Hi everybody,
This is me in Singapore's Changi airport sitting around without anything to do.
We went on a FREE (yes free) but and boat tour of Singapore. The super short (3 hrs) tour conducted for transit passengers by the Singapore Tourism Board is pretty occupying. They offer three different types of tours "Cultural tour", "Colonial tour" and the "City tour". Basically to entice air travellers transiting the city state to return to the city and spend money in the swank hotels, shopping malls etc.

We took the 'Colonial Tour' which introduced to the Singapore built by the British. The victorian style buildings including the Asian Museum, Victoria Memorial Hall, Old Church, The City Hall etc, capped by a boat ride on the Serene but very very dirty Singapore river. I had heard about Singapore being a clean and green city which prides itself in maintaining clean water bodies, parks and roads etc. But the river was a disappointment. It was greenish in colour like our very own Ulsoor lake. The boats which are used on the river are old kerosene engine boats which create lots of noise and air and water pollution. I wish the tourism board and government takes cognisance of this and changes systems.

But coming back to the tour per se, it was capped by a boat ride/ cruise on the Singapore river which was a good thing. It gave us a birds or should I say fish eye view of the colonial part of the city. There is another tour which will take visitors through 'little India', 'China Town' and another area I don't remember... reportedly older parts of the city state.

Interestning city and highly developed thanks to the patriotic politicians and highly conforming citizenery who love their country and want to keep it neat and clean. I wish Indians could become like that.

Changi airport is a city in itself, large and fully airconditioned, carpeted and what not. No Indian airport will come anywhere near this. I wonder if India will ever have an airport like the Changi or at least 50 percent of the standards..... :) Think about it friends.