Visiting Singapore

My travels outside Bangkok began with a short trip to Singapore, the city/country. Singapore's existance has always befuddled me a little bit. Why does a country exist that is the size of a single city? Why didn't the nearest country(Malaysia) just absorb them at some point in history? Well it turns out my visit to Singapore has enlightened me with an answer, which I will now share with the world.

Apparently Singapore was previously a city in Malaysia about 70 years ago. Upon forming the Modern Malaysian governement, which was a federation of states, the economic strength of Singapore would have given it too much power in the federation, and furthermore, the predominantly ethnic Chinese population compounded the Malaysian disdain for Singaporean influence. Thus they were exiled. I was told a few tales of the conflicts that followed. Essentially, Malaysia wanted Singapore to rejoin on their own terms, but Singapore instead reached out to other global powers and thus began the strong western and Chinese influence within Singaporean culture alongside an almost absent Malaysian heritage.

Walking around Singapore, you get a feeling of a new sparkling city with construction and new housing and business building developments around every corner. Coming from Bangkok, it was almost shocking to see everyone dressed as though they were walking the streets of New York City. In fact, because of their sense of fashion combined with the equatorial climate(read hot and occasionally rainy) of the city, Singapore architecture provides for plenty of shaded walkways at a minimum, and long stretches of connected indoor shopping complexes. In the evenings, the waterfront marinas are well developed with shopping areas, bars, restaurants, cafes, and open grassy spaces for enjoying the cool tropical breeze. The city has ethnic pockets housing their predominant ethnic populations, ie. Little India, Chinatown, etc. There is plenty of food from almost every part of asia represented in their food markets, and those with a taste for variety certainly won't ever be bored here.

However, don't let me paint too positive a picture here. The city has been completely sterilized of all its cultural heritage, and in its place is a city that only looks towards the future. It is a the epitome of modern planned urbanization. Outside of eating, sleeping, and working, the only real recreation is shopping and alchohol. However, the taxes on alchohol makes a budweiser or similarly classed beer cost $14(USD).

One highlight of my trip, and somewhat refreshing to see was my visit to "Evolve MMA" (http:www.evolvemma.com). Here was our "brother gym" in another country, so I had to visit and see how there were. If you follow the link, you'll see that their facilities are magnificent. Some parts even look like a nightclub. Looking at their wall of trainers, they have some living Muay Thai legends instructing at this gym under the Sityodtong name. Unfortunately, they couldn't squeeze me in for an introductory lesson while I was there, but I did get to sit in on one of their classes. Especially after coming from Thailand, it was refreshing to see some skill in the hobbiest/amateur arena even at a gym with such vetted instructors. It was defintely a cool visit and I'll have to keep an eye out for fighters coming out of Singapore in the future to see the quality of their training.