was packed sweaty butt to butt, this was a nice change of pace. Plus, as expected, everything was squeaky clean and had that perfect landscaped, brick pavers, Disney kind of shine.

Here, Asia’s tallest observatory tower, the sky tower, shoots up 131 meters above sea level to give you amazing 360 degree views of the Singapore skyline and harbor. I walked up a hill just past the tower and decided to take the luge cart ride down. I haven’t done this since the Alpine Slide at Action Park in New Jersey. It was a fun ride down a curvy lane in a plastic sled with wheels.

Once at the bottom, I paid a visit to Underwater World. For $15 you get to walk through a 100 meter long acrylic tunnel that snakes through two large underwater tanks where sharks dart all around you, stingrays laugh at you, and immensely huge tropical fish flit about. It was pretty cool to see, but the smelly tourists crowding through the lukewarm tunnel was another story.

I was amazed at all the man-made beaches here which were originally created all by imported white sand. I ended up hanging out at KM8, one of the few cool outdoor bars here and took in the warm sunset over the South China Sea where, of course, several bridal couples were posing for their ‘perfect’ wedding day photos.

Welcome to Singapore. Now, don’t pee, spit, pick the flowers, feed the birds, smoke, jaywalk, eat on the train, or even think about chewing gum. This is certainly not a good market for Wrigley Chewing Gum. Locals refer to it as “Fine City” thanks to the government’s strict and often debated “soft authoritarianism” policies including definite fines or even death for these and other horrendous “crimes.” The deterrent strategy has definitely worked for this city-state as crime is virtually non-existent, unemployment is very low, and the average person owns a home thanks to the government subsidized housing for everyone married or single and over the age of thirty-five.

The “Lion City” is possibly the most efficient, cleanest city on Earth. Okay, well maybe it’s not as eerily perfect as Main Street, USA in Disney World, but it’s awfully close. The sidewalks gleam, the traffic flows quietly through perfectly planned thoroughfares, and this eerie utopia is strangely not crowded like most other metropolises its size that I’ve visited. But at the same time, it does lack that ‘rough edged,’ old-world personality of other Asian cities. Singapore is also a huge crossroads of cultures. There are nearly four million permanent residents living side by side–Chinese, Malay, Indians, Arabs, live together in what appears to be perfect harmony in this former British Colony. I strolled through the colorful and lively enclaves of Little India, Chinatown, and the Arab Quarter taking in the sights and smells and tasty foods of each. Long before the Europeans arrived, Arab traders plied the coastlines of the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, bringing with them the teachings of Islam. Indians have been part of Singapore’s development from the beginning. Although Singapore was administered by the East India Company, headquartered in Calcutta, Indian convicts were sent here to serve their time. These convicts left an indelible mark on the city, reclaiming land from swampy marshes and constructing a great deal of the infrastructure and buildings. The enlightened penal program permitted convicts to study a trade of their choice in the evenings. Many, on gaining their freedom, chose to stay in Singapore. Other Indians came freely to seek their fortunes as clerks, traders, teachers, and moneylenders. As I walked along Serangoon Road in Little India, my senses were overwhelmed by the fragrances of curry powders and perfumes, by high-pitched Indian music, by jewelry shops selling gold, and stands selling garlands of flowers.

Back in 1819, Britain’s Sir Stamford Raffles first set up a trading post here and began to develop the city…and today Singapore has the world’s busiest container port (as far as total tons). It’s only been 40 years since Singapore gained full independence from Malaysia and yet this former backwater fishing village has progressed in record time. The British fingerprint is still everywhere. Beautiful Victorian buildings line the streets and English is the norm and is one of the official languages. In fact everything is so “English” that at times I feel like I’m in an American city. There is even a local dialect known as Singlish. It’s mostly English with some rapid Chinese and Malay thrown in for spice. The most noticeable thing in the “Singlish” language is how locals add the suffix, “lah” onto everything.

“Want to eat lah?”

“Let’s go lah!”

“Your feet stink, lah.”

The city grew from nothing to become the ultra efficient, ultra modern metropolis that it is today.
Singapore is the seventeenth smallest country in the world. It’s 42 kilometers wide from east to west and just 23 north to south. But, as we know, good things come in small packages. So it’s no surprise they are currently building the world’s biggest Ferris Wheel (a Chicago original, of course. For you non-Chicagoans—that’s where the first ever Ferris wheel was built, during the Columbian Expo of 1894, but back to Singapore…) and also the world’s first and largest floating stage. Made of lightweight steel that floats on water, the stage will be about the size of a soccer field. A huge building boom is also underway on the city’s harbor front. A Sands Casino, several condominium buildings, large, green parkland, and virtually a whole ‘city within a city’ is being built at Marina Bay as I write this.

Their subway system is super clean with amazingly efficient service. Anytime I took the train, I never waited more than four minutes for it to arrive. The trains are spotless and bright and even have video screens inside. The show I liked the most was a “terrorism awareness” video that looped while I rode to my destination. It was reminding us passengers of the recent train bombings in London, Madrid, and Mumbai and asking us to be vigilant in noticing any odd behavior or odd bags on board. I have to say I quite like the ‘frankness’ of the Singaporean government. They certainly don’t beat around the bush. There are signs posted everywhere telling you how it is. If you Litter? Bam! $1000 fine. If you sell drugs? Bam! Death. They mean business…and ya know what? It works. I’ve never felt safer.

Orchard Road is Singapore’s answer to Fifth Avenue in New York City or Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It is lined with shopping mall after shopping mall with all the names—Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and of course, Starbucks. Here tourists scurry about buying things they can undoubtedly also get at home…all part of the vacation experience, I guess. I can never fit anything extra in my bag…so I just browse.

One of my favorite parts of the city is Clarke Quay. I was lucky enough to meet another local here. My good friend, Joro, from Chicago (who also caught up with me in Melbourne while on a business trip—pretty cool to see your friends on the other side of the world), connected me with his friend and co-worker, Haroon, who is originally from Dubai, but grew up here in Singapore. Haroon took me out to Clarke Quay, the outdoor/indoor entertainment complex on the Singapore River with huge overhead ‘umbrellas’ that protect you from the elements and also keep you cool with outdoor air conditioning as you party the night away. Every place is another cool club or hip bar. And, in Singapore style, there are maps guiding your around this party zone helping you find your drunken way to the next bar. We danced to house music at the “Ministry of Sound” and hip-hop at “Attica.” We met up with two Russian girlfriends of his and ended up dancing and partying until the wee hours when of course we stopped off at the ‘world’s favorite drunk food stop,’ McDonald’s. Well, I haven’t seen any IHOPS here. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized beers in Singapore cost $10 each. Ouch. I’m not in Vietnam anymore.

The next night I took a “red lantern” tour. The name of the tour is a slight play on words since they took us to the Red Light District. I guess since it’s the “oldest profession” they used to do it by lantern light, right? In this area, known as Geylang, prostitution is legal and the ‘legal’ girls are registered and have cards and belong to reputable brothels…and then all the ‘illegal’ girls are just not. It was quite interesting…gaggles of girls were dressed in their Sunday worst—short skirts, cleavage baring tank tops, and lots of bangles–lined up on the side streets just waiting for an offer. And there was no shortage of clients either—mostly foreign immigrant workers—shopping around for their pick. And, of course in that Singapore efficient-fashion, the girls are organized in sections arranged by their background—Chinese Girls on the first few blocks, then the Indonesian Girls, and then Malay girls…so you can go straight to the area of the ethnicity of your choice…or try a new one each night!