Mon 23rd March: Singapore

Singapore is a curious place. Its not so much a country as a city state. It lies between Malaysia and Indonesia yet its population s predominantly Chinese with a fair scatter of Indian, Arabic and European thrown into the mix. I wasn't sure if I was really looking forward to Singapore. Its renowned as a shopping place and for being expensive. My main reason for coming here was te see if I could get a good camera deal. There are supposed to be great bargains to be had in electronic goods so if I want to get a decent camera Singapore may be the place.

I was surprised how clean the city is. Its spotless. There's no litter, no pollution. If you do litter the place there are heave fines so people don't just drop their waste just anywhere. It was such a contrast to yesterday while crossing Java where you could see mounds of litter by the side of buildings and by the railroad tracks. On the train people dumped empty wrapper out the window. Here there wasn't a sign of an empty wrapper.

Singapore is definitely a shopping city. The amount of shopping malls is staggering. I went into a few but avoided most. The city is wealthy and feels wealthy. The clean streets and lack of pollution helps to reinforce this impression. Everybody seems to be well-dressed. You don't see any poor on the streets. Nobody is begging . There are few touts or hawkers approaching you for business. You walk around the streets hassle free.

I spent all of Monday checking camera shops. First, along Orchard Road, and then most of the day in Slim Lim Plaza, a big multistorey electronics centre. Very quickly the choice narrowed down to Canon v Nikon. I didn't know anything really but its surprising how fast you take in information when you're making a big purchase. All the sales guys were advocating a canon model, the canon eos 1000D. I was asking for an 'entry level' digital slr. Everybody produced this model and they all reckoned the Japanese Canon is superior to Nikon of Thailand. I went on to the internet and on reviews of cameras very often Nikon came out on top. While I was mulling over what camera to buy and if I should buy one at all I took a wander over to little India and the Arabic quarter both of which lie not far from Sim Lim Plaza. To be honest I wasn't all that impressed. maybe I was expecting to see something very exotic. The guidebook seemed to describe them like that. I saw them during the daytime. Perhaps they look more intersting at night, I don't know. The Arabic had streets named Kandahar st, Baghdad st etc. I went back to my hunt for a camera and By 8.30pm I walked out of Sim Lim Plaza with a Canon. I just hope it was a good buy.