Stuck in Singapore

So before I tell you about Singapore, let me tell you how we got stuck in Singapore…

For starters, when we were planning our vacation, we wanted a balance of planning and spontaneity.  We wanted to have planned destinations, but not a set itinerary. We chose our destinations early and had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go, the things we wanted to do and locations we wanted to be at. When booked our plane tickets in and out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we stumbled upon tickets to Singapore for only $1.00 USD! It was difficult to resist such a cheap ticket, and although Singapore wasn’t exactly on our top list, we thought, why not?

Up until a couple weeks before our trip, the only thing we had booked was our plane tickets. We had planned to backpack and travel as we desired between the different destinations, however, as we bagan looking into different hostels for Christmas and New Years, we discovered that a lot of the them were booked up, or had very limited availability. Long story short, we ended up going ahead and booking all of our hostels for our vacation. So we had out plane tickets in and out of KL, and a one way to Singapore. From Singapore, we had planned on taking a train that ran from Singapore, through Malaysia and up in Thailand. From what we researched online, all we needed to do for the train tickets was buy them a day or two ahead of time. We printed out the train schedule along with our travel itinerary and hostel information.

Ok, so now that you know the back story, this is what really happened… We flew into KL on Wednesday and stayed for one night. The next morning, we boarded a plane for Singapore. Our plan was to stay in Singapore for a night or two, then board a train the headed up to Penang, Malaysia. Like I said, Singapore wasn’t high on our list, but Anna has family in Singapore and a $1.00 USD tickets seemed too good to pass up, so we thought we would give it a chance. When we arrived in Singapore on Thursday, we dropped our stuff at our hostel and went straight to the train and bus station to get tickets (somewhere in travel, we had heard that taking a bus would be just as cheap, a shorter trip and more comfortable), however, when we asked for tickets to leave on the December 24, every company laughed in our face telling us that we should have booked months in advance if we wanted to travel during the holiday. Although it clearly made sense, we did not plan for the holidays.

Suddenly, we found ourselves stuck in Singapore and the soonest bus or train that we could get wasn’t until December 30^th, putting us in Singapore for more than half of our vacation. Wait, wait, let me back track… Singapore is a really small island and there is not a ton to do, so it would have been rather difficult to entertain ourselves for a week. Additionally, Singapore is the most expensive country in Asia and although it is just a bit less than the US, it is nearly triple the price that we would pay in Malaysia, putting a damper on our vacation budget. We were beginning to freak out a little bit that we would end up stuck in Singapore and end up with no money when we left.

After checking on at least a dozen bus and train travel companies, I remembered a travel agent near our hostel and I suggested that we give them a try. THANK GOD because they were able to find us a bus trip from Singapore to Penang on Christmas morning. It was not ideal, and none of us were keen on spending Christmas on a bus, but we were grateful to have found a bus at all. So the second problem that we had was our hostels…. We had already booked a hostel in Penang (Georgetown) for the 23^rd, and our current hostel only had room for us for one more night, but there was absolutely nothing available anywhere in Singapore for the night of Christmas Eve. We were actually pretty sure that we would be homeless on Christmas Eve and end up sleeping on the street. We stayed another night at the Inn Crowd hostel, and kept checking around for availability. It wasn’t until the morning of Christmas Eve (after we packed all of our stuff and were about the check out) that they told us that they had room for us and that we could stay another night.

Again, it reminded me of how blessed I am. It was interesting because we were talking about our trip and how several things had “gone wrong” up to this point, yet they all worked out in the end perfectly, and let me tell you that being stuck in Singapore was a blessing in disguise!

Let me tell you a couple things that I learned about Singapore…

* Singapore is supposed to be one of the cleanest places on Earth (civilized of course). I will give it to them that they are cleaner than China and a lot of the public places are extremely well kept (for example, the airport, metro, parks, hotel, etc), but I am not sure if I would have labeled it the cleanest place on Earth. I mean, the streets are just as clean as any other city, littered with paper and debris.

* They are a FINE city… literally, you can get a fine for EVERYTHING – spitting on the sidewalk, smoking in specific areas,  drinking or eating on the metro, chewing gum, riding a bike on a bridge, jay walking, littering, urinating in public, etc, etc. The majority of these things may not seem so bad, but coming from China (the land of very few enforced laws), I was a bit scared. The kicker is that Police officers dress like civilians so  they catch you doing something wrong and you don’t even know it, and suddenly you are given a ticket to pay right there on the spot.

* On top of the fines, federal crimes have extremely harsh punishments. Drugs, alcohols, prostitution, trafficking is all punishable by death without trial.

* Singapore is a self-contained society completely controlled by the government. I would not say that the government is as controlling as the communist party in Singapore, but it is rather crazy how micro managed the population is by the government. Let me give you some examples…

* Only native Singaporeans can be taxi drivers without a record or a passport so that they can never leave the island.

* All taxis have video cameras inside to record passengers and equipped with a broadcast system (similar to an Amber Alter). If a crime is ever committed, all taxi drivers know, and all passengers are recorded. It is like having an extra 200 plus eyes in the city.

* The government has built apartment building called flats. Everyone must live in a flat until the age of 35. The government controls the flats and they have regulations in place which force diversity of culture and family styles. For example, in one governmental flat building, they are required to have 20% native Singaporean families, 10% single Singaporean adults, 30% International families, etc. I have no idea what the real percentages are, but it is interesting because it forces people to cohabitate with all sorts of people. Additional, it is extremely cheap housing, but everyone is required to live in the provided housing, so rich people live with low income people, live with rich international people, etc. They believe that it builds a sense of community while providing people with affordable housing arrangements. The down side of this is that you must live in the provided housing until 35 unless you are married, which causes Singaporeans to marry young.

* Singapore is beautiful – hot, tropical weather and they do not have any seasons since they are only one degree north of the equator. On the down side, it is extremely humid, and unfortunately we were in town during monsoon season, so it was rather rainy… but I will get back to that.

Singapore is actually a really interesting place, and I am really intrigued by their government. They have one of the riches economies and sustainable societies; although I guess it is easier to be successful when controlling only a very small island instead of an extremely large country. At the same time, it seems a bit insane at how much the people of Singapore are controlled.... Anyway, more on Singapore later!