The beginning of this journey began in Singapore for a one-day stopover. We had heard the tales that the Singapore airport was the top-rated airport in the world for layovers, with showers, free internet, city tours, butterfly gardens, fairy godmothers, and other types of magic. We would not settle for anything less than a 20 hour layover.
The airport was just as enchanted as we had imagined, with free internet, free foot massage machine (where we parked for several hours), and we took advantage of the city tour. Singapore is a funny place. Like the Winchester Mansion, it seems to just keep building and building for no particular reason. Singapore is a small country, pretty much a city state which consists mostly of it's downtown area, which is growing up as well as out. The buildings are so tall, I was wishing the airport had a free neck massage machine as well to undo the effects of all the gawking.
The city is also meticulously clean, trash isn't even allowed in trash cans (or at least that's what I was guessing as there were no trash cans anywhere). The atmosphere smells of a slight desperation to increase it's tourism, and as a result they have everything that any kind of traveler could ever want. Chinese food, Starbucks, tailors, amusement parks, a dolphin lagoon, casino, a "Merlion" statue.
Singapore didn't appear to have much culture of it's own, and instead tried to created one within it's concrete jungle. It even tried to blend it's Christmas decorations to embody multiple cultures, with funky fat Santa Clauses that seemed to be part women, flying seahorse ornaments with mermaid tales and angel wings left little to the imagination. I found it endearing, as well as humorous. Any kind of misbehavior or unsanitary habit resulted in a ticket and a fine. And possibly a public beating. All for the greater good I suppose.
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