From the Bird Park, I took a taxi to the Orchid garden. And it finally dawned on me that Singapore was a really small country. The map showed the Jurong bird park at the western end of Singapore, with the Orchid garden at the northern end. The taxi ride took about 10 minutes and cost me S$12. Rumor has it that it takes about 90 minutes to take a taxi cross country and costs around S$35.
When I got to the garden I was a little hungry and decided to eat at the cafe inside. I got my food ticket and looked around for a place to sit. The place was packed and most everybody had a beer or two in front of them and didn’t look like they would move anytime soon, so I started to see if anyone would be willing to share their tables. I shared a table with a couple (and their baby boy and puppy), who were working in Singapore. I got to know about the expat community (very insular, there’s very little contact between groups) and the attractions of Singapore (the food, the apparent safety) and the downsides (no freedom of speech, expensive real estate). And then my food arrived. I had ordered a Nasi Goreng.
I like to consider that I am a good tourist and that I’m accustomed to café style food, but oh my god, even the deli food here is better than good. I kept eating, talking with my mouth full while they laughed and agreed that yes, the food at the café was really good.
Hunger satisfied, I walked inside. The Orchid garden is actually a small portion of the Singapore Botanical Gardens. It has one of the few dog-friendly parks and jogging trails, and there were a lot of joggers and dogs there. I walked over to the Orchid garden, passing what looked like a gorgeous outdoor performance venue.
The Orchid garden was completely awesome. Every few steps/turns, there was another gorgeous orchid, just blooming there.
Get all your Orchid Porn here.
I learnt something new:
The vanilla bean is the fruit of an Orchid
On my way back, I took a taxi to the subway station, and made an offhand comment to the driver about how well the roads were maintained, since I didn’t recall seeing a single pothole in all the time I was there.
And given that this was Singapore where they have a freaking death penalty not just for possessing drugs, but also for having drug metabolites in your system! I expected a brief propaganda speech about how great Singapore was and why every country should be like that. Instead, I seemed to have let loose a torrent of pent up frustrations.
“Yes, of course the roads are good”, he said “they fine all of us and use it to pay the politicians millions and use the rest to build the roads.”
Singapore’s politicians are the most highly paid public servants in the world, with salaries in the millions of dollars.
“They don’t give a damn, they only give fines. Fine on this, fine on that, Singaporeans are opressed, ministers are paind $4 million, they don’t care about being corrupt or how the rest of us live”, he continued.
“Are the taxi fees a lot too?” I asked.
“Yes, yes - there are fees for driving taxi, I have to pay the government ninety dollars for the taxi every day, even if I don’t drive it. I have to renew license every three years and they make you take a physical exam and take more money for it. Driving is even bad - they are charging for driving on the road now. How are we supposed to live?”
Wow, I should have expected that not everyone would have drunk the cool aid.
The rest of the trip was spent in the driver enumerating all his frustrations with the way things are done in Singapore. And no, he was not an immigrant, he was a native Singaporean, watching the cost of living increase (due to the extremely large influx of well-paid expats).
Although, I really liked the Singapore model of congestion pricing: it is dynamic, with the toll adjusted to keep the average speed of traffic on the road to 45 (kmph). The tolls therefore are not a revenue generation mechanism, they’re a speed regulating mechanism.
I could fully understand the cabbie’s frustration. They were not exempt from the tolls, and had to pay them even if they were empty and cruising for passengers. Naturally, there are no taxis cruising around on streets that are only accessible via a toll road. It also drives more traffic onto “free” roads, making it even harder to get around. Wonder how long people will put up with that?
