Singapore: First Impressions

Large advertising screens on main streets.

Cutting-edge air blowing technology parts the centre of the water fountain.

So here i am in Singapore. On the bus ride here from Kuala Lumpur, a Nepalese monk who sat next to me offered me a can of fizzy drink. I rapidly rejected him "bu yao" [不要]. He swiftly refused my rejection. So i kindly accepted the drink and put it into my seat pouch. I didn't touch the drink all journey, because i remembered my dad saying that certain Malaysians are very shifty when it comes to customs, passports, and sums of monies. I thought that his plan was to put me to sleep with the spiked fizzy can, then steal my passport, so that he can use it at the border customs.

When we hopped off the bus at Novena Square, which was the final destination, the monk and i said goodbye. I gave him a thumbs up, and he winked rapidly at me, twice.

Here are a few of my first impressions of Singaporeans, trait-wise:

(1) Singaporean streets have no rubbish.

Enlarge picture to look for litters.

(2) On a few occasions, i asked for street directions a few times for train stations and streets. The responses from the street direction givers were the type where, two people are walking towards each other, one of them being myself who raises my hand as a friendly conversation starting gesture, while the other one begins to walk diagonally off the path, rapidly. How confusing.

I have a theory that the more people there are in an enclosed space, the more anti-social the people inside that enclosed space are. The simple reason is that there are so many people to talk to, that a person does not know who to begin with, and in the end talks to nobody. Especially now with the increasing added pressure from peers, academically, the priority is not to be sociable.

Equal spacings for least likelihood of conversation.

At the MRT, for too many people, there were too many people to talk to, to talk to any people.

(3) The people in Singapore are very skinny. At first it was only the girls who were skinny, but after some time, the guys also became a little skinny, with a bit of muscle.

Comfortable dog strapped to front of lean girl.

Here are my hypotheses for skinny people in Singapore:

i) Food portions are about half the size of Australia's. Duck on rice has no bones. Only after food sits in stomach for a while, the oil from the food seeps into the stomach linings and the eater will begin to feel full. Therefore, eating a small portion and eating a small portion gives similar outcomes to fullness. Therefore, Singaporeans don't eat as much.

ii) Heat decreases appetite.

iii) The hot sun sucks water out of peoples' bodies, and in the process, their fats too.

iv) Many shops specialize in good tasting breakfast, therefore people eat it. My mum tells me: "Morning eat till full, midday eat well, night eat little."

v) Crowded city gives limited space for cars to travel. Therefore people prefer to walk to places after using the MRT. Actually, some people such as school kids have no choice. And walking in the sun is a bonus!

(4) There are too many shops for too little people. Shopping complexes are everywhere, such that sometimes there are more shopkeepers, cleaners, securities, promoters inside a complex than shoppers.

A watcher of TV, a browser of newspaper and a reader of book.

(5) A boss is called boss. A waiter is called boss. A shopper is also called boss. What surprised me the most was that they translate 'boss' to Chinese and call customers 'lao ban' (老闆). Does get confusing in a situation with many of the three types of people.

(6) No fear of thieves in Singapore.

Old uncle balances body on plastic bottle.

On the first night in Singapore, Amoz took me to a Seafood Steamboat BBQ Buffet.

Cheek muscles definable.

I asked Amoz to carry me to my hostel if anything happened to me. He said okay. So i took out and drank the fizzy drink from the bus ride, and oh was it thirst quenching! Now, i owe monk an apology.