Singapore

Singapore is very impressive – most people have probably heard about how super-efficient everything is and how clean the streets are, but there is a lot more too it than that. For starters, the little ethnic enclaves of Little India, Chinatown and the Malay quarter are little worlds to themselves - cultural and gastronomical escapes from the glistening downtown skyscrapers. Second, for all the complaints about one-party-state totalitarianism, the local Singaporeans seem a happy bunch. We lived in a lower middle class apartment (flat) building and talked to a fair number of locals. A taxi driver summed it up this way: “People want jobs and safety. As long as the government does a good job providing those we’ll keep them in power. ” Thirdly, Singapore is financially responsible (which is quite a contrast coming from the debt ridden USA) - for example, the govt limits the amount of collective debt a citizen can carry across all his credit cards; also, it runs a national pension scheme which is actually solvent - every person's account is kept intact and not raided! (Imagine that, Washington politicians!). Our Lonely Planet travel guide (published in the USA) calls it "The Nanny State", but the irony is that if anyone is in need of a nanny these days it’s probably the USA.

The Singapore airport is a showpiece in itself, what with free computers, free WiFi, a childrens’ play area, carts for hand-luggage(!) and we’ll try get photos of that on the way back.

At the famous Jurong Bird Park

Tropical thunderstorm taken from our flat

All the trip photos are kept on Picasaweb here http://picasaweb.google.com/sdjohannsens