First Impressions of Singapore

I arrived in Singapore after three years of living in Indonesia and I must say it is quite overwhelming. Life in Indonesia is slow, small and dirty. In Singapore, it is like stepping into a gigantic amusement park run by Walmart. Just about everything at street level and most stuff below is either shopping or eating. I'm talking an entire city of it! It is also a weird mix of English, Indian, Chinese and Malay cultures. You see people that are clearly one of the ethnic groups and a million westerners here as well. I really like that since it means people don't stare and if I stop someplace, the person next to me doesn't feel compelled to find out who I am. Anonymity. What a beautiful thing.

A couple of odd things: The hotel that I am staying in has to date back to the British colonial rule. The elevator is barely big enough for three people and has the gated doors that you have to slide back and forth. The fire hoses look like something out of a movie from 100 years ago. Kinda fun.

Last night as I was walking home, they started shooting off fireworks to test them out before the independance day celebration in a couple weeks. It was very eery because it sounded like we were under attack. The booms would echo off the walls of these enormous skyscrapers. I saw the lights in the sky though so I wasn't very worried.

I went here with the intention of buying a laptop and even have the model picked out. I found it in a few places but they are asking a significant amount more than I am willing to pay so I will probably leave here without one.

I'll be here till Friday I think so I'll try and update you more later.