It has already gone too fast for my liking!
Singapore has always been a strange entity to me. I never felt I understood it and I still don't. Where as Dubai and cities like it are built up from the influx of oil money, Singapore, a thriving metropolis with efficient public transport and many many more malls than Dubai, has always been a centre of commerce, built up over less than 200 years.
It's business that has made the city grow over time, and location has helped too. Riding the public transport here, the MRT, I saw first hand that technology is king. Everyone has some sort of device - or two - on their person, and they are incredibly absorbed in it. Getting a smile from someone on the MRT is like getting lemon juice from a nuclear reactor. Hmmm, I am king of the pointless analogies!
Still, I've been trying to spread the love and smiles with little success here. Apparently the mobile phone saturation is 140% in Singapore. That's more than 1 per person, and when you take into account the very young and the very old don't have one... yes well. Then there are the DVD and video file players, and little things to play games on... if technology went down tomorrow, so would everyone in Singapore.
Nevertheless, despite my constant musings on life in Singapore I have done a few little things since I have been here. There is some sort of resort island here called Sentosa. I took a ridiculously high cable car ride to get there. It passed over a giant cruise ship with well over 100 metres to spare. The island has many things of interest. A giant lion, Universal Studios things like that espeically built for the tourist.
I've seen many a mall, Clarke Quay, the hip entertainment district, found an old karaoke bar I visited in 2006 only to find it now full of hookers much to my chagrin. Marina Bay is nice, I decided to lie down there for a quick relax and was told by security that was strictly vorboden. Orchard road and its many underpasses left me giddy because of the number of people. All in their little digital worlds.
Please understand, Singaporeans are not rude or unfriendly. They just seem locked into their own little worlds.
Perhaps this is the future. And me travelling without a mobile...
No comments:
Post a Comment