[wao]

Originally Posted by Shay

Hello.

I live in Liverpool, UK. Don't come here. It is gay.

I want to visit Singapore. Who will let me sleep in their bed?

I live in Singapore. Don't come here. It is boring.

...but I'm not interested in visiting Liverpool (I do want to go to the UK though, some day).

OK, sorry for being evil.

May I ask, why on earth do you want to come to Singapore? I might be sounding self-deprecating here and I'll probably get hit on the head by some other Singaporeans here, but frankly speaking I think there isn't much to do here compared to other countries. It can't be helped that we are a very small country. Anyway, the thing is when you come here there are a lot of so-called attractions and features, but I personally find that a lot of them are so touristy that I just give up on recommending them. And I think a lot of people are turned off by the very plastic sort of face we show everyone. There have been more than enough comments that we are a 'sterilized' country... And it can't be helped that we also don't have much in terms of a rich/long history like the European countries. So nope, not much in the way of "wow" landmarks...

No matter what the Singapore Tourist Board says I still cannot stop thinking that Singapore is ultimately a place to work rather than... play. But anyway...

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(I put in spoiler tags so that this doesn't look so much like some gigantic rambling monster post - which it really is.)

Spoiler for Want to come to Singapore?:

If you really do want to come here though, personally I suggest you try out the very wide range of food we have here.

Spoiler for food:

Even the more expensive restaurants should be affordable compared to food in the UK (and your currency is worth a lot here when converted).
You can get more than your fill of a wide range of Asian cuisine here... The most prominent ones are Chinese, Malay and Indian (both North and South, though South is more commonly sold at hawker-food centre sort of places, I believe. Personally I like North Indian food better). If you like your Lebanese and Japanese and Iranian stuff though, that stuff can be foudn if you look around a bit. There's some TV show on right now that shows all these foreign enclaves in Singapore and their eating spots, so they definitely exist (and I've passed a few too).

I wish I were enough of a foodie to be able to give you a list of said restaurants, or other nice tucked-away places for you to try out, but I think that is only a few clicks away on the web - I think Singapore's food scene is relatively well-documented and talked about online...

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Also do yourself a favour and use the local transport system, it's something I'm quite thankful for after having briefly visited other larger countries that don't have such a comprehensive system.

The fares are, relatively speaking, really darn affordable (S$0.60 ~ S$1.80 ? on buses, $0.80 ~ about S$2.00 on trains - sorry I'm not completely sure, I still pay concession fares)
And they cover a very wide area. Plus they're comfortable and air-conditioned. The buses even have (distracting) indoor TVs installed... I'm not kidding...

I guess here I will put in another suggestion - if you would like to just while a few hours away and would like to see the various residential areas of Singapore as well as some of the more ulu ('remote') places, take our train service, the MRT, for the above-ground parts of its route...

Spoiler for Take the MRT!:

That would be the North-South line (red line), from Jurong East all the way till Bishan; as well as the East-West line (green line), from Boon Lay until Redhill and then from I-forgot-where (...Bugis?) until Tanah Merah.

Sure, it's just a lot of buildings and trees and roads and stuff (and a heck of a lot of trees when you get to around Kranji on the red line), but even I feel fascinated just looking at all the different types of apartment housing and thinking about the people who'd live in them. And seeing folks walking around on the road and buses rolling by. If you're sick of it you can just sit and stare at the ceiling for a while as the train zooms on - it's strangely relaxing (well, for me anyway).

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Spoiler for security:

I suppose you already have heard the stereotype of Singapore being all controlling and authoritative and whatnot, and I guess it's true to an extent, but of cousre you won't see police walking around on the street monitoring you every moment or something ridiculous like that. (Unless President Bush or some other bigshot comes. Then it REALLY is like that. They had police all the way down even in residential areas. Why? And $deity, you should have seen it when the IMF/World Bank meetings were here What a show we put on...)

But the flip side of this of course is that Singapore is one of the safer countries in the world and even I get to go around alone or with just one friend at night without much fear. This is something that even I feel compelled to say a lot of people here take for granted. When some crime occurs everyone makes a big deal about it and whines that the crime rate is "low but not zero!!!" and that "oh what are the police doing" ... They'd probably cry if they went overseas.

Aside from that... I doubt you'd be interested in shopping, right? If you're looking for bargains here, you'd probably have to look a bit hard because nowadays Singapore just isn't that much of a bargain box (except maybe for electronics? I don't know about now...) perhaps it might still be cheaper compared to the UK of course, but you'd probably find stuff a lot cheaper in the neighbouring Malaysia, although the quality might be more dubious if you went there.

Oh yeah, that's one last thing. If you come here, you can make it a 2-in-1 and hop over to Malaysia as well. Why not? It's very easy to go over there.

Spoiler for Hop to Malaysia!:

There's a ton of coach services - ranging from the bare-bones $23 type (that are still plush and comfy for supposedly lower-end services, unless I'm missing out on something) to the other extreme with those double-deckers that have a lounge on the bottom floor and reclining seats on top o_o;;

If you want to be more cheapo, then there's local bus services you can take if you go to the Woodlands MRT station/bus interchange. Unfortunately I am a sad hopeless Singaporean who has only been to Malaysia twice and I don't even remember which numbers to take, but I'm sure you'll find out when you're there.
And don't bother taking a flight from Singapore to Malaysia, that's just ridiculous (and the drive from the airport to wherever probably makes it less worth it).

Why go to Malaysia? Well, it's larger, so you can obviously see a lot more things. There are also a lot of undeveloped areas if you like seeing nature. Maybe you can visit their nature parks and such.

I can't say a lot since, as I mentioend, I've only been there twice, but I enjoyed my stay in Penang very much and suggest you check it out (it's also got a great amount of wonderful food, my cousin brought us around all the little hidden spots and it really is amazing!) It's also got a nice range of various things to see. There was this really huge temple that was great to go to even though parts of it were under construction.

Personally, I have fantasies of going to...
North Canada
UK (I've been to London once, I'd like to go there again... But I *really* want to go around large chunks of the UK on train!)
Spain (Just out of curiosity, and to see its culture and artwork. I want to see what it was that inspires so many artists to make nice works there.)
Japan (Yeah yeah, but that's for another thread)
New Zealand (If there's some kind of Geography Tour thing that takes you around all the Sounds and various other amazing natural locations then I would love it!)


...And the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Spoiler for Why I want to go to Bhutan (More fantasies.):

It's always been so closed up and there's so many parts of it that are apparently living like it was still the 50s or 60s. I'm very fascinated by that sort of thing.

And I've always felt drawn to the incredible mix of facial features in that area. I don't know why, I just like looking at them a lot. I guess it's all thanks to this documentary I watched on BBC about Bhutan... They made the leaders out to be the type who were very careful about letting outside influence in but didn't seem like Evil Jerks either.

They just quietly maintained the culture and peace of the country - but at the same time they knew it couldn't stay closed forever, so if I'm not wrong, the next time they're having democratic elections for the first time and are loosening their control on foreign influence. I would like to see Bhutan like this before it changes beyond recognition.

But I heard they also are very stringent about how many tourists they take in. You *must* go with a travel program because independant touring is strictly not allowed. That's both daunting and exciting at the same time... I guess I find there's a certain allure to seeing such a rich and carefully kept culture that has to be protected before it's broken. Kind of reminds me vaguely of 1800s Japan and people being afraid of losing their unique Japanese culture to outsiders...

I want to see its natural scenery very much too. I think you can figure out by now that I'm hungry to see undeveloped, raw nature (maybe with small human settlements) after being in Singapore for so long....

So what if it's isolationist and doesn't have a bustlign economy? I'm not interested in the economic success of Bhutan. I'm interested in seeing its people as they are, and to see whether they really are the content and happy society that they are said to be. I want to believe that there still is a peaceful and beautiful country that doesn't have to be caught in the neverending modern race of money-making and development - even if it comes at the price of it being a tightly controlled country. If the citizens do not mind... (And dare I say, it's not like us "developed countries" are necessarily a better alternative, if you look at it in a certain way.)

...Ah, but whatever I say is just a bunch of fantasies, I don't even earn my own salary yet! I haven't even done my A-levels. Sheesh. There is very little chance I'll get to go *anywhere* as a tourist for the next few years... So I'll just hang around here and read the other fascinating things everyone else has to say about their countries.