More Like 'Singariche'

The best way I can describe Singapore is basically as a very luxurious retirement community. It's warm. It's clean. It's well-organized. There are plenty of laws to keep the young'uns from getting out of hand, cheap and cautiously spicy Asian food, and non-threatening English-speaking minorities.

Also there are shopping malls everywhere. If there's a global recession on, you wouldn't know it from Singapore. The shopping, dining, and construction is blazing ahead at a rate that makes HCMC look quiet and indecisive.

Setnoas: A kitschy little island to the south of Singapore proper, with theme rides and beaches and aquariums and other stuff for children and their grandparents.

The Esplanade: A durian-shaped performing arts center (and shopping mall, of course) right on the bay.

Singapore Art Museum: A charming modern-art museum with some rather bizarre exhibits, such as a video of a Vietnamese artist cutting up dozens of pieces of pork, putting them into glass boxes and placing said boxes on the subway escalators.

Sir Raffles believed that ethnic groups should each have their own little enclaves, and so:

Little India
Chinatown
The Colonial District
The Arab Quarter

All pretty much what you'd imagine them to be, with the appropriate restaurants, shops and temples.

Then I was late for my flight and had to spend all day in the airport. I suppose you could argue most of Singapore is basically an airport mall, but it still wasn't fun...

Oh, and the Merlion! Half fish, half lion, it's the national symbol of the city-state which in an odd way manages to represent the dual East-West nature of Singapore itself, or so I just made up.