Spotless Singapore

Singapore is called a ‘fine’ city for two distinct reasons. First, it is a fine city for those who appreciate clean, easy to navigate places. And clean is actually an understatement. It is immaculate here. The expressway leading out of the airport looked more like an entry to a plantation estate. The road is lined with rain trees, very common here for there rain predicting (leaves close before rain) and shade providing qualities. The rest of the city is equally groomed. There is little to no litter on the streets and the city’s developers did a great job to keep much of the natural vegetation around apartments and offices.

The second reason for this ‘fine’ city is the numerous fines in place to keep reason number one intact. Failure to flush a public toilet, drinking or eating on the metro , and your first offense for jay-walking will each cost you 500 Sing Dollars (1 USD = .73 SGD).

Some other interesting facts I learned:

• The island has a population of approximately 4.7 million people. One fourth of those are expats.
  



• The former Supreme Court and city hall are being turned into an art gallery. The Supreme Court’s new location is the flying saucer built on top.
  


• The standard day passes for the metro are small plastic cards that can be returned for a deposit. Talk about no waste, huh ?
  



• Malay is the national language while English is the administrative and first language.

Stamford Raffles discovered Singapore in 1819, however the original inhabitants were Malayan. After his arrival he partitioned parts of the city for the different immigrant groups. China Town was the first of these. The colonial buildings that were built at this time are still used as hotels, galleries, pre-schools, and restaurants. One of my favorite buildings, the Fullerton Hotel, was a post office until 2001.