Arriving in Singapore

Photos are here from my first day in Singapore.

So far I've arrived, Alec has shown me to his place and then I've wandered round the neighbourhood a bit. The shopping centre seemed well-stocked, the beach was beautiful with all sorts of birdsong I had never heard before, and the street Alec sent me to seemed pretty lively. I can just picture the bay full of pirate ships (which of course it still is, just not ones with sails and mainbraces and so on) and little rowboats heading to shore to hit the bars and the brothels. If Jack Sparrow ever insinuates that I've clearly never been to Singapore, I know different already.

Singapore doesn't feel like that today though, it's very modern, very civilised. A local crime prevention slogan says that even though there's no crime, that doesn't mean there's no work to be done - "Zero crime doesn't mean no crime!". Which is a new concept for me. Drug smuggling carries the death sentence. By hanging. I'm grateful to the guys at the rectory for not planting anything in my luggage "for a laugh". Chewing gum on the street carries a substantial fine. But the streets are clean, the people are at ease all the time, seemingly, so maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Oh, and the weather. It's just a wall of damp heat! It's incredible! I don't know what to do with myself! I expect I'll get over it soon though. More soon.