When-ever I visit Singapore, I’m reminded of what they used to say in the USA about New York: “A nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.”

Singapore is definitely a drastic change from my home base of Bangkok, and I suspect a lot more people say the same thing about Bangkok. It’s sometimes strange to think that in just a couple hours’ flying time, you can go from the barely functioning chaos of Bangkok to the orderly rush of Singapore. I’m not sure living in Singapore would be such a bad thing, but I think I would miss the “rush” of making it through another day – it just wouldn’t be as challenging.

With its status as a more or less fully developed country, not much changes in Singapore. Most of the old places are still there from year to year, and there isn’t much new. I did notice that Clarke Quay had sprouted a new roof over the old streets. It looks a bit as if some alien life form has sprouted up in the area. The new roof is a free-standing contraption of metal and glass that extends up and over the old buildings. I’m sure it was meant to “preserve the architectural integrity” of the old buildings, or what little of it they had left, but from a distance, it does look a little odd. I’ll have to find time next time I’m there to have a wander around Clarke Quay to see what it feels like inside.

Other than that, the Singapore Management University is nearing completion in the lower Orchard Road area, having replaced the large open spaces around the Dhoby Gaut MRT station. However, the new Circle Line is still not finished, and still has streets around the Singapore Art Museum completely blocked off. Given that this is an election year in Singapore, one suspects that we may begin to see a bit more alacrity in completing this project.

Also taking shape is the new Terminal 3 at Changi Airport. The new terminal is designed with the budget airlines in mind, and there are a number of them calling on Singapore these days — Tiger Air, Jet Star Asia, ValuAir, Air Asia and a host of others. Even now, Changi remains one of the best airports in Asia, if not the world. One new thing I noticed on this trip is that there are now a large number of free internet access points all around Terminal 1. So many, in fact, that getting access to one is quite easy, as there were no long queues, in fact no waiting at all to use a computer. This service complements the long available free Wi-Fi access.

Posted by michael under Just back from...

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