Lion city

Almost every time I travel for work, I transit through Singapore airport. It's probably the best airport in the world with its free power and WiFi, indoor gardens, dedicated areas for resting and shopping and watching movies, and unfailingly friendly staff. I was tired of seeing the airport but not the city, so this time I insisted on entering Singapore for a few days on the way home.

Singapore was always going to be a surprise, no matter what we expected. At first sight I described it as "the part of the West where they speak Chinese" (yes, I realise that's imprecise to the point of inaccuracy). It's difficult not to be reassured by Singapore - it's so safe, so advanced, so multicultural.

Reassured, then, we cut loose and enjoyed ourselves. We slept late and made no plans and ate good food (crab linguine, Hainanese chicken rice, sweet potato pastries, spam frites - don't knock it till you've tried it). We had lunch with a former colleague at a hawker centre and cocktails at the top of that building that looks like a ship. We counted brand stores on Orchard Road and went to the night safari zoo. We paid local prices for beer without complaining.

Singapore looks like a great place to be wealthy. It's very livable with tons of things to do and easy connections to the rest of the world. Wages are so high that taxi drivers and porters are snooty - they know they earn more than the tourists they serve. If the same attitude prevails in cafes and stores, it would be easy to feel isolated.

Wikipedia tells me there's high income inequality, but we saw very few poor people. Those that we did see were riding in the back of open trucks, eight or ten at a time. Our taxi driver told us they were Indian or Bangladeshi workers brought in for construction projects. He said the mandatory truck transport "allows us to monitor them. They go to work, they go home." He didn't seem to see any problem in these workers being denied full participation in Singaporean society. We looked down at the trucks of workers from our tour buses and wondered if they still had their passports.

That was the only real jarring note in our visit to Singapore. It's a great place to play, and stopping there inevitably breaks up a long trip between New Zealand and the rest of the world. There is something slightly creepy, though, about a city so safe and clean and attractive. I suppose it's difficult to get a crime rate that low without some cost in terms of civil liberties.