The Road to Singapore

May 18, 2005
The Road to Singapore

The movie, the Road to Singapore, was before most of your time–in fact, it was so long ago it was before MY time. However, that is the road we travelled over the weekend, leaving Melaka by train for the four-hour ride to Singapore. Unlike the last time, I arrived by train, and there were no dogs at the station to sniff our suitcases, looking for drugs (possession is a death penalty here); instead, we had a customs inspection, followed by a return to the train which took us to downtown Singapore to our hotel.

A few facts:

Singapore has about 4 million people, about 70% Chinese, the remainder Muslim and Indian mostly. It is incredibly well run–the same party has been in power since independence in 1967, and in fact the hand of Lee Kuan Yew as now minister mentor is all over it (sorry for the spelling, it’s a strange computer). The unemployment rate is 1.2%; the average income is about $24,000, and it is incredibly clean.

It is an important city in history, and we went to part of it yesterday; in 1942, the impregnable fortress at Singapore fell to the Japanese despite having the reputation for being the bastion of Western supremacy in Asia. The Japanese did what we did–they came down the peninsula from the landside, and most of the guns were trained on the sea. Western supremacy never recovered. We explored an old fort as part of our visit, and it had a moving history of Singapore under Japanese domination, (they punished the local Chinese for supporting Chiang Kai-shek by putting them on barges and throwing them in the ocean).

Fortunately, the city’s recent history is more kindly, as the income level indicates. To give you some idea of the excellence in their service businesses, Changi airport is usually one of the top two in the world (#2 this year). It has a swimming pool–need I say more.

I have used a tailor here over the years. It’s been four years. He welcomed me and asked about Carolyn, who had been here with me in 2001.

And I had a beard then!

The Raffles Hotel is here too, an elegant remnant of the old days.

We had a great visit with the Caterpillar Logistics folks this afternoon, thanks to Bob Hinshaw. The man who spoke would be fun to work for–his territory runs from Australia to North China to India. And he’s from Iowa.

We are going out to dinner in a few minutes so better close, but rest assured there’re some Scout souvenirs from here!

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