Singapore – ENGINEERRUS
As soon as we arrived at the airport in Singapore, we realized we were in a country leaps and bounds ahead of India. It took until we were riding the MRT staring at the magazine across from us, Singapore’s subway system, to realize we were in a country that was also leaps and bounds ahead of the USA in many ways.
In New York, you brace yourself for a descent into the warm, grimy depths of an ancient station. In Singapore, being underground is as spotless, bright, and calm as being above ground in the immaculate city. In Boston, visitors fumble for change to buy a clunky token in order to pass through the clunkier turnstyle, hoping they don’t have to take the Orange line. In Singapore, visitors pick up an EZ-link card valid on buses and trains to wave in front of the automated entry, and all the stops appear equally new and shiny. In Washington, D.C., we try to forget the 1 1/2 hours we spent waiting for a train to appear due to nighttime construction. In Singapore, construction is ongoing 24 hours a day, but the trains run continuously at worst every 7 minutes with monitors telling you when the next train will arrive. Also, the stations are each numbered along their line with gaps to allow for the seamless addition of future stations.
Above ground, Singapore is equally efficient and manufactured. The wide, clean, tree-lined streets, scattered multi-cultural populace, and loads of brand-new shiny buildings give you the feeling you’ve entered a Disney movie. Combined with delicious international cuisine, a pristine resort island, and countless glowing shopping malls, everything seems to be taken care of between Singapore’s nanny government and private enterprise. This well-oiled money-making machine is as predictable as the ending of a Disney movie. We all like to be surprised sometimes, though.
Now we’re in the jungles of Malaysia spending time with giant caterpillars, spiders, and leeches, but still leaps and bounds ahead of India.
Tags: Singapore
Adam
While you’ve been gone, Boston has moved into the 20th century. No more tokens! You get a pass to tap against a black thingy and poof! Gates open. Still worlds away from Singapore. I hope you guys are having a fantastic time!
Jessica
Hi Cara and Adam:
Yes, we now have the “Charlie Card” in place of those clunky tokens. I guess it was taken from the song Charlie and the MTA. The fares went up. He couldn’t get off the MTA and rode forever beneath the streets of Boston.
Sounds like Canada’s underground. Extremely clean and runs on time.
We miss you and envy your trip of a lifetime.
Love
Uncle John and Aunt Carol
Hi guys–
You’re half right. This time of year, New York’s subway stations may be grimy, but they’re not so much warm. In fact the city is finally cold after unseasonably balmly couple of months. There was snow on the ground this morning. (The headline of the latest Onion is “Northeast Stunned By Freak January Snowfall”: “‘I moved up here to get away from this kind of weather,’ said Bangor, ME resident Richard Horner, who had to retrieve his sweater from his attic.”)
Hard to believe you’re in the jungle when you could be in Connecticut putting on your fuzzy slippers and getting ready to watch Superbowl commercials.
Nicole
yay leeches.