When we think about a country like Singapore, or any other country for that matter, we think of the big things, like the tourist spots there, such as Marina Bay Sands, the Merlion, and the Night Safari. But we don’t notice the small things there. The small parts of convenience in Singapore, and that’s exactly what I’m going to be talking about in this post.
First, I’ll start off with the thing that we start off the entire trip with, which is immigration. In Singapore, you just scan your passport, and you have to show your face to a machine, and you are done with immigration. There is no staff member you have to depend on. The machine doesn’t look at you as if you interrupted its tea break. However, they do have staff to help you if you have any trouble, but you don’t need to depend on them. If we were in India, it’d be another story: long queues, and we would have to depend on the immigration officer to clear immigration. No matter what, a human will always be slower than a robot, and so it’s slower.
Then there are the small things that you observe, like, for example, the convenience of the escalators. Yes, even the escalators. Anybody who wants to stand goes on the left side, leaving a clear path on the right side, so if anybody needs to go urgently, they can easily go. These are small things that probably won’t be useful to you in everyday life, but sometimes they are very helpful.
And I went to Singapore as a tourist, and generally, when you go to different countries, you feel out of place. Like, if I go to almost any other Southeast Asian country, especially as an Indian, I would feel out of place. But that’s not how it is in Singapore. Wherever you go, you will hear Indian languages, like Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Punjabi. And not just as an Indian, Singapore is a very diverse country in terms of food. Will you miss out on your country’s food? I would say no. There are so many different cuisines that you can find in Singapore. Whether that is any cuisine from the Middle East, any cuisine from Asia, or Western food as well, it’s great for that.
Everything there is also cashless, which, in a way, is convenient because you don’t have to carry lots of cash in your wallet. You just need your credit card or your phone, whichever you prefer for cashless payment. Obviously, there are some concerns with security, but that’s always there.
Then there is the safety part of Singapore, in which I’ll also cover different aspects. First of all, while driving. In India, when you drive and there is a green light, you will have to slow down because there will be someone crossing the road, or a bike or car running the red light. But in Singapore, it’s not like that. For pedestrians, you can only cross the road when the light turns green at the zebra crossing, and almost no one runs the red light. The green light actually means “go,” not “prepare for three more vehicles.” So you will commonly see people driving through green lights very fast, still under the speed limit though.
And the next part of safety is as a pedestrian yourself. You can walk late at night, and alone. Singapore is a very safe place, and you won’t be scared in case you are in a situation where you have to walk alone at night. And everyone is always nice and kind, so you will have no problem walking late at night, even if it is midnight.
And that’s it for this post. See you all next time!
