CNN ranked Singaporeans as the 2nd coolest nationality. Maybe because are the only Asians whose English is their first language, thus can easily chat up with foreign travelers and CNN reporters about how cool Singaporeans are.
Given my traveling preference, I should find ‘unauthentic’ Singapore utterly boring with its super clean, over polish images and ubiquitous ads claiming to the best, the only, the largest, the first in every category. Strangely though I grew to like this “snobbish” little child-turn-giant. Singapore didn’t look nor behaved like my view of an Asian country and Asian people.
I ran away from Kuala Lumpur’s and Singapore’s shopping arena like a contagious disease because I contracted it BIG time during my entire time Hong Kong, a seven-day being a hedonist in a place where people seemed to live, eat and shop.
Kuala Lumpur’s wide array of shopping malls would have been a material bliss if I had not come from Singapore a few days ago, a country where inhabitants are described fondly as educated, ambitious, hard-working and materialistic. They work hard, play hard and like to indulge in material things. Singapore has the largest percentage of mobile phone users in the world. They probably have the biggest expense for cars, paying at least 15000 SGD (~15000 USD) more just to own it. (I knew two people who paid 17000 and 19000 SGD.) No, this is not the cost of a car.
And the materialist crown goes to…
My walkabout accidentally turned into a pilgrimage to 21st-century bazaars during the last three weeks in Asia. There was no way I could prepare myself for a full-blown shopping attack from the countries which strived to be the best of the best providers for all our “needs.”
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
