Today I spent extra time on transport.  The superficial reason was that my head wasn’t functioning properly and I’m all excited about this trip, but I think the real reason is deeper.  It goes beyond my apparent urges to understand transport, beyond my love of people watching on public transport, it is all about my body trying to stay cool and comfortable in air conditioned trains and buses in this heated city of Singapore.

Singapore seems to have a well polished transport system where you can’t eat or drink to ensure it stays that way.  So what do people do … there are a lot of screens around me and no one seems to notice anyone else.  I feel like doing something crazy to see if anyone notices, but I know these screens usually have inbuilt cameras so I just stand there in a sea of people and screens bobbing around against the movements of the train.  There are announcements to promote being obedient and orderly – moving away from the doors, not littering etc and there’s an entertaining film about how to notice if there might be a bomb on the train and what to do.  I also saw some cool little adverts for the MRT (train).  I have photos of these I’ll put up.

Out on the streets I have seen all sorts of transport.  There are some really cute old bikes (some with cargo carrying devices) and I’ve been tempted to have a little ride on an unlocked one.  Motor bikes and little trucks carrying passengers share the road with some very fancy cars.   There doesn’t seem to be too many facilities for bike riders but nonetheless there are a range of people riding them with grace.  I don’t know how anyone can manage to be graceful in this humidity.  I think it’s about to storm so I should get out there…