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FARFRUMWURKEN
Today was our last in Thailand. It was a good stay and we'll likely return here one day to spend a little more time in this interesting part of the world. The people here are so much more caring, they smile and seem genuinely interested in you as opposed to those in HK.
It was breakfast as usual and waiting for Mr. Daj to arrive at the hotel at the scheduled meeting time of 10:00 a.m. We figured about an hour so we'd planned to get there good and early just in case there was problems, but everything went smooth. For anyone heading to Phuket, I recommend that you book some time with Mr. Daj and his 9-passenger Toyota van. While his English takes a good ear, you won't get a more committed guy and his prices are unbeatable. He can be reached by email at [email protected]. Even the flight on Silk Air (Singapore's Discount Airline) went fine. It was our first time so everything was new to us, the good part is that EVERYTHING in the airport is in ENGLISH only. It's a great airport and very, very organized. We breezed through Immigration and our bags were one of the first ones on the carousel.
According to the information office, they recommended taxi as the best way (considering our luggage) to get into the city center and our hotel, The Carlton. From the moment we left the airport we knew we were in a great city. Not one derelict building, no scooters or motorcycles, just BMW's, Lambo's and Ferrari's.
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City and the Red Dot, it's a global city in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state. It lies just one degree (137 km's) north of the equator so they have NO seasons.
In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company but they gained independence from Britian in 1963.
Singapore ranks high on its national social policies, leading Asia and 11th globally, on the Human Development Index noting that 90% of citizens own their own home and has one of the highest per capita incomes. There are 5.5 million residents in Singapore with English the main spoken language. There are quite a few dont's in Singapore. Don't do Drugs - the charge here is death. Don't spit on the ground - Don't chew gum unless you have a doctor's prescription, in fact the selling of gum in Singapore is illegal. Don't forget to flush in a public toilet - the fine is $150.00S. Don't litter, it's a $1,000 fine. Don't munch on the cities MRT transit system or even pop a candy in your mouth or you could subject yourself to a $500 fine. Spiting on the street, this can put you in jail or a big fine.
We checked in fine, our hotel is right in the center of the main downtown core so we're close to everything. We hooked up with Wendy and Ian and went across to the Raffles Center for a nice dinner. We were all a bit bushed so we called it and early night and we'll get going tomorrow exploring Singapore.
It was breakfast as usual and waiting for Mr. Daj to arrive at the hotel at the scheduled meeting time of 10:00 a.m. We figured about an hour so we'd planned to get there good and early just in case there was problems, but everything went smooth. For anyone heading to Phuket, I recommend that you book some time with Mr. Daj and his 9-passenger Toyota van. While his English takes a good ear, you won't get a more committed guy and his prices are unbeatable. He can be reached by email at [email protected]. Even the flight on Silk Air (Singapore's Discount Airline) went fine. It was our first time so everything was new to us, the good part is that EVERYTHING in the airport is in ENGLISH only. It's a great airport and very, very organized. We breezed through Immigration and our bags were one of the first ones on the carousel.
According to the information office, they recommended taxi as the best way (considering our luggage) to get into the city center and our hotel, The Carlton. From the moment we left the airport we knew we were in a great city. Not one derelict building, no scooters or motorcycles, just BMW's, Lambo's and Ferrari's.
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City and the Red Dot, it's a global city in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state. It lies just one degree (137 km's) north of the equator so they have NO seasons.
In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company but they gained independence from Britian in 1963.
Singapore ranks high on its national social policies, leading Asia and 11th globally, on the Human Development Index noting that 90% of citizens own their own home and has one of the highest per capita incomes. There are 5.5 million residents in Singapore with English the main spoken language. There are quite a few dont's in Singapore. Don't do Drugs - the charge here is death. Don't spit on the ground - Don't chew gum unless you have a doctor's prescription, in fact the selling of gum in Singapore is illegal. Don't forget to flush in a public toilet - the fine is $150.00S. Don't litter, it's a $1,000 fine. Don't munch on the cities MRT transit system or even pop a candy in your mouth or you could subject yourself to a $500 fine. Spiting on the street, this can put you in jail or a big fine.
We checked in fine, our hotel is right in the center of the main downtown core so we're close to everything. We hooked up with Wendy and Ian and went across to the Raffles Center for a nice dinner. We were all a bit bushed so we called it and early night and we'll get going tomorrow exploring Singapore.
- comments
Liz Rosa Glad to hear things are going well. I think we North Americans could use some of Singapore's "don'ts"! Liz