Singaboreass

There's not much to relate about my visa run to Singapore yesterday, nothing that I didn't say last year, that is.

I did a lot of walking, a little shopping, had a couple of pints of IPA and a big veggie burger at Brewerkz for lunch ~ a truly excellent way of spending a couple of hours, and got my visa, thanks to our agent and S$200, with no fuss at all.

I noted that they'd pulled down a shopping centre in Orchard Road and built a bigger one in its place but didn't bother to compare the prices at Carrefour. The construction sites, streets and public transport were all spotless; perhaps the highlight was getting a Mercedes Benz taxi, although that was a little cramped.

Every third person walked and talked into handphones. Every second person was shopping or had been and I noted an underclass of newspaper and ice cream vendors, buskers and neatly turned out beggars. The expat wives with young children didn't look very happy and nor did the tourists.

Every shopkeeper I paid a visit to ..... let me rephrase that ... every shopkeeper I paid, said "Have a nice day" when the transaction was complete.

What I really liked was to be able to experience the smell of a tropical rainforest. There are little patches in the medians between the expressways and close to some upmarket apartment blocks. There are also birds chirruping away.

And now I'm back in the anarchic chaos of Jakarta which can be most infuriating at times, but, hey, it's never boring.
 

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¶ 5:00 pm