Singapore Ahoy! - One

The moment we landed in Singapore, it became apparent that our first foreign holiday would be quite interesting. The Chiangi airport, which is naturally the first impression for tourists, comes across as an extremely large, modern and organised introduction. I was half expecting long queues but the ease with which one passed through immigration and customs, left one wondering if there were any checks and balances at all. Hopping on to a cab, we were soon gliding through the highway, shepherded by greenery. It was raining a little but that only added to the pleasantness. Being a Delhite, where the rains necessarily result in traffic snarls, vehicle breakdowns and jams, this experience was turning out to be different. We were in the hotel in 20 minutes or so. Its only later one realised that travelling by taxi, within this tiny country which spans less than 700 square kilometres, one could reach everywhere in more or less the same time frame. Our hotel, located near the Marina Bay, stood on reclaimed land, i learned. Come to think of it, Singapore has only two ways of absorbing its growth. One, it keeps reclaiming land, and today 30% of the country exists due to this and secondly, it builds tall structures (i guess, it would be wastage of sky space, if one were to do otherwise). Relaxing on the hotel balcony, one could not help feeling the advancement Singapore, once a fisherman's village, had achieved, with envy. This less than 44 year old country had attained visible and sustainable development in leaps and bounds. Their governance model and strategy was definitely worth serious study.
The next day we roamed around a few malls and got some currency exchanged. The super serious air-conditioning left my daughters and me shivering a bit. Over the next 6 days, we were to get accustomed perforce, as much wasteful shopping awaited us. As we moved about without a plan, two things immediately dawned. One, everybody who was apparently local, dressed as per the climate (Singapore is generally hot and humid), without fear, if you know what i mean. Men and women looked good and totally comfortable in their t-shirts and shorts or skirts. Two, one could make out that Singapore had a mixed culture, with four main languages (Malay, Chinese, English and Tamil), i was later told. People were always friendly and approachable, although at times it was difficult to catch the counter girl's accents (come to think of it, so many of these shops and counters were run by the fairer sex). Even if there was some lurking sense of animosity against immigrants or Indians, it was definitely not demonstrated in any measure whatsoever. The paper, the Straits Times, eponymous with the stock exchange, does give you a perspective on some level of discrimination prevalent in Singapore society. However, when one considers the deep divisions in Indian society, one would not really make too much of it.
In order to amuse my beautiful children, we decided to take the duck tour. Well, it's an adventure on a truck- like vehicle, which travels both on land and water. As the tour proceeded, one learned quite a bit about the city from the enthusiastic, Chinese-looking guide (who spoke chaste English with absolute clarity and no lisps). My younger one, devoid of any deference to the guide's efforts, was soon asleep in my arms. The duck waded through the waters of Singapore river (is it really a river?), and we were given a view of the Singapore Flyer (my elder one initially thought it was a giant ferris wheel but was soon dismayed on noticing the painfully slow movements...well, do excuse her, she is more inclined to thrill than to sight-seeing, you see!), the esplanade (buildings which you could confuse with porcupines, when viewed with an aerial perspective) and the Merlion (a statue of a hybrid animal, the lion and the mermaid – well, i am quite sure, that this is somebody's figment of imagination, configured in stone, with stories build around it, to give a sense of history to pique a tourist's appetite...i could be wrong, you know). We were back in an hour or so. Back we went to the hotel, after purchasing a pack of cigarettes (for some reason, you cannot carry cigarettes into Singapore...and these were expensive to buy...i guess, the government wants to discourage smoking...but does this really work...a fair number of Singaporeans, both men and women, smoke, but only at the designated areas). Thankfully, the hotel television aired a couple of cartoon channels, to suitably engage my kids. I waited patiently for my wife to return from her marketing conference, so i could hand over the chaperone robes.
Once the family quorum was complete, we decided to start hunting for dinner. We walked into an adjoining mall, right through the third floor of the hotel (there are a lot of such inter-connected access points across the city)...to be continued