SINGAPORE PART 2

I'm at the airport, leaving from Bagkok to Phuket. I'm exausthed. I had not even the time to write a couple of comments on my blog.... More about Bangkok later. I have some more pics about Singapore and a couple of things to say. I'll write now when I have the time and upload it later.

Singapore is such a ordered, disciplined and controlled city. Definitely not a democratic country. It has the same government for more then 45 years and they control everything, from the media to the ideas. My friend Csilla told me the story of a friend of hers that works at university here and promoted in some conferences the idea of creating roof gardens in the condominiums. The idea was very good but he almost got arrested for that, as he was considered to be communist (all the owners were supposed to own one small piece of the roof garden). The released him only after he signed that he'll never be politically active.
From some locals I heard that the government is taking good care of ther people (for example apartments in nice condominiums are provided by the government to all locals in the age of 30-40 for a very reasonable price) and that it is the only way to make the 3 main cultures of the city go along peacefully.
The part of the city I liked the most is Chinatown.

It is amazing to see that nicely restored, colorful colonial buildings surronded by the chaos typical of the Chinatowns around the world. It is a very lively and pictoresque area where you can get all kinds of food, massage, souvenirs and whatever you want.
Mixed with the Chinese, you find also Indian buildings and decorations even outside Little IndiaIt is interesting to see the many things of the colonial past that are still visible in this booming city, full of modern architecture. This is the parlament:

Singapore has great food and you can eat for a couple of S$ in food courts. It is very safe and generally clean. I can recommend youthe local specialty: the fish head ;-)

After a very nice swim in the olympic pool that my friends have in their condominium I went to one of the many parks of Singapore that goes all to Harbour view so I had a very pleasant walk. What was really amazing was the noise of the rain forest (you can see monkeys there) that was almost completely covering the noise of that very noisy city.

Night life is concentrated mostly around Clarkey quay and Robertson quay, two very nice areas on the river and very short distance one from each other.

Drinks are very expensive but it is still wortg going to the Swiss hotel in the bar on the 70th floor and have Singapore sling while looking at the view.