Singapore: The Disneyland of SE Asia

We took a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. This time, all highways, all straight lines, so no travel sickness for V.

The visual journey was deceptive. You cross a bridge, go through customs, and come out the other side. The road quality doesn’t really change (unlike, say, driving from Germany to Switzerland, where you can see the border in asphalt quality and the Swiss side is pristine), and the skyscrapers seem smaller than in KL (though not necessarily less beautiful, the skyline is still pretty cool, see more photos here).

In other words, there’s no visual indicator that tells you that GDP per capita has just increased 7x.

Tangent: Looking at the top rows of a GDP per capita table is a mind-bending exercise. It’s a combination of “eh, what the hell do they do”, “ah, tax haven” (hello Ireland), and oil/gas. Singapore, for me, fell into the “what the hell do they do” category.

Something you probably didn’t know

Round 3, and you’ve probably realized I assume you don’t know things that I don’t know, which is either insulting or a reflection of the obscurity of the info shared. Or both. Take your pick.

Where does Singapore sit in the GDP per capita rankings? In absolute terms, 10th, and considering purchasing power parity, 2nd. So, why is Singapore so loaded? Natural resources? Nope. Tax haven? Also not really, though tax rates are pretty low. So what is it? Well, turns out a lot of different things, but the port is a big part of it. Pretty much everything being shipped from China or Japan to India, Africa, the Middle East and Europe stops in Singapore. Chaching! “Wholesale trade” and “Transport/storage” account for nearly 30% of the economy, which while huge, also means the economic engine isn’t a one-trick pony. Financial services accounts for almost 15%, and surprisingly, manufacturing for 20%, of which about half is electronics and semiconductors. Singapore accounts for about 10% of global semiconductor production and 20% of related equipment. Would never have guessed (obviously).

About Singapore itself

Singapore is a nation-state of about 6 million people packed into an island that is smaller than the geographical area of the city of Berlin. It was “founded” by, you guessed it, the Brits, who bribed a Malay Sultan’s son with a sultancy and some cash in turn for the land. The Brits then followed their George Town playbook from a few decades earlier by developing the port, opening it up to all comers, and undercutting the nearby Dutch ports by not charging fees or taxes (the same thing that countries, states, and cities do while competing for things like large manufacturing facilities or a new headquarters of a company like Amazon, despite the deals generally being net negative for the respective geography. Cool).It worked, kickstarting the development towards the wealthy city it is today.

And what do they do with all that wealth? For a change, they actually properly invest in the city’s infrastructure and well-being. Unlike Leonardo di Caprio who just trades in girlfriends when they may start showing signs of age (this graph is hilarious, thanks V), or the USA which only paints over the cracks of age, the Singapore government actually fixes the cracks and then gives things a new paint job. Like a face lift and/or really good plastic surgery, which is a pretty decent metaphor, as the result is something which is a new-looking old thing and has had all the charm which comes with showing signs of wear and tear polished away. Nice, pretty, clean, but feels artificial and soulless, like an amusement park of a city.

Still, we enjoyed our time there, and though we much preferred Bangkok, if we were given the chance to spend a year in Singapore, it’s fairly easy to imagine doing so, even if the awful cycling (the entire island is city/suburbs), would almost be a dealbreaker for me. Though opportunities to take more photos like this more than make up for it (sorry V)!

Goodbye Southeast Asia

The worst part of Singapore is that it signals the end of our travels with Dylan and Kelcie as well as the end of our SE Asia journey, both of which we’ve enjoyed extensively. Dyl and Kelc were fantastic travel partners, always up for shenanigans and always in a good mood. And SE Asia was a constant “ooh, what’s that gonna be like, what are all the delicious new things we can eat, what new cultural quirks will we see, what unforeseen challenges will we face?” which, particularly for Vera (I’ll still get this in South & Central America), has also come to an end. As we head off for Australia and New Zealand, we trade that kind of excitement for others, namely seeing other old friends and experiencing some natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef. Life is tough!