Singapore

September 28, 29, October 10, 14...17, 19, 2013

You can see that life is bustling here before you even land.

Singapore’s airport, Changi, defies the imagination and wins you over immediately. The beautiful, endless expanse of space and the inexhaustible imagination of its designers and decorators are capable of entertaining passengers for days on end.

The airport has the most beautiful baggage carousel in the world. It’s a baggage claim temple!

There’s a free movie theatre, a hotel, miles of restaurants and shops, and just a whole bunch of nice touches. And a garden with live butterflies. Here they’re assembling an installation that will be raised up to the ceiling and have the copper droplets descend in random order. Why? Because it looks beautiful, that’s all.

In many ways, the city resembles Hong Kong; it has the same Asian-skyscrapery-financial-and-recreational feel. Although there are slightly fewer skyscrapers here.

But there’s the gorgeous Sands hotel building, with equally gorgeous gardens behind it, as well as a giant shopping mall. The malls in other parts of the city are fairly provincial.

Two insects got shuffled in with the landmarks on the ferry route map.

Let’s take a walk through the city. The traffic light masts are perforated (like in Yangon or Bandar Seri Begawan).

A crosswalk button and a detailed legend for the pedestrian traffic signals.

A pedestrian traffic light.

A typical Singaporean sign: no crossing. Naturally, it’s put up in spots where you really want to cross.

A taxi-summoning beacon next to a hotel (like in Kuala Lumpur or Libreville).

A taxi.

A license plate.

A Singaporean digger.

The whole country is filled with parks; they take up nearly half its territory. As if that weren’t enough, there are also trees sticking out of every building.

Everything is covered in gardens.

Sometimes, an entire building might be built around one tree.

Electrical boxes are surrounded by shrubbery as well.

There’s still a small patch of colonial architecture left here.

An Architectural Heritage plaque. A fairly ugly one.

A fire hydrant.

A city trash can.

Singapore is allegedly legendary for the cleanliness of its streets. They say you can get a five-hundred-dollar fine just for throwing gum on the sidewalk. I don’t know. Overall, it’s clean here, of course. But that depends on where you look.

Part of the country’s British heritage is a lack of fear of double-decker buses.

Directions for entering and exiting subway cars are painted on the platform.

Payphones.

In addition to the traditional compartment for envelopes, Singaporean residential mailboxes also have an open tube at the top for newspapers.

Post boxes next to a post office.

I had almost lost all hope of finding a freestanding post box in the street when I suddenly spotted an old British pillar box next to the postal museum. It’s odd that such a civilized country would have so few post boxes on the streets. There should be one at every busy intersection and every subway station.

There are several residential districts located a bit further in from the water. One of them is Little India. Indian women grace the lampposts here. CDs are used to give them their shininess.

This part of town is less tidy.

Frankly speaking.

And the locals are a whole different breed.

It’s interesting that the high-rise has special plastic screens on the outside to conceal drying laundry. Nonetheless, some people still hang their underwear out the window for all the world to see.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the city, an endless stream of Chinese people is losing endless amounts of money at endless casino tables.