Systematic, Structured Singapore

I think for a lot of people, international travel is a once-in-a-lifetime event, a YOLO moment—fleeting, temporary, and momentarily purposeful. But travel is my life and my life is travel. Travel is no different to me than cooking is a chef’s lifework or sports is an athlete’s daily strive to go on living.

But even then, I remain astonished by the wonders of foreign land. Singapore is a spectacle. The urban planning is almost flawless and intricately designed. Its people are the most helpful I’ve met. With a map in my hands and a scrunched up look on my face, they would come up to me and ask me if I’m lost and if I need any help with directions. It’s happened too often that I’ve concluded it’s simply in their nature to be nice to people.

I can live in their train system. So long as you don’t tap out, you’ll never be lost and you’re sure to find your way (in addition to the many obliging Singaporeans). There are more old people than there are people in my generation so the pace, probably also because it’s an Asian country, is slow. People fall in line and cars don’t run you over because pedestrian lanes are also stop signs. The streets are the germophobe’s temples; you can sleep on them, even while vehicles speed through like a car chase. No kidding, they really won’t run you over.

More than anything, a taste of the first-world is more wisdom than knowledge. I could write lengthily about the places we’ve been to or the people we’ve met or the food we ate. But travel blogs and reviews have many of that. And while I travel to experience a culture, I’m mostly after understanding how the world works and why it turns the way it turns.

Singapore is efficient and systematic and almost rigidly structured. You tap to enter the metro and tap to ride the bus and tap to enter the apartment. There are signs for where to enter and where to exit and where to go and where you come from and where you are. You will never get lost. It’s a haven for the law-abiding citizen.

I think going to our neighbor country is merely a resource to seeing standards—knowing what should be and should not be. It’s knowing that these systems are possible and they work and the Philippines could truly learn a lot from next door. Drivers could learn common courtesy and order. Pedestrians could learn patience and care. Politicians could… learn.

Overall, I could learn to be more human, more alive. They say that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. I think in between those two days are the days you travel.