So what's Singapore like Part 2

This is another post on interesting things in Singapore.  In the last Singapore post, I covered the mystery of Singaporean restaurants specializing in Toast.  After trying the toast for the first time I give it a verdict of pretty good but nothing worthy of staring a restaurant trend.  

Kaya Toast - it's a big deal here

I mentioned before how Singapore is extremely well run and clean.  The transit system (MRT) exemplifies this.   I've never been to a city with a cleaner, more efficient transit system.  Eating and Drinking is not allowed on the trains, punishable by steep fines.  The train information is completely digital so it’s convenient to see when the next train is coming.  And they come about every 2-4 minutes.  The trains themselves are not overly crowded and even when they are, people are amazingly civil.  And the MRT network itself is excellent.  Since my last time in Singapore three years ago, they’ve added another entire line that circles the city.  This is something that Chicago needs desperately.  The swipe on/off infrastructure is effective and smart.  The trains have to be the safest in the world too.  Signs are posted warning about even the least dangerous things (watching the inch-wide platform gap, old people using escalators, people breaking through the glass and getting electrocuted {physically impossible}).  The Singapore transit system is world class.  And as a kicker, every MRT stop has a shopping mall; which leads into my other interesting Singapore idosyncracy.

The hyper efficient Singapore MRT network

Super clean and uneventful

Singapore loves shopping.  So much so, that some call it the country’s national pastime.  Retail is everywhere selling junk, designer goods and luxury items.  I work on a block that has three malls with practically all the same stores.  And Singaporean women love their fashion.  Every woman, including lowly assistants and poor students, has to have a designer handbag that costs thousands of dollars.  It’s insanity.  I’m predicting a Singapore retail bubble.  Singapore has the most high-end retail square footage in Asia.  Eventually the masses will grow tired of their conspicuous consumption and then the thousands of empty square footage could be used for something useful.  Like maybe more restaurants selling Toast!