Our last stop in Indonesia was Jakarta. I did not love Jakarta. It was a big, polluted city and hard to get around because of the intense traffic. At times it was worse than Los Angeles traffic and brought back horrible memories of the year I commuted two hours (but only 34 miles) each way to work, from Long Beach to West L.A. I hate that kind of traffic. However, Phil and I did have some fun in Jakarta because, c’mon, we can find the fun. He writes about it here, here, and here.
Below are just a few photos from our time in Jakarta. We did have fun, as you can tell, there is good food and great art, it just wasn’t my favorite place.
I really enjoyed our two months in Indonesia. I would definitely go back and explore more of Bali, and would like to visit some of the other islands. While Jakarta was not my favorite, I liked Java as a whole, particularly Yogykarta. After leaving Jakarta, we were off to Singapore.
Singapore is an interesting place. It’s kind of like Disneyland; everything is very PG, clean, expensive, and there are a lot of rules.
Because Singapore is so expensive, we only stayed for 4 nights. We used credit card points through our IHG Hotels credit card to snag a very nice, albeit small, room in a pretty swanky hotel. Coming from Jakarta, it felt very luxurious indeed to be in a squeaky clean city, at a fancy hotel. We took the opportunity to drink some bubbly (that we bought at duty once we arrived in Singapore, highly recommended to save funds), in our robes, using the in-room stemware the hotel provides. Fancy Indeed.
Singapore is an economic powerhouse, with every major multinational bank and company having a presence. It is the richest country in Southeast Asia, with it’s trade to GDP ratio among the highest in the world (look at me being all economical). Some might point to it’s strict laws and parental-like relationship with it’s citizens as one of the reasons for it’s success.
To maintain it’s practical perfection in cleanliness, safety and general public welfare, Singapore has some of the strictest drug laws in the world, with the possession of marijuana carrying a prison sentence of up to 30 years in addition to hefty fines and caning. In fact, the government conducts random and targeted drug screenings on citizens and permanent residents. If one tests positive, it can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years and/or hefty fines. They can also test tourists arriving to the country, with the same penalties in place. I seriously doubt this happens often unless someone is visibly intoxicated, however, and we did not see anything at the airport.
One must be careful when traveling to Singapore as many common over-the-counter and prescription drugs in the U.S. may be considered to be illegal or restricted substances in Singapore. One should consult the official government website before traveling there. Often a request must be made to the ministry of health, with official documentation of the medication need (things such as ADHD medication and other psychoactive drugs for example) and approval obtained before traveling with the medication.
What’s that you said about caning now? That’s right. Much of the penalties for crimes of all types is caning or include caning. This lends itself to the strict parent form of government. A public humiliation via corporal punishment. A tour guide in Singapore, while educating us on caning, informed us that before one is caned, the government makes sure they are physically fit enough for the punishment. During the caning, they will continue to monitor heart rate, blood pressure, and other important vital signs. If someone has to be taken to the hospital during a caning, they will ensure they are healed up and healthy before they return to receive the remainder of their cane strokes. He told us this like it was such a kind thing for the government to do.
Alcohol is very expensive in Singapore (a pint at a restaurant was around $18-20 USD) to dissuade use by it’s citizenry. Smoking is banned practically everywhere. Singapore has one, huge casino. Citizens must pay $150 USD to enter the casino (tourists do not have to pay an entry fee). All of this limits the vices of citizens/workers.
There are approximately 6 million residents of Singapore, with only 3.7 million of those as citizens, the other 2.3 million are foreign workers mainly, or students. Singapore needs its workers and many work well into old age, seeing it as their duty to the government to do so. Singapore does offer nice benefits to their citizens (in addition to safety, cleanliness etc), such as affordable housing for citizens, ensuring everyone is able to own their own home.
Singapore is not a place I would want to live. You know your girl likes to party! It feels a bit too censored and sterilized for my liking. That being said, it was a lovely place to visit for a few days. I particularly enjoyed our trip to the botanical gardens, so much so that we went twice. It is also free to enjoy (hey, I didn’t say the government was all bad).
We also enjoyed a nice tour around the city:
One of my favorite things was climbing up to the roof of the National Art Gallery before it rained. We had the place almost to ourselves. The view was spectacular.
We had a good time while in Singapore and would highly recommend to anyone flying through (it is a major airline hub with flights from all over the world routing through) to stop for a few days. Phil writes more about our time in Singapore here and here, so you should check it our for a more detailed account of our experience.
Next up: Vietnam!
Jess Barrington Travels 