blogging from singapore

i like singapore's buildings. very modern. especially the housing buildings. very different from philippines. very colorful. but when you look inside, some can be said to have seen better days. the one i stayed in is a one floor flat with four rooms, a living room area with good lighting, and spacious kitchen and comfort room! that's more like it! but when you reach the elevator, it's obviously old and i won't be surprised when i see little creatures crawling there.











i like singapore's transport system. i like the mrt which links themselves together and i very much like the card system where you just tap in and tap out the card when you use the mrt and the bus. how convenient is that! no going through your purse for quick change! i truly hope we can adapt that here in the philippines.

i like singapore's riverbanks. it's clean and i like it that they've used it to their advantage. they have river ferry tours and the banks are full of cool places to see: the fullerton hotel, clarke quay, boat quay. when i was walking along the riverbank, i had hoped that our government had the foresight to do this and not let factories congest the riverbanks. one they give a bleary look to the river and second, they pollute the river!

i like the cars in singapore. new models of different makes. cool!

i like their parks.


BUT liking all these doesn't mean that Singapore is better than the Philippines.

i think that singapore was just lucky to have progressive thinkers for their past leaders (a.k.a. "conquerors"), unlike us who had spanish, japanese and americans for past "role models." i think these countries were just there to exploit what we had. but that was years, centuries ago and i can't blame them for what has become of us today (that is another long story). but the root is sometimes deeper than we think. enough of this, or i'd go on discussing history and our politicians and i might not stop. suffice it to say that singapore has just been very lucky in my opinion.

if i liked several things in singapore, there are also some things i don't like.

i don't like little india. too crowded. too noisy. too warm... i don't like some of the indians i was with when i toured sentosa. they are very rude. one lady (should i really call her a lady?) kept pushing and pushing me at the line when she can see that there was nowhere to go! some even cut you in the line! what was that?!

i don't like the fact that i don't understand much of what is being said by most people when they speak english.

i especially don't like the heat. it's what you call 'scorching' heat. and i don't like the fact that my feet got really dark and dirty after a day's walk around the marina. it just goes on to say that the place is not as clean as they want it known to be.


AND there are things we do better.

WE, even those of us tone-deaf, sing better than most of the ones i heard. when i went to church sunday, the choir was really boring. it was a wonder i was awake the whole time. what keeps popping to my head is that the choir better go to mass in the philippines and see the difference!

the bars are not so hot, either. there may be some who dance really well but it was actually boring. the music selection was a little tame. i don't know about the other bars but this one i went to was pretty, well... boring.

the dolphin show at ocean adventure is better than the one in sentosa. the dolphins could do better tricks!

of course, since i'm bias over this, the selection of food is better in pinas. although i'll give it to them, they have a few ice cream shops that have my favorite ice cream flavor, choco-mints!

BUT from this experience, i have seen that there is still a lot to improve in my country but there are also a lot of things that one should be proud of of their own country. truly, there's no better place than home. after this three-day trip, i was ready to go home...