Singapore and a crappy airline

Singapore is awesome.

That's pretty much the best way to put it. Other fitting descriptors would be 'expensive', 'ultra-modern', or 'fascinating'... but 'awesome' probably best encompasses all of those things. We showed up a couple of days ago and found a nice and relatively affordable hotel with modern amenities like a flat screen TV, A/C, and hot water... the first time we've had any of those things in 2 months. The 'MRT', which is Singapore's subway system, is cheap, fast, and made for easy transportation all over the city. Our first night we just hung around Little India and enjoyed the urban environment. The next day we met a friend of Michelle's Aunt and Uncle that took us to see her home on Sentosa Island, and then to what was indisputably the best meal of the entire trip. After lunch we went to the local aquarium, which was another awesome experience (Thanks again Bonnie!!) The next couple of days were spent checking out the waterfront areas, strolling the nice tourist areas and side streets, and taking a great city tour. The whole experience was awesome, and Singapore has beaten Bangkok for the best city on the trip so far.

One of the most interesting things about this place, at least to me, is how successful it is without having conformed to the rules that most western countries conform to. It is thoroughly modern, with all the amenities found in Europe and the US. It has a welfare system, subsidized housing for the poor, one of the most free economies in the world, and an average income per-capita of $50,000... all signs of a thriving State. Politically, however, it's a very intense single party system that has virtually no opposition. There is very little political freedom, nor has there ever been, and Singapore is notorious for it's odd practices like public canings and huge fees for seemingly arbitrary acts (sitting in the back of a truck with your head to high, carrying durian (a type of fruit) on the subway, etc). $1000 seems to be a pretty common fee amount for almost anything and consequently crime is absolutely non-existent. But what's great about the whole system is that it really works. Everyone seems happy, the streets are clean and crime free, and nobody seems to mind a little less political freedom when more tangible benefits such as health, safety, and money are easy to come by. Funny how that works. The city seems to be a great example of the 'other' way to become successful.

In other news, our flights got screwed up. Air Asia took the liberty of canceling our flight to the Middle East (not just the flight, but service to the entire area). Since we already have our flights within the Middle East (and home) booked, we have to go there... and our biggest flight into that area was of course the one that got canceled. Flights from Malaysia to Dubai are ridiculously expensive, so the entire ordeal will cost us a descent amount of money. On the plus side, however, we found that the cheapest way to get over there is to take a small budget flight from Malaysia to India, then make our way by land to Mumbai and fly from there to Oman. This method will save hundreds of dollars in flights, and we also get to go to India, which we wanted to do anyway. Exciting!

Finally, all pictures are up. Indonesia (Sumatra) is completely up to date, and all our pictures from Singapore are up too.