Right, so Singapore. I think my expectations for Singapore were too high. For some reason, I was expecting a pristine, white, and clean place. It wasn't, really. I felt like I was in Vietnam almost, albeit a cleaner version.
The street I walk down almost every day.
I pass this too almost every day.
There are also rules for everything. And fines for every rule you break,
They had this in all the train stations.
Bugis Street is a huge area where a lot of shop stalls are set up, selling mostly clothes, bags, accessories, and souveniry touristy crap.
And a sex shop. Where Wednesdays are Ladies' Day and women get discounts.
Another thing about Singapore is there are malls everywhere. Everywhere. Almost all the train stations exit into malls. It's ridiculous. And there's a popular street called Orchard Street which is basically a street with a dozen malls lined up right next to each other.
However, some of the designs of the malls were pretty interesting.
An interesting story - upon arriving to Singapore, I took a taxi to my hotel. During the drive, I was talking to the taxi driver and I noticed something common among Singaporeans. While basically everyone can speak English, a lot of Singaporeans add "lah" to the end of their sentences. At first, I was confused because I wasn't sure what he was saying, and then I realized it was just an additive. And then, I have to admit, it got kind of annoying.
Anyways, when I gave the address of my hotel to the taxi driver, after a while, he asked me what I was going to this hotel. As it turns out, the hotel I booked is located in Singapore's red-light district. My friend, whom I was visiting in Singapore, said that Singapore doesn't really acknowledge this area, and I noticed that said district was missing in maps as well.
While the area did look sketchier and was a bit dirtier than the rest of Singapore, my hotel was at the edge of the district so it wasn't like I was smack in the middle of Brothel Boulevard. Another thing is that Singapore is quite safe. Even though my friend told me repeatedly that there was nothing to worry about, I was still paranoid about going back to my hotel at night, but I quickly realized that my friend was right. It's just, use common sense and don't do anything stupid. It's like Japan - despite what even some natives say about some areas, it's pretty safe. Just...use common sense and don't take candy from strangers, etc.
Anyways, it was quite funny because the taxi driver was telling me to be careful of "dirty old men, lah" (which obviously fed my paranoia), and when we were closing into my hotel, he was pointing out brothels to me. Near the end of my time in Singapore, I realized that there may have been two brothels next to my hotel. It was only the last couple of days when I realized that the two buildings next to my hotel were completely unmarked and had panels of Asian-styled drawings of women in old Chinese garments, which I recognized from the period Asian dramas that I watched with my parents that prostitutes wore at that time.
But don't worry, Mom. As you can see, I am alive and well.
To be continued in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment