I cannot tell you how nice it is to be back in balmy (to the extreme) Southeast Asia, especially after our five month stint of perpetual winter / autumn. It is so hot here. Singapore, being only kilometres north of the equator, experiences perpetual summer. Even in the dead of winter (now), they have temperatures exceeding 30C. Now THIS is my cup of tea. We have now shed our fleeces, toques, shells and long underwear for shorts, capris, tees and tanks. It's too bad we will be arriving in Canada during winter, else we could have totally shed this gear from our packs in its entirety. Instead, we have resigned to carrying the extra kilos for the next four weeks (!).

Singapore is a total theme park. My first impressions of Singapore, arriving into the city via the MRT (their name for the subway / metro system), was characterless; tall condiminiums without a speck of dust, multi-level and perfectly clean schools (with windows!), glassed office buildings reaching to the sky. Save for the odd colourful Chinese temple, there wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, nor was there sights that define a city's personality. Soon, however, I began to realize that Singapore does indeed have a personality - a strong multicultural one - and is more like a Theme Park than a city. The entire three (only three -boo hoo) days I spent there, I felt that I was walking through the main streets of Disney World or Canada's Wonderland, rather than a megopolis.

As Tony mentioned, Singapore is divided into mini-theme parks; Little India to the north, Chinatown in the south, the sparkling white Colonial District flanking the river's north shore, and the sky-wards business district flanking the south. Besides the business and Colonial district the rest of the river is fronted by 150-year-old shophouses or warehouses (godowns) that have been turned into bars, markets, cafes or clubs (including a Hooters).

Each of these themed areas are so perfectly spotless, from the streets and buildings to the kitchens in the restaurants. All buildings are vividly coloured in pastels or whites / beiges, without a scratch or imperfection. No paint is faded, no graffiti has defaced it, and no mold has affected it. Even the hundred-year-old buildings are in perfect structural form. Coming from India, we had expected a disaster zone in Little India (where we were staying), instead we found a litter, street-dweller and mostly tout-free area, which was very pleasant to walk through at all hours of the day. I should mentioned that there were the odd tout pushing us to buy a piece of sugar cane (or an entire stalk), and shop-keepers were very liable to sell goods at the "tourist prices", not the Indian-prices - an ever-prevalent practice in India. My theme-park conspiracy is that here in Singapore these practices are solely to provide the visitor with a partially accurate feel of travel through the country.

Even the culinary experience was themed out! Tony and I very quickly discovered the Singapore "food courts", taken from here in Malaysia, or night markets in Thailand. Of course, unlike their origins, these courts are spotlessly clean and efficient. Each of these food courts is set up like a themed culinary experience, whereby surrounding tables are small vendors selling a specific type of Asian food - malaysian, vietnamese, chinese, thai, japanese, etc - for a very good price. Here you pick one shop to sell you that rice porridge, curry-fish head or nasi goreng (malaysian fried rice), you have been craving. To get your refreshment, you need to visit another booth who will supply fresh juices or fruits of your choice. For beer or pop, please move along to the vendor with the cooler out front. When you are done eating, simply leave your spot, and the cleaning staff will come along to remass your dishes for cleaning and reuse for the next person. Excellent. I love the fact that they serve all food in reusable dishes and glasses - even reusuable chopsticks!

While I'm on the topic of food - sushi is SOO cheap here. We picked up six pieces of super-fresh sushi for less than $2 CAN. Here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday we had a HUGE sushi meal of 22 pieces, 1 hand roll, potato salad and two desserts for only $13 CAN.

The cleanliness and perfection of Singapore does come at a price - so many things are illegal, such as jaywalking, spitting and chewing gum. If you are caught eating or drinking on the MRT, you are in for a big expensive treat! As comfortable as I was here, I was always nervous that I may have been caught doing something unknowingly illegal. Only a few years back an Amercian tourist was caught doing something, and he was caned! Since Singapore has no natural resources, my theory is that they use fines as a means of income, as well as taxes on alcohol. Booze is SO expensive here - a beer from a store will cost you over $3 CAN.

Singapore's multiculturalism is so extraordinary. In one jaunt around a few city blocks, you are sure to pass a mosque, a chinese temple (my favourite), a hindu temple and perhaps even a catholic church. All of these cultures live in seeming peace too - amazing. Perhaps it is the common pride for their city that leaves them in peace like this. As I mentioned, Chinese temples are my favourite, as they are so richly decorated with chinese characters, lion and dragon sculptures, and always so colourful; red, white, green and gold gleem all the way from the floor to the chinese roofs topping the buildings in the complex. All the temples are so clean and well-kept, they appear to be designed just as an addition to the theme-park nature of the city.

Because of it's diverse multiculturalism and the British Colonial history, English is very widely spoke throughout the city/country, although you are more likely to hear Chinese (or is it mandarin - I don't know), Arabic or Hindi. Needless to say, if you interrupted a conversation with a question, each person would be happy to answer you in English.

I should mention that Singapore is not all city and towering steel and glass skyscrapers, or shophouses selling food or produce, or 7-11s. A large part of the city-state is covered in a very lush and preserved rainforest. Only a few kilometres from the downtown area, you will find yourself driving down a major highway that pushes through forests I had only seen during my trip to inland Costa Rica. Although we never visited it, one can take a trip out of the city centre to visit a rainforest on the island. Further, our trip to the Night Safari on our first night took us into some beautifully thick forests wildly decorated with sounds and smells of a rainforest. This Night Safari, however expensive, was definitely worth the costs. We had the opportunity to see lions, asian elephants, hippos, tigers, leopards, all kinds of deer (including the tiny mouse deer), pythons, hyenas, and all sorts of felines species that one would miss during a daytime visit to a zoo.

Besides the night safari, Singapore is surprisingly cheap for what you get. Food is very reasonable - $4 CAN for a large portion of some kind of soup or dish that includes rice. A fresh glass of sugar cane juice will set you back about 75 cents. Desserts are also very cheap and extremely varied given the city-state's position in Asia. Taxis, buses and the MRT are also very cheap. A trip on the MRT will run you between 60 cents to $1.20 CAN. Our 1/2 hour cab ride to the night safari costed us only $9 CAN. Our hostel - the highly recommended Inn Crowd Backpackers Hostel put us back only $30 CAN a night (for dorm beds - slightly more for a double room). Spotless, friendly and air-conditioned - what more could one ask for.

All in all, I loved Singapore. I am going to be wishing that I hadn't searched for a job teaching English somewhere there before we left for Malaysia the other day. If I had only one regret this entire trip, it is that we didn't spend more time here. But one must prioritize - Thailand is only a few days away, and the pull there is getting stronger and stronger.