Stuffed to bursting with Dim Sum, cucumber sandwiches and bread-and-butter pudding I was feeling reflective as I turned to the waiting ship for the last time, so just a few closing thoughts on Singapore.
It’s not as bling and ‘in-your-face as Dubai and has some of the charm of Abu Dhabi but with not quite the same understated elegance – you’ll just have to look at my other Blogs to know why. There are still many projects to be completed and no doubt more distinctive high-rise buildings to be constructed.
Much has been achieved by reclamation such as the Marina Bay and great care has been taken to preserve the best of the colonial buildings and the old merchants houses and ‘go-downs’ (Warehouses) along the Boat Quay even if many are now restaurants or bars.
I have already commented on some of the iconic buildings such as the Science Museum, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, topped out with its ‘boat in the sky’, the Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel and of course the Gardens by the Bay.
The emphasis as I have commented elsewhere is on preservation and conservation with no doubt more projects to come such as the Jurong Bird Park. I forgot to mention that the Zoo already offers a night safari so that you can view nocturnal animals - in fact the Asian Elephants do a double day shift leaving for the Night Safari Park in the early evening – its only a 50 metre walk! I believe there are plans for a water safari park as well.
The only thing I did find a bit scary was the ‘planned’ nature of the public housing although on reflection what I observed is very similar to development that has happened all along my old regular commuter route into London, especially around Bermondsey Spa where bland, sterile blocks of high rise apartments have been replaced with low rise housing and apartments with associated amenities.
It was the regularity and similarity of neighbourhood after neighbourhood that made me stop and think as we drove to the Zoo. The guide explained that all housing is owned by the state and rented on 99-year leases. To qualify for a house a couple have to be married, which we were told leads to a high divorce rate since couples often marry for a house rather than for a lasting relationship. Each group of houses or apartments has to have a cross-section of ethnic groups that reflect the overall population makeup in Singapore – so Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan etc. It is perhaps this planned diversity that perhaps caused me think again, although I don’t know why since the aim is to encourage good community relationships. To further encourage this, each neighbourhood has a school, playgrounds, parks and supermarket just as I have observed in Bermondsey.
There are private villas of course but only for the super rich. Even cars are closely controlled in this city of limited space. To own a car you must first apply for a government permit costing about £36,000 for a car of less than 1.6 litres – more if its bigger than that – and then buy the car which of course will be over £20,000. So cars are discouraged but then the city has a superb infrastructure of buses, roads and the metro system – known as the Mass Transport System or MTR.
So ends an interesting visit to Singapore and I leave you with this most endearing picture of a young Sumatran Orang-utan at Singapore Zoo.
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