from the horizon

Arriving in Singapore was easy. It just works: the subway, using my credit card, people speaking English, my hotel reservation.
I had to get my Indonesian visa here, and although I found it a little unusual to hand my passport complete with $160 over to a complete stranger, who I met outside a McDonalds, everything worked smoothly, and I had my visa on the same day.

In my quest to buy a laptop in Singapore, I found myself at the Comex computer and electronic expo. I found the 4 massive halls filled with electronics slightly overwhelming. The amount of money that was being spent; the cost of some of the products there. I ogled the plasma screens, with their screens which were so life like, showing the same unbelievable Hollywood movies. But I couldn’t help thinking: where are the donkeys?

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On my way back to Banda Aceh I had to spend a couple of days in Singapore renewing my visa and doing some all important shopping!

Having spent so long in Banda Aceh, Singapore was fascinating. Big, organised and clean. One of the things which stands out in the Mass Rail Transit (MRT) System. It connects all of central Singapore with a network of stations. Trains come ever couple of minutes, making it very easy to get around.

But their is something unnatural about it. The underground stations are huge, artificial and disorientating. Escalators would carry me down 3 floors, to exactly where I wanted to be to catch the train. Except I didn’t actually have any idea where I was.

I never needed to gain my bearings, just follow the signs to get to the right place. I felt kinda detached from my environment.

But the environment was so unnatural anyway. Sterile, it lacked any natural shapes. Everything that was had been engineered that way. Even the art works were laid out exactly how some artist wanted them. It worried me that I could travel underground from one shopping mall to another without seeing, the randomness of clouds, or trees growing. Just like somewhere out of THX 1138.

And the people all seemed so detached. Isolated in the crowd, in their own little worlds. No chatter. Focused on the destination.

To an extent this sums up Singapore for me. Everything works, but people don’t really participate in it working. So what’s the point in it working?