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| The team |
We'd booked to fly on Air Asia, a Malay airline that recently was recognised as being the biggest low cost airline in the region. Low cost it was but it was also very efficient. New planes. Pleasant staff. And if you wanted, you could get chicken rice on board for an extra 12 ringgit. Beat that EasyJet.
All this has come at a time when climate change is front and centre on almost every consciousness... in the West maybe, but not in the East. Planes and in particular private jets are getting a slating for their contribution to climate change but the reality in the East is that India is building more than 100 new airports, China is busily creating dozens of new airport hubs in China to assist in the massive increase in new tourists from the region. Same in Korea, Japan, you name it. Everyone now wants to travel and travel by air. Hence Air Asia's amazing growth trajectory.
As for Singapore, it is pretty amazing what this city state has done in pretty much only one generation. It used to be a swamp in the main but today 25% of the landmass is reclaimed and swamp is nowhere to be seen. It always was an entrepôt of great importance due to its geographic location, and today it is the same. Last time we visited, we went for a cocktail at the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel to look at the downtown concrete jungle on the one side and then the thousands (really) of ships at anchor waiting to come into the harbour. All lined up.
As with shipping, ditto airport. Changi Airport has 5 terminals and is building a 6th to accommodate all the regional air traffic. Singapore Airlines of course is HQ'd here but it again is a major hub to everywhere. Direct flight to New York is only 18 hours!
In addition to the new 6th terminal is a new facility/building/structure that just opened called The Jewel. It is a shopping mall and restaurant complex with a huge waterfall in the middle (man made of course) that seems to be something to do when you have a layover at the airport. It was jammed with people when we went. Impressive for sure but I couldn't really figure out the point of it all. But Singapore has succeeded because it plans, takes big steps and then makes them work.
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| In The Jewel |
What Singapore does it seems to me is to build massive Fields of Dreams and then successfully manages them. The Marina Bay Sands complex for example includes the Gardens on the Bay with the triffid like metal trees and high level walkways that have become a major tourist attraction in their own right. We went and I couldn't figure why I'd want to come here rather than walk out into a real jungle then realised that much of it was air conditioned, there were few bugs and other deadly critters, no chance of getting mud on your shoes, and within a short stroll in any direction was any amount of food and drink that a heart could desire. So jungle light then.
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| The weird trees at Gardens on the Bay |
Then there's Sentosa Island. Again this used to be a scrubby, swampy little island. Now its like Hilton Head in South Carolina or Marco Island in Florida. Or Las Vegas. Shopping malls, fantastic public transport (OK everywhere has fantastic public transport in Singapore), theme parks, casinos, shuttle buses, beaches, dozens of resorts, marinas and condos that foreigners can buy (so they are eye wateringly expensive). Everything planned down to the last detail. Beach is not great but I guess all that can be done, with the view out to sea being over the shipping parking lot I mentioned earlier.
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| The container ship parking lot in the background |
Singapore is no longer just an entrepôt, it has become a destination in its own right. It has worked too as there were tons of tourists... mostly westerners. Working against regional tourism is the fact that Singapore is relatively very expensive, but not for westerners. So Singapore really is.... Asia light. It is a destination for westerners looking for an Asian experience. But not too much of one. Rather like Hong Kong.
That is the helicopter view though for one of our tennis buddies had contacted a Singapore tennis friend to hook us up with some tennis and entertainment around the tournament. In addition to it being very kind and fun, it was informative too enabling us to peek under the hood so to speak to see how Singaporeans actually lived.
They do very well indeed!
One guy that we met turned out to be an airline pilot and had rearranged his long haul flight to play in the tournament. He was a very strong player. As it turned out on one of the days we were waiting for our friend to pick us up and we could hear this low rumbling roar sound (we were in a car park) and this beautiful, low slung, gleaming sports car approached with me thinking 'Wow' when it stopped, the window rolled down and there was the airline pilot who asked if we needed a lift. He pulled away with a very jaunty vroom.
Beyond that though are of course very many similarities with the rest of Malaysia. Great local food, but not as great as the mainland. Western food is better though. Because of the shortage of land, clubs go up not out. The tournament was played at a swimming club which had 3 tennis courts on the 6th storey roof. The clubs really are home from home for the members though as they are packed all day. This club had 4 pools including a 50 metre lap pool in its main facility and another in the annexe across the road.
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| At least I wasn't foot faulting |
I felt that we had just peeked a little into the real workings of Singapore not just the superficial aspects of the city state.
Every day we learn a little more.
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