ambiguous — 1 year ago
yes, worth visiting. But I would never want to live here. So many rules, so many fines. Like a local commented with a sarcastic tone, ‘Singapore is a fine city’. On the other hand: very friendly people, clean city, efficient. But its not for me. They say this is a very safe place, but that safety comes at a price. Granted, I came here smack bang in the middle of an IMF meeting so there were lots of security forces around and extra checks and closed-off roads and such.
Be that as it may, I am in two minds about Singapore. I stayed with some locals and we had many interesting discussions about freedom (of various kinds), politics, laws, and races living together.
On a lighter and consumerist note: this is an excellent place to buy your electronic gadgets and gizmos. Also a good place to have a suit tailored.
It will be interesting to see how Singapore solves its problems in the near future with a ever-growing population and lack of land for developing new housing. In that respect Singapore is a preview of one way to handle a large population and little land. Which, sooner or later, is something a lot of countries are going to face.
So, again, yes, interesting place, was fun to visit (you can see most of the main attractions/famous places in a couple of days) but I prefer the more free/chaotic places, even if they have their own signature problems like higher crime rates and gum on the street and whatnot. But Singapore is certainly a place to go see on this planet.
