Planes, Trains, Mer-Lions, Beggars, Thieves & Beers

The day before riots broke out in Chiang Mai, we made our escape by train to Bangkok and caught our flight to Singapore. We arrived in Singapore and were impressed right away with the airport, which rivals or exceeds the Hong Kong airport, thus far the best we have seen in the world. We were happy to find that the subway/train system is connected to the airport and were able to get to our destination for only $1.90 Singapore dollars each (about $1.25). Also rivaling Hong Kong, the train system is clean, air conditioned and efficient. You can get anywhere you need to go in Singapore with ease.

Singapore is a fascinating country, famous for caning people, but not as strict of a police state as they have the reputation for. We saw only one police person in Singapore, just a squad car driving down the street.

Unlike our country, they have no such thing as deficit, they actually have a surplus of $170 Billion US dollars, which they tapped into for the first time this year, for stimulus. When we were there, they announced that their short recession was over. We couldn't see any signs that there had been one.


The thing that stood out the most is the harmony of the citizens. There are people of all races and religions, people from numerous countries, living here together without all of the tension one would expect. It's like what NYC should be, but can't pull off. This is the real melting pot of society. Their food is a true fusion, while they still have plenty of real Chinese food, it is side by side with Indian, Malay and International fare.



Singapore is famous for its hawker stations, which are basically food courts. We unfortunately had to pass on the hawkers and stay in restaurants because it is next to impossible to get anything without MSG without going to a nicer place. We were disappointed, and again, it is a shock that all Asian food is laden with this disgusting additive. We went to one restaurant that had a large selection and I asked if we could get our food cooked without it. The waitress said the one item was a cheese pizza. There had to be 150 items on the menu, but all had sauces or something else that had it in large quantities. Weird and gross. Upon researching MSG we were shocked to discover that U.S. junk food is laden with it, as it is addictive. Watch out for cravings for Doritos, Cheetos, KFC, Taco Bell or McD's, to name a few. They are using it to make America fatter, as if we needed any help.


We were pleased to find two really nice brew pubs in Clark Quay and tried them both. Brewerkz was the first and the interesting thing was that the price goes up for each pint, depending on the time of day, starting at $4 in the afternoon and hitting $9 by 10pm. The Pump Room was a little more quaint, but they both served pretty good fare and very good beers. The selections were impressive and they both touted some awards. Neither used MSG.

Singapore was under British rule from 1824 until 1963 and had a sad history of slavery and empirical tyranny. Singapore was built on the backs of workers who came from China, India, Malaysia, Arab nations & Japan. Each were segregated into their own neighborhoods where poverty, prostitution, opium addiction and overcrowding were deadly as disease swept through the area. Many of the Singapore laws were structured to combat the the four ills that plagued them; gambling, drugs, alcoholism and prostitution.

We spent all of one day at the National Museum, which houses an unbelievably detailed history of the City-State. We started by having an amazing lunch at the museum restaurant. Not cafeteria food as we expected, but delicious risotto. We started the tour and they handed us interactive headsets which are used to hear about displays, and to use for audio on the many videos and displays. We read somewhere that to listen to the each item would take over 10 hours. This is for the historic portion only, not the new modern section of the museum that we did not have the time to go through. We wish we had another day to spend there. The displays take you through ancient Singapore, ruled by Malaysian people and then describe how it was taken over by England. The museum details the terrible abuses suffered upon the people by the Brits, the deadly opium dens, as well as the atrocities committed against youn girls who were nothing more than prostitutes, and terribly abused. One of the big women's rights victories was that the girls could finally buy their freedom from prostitution at the age of 18. This all happened under British rule. There was more than one display that was so disturbing that it made Cathie cry and we were both uncomfortable. The truth hurts, even when it isn't your own.


A large portion of the museum was dedicated to the Japanese occupation after the Brits retreated during the war. After Japan surrendered to the allies, the Brits returned to Singapore to reclaim their hold and acted as if they were responsible for winning the war and freeing Singapore. Many of the locals did not see it that way and thought instead that the Brits abandoned them and left them to rot (which they did) and tried to come back and act like they were heroes (which they also did). This was the beginning of the strong desire to be free of Britain, which gradually happened, ending with their release to Malay rule in 1963. This was short lived, and two years later Malaya gave them their complete independence. This is when Singapore blossomed.

It is an interesting contrast to have visited Vietnam shortly before, and then to see Singapore and compare the differences. Both countries were rebuilding, or really forming their futures in the late 1960's and early 1970's, and it is clear who came out on top. While Vietnam has no potable water, lack of education, terrible infrastructure, etc., Singapore is world class all the way; potable water, one of the best subway systems in the world, a highly dense population that never feels like it, a hodgepodge of races of multiple religions, educated citizens, Dali statues in public squares, friendly helpful people everywhere, very low crime, the 5th wealthiest nation in the wold per capita, the list goes on and on. The difference between the two countries and their results was in their leadership. While Vietnam had Ho Chi Minh, Singapore was graced with Lee Kuan Yew, who had ideas that national pride comes from happy, educated citizens. He believed that every man, woman and child should be able to read, so he built libraries and schools bringing their literacy rate up from 50% to 96%. He industrialized the nation and actually put the tax revenues back into the infrastructure, and it shows. Singapore is a glimpse of what Vietnam could have been, but never will be with their Communist rule.

For anyone making a trip to Asia, we highly recommend a stop here, to recharge, get some comfort food, speak English to people, be treated with kindness and respect and learn a little about a great success story.

How Terrorists & Travel Agents Ruined Our Trip to Bali

We were making arrangements through our ticket broker for our return trip from Bali to LAX, which is a tedious task, pretty much a nightmare when dealing with Ticket Brokers International, and in particular Mara. Yes, we received a pretty good deal on our tickets, but when she sold them to us, she told us in writing, "when you make changes overseas, there is no charge and no problem! We can make any changes you want." So the first change we tried to make caused us to stay in Chiang Mai an additional 10 days (wow), because they are not open while you are awake, even though they don't sell tickets for travel in the U.S. they keep only U.S. business hours. Second, this Mara person cannot answer the phone when you get up in the middle of the night to call her, nor will she call you back when requested (she did not once dial our number). Next, she only deals with you on email, and mostly you get an out of office auto reply, because she works maybe one random day of the week. Finally, to get out of Chiang Mai, we were able to get in touch with one of her associates, who actually knows how to dial a phone. When it was time to get our return trip from Bali, she again would not call, but sent an email stating "THE ONLY TICKET I CAN GIVE YOU IS LEAVING IN 7 WEEKS. I SUGGEST YOU DEAL WITH THIS ON YOUR OWN." Wow, so helpful. This company sucks. Every time at the airport, the airline asked us for our paper tickets, which we of course didn't have and we ended up taking 15 minutes to get checked in at the counter. Also, on the way to Bali, they had very tight restrictions on baggage weight which we were not told about by lovely Mara & they tried to charge us $70, so we had to move some bulk to our carry on and delay the line even longer. Use this company if they have the cheapest tickets, but use a different agent, for sure.

Upon researching the lack of tickets out of Bali, it seems that because terrorists just blew up the Ritz- Carlton and Marriott in Jakarta, everyone is getting the freak out of Indonesia. The terrorists were targeting Americans, and it is a very uncomfortable feeling when you are so far from home. Many times on our trip we felt unwelcome, by Asians as well as Aussies and Europeans, who have much disdain for our country's politics and wealth, but this time we actually felt endangered.

Because the flights were booked, there were also very limited rooms available when we arrived. We ended up staying at a lovely Ramada on the beach, one of the nicer resorts around. The pool was amazing and was actually built beneath and around an old temple which they preserved.
In high contrast to Thailand, where the beaches and people are beautiful, this beach was covered in litter and the people were, to put in nicely, bothersome and greedy. We were laying on the resort chairs on the beach, in an area designated for guests of our hotel and they actually woke us up every five minutes to sell hair braids, fake nails, foot massage. It was embarrassing and kind of gross. We have heard that other parts of the island are great, that other people are not so rude, but we didn't enjoy it, not at all. The ocean was cold and murky, like California. The tourists were trashy. We wanted out.

We contacted Cathay airlines, and at first they said that our agent needs to make our arrangements, because they are supposed to deal with them and the ticket agent could see that they were purchased through a travel agent. I explained that ours sucks and read her the email. Cathay has great customer service and she found us two tickets that we wouldn't have to wait list for, but were for the next day. The deciding factor was being reminded that 202 people were killed in Bali in 2002. We watched the police holding machine guns while putting up banners on the beach to warn us of terrorists. We took the tickets and said hello and goodbye to Bali in the same 24 hours.

We were sorely disappointed by having to cut our trip so short. We had both heard Bali is wonderful and had originally planned to stay a few weeks. However, after first getting ripped off and extorted for our luggage by the porters at the airport, and being unable to relax on the beach, we really look back and are glad we got out. Never really wanting to go back. First impressions are lasting and Bali left a very bad taste in our mouths. Missing Thailand and looking forward to returning to the U.S.S.A.......