One big giant shopping mall

Is what Singapore feels like when you walk around a bit.  Actually, that’s not exactly fair, but that’s been our experience for the last few days–there area  a lot of places to shop.

Singapore is a small city state, just north of the Equator, hanging from the bottom of the western half of Malaysia.  The population is about 4.2 million, of which ~75% are ethnically Chinese, ~15% Malay, 8% Indian, and the remainder foreigners from places like the UK, Australia, and the US.  (There a ton of expats here.)  They take a lot of pride in the fact they’ve gone from “third world to first” in about 30 years.  I can testify to the fact that the island seems about as modern as Japan.  Also, they apparently no longer have a $500 fine for chewing gum here, so looks like things are looking upwards.

The city is in the lower part of the land area and is basically split into the business district, Chinatown, Little India, and the shopping area (which I’m pretty sure is over half of the city area.)  Except for a quick trip to the really, really nice zoo, we’ve spent most of our time walking up and down the mall part looking for things we need for the rest of our trip.  (Note to anyone else that wears a size 13 shoe: don’t try to buy them in Singapore!)

We now have plans for the rest of that trip, which I’ll write about in my next post.