Singapore

The last country on our whirlwind Asia tour was Singapore. Singapore is actually a City-State; city, county, state, and country all rolled into one. English is the primary language and most folks are of Chinese dissent.

You've probably heard stories regarding all of the strict laws on littering in Singapore. Well, they are all true. Talk about Big Brother! For your first littering offense you are immediately fined $200 (there are plain-clothes cops walking around everywhere), by your fourth offense you are fined $800 with 8 hours of community service cleaning up. While cleaning you have to wear a shirt that says "I am a litterbug" and a camera crew comes and films you and puts you on Singapore television. You are allowed to chew gum, but not buy or sell it.

There is no buying or selling of porn. While on the internet in my hotel I tried going to Facebook and instead got a page saying "This website is not permitted by the IT department. Your computer's internet history is being tracked. No porn surfing allowed. Such actions will be referred to the management." Can you believe that? But oddly enough prostitution is legal.

Then there is the caning. Punishment for breaking some laws is a caning across your back. The cane is dipped in horse urine and shards of broken glass. The cane strikes you horizontally across the back, the last cane strikes you on the butt so every time you sit down the wound opens again. It is said that the cane markings never heal properly.

But for carrying drugs of any kind? Death by hanging.

I guess you can say they get results. Singapore is a very clean place and we had a lot of fun there.




I woke up in Singapore at 5 AM Sunday morning, flew seven hours to Tokyo, layover for an hour, then flew 10 hours back home to L.A. and arrived at 11 AM Sunday morning. My Sunday is going to last like 40 hrs. I had a fantastic time on my trip but it's always good to be home.