Singapore Master of the Hot Crazy Matrix Singapore is quite possibly the single nicest city that I have ever seen in my life It s so well organized It is unbelievably clean The transit is amazing It s busy and vibrant but not so crowded that you hate walking down the street Even the weather while definitely hot and humid is not nearly as bad as the rest of Southeast Asia it has the convenience of a constant ocean breeze Everything seems to be perfectly ordered People seem to be very happy and friendly It s phenomenally successful in the world market It s also a fascinating to consider that the city is essentially the entire country You can cross the entire city country in about an hour Visible to the north is Malaysia and visible to the south is Indonesia It is truly an amazing city period photo 642092 650776 0 center The famed Singapore Helix bridge photo br style clear both photo 641830 650776 0 center The flags of Singapore photo br style clear both My Uber driver picked me up at the airport and it took us about an hour to get to my hotel due to Friday night traffic Naturally we sparked up a conversation and I let him lead it So after writing all of those lovely things how come the bulk of his thoughts regarding Singapore were him interjecting time and again Fuck Singapore Fuck this place Fuck this fucking country I didn t prompt him for any of that or even get into anything regarding the government I would never do that being unfamiliar with a country s customs Singapore is a land of rules and they are harsh rules While the Japanese seem to have managed immaculately clean and orderly cities while still exercising a fair bit of personal freedom Singapore took a very different route There is no carrot in sight and a whole lot of sticks behind you In fact many people probably remember the famous case of an American who vandalized a car literally getting the stick If you don t know that story it happened in 1994 when I was a freshman in high school An American by the name of Michael Fay was found guilty of vandalizing vehicles in Singapore Allegedly he was actually stealing street signs but the vandalism charge was a better one to be found guilty of who knows but he pleaded guilty to the vandalism charges and was sentenced to six strokes of the cane He was forced to bend over a bar had his hands and feet restrained with irons and was publicly beaten six times over his back with a rattan cane This is one of the methods of punishment administered in both Malaysia and Singapore I think the most interesting part of this story making its way to America is that when most westerners hear or remember the story they immediately assume that Singapore is just a backwards country with brutal legal standards maybe not unlike being told people have their hands cut off for stealing in Saudi Arabia or something similar Regarding Singapore though this simply could not be further from the truth Singapore is all of the things that I wrote above It s very much a first world country with a wonderful and astute population of educated people They just also happen to have some very strict standards that they force people to live to Among those standards is that it s illegal to chew gum It s illegal to spit at least in public Smoking restrictions are extremely strict There are those laws that most countries have but Singapore just happens to take very seriously such as littering jaywalking and etc The city is lined with signs instructing you what you cannot do and in most cases what happens if you re caught doing whatever you re told not to do The fines you ll pay are generally spelled out rather clearly Fishing in an unauthorized spot for example will net you an instant 3000 SD fine about 2 200 USD Smoking in an unauthorized spot even outside will net you an instant 500 SD fine about 365 USD photo 641994 650776 0 center Looking up at the ceiling in a Hindu temple photo br style clear both photo 641976 650776 0 center Outside of the Masjid Sultan Mosque photo br style clear both Strongest of all of these rules however is with respect to drugs While marijuana is classified differently in this case all other drugs including ecstasy cocaine methamphetamine opium and heroin are punishable by death That s right death If you are caught with even a very small amount of any of these drugs though I believe there IS actually a minimum weight it s just very small you will face execution The country reminds its citizens of this in many different ways Not only will you be executed but you will be hanged So my Uber driver is not a fan of his country because as a person who doesn t make a ton of money he is in the class of people that simply cannot pay their way out of the fines or even escape death His illustration of the country is the same thing that happens in all countries that issue fines for relatively trivial matters If you have the money it really doesn t matter to you since it s a regressive system If you don t you re in a lot of trouble again because it s a regressive system For him smoking in the wrong place or getting caught randomly spitting could financially devastate him That all said the system does seem to work The country seems to maintain its order It truly is clean because nobody is going to litter the penalties are just too steep for most people and they don t mess around with enforcement If you get caught you are going to be found guilty and held accountable of the offense So that s the spin to Singapore that I found most interesting It s a gorgeous clean vibrant fast paced metropolis with a wonderful mix of people races and languages It s just not a place where you want to break the law the stick is just too harsh in most every case I should also mention that Singapore has some of the best food in all of Southeast Asia Since the country is such a blend of cultures albeit predominantly Chinese there are specific subcultures all over the city that have set up Hawker Centers areas that sell street food on the cheap Chinatown Little India etc all have some of the most amazing food I ve ever had and it s all relatively cheap probably 3 6 SGD photo 641709 650776 0 center Wan Shan and I eating some BBQ stingray and an assortment of vegetables photo br style clear both photo 641787 650776 0 center Picking out the best durian for my first go at eating one While most westerners think that they smell terribly and don t care for the taste I found the smell appealing and the taste delicious photo br style clear both