My first little learning experience came when I first got into my room. I first came into my room and tried to turn on the light and nothing. I figured the light was burned out and I tried another with no success. I then tried the bathroom light, the tv and still nothing. I was starting to think something was wrong with my room so I called the front desk. It turns out that in order to save energy here they have this little thing by the door of each room. You have to slide your room key into it to activate the power for your room. Not only that but you have to leave a key in it at all times in order for the AC to run while you are gone. Luckily I have 2 keys so I just leave one in the slot all the time or when I came back to my room it would be really hot and stuffy. You can't open the windows either which I guess is for the same reason. I would be nice to get some fresh air once in a while.
Another intersting thing about Singapore is that most people don't have cars. There are a couple of million people here so it is heavily populated but there aren't as many roads as back in the US. They don't want things to get overly congested here so they place a heavy tax on cars. If a car normally cost 30k in the US they add a 150% tax. So that car would cost you 75k grand to buy and after 10 years they add on some other hefty tax. Most families only own 1 car. When I say family I don't mean a husband, wife, and their kids, I mean the entire family. I guess it makes some sense because most families have several generations living in the same household. Women do not leave home until they get married and then they move into the house that their husband has with his family. Housing here is actually very expensive so people generally can't afford to live on their own. Because of all this public transportation is very good here. Lots of buses, a bart like train, and cabs everywhere. We have been taking cabs a lot and they are really pretty cheap so it is nice. Overall I haven't found it to be cheap here at all. Things are really about the same as in the US. A lot of people I have talked to frequently travel to other contries that are close like Vietnam and Thailand. They are supposed to be really cheap. Some of the guys I met today said you can go to Thailand for the weekend and after the flight you can have a very nice weekend and only spend $70 US for food, hotel, and everything. In Singapore it seems a lot more modern than what I picture many of the smaller Asian countries to be. This is the week of some big Indian religious holiday so I am hoping we can get to a part of town called little india. We drove by today in a cab and it was very brightly decorated. It is supposed to be called the festival of the lights and I hear that it looks pretty neat at night.
There seems to be one main freeway type of road that runs down the middle of Singapore. Is very much like the freeways at home and 3 lanes each way. Much like in the US, there is a divider running down the middle with lots of plants and trees. In the middle of one long stretch all the plants and bushes are in these large plastic pots rather then planted in the ground. The reason for this is so they can be moved if needed to convert in the freeway into a big military landing strip. Hopefully that doesn't happen while I am here.;)
All the cab drivers we have had so far seem to listen to American music. It is that easy listening kind of music that you hear at the dentists office. The odd thing is that none of the music seems to be sung by the original artists. I don't know why but they are all cover songs that are done by artists that kinda sound like the original artist.
All the cab drivers are men and usually older men. The people here refer to them as uncle. It is considered a sign of respect. They also call the older women you see in stores or in housekeeping aunt for the same reason.
Almost everyone I have encountered here speaks english, some of the not very good but at least you can communicate with them. I have heard that this isn't the case in most of the other asian countries.
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