It was once said that there are three ways to India from Singapore: by ship, by plane, and by a short walk to Little India.  
 
So, just take the metro and have a ride to the "Little India" station. Once you have arrived you'll feel completely different, you can imagine yourself in India. You can visit Sri Veeramakaliaman temple... My advice: just smell the difference and walk around the streets. Before enter the temple you'll see the people who ring the bell, it is traditionally to warn the spirits about you.  
 
Understandable, when you are on a private trip get your hotel here, - at least for 3 days. Little India for a couple of hours might be disappointing because the real joy is just watching the people, their businesses and how they go through their day. While the buildings and temples are nice to look the real attraction are the people and the culture that they are living in.  The most striking thing I've found was that the people there where giving very much a dam about me: they never imposed themselves, never pushing me into some buzz and probably thought I a tourist anyway. Most of the people have ethnic Tamil roots. In Singapore nobody cares about ethic roots only that everyone behaves in a orderly matter.  
 
A must-see is the Tekka Centre. You have to go to the hawker center on the first floor and get lunch from one of the dozens of food stalls all is Curry, curry and more curry....Upstairs is an interesting antique store and an old man who sells dressmaking supplies. On the same floor there is a huge balcony area that gives you a birds-eye view of the meat and seafood market section. We spent a good amount of time there watching how they prepare and serve their meats which in fact is a world away from any other Singaporean butchers.  
 
If I would not have stayed in one of the hotels in the city center I wouldn't hesitate staying in Little India, at least for some days by splitting the stay then in another hotel closer to the city because they are really two different worlds.

For photos of Singapore's Little India click here

If I keep hearing: Singapore has for everything a ban, it just makes me laugh. There is probably no other country where so many different ethnic groups live together almost without friction.
 
As if we, in our so-called civilized world, the liberal "West" would be free from government controls so we can confidently forget all our "legal" atrocities and "legal" Guatemanos, all the lies, corruptions and bribes. Let alone the alleged protection of our privacy when we use the Internet.
 
When I'm leaving my rural quiet home in the South of France to travel to Singapore, then especially because I want to be free and live a little. What someone may consider als typical a culture of French tolerance originates in reality mainly out of indifference and convenience. And Paris smells.
 
So, being in Singapore is mean for me living in a clean city withs lots of parcs, with lots of different people and their ideas, I meet in the Hawkers. Also with work ethics: there is a consensus in Singapore, a code of conduct which is set very high, and therefore practically everything works just perfectly smoothly. I just can not say this from most other places.
 
Some of the world's best publications are at home in Singapore, the "Asia Times Online", "Channel Asia" "Straight Times", etc. And in these publications are positions represented which would be considered in our "western" media as "critical". The reality-monopoly of our supposedly free press in the "West" assassinates itself because of the scissors in their heads. I never have had this impression in Singapore.
 
A car is not really needed because the cheap and efficient MRT underground from my hotel building is quick at the Esplanade Theater and Concert Hall where pieces of great works for reasonable prices (from € 10) are played in an impressive and comfortable venue. It is affordable in Singapore. 
 
Well, and then virtually no existing corruption here is probably the best defense for a democrating state. Another pillar of democracy is tolerance for followers of any faith community, -  the observance of the rules of secularity. There is it then difficult for even the worst representatives of the "free market" to achieve their selfish goals as they achieve nothing with bribery.
 
Sometimes it is better to wind down in a city and instead of thinking of reasons to do something, I  come up with reasons not to. And even if I found some, I'd try it anyway... Somehow Singapore embraces positive thinking.
 
I have discovered that there is more to me than meets the eye. So thank you, Singapore, for giving me the opportunity to become more than I was, and to see further than I could.

For photos of Singapore click here