"Do you want to come to the Flirting Point with me?"

Singapore is a tiny country, located on some islands south of Peninsular Malaysia. The country is known as one of the four Asian Tigers, and it is one of the largest transport and business hubs in South East Asia. This is very evident in the city picture, as the business area is very large, and practically the whole city's coastline is covered by the vast harbors.

When we got off the bus, we were close to Little India, and that was where we wanted to stay. Little India is backpacker central, and the cheapest accommodation is available there. Notice the "cheapEST". Singapore is very expensive compared to the rest of South East Asia. So after a couple months through low cost countries, the weekend fee of $ 20 SGD for a bed in a 12-bed dorm was a lot. The name of the place was Footprint, and it was alright, but nothing special. The common room was well equipped with a large flat screen TV and a small kitchen corner. The breakfast was included. But as everywhere else outside of Norway, I have not found real breakfast. All I get in hostels is white bread and some kind of jelly. They actually had milk at Footprint. Even though it was warm, it was really good to have milk again, and having it for breakfast started a craving for it, so when out walking later on the day, I ended up buying milk instead of water.

Little India looks like any other area without skyscrapers, but the population is mostly Indian, and all restaurants play Bollywood music so loud that no matter where you are walking, you know you are still inside of Little India. Another thing I believe is more normal in India that I had not seen that often on my trip so far, was the "truck-markets". Everywhere there were big trucks driving around with second hand goods in the back, trying to sell it to the engaged crowds that surrounded the rear doors. If I had needed an old VCR, a worn out couch, or maybe a pair of running shoes, this is the place I would get it. I did not eat much Indian food while I stayed here, but looked up the food courts instead. Even in the more expensive districts there were food courts selling affordable meals. Most of them had a buffet-style menu, where you pointed at what you wanted, and got charged for set plates. Rice, two vegetable dishes and one meat/chicken/pork dish was about $3.5 SGD. Eating in any normal restaurant would have been more than $12 SGD. The food is good, and there are a lot of interesting people to look at.

Matt and I spent most of the days walking around in the city, but there was really not that much going on, so we ended up finding a few spots where we could just hang out. One of our favorite places was by the channel in front of the largest skyscrapers. We would buy some beer there, and then just sit down and watch the tourist boats and the people go by.

There are a few more things to see in Singapore than just the city, but we did really not need to go to a crowded beach, or a zoo. So we ended up sticking around the waterfront, just relaxing. One time we were walking along the docks, looking at the expensive restaurants, and just before we were about to head back into town, we walked into a TV-channels advertisement campaign. "If today is your last day, who will you say; I love you, to?" They provided the phone and let you call while they were filming. If they got 500 people to do this, some company was donating a lot of money to a charity. I called my mom, and did not even think about the time difference, but I realized that it was not too early in the morning, since she picked up.

When it comes to language, Singapore is quite boring. I just realized that the time where I could not understand anything of what the locals said was over. Thailand was the first country where I have not been in need of learning any words in the local language, as they all spoke enough English. Singapore, Australia, Fiji, the US, and South America will all be communicateable in English and Spanish. From here and on, there will for sure be a lot of misunderstandings, but the basics should be covered in the above-mentioned languages. In some ways this is a relief, now I will know what I am ordering in a restaurant, I will to some extent understand what people around me are talking about, and I will be able to read street signs and newspapers. The down side will be that I miss out on the challenge of trying to get what I want in a shop where no one understands a single word of what I am saying. The feeling I have learned to experience in Asia, when accomplishing just that, has been fantastic.

Singapore used to belong to the British East India Company, and Thomas Stamford Raffles is credited for founding the modern city of Singapore, as a trading post for the British Empire. There is a statue of him in the city, and all over the city you can find traces of the immigrants role in Singapore. Looking at museums, they have placards saying who donated money to open them, and it is evident that people from all over the world have been involved. Today more than 35 %, some say even 40 % of the population in Singapore is foreigners. The islands have been under ownership of many nations, and that is maybe why this port, in addition to it's strategic location, has made it to the major trading hub it is. The Malay, the British and the Japanese all have solid ties to Singapore, although, Japan was excluded from using the harbors for a long time. During World War II the Japanese attacked the city, and defeat the British in less than a week. A lot of people in the Chinese community were killed and many Chinese fled.

There are many nice bridges crossing the channel, and there are a few large parks in Singapore. In one of them there were people playing cricket. This sport I have never understood the purpose of. The games are never ending and people watching do not seem that entertained. Matt and I watched for a while, before trying to find some cold place to cool down. Singapore was very hot at the time we were there, and most of the locals kept complaining about the heat.

What turned out to be the most fun place to hang out in Singapore was the "Flirting Point". Right outside one of the museums they had put up four benches surrounding a large sign saying "Flirting Point". The signs were mounted on a triangle, so you could read it from any direction. We decided to have some fun here, and I stopped the first girl I could see, looked deep into her eyes, and asked: "Do you want to come to the flirting point with me?" She was a very relaxed person for being Asian, and she said yes. She was walking around with a blue balloon, and we had her friend take a photo of us. Then Matt and I took a couple photos there as well. People were looking from everywhere. It was a lot of fun, and every time we walked by I would sit down, gesturing at people walking by. One time a large group of Singaporean students was hanging out there, and we decided to flirt with all of them. This place was really fun. Such an icebreaker in a tight up and serious business oriented city.

My second night I was going to sleep at the airport. Singapore Changi Airport is supposed to be the best airport in the world. I wanted to check it out, and I would also save about $17 SGD. The train tickets were only $1. 50 one-way. I left my big backpack with Matt, and headed out to the metro station with my small one. I got there around 11:30 PM, and it turned out that the last train left at 11: 20 PM. In what huge business hub of a city does the train to the airport stop going during the night? This came as a shock to me, and I could just not get my head around it. I ended up walking back to the hostel and sleep in a chair. Before I went to sleep I talked to some Japanese girls, and that turned out to be very lucky for them. They were planning on taking the train to the airport early in the morning, about an hour before it started running. They would never have made it if they had not run into me.

One of the Japanese girls was talking to a Korean guy, and this turned out to be a very funny conversation. They both spoke English, but with such bad accents that they did not understand each other at all. I ended up having to translate what they said to each other. This is not special for these two nations, but rather a general rule when it comes to Asians and language skills. It is a lot of fun listening to them trying to communicate, always very confident that their own English is very good, getting upset by the other's "lack of understanding". Before I went to sleep I watched "Hotel Rwanda". That movie is portraying such a horrible story. And after traveling in Malaysia and Singapore, two nations with more multicultural presence than most other countries I have visited, seeing such hate felt wrong, and miles away.

The cars in Singapore surprised me a lot. There were almost no fancy cars there. I would expect Singapore, being a more or less tax-free country with a lot of rich businessmen to have a lot of Bentleys rolling around. My only guess on why it is not is that so many of the people who are there are only on short stays, working for companies overseas. With that said, I did actually love the cars in Singapore. There were Mini Coopers everywhere, and even quite a few Morris Minis also. The old ones are remaining from the post war period of British rule. Since Singapore is tax-free in many sectors, including electronics, I was surprised to find that prices were inflated to levels higher than in the US.

I stayed in touch with my new friends around Sydney, Paul (Met him in Hanoi and traveled with him for one month) and Jiby (Met him in Hanoi and went to Ha Long Bay together). I was looking forward to meeting them again when I got to kangaroo-land.