And so it begins

Well, I've been away for a couple of days now and I've mentioned the idea of a travel blog to too many people to abandon it so I might as well make a start.

Got to Singapore the day before yesterday after a 4:00am start. Luckily the plane was half empty (I had 3 seats to myself) and even managed to sleep through half the flight. Encountered my first drama of the trip just before getting out of the airport when I tried to take some money out of an ATM. Just as I was about to put my card in the machine it occurred to me that I didn't know the PIN for my credit card! Argh! So I spent the first few hours of my trip stressing about having to call the bank, getting my PIN changed, waiting for the replacement to be sent a few days later and trying not to think of the various scenarios I might have had to have resorted to to feed and house myself until everything sorted itself out. Luckily I had it written down somewhere at home (it's been a while since I was a network security officer :-) ) and was able to get Lou to give it to me over the phone!

Anyway, it's been an interesting few days exploring Singapore. I was curious to see if it really is the sort of autocratic nanny-state that I've heard it described as. It certainly doesn't share the same sense of mistrust of authority that we take for granted in Australia. It does seem a bit like a nation of goody two-shoes, with signs sporting friendly exhortations to civic-mindedness like the ones on the rubbish bins calling for Singaporeans to "take ownership of their litter" to help make Singapore a better place, or the signs on the MRT (Singapore's subway system) encouraging people to be gracious when someone does something nice for them. On the other hand, the place has achieved a remarkable amount of prosperity in the space of a few decades as well as maintained a remarkably harmonious relationship between the various ethnic groups that inhabit the city. You do get the impression that you're in a place where the people are used to pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and would rather devote their lives to making a killing in investment banking than weaving baskets and editing journals of dissident literature. It will be interesting to see if future generations share their parents' willingness to toe the line for the sake of the perceived common good, however.

Singaporeans love to shop. No matter where I went yesterday, I seemed to find myself in a shopping mall. On top of this it was a public holiday (May Day) so all of them were absolutely packed. By late afternoon this was starting to get to me until I stumbled upon one shopping mall (Suntec City) where there was a queue of people a few hundred metres long underneath umbrellas emblazoned with Milo logos. Coming out of the mall was yet another long queue of people, each of them waiting for a taxi and carrying a giant tin of Milo. Apparently they're trying to push Milo on the locals and so anyone who turned up at the shopping centre that day with a coupon from the newspaper and repeated some slogan about Milo being made in Singapore and being really healthy got a free tin. They even had a game where contestants had to stamp a board of Milo logos with a health department seal of approval, with the contestant stamping all of the logos in the shortest time winning some sort of Milo-related prize. Anyway, it make me laugh...

Other than getting lost in shopping malls I've been trying to eat where the locals eat and so have headed off to a few hawker centres where the food is dirt cheap and really tasty. No wonder people don't bother cooking for themselves over here. Also spent a few hours on Sentosa Island today, a very well-manicured island playground with a few beaches, and theme-park-style attractions. After taking the cable car over, it was off to one of the beaches. After that I went to the local Underwater World, touched some sharks and saw some dolphins doing tricks. Had a Singapore Sling at one of the restaurants along the Boat Quay (I know, you're supposed to have one at the Raffles Hotel, but they charge about $25 there!), and then walked back to the hostel (I've been doing a lot of walking these last few days).

The hostel is one of the best backpackers' I've stayed in. Clean, friendly staff, free internet and on top of that they have a rooftop terrace with a speccy view of the city.

So that's the end of my first (and 5th last?) blog post. I'm flying off to Istanbul tomorrow night!