Singaporean Dystopia

Singapore became our next stop, less because we were excited to explore the city-state, but more because of our hasty decision at SFO when we needed to have an exit plan out of the Philippines. Given the high hotel prices and my personal discomfort with their system of government, we decided to stay for only two nights.

We ended up in a tiny hotel in the Little India neighborhood and had mindblowingly delicious Indian food next door. But that wasn’t my first impression of things. The first impression was Changi Airport and the Singapore Metro system. Both were super-modern, sparkling clean, and massive. And almost entirely devoid of people – at 7pm on a weeknight. Everything was seemingly built to accommodate 10 times the number of people we saw, and the emptiness made the environment seem even more sterile and soul-less. I repeatedly remarked how Changi Airport felt like a movie about a dystopian future.

After dinner we walked around our Little India neighborhood and finally found some signs of life at the Mustafa Centre – a giant 4 story kilometer-long store that sells everything that can be sold 24 hours a day. From cameras to sarees, from perfume to fish, from plane tickets to bananas, you name it — it’s there — and in staggering assortment and variety.

The following day we walked a couple of miles to the old and famous Singapore Botanical Gardens, where we saw All of the Orchids. We walked mostly on Orchard Street – the famous Singaporean shopping street. It again felt like a space built for 10 times the number of people that actually occupied it — and what people we saw were mostly indoors. It makes sense there, it was very hot and humid outside, so people just go from air conditioned space to air conditioned space.

After the gardens we went to Chinatown, and only there did we see some signs of street life, but even that area was sterilized by the Singaporeans, who put a big glass roof over a colonial era shopping street.

So yeah, Singapore. Clean. Safe. Well organized. Efficient. And while I suppose that makes it have character of its own, it’s not the kind of character I find appealing.