SINGAPORE

Posted under Southeast Asia 2009

Singapore, a jewel in the crown of Asia. Certainly the price of a jewel, at any rate. A spend-man’s paradise. I have never seen so many high end stores  in a cluster, anywhere else. Not New York, not London. Bonnie thought that she had died and gone to heaven. There were no less than a dozen dealers in Rolex watches, within two blocks of our hotel, and as Bonnie was having her hair pouffed at a salon in the Paragon shopping centre, I perused the Rolex display in one of the stores. What appeared to be a display of watches with stainless steel cases caught my eye — that is until I noticed the price. The one that I fancied was a mere $ 71,000.00 . It was platinum, not stainless – and there was a whole window of them. But hey, put that in it’s proper perspective, those were Singapore dollars and that isn’t even $60,000.00 Canadian. You won’t be dazzled with the new Rolex on this arm.

I have also not seen a major city so clean either. Saw a T-shirt that stated that Singapore was a fine place to be. There was a “fine” for jay-walking, a “fine” for chewing gum,  a “fine” for littering and a “fine” for a number of other infractions. It does make for a very clean and orderly city at any rate.

As our hotel was right down in the shopping district (thanks Chad), we of course did what when we arrived ? Yes— we went shopping. On our way back to our hotel we encountered a bit of local action. A young female was apparently shopping at Tangs, but it seems that she preferred not to pay. As she left the building she was pursued by a small sales clerk. When the clerk caught up to the lady in question, the clerk glommed onto the big-name purse the lady in question was leaving with. With a great deal of vocal discussion, the perp finally released her grip and made a mad dash for a nearby taxi. By this time, other store peoples were in attendance and the taxi driver was not taking the woman anywhere, the lady flew out of the other door of the taxi, and ran across traffic to the other side of the street and disappeared. Now this is Orchard Street, four or five lanes of busy. All this and she was minus a shoe, as she had lost one during her initial scuffle. It seems that the judicial system in Singapore takes a very dim view of criminal activity and this was quite evident by the extra effort made for her escape. Unless they do the Cinderella thing with the shoe. Heck, in Canada the perp would just stand and laugh as they would be back on the street before the cop would have the paperwork done. Something as minor as shop lifting ?? Ha! However, as Bonnie was quite prepared to pay for her “must-have” items, we had no fear of the law.

The other major pastime to participate in whilst in Singapore is eating. Fortunately we were well practiced in this endeavor, and put our experience to the test. You can find just about any ethnic group in Singapore, and the eating establishments reflect this. We put our best effort into eating our way around the world, but mercifully we were only in Singapore for four days.

Interspersed with eating and shopping we also did the touristy things. Looked at a gazillion orchids at the botanical gardens, got a close-up view of a Merlion, and took the gondola ride. Most of the time in between was spent walking to the next spot. Bonnie thrives on all of this, but I felt more like I had been set upon by thugs, who had pummeled me, without mercy, using both clenched fists and cudgels. Four days of this pace is ample, and we can’t afford more shopping. Even though it was still Chinese New Year, and there were sales everywhere.

On a low note, Bonnie is amazed at the lack of communication between airport facilities in Asia. After her minor set to at airport security in Bangkok last year, where she was compelled to glare – down the insolent chappie who was  trying to take her rather large bottles of hair items, and the difficulty of trying to pour said items into many small containers, she was certain, I believe, that the word would have been spread that old ladies are not terrorists, and that the ridiculous rule of small quantities need not apply. Wrong — Singapore was not yet aware of this, and an insolent young lady would not let poor Bonnie take her high priced hair chemicals in her carry on. Being female, the young lady was not nearly as intimidated with a glare, as the fellow in Bangkok was ( he was most likely a husband) and I suspect that the young lady could picture herself taking the contraband home with her.

A day of travel and we will be in Chiang Mai. More blog from there.

T