Thinking Allowed: A city in a garden

We have fond memories of living in Singapore. Though we did not live here a long time, we enjoyed the months we had here and found it to be a fascinating country. It is a country where they have managed to effectively use laws to create not just rules but national values and order. Since I was last here the country has grown both economically, infrastructure-wise (more malls and MRT stations!) and physically. Singapore continues to reclaim land so that as their ocean shrinks they get mightier. The island is 25% larger than its original size and it is still growing. Equally astounding is how much ocean is being drunk: Up to 30% of the water Singapore drinks is desalinated (and up to 40% NEWater - treated recycled sewage water).Yes, the children and I spent over two hours in the city gallery (urban planning-type content) with our mouths open. I was intrigued by the complexity and ingeniousness of how to plan for a very densely populated island state which is also the world's most religiously diverse country (more than 10 coexisting religions and four official languages) while always having the image of a garden in mind. Whoever thought up the line 'A city in a garden' was definitely a genius, but not nearly as smart as the people who are actually making it happen. And while I am slinging statistics with as much enthusiasm as al dente pasta at the ceiling, we also learned how Singapore manages Dengue. In addition to normal mosquito limiting methods and meticulous documentation, they have also created special mosquitoes who, when set free, breed with the Aedes aegypti and make them sterile in a trick breeding scenario. So millions of mosquitos are being released to reduce the number of mosquitoes. This might be philosophically questionable but has been extremely successful.

Anyhow it wasn't all a study in interesting trivia about Singapore. Despite monsoon rains every day, the girls and I have had a packed schedule. We discovered the Singapore zoo is peaceful on very rainy days though also very cold and wet for both humans and the animals. We discovered that our favorite part of Sentosa Island is the long foot bridge to get there full of vending machines selling everything you would never imagine (coconuts, electronics, full meals, notebooks, and probably home insurance). We walked the full length of the botanic gardens only to find that the kids' favorite part was the playground. We felt unimpressed in Chinatown and overwhelmed in every mall. We discovered that it is near impossible to buy a pencil and plain white paper on orchard road despite the thousands and thousands of shops. We came face to face with all possible phobias and lost ourselves in a mirror maze at the science museum, We swam in the pool in the sun and the rain, We went on the treeetop walk where the monkeys ran off with an employee's lunch and we gifted him an apple. We ate at many food courts where the choices were endless unless you are vegetarian. We reconnected with amazing friends who played wild balloon games with the girls. We did schoolwork and discovered that all the girls like making assignments for siblings more than doing them. We celebrated Zadie's third birthday with chocolate and tropical fruit. And we reunited with Jakob and are now leaving Singapore behind. It has been a fun time.