Sydney to Singapore

A quick flight from Sydney, 3 films and two dinners and we arrive in Singapore. Immediately the humidity hits you like a hot towel, the temperature changes and it is a all new kind of heat, but not entirely unpleasant. Matt and Lap y los ninos have just moved here from England and are layed up in some serviced apartments in the centre of town. We head there in a very air conditioned taxi.
Great to see Matty, Lap, Tamsin and Kai and their swish apartment on the 21st floor of 'Great World'. Apartments, shopping, swimming pool and your whole life in a block! Its a halfway house for gringos coming to live in Singapore and every nationality is represented.
Singapore is very clean, in fact so clean you could drop your cheese sandwich on the pavement, tread on it by mistake, kick it around the drains, leave it 'til breakfast and you would be completely safe...but don't try that at home.
It is truly a 21st century town in ever sense. Four levels of transport, higher and lower flight, MRT, overland and underground and it all runs like clockwork to all the places you need to go and a lot of it is free. This doesn't account for the 'Mall' effect which overcomes you after 4 days in the Mall 'serviced' Apartments. Symptoms are snacking, adoration of sushi, slight jitters on leaving serviced apartment, desire to return to safe haven of apartment, lavish treatments in mall (reflexology, massage etc) leading to eventual breakdown of normal functions and browsing of Mall 'style' magazines and purchase of flat from internet!
We visit Chinatown, Little India and other old style areas which retain the last vestiges of old Singapore. Fascinating lines of old shop houses in the old style, which are reflected in the new 'Living Malls' we are staying in: variation on a theme of shop/apartment living. This is essential now as it is so hot and everything needs to be air conditioned. It is strange to wander along the street in stifling heat and every so often pass a mall door and feel the cool air flooding out onto the street. How did they manage the heat pre-electricity and air-con. I guess movement was at a premium and one didn't work 9-5 in the heat of the day for HSBC.
And then of course we visit Orchard Boulevard and press our noses up against every shop window and dribble over 98" plasma screens, Ipods (variegated colours) and all manner of indulgencies of the sensory purchase organs. Its heaven for gadget-oholics and people here SHOP!! Your credit card spookily finds its way into your hand (much like the ring that Frodo and Bilbo have to look after) and you move towards shops unconsciously aching to purchase - its unnerving, you could get seriously credited-up here!
On the Sunday the whole gang go to Raffles for the Tiffin Curry. This is a 33 dish curry event that goes on every day in the Tiffin Room at the Hotel and it is a festival of flavours. All the curries are exquisitely prepared to the highest level of taste orgasm. One small trifle of each dish is enough to send flavour flares to the outer reaches of you pleasure nodes and bathe you in sherbet baths of delirium.
So its not half bad. The lavish decor of the hotel and the white gloved waiters take you back 100 years to a time when one had the time to lunch, digest and rouse for high tea without fear of interruption from working practises...i talk of course of the idle classes. Its such a pleasure to then digest lunch wandering around the hallowed archways of Raffles which has been lovingly restored and then sold to a Chinese hotel chain. (used to be owned by Swisshotels until they fell into admin with Swissair although i find it hard not to utter a titter at any financial problems to befall Swiss companies as they are generally so smug, with their smart window boxes and perfect chocolate...pah!!!) It is also the Autumn festival in Singapore and there are lanterns adorning every building and park, with food stalls and stages set up in everywhere for evening celebrations.
On our final night we go for a small celebration at the East Coast restaurant 'resort'.The meal is amazing and we are in the biggest restaurant in the world. We are on table 548 and we are surrounded by 500 people, one of 10 restaurants...all the waitresses have PDA's and order on these, the food then arriving minutes later 'fresh as' and all correcto!!
Singapore imports everything it eats, drives or washes with. It is an incredible city of contrasts, energy and ingenuity. On top of that where do all the builders come from? In England you can't get somebody to tile your bathroom and here everywhere is a building site. We are very smug in Europe but the impression is that
the East has got a lot further towards 'many people city living' and sharing the same space comfortably...town planners, please come to 'Red Dot'
Made a lucky escape from the mall and got out with credit virtually in tact, phew. Still feel slight jitters in the legs when i leave any mall...must aleviate with visit to Shakspeares house!!!