The landing gears of the massive Qatari plane touch and immediately smoke up on the runway of Changi airport, and it suddenly hits me that I am VERY far from home. My phone time resets forward 14 hours, and I begin to question if I have jetlag or not. Definitely did, but I wasn’t going to let it be a problem. We’re in Singapore….
The group is immediately greeted by an extremely friendly tour guide and a pleasant indoor smell of plants and humidity that radiate from the HSBC water vortex. We take a few hours to tour the airport and all of its amenities. It certainly is fair to be ranked the best airport in the world.
We then began our first week in Singapore. I am consistently amazed by the cleanliness of the entire city, the highly developed infrastructure, and the ease of transportation across all areas. Traffic in Singapore is heavily controlled by the government. The tour guide informed us that cars sell for about 5x the price in the US and driver’s licenses cost upwards of $75k USD.
These factors have caused Singaporeans to be encouraged to use public transportation and the subway system is exponentially nicer than any system I have seen in the US. I have seen nearly no police in the city; however, there are hundreds of cameras and visibility everywhere that I walk. These cameras are accompanied by signs that state how much a fine could be for doing something as simple as eating on the subway, an activity that seems commonplace in the US.
The variety and health of food available have been astonishing. Hawker markets offer boba teas for $1.50 US and bowls of spicy fried chicken and ramen go for $3 US and are very high quality. There is next to no obesity and everyone, regardless of age, appears to be in very good shape.
I can’t wait to continue sightseeing and learn more about the business environment.
