A trip to the equator

April 16th: train from Jerantut to Singapore. Outside the train, the oil palm plantations slowly passed by. Inside the train a sauna: the airconditioners did not work. Without ventilation and without windows that can be opened, the temperature must have been about 45 degrees. Fortunately, it lasted only 3 hours. When the train reached the railway station of Gemas, Malaysian Railways put another locomotive in front, and the aircon began working immediately. Overall, together with several earlier attempts at repair it gave the train a delay of about 2 hours.

So I arrived at the border late, around 11 PM. The banks had just closed. Since I had no Singaporean money, this was a problem. Fortunately, a shopkeeper took pity on me and changed 50 Malaysian ringgit to 20 Singorean dollars. Now, 50 ringgit (or 500 baht) is a lot of money in Malaysia or Thailand. Enough for one or two days. Not so in Singapore. In Singapore a small bus ride already costs 2 dollars (it was actually $1,10, but the drivers do not give change and the smallest coins I had were one dollar). Since I had to change buses twice to get to the centre, I was already down $6 when I reached Chinatown. The guesthouse mentioned in my guidebook had made place for a brand new building. It contained the Chinatown Tourist Information Centre, but that was of course closed, because it was already midnight by then.

Luckily, I saw a sign, and following it up to the second floor of a building, I found a small guesthouse. There was no reception, but when I called, the owner arrived in ten minutes, to receive $24 for the night. Since that was more than I had left, he had to wait until the next morning, but he opened the doors, showed me my bed and proudly proclaimed to be owner of five such guesthouses in Chinatown. However, there were only two dorm rooms and a bathroom inside. Eight beds in the first room and six more in the second. It was immaculately clean, I had to give him that. The other guests greeted me softly, or were already asleep.

Next morning, we had breakfast together (toast with jam and instant coffee) and to my surprise I found that most other guests were also teachers in Thailand. I guess you cannot pay a proper Singaporean hotel room from a Thai salary. The landlord was present too, telling everyone once more that he owns five guesthouses in Chinatown, in case we forgot.

All of my new friends complained that Singapore is expensive. To be honest, compared to Europe, Singapore is still not very expensive. Price-wise, it is on a par with central European countries, say Slovenia or Czechia (I hate to say 'Czech Republic', of course it is a republic - do we speak of the Dutch Monarchy instead of the Netherlands?). Singapore is a very clean and wealthy place. The standards of living are higher than in most of western Europe. But staying outside for long is just not nice, due to the hot temperature. In some places along the waterfront the government has installed giant ventilators to make walking along the boulevard more agreeable. Still, you see little people walking there. Larger crowds can only be found inside the big, air-conditioned shopping malls.

I did not have enough time left to stay long in Singapore, but I did get an impression of the city. After my visit I went back north, this time by bus to Kuala Lumpur. Another big city where I had too little time to look around much. KL is much less planned and more chaotic than Singapore, but it is still relatively clean and modern. This city is situated in the hills of the inland, so the climate was a little better then in Singapore. When I first saw the skyscrapers of Kuala Lumpur, they seemed to form a vertical city, especially the ones around the Petronas Towers, which were once (until very recently) the world's tallest buildings. As a contrast, Kuala Lumpur has some fine old colonial buildings too.

Another difference with Singapore is the culture. Whereas Singapore is dominantly Chinese, Kuala Lumpur is like the rest of Malaysia: dominantly Muslim. Malaysia shows how an Islamic society can be open, tolerant, modern and prosperous. Very unlike the Middle East, which sadly dominates the ideas most Europeans have of Muslims. After pondering about it for a while, I think the only precondition for a tolerant society is its prosperity, not its religion. My prediction for Europe and the Middle East is that, when the economy there does not recover, people will only grow more intolerant of each other. Meanwhile Asia prospers. Unemployment in Thailand is, for example, only about 2%. Nearly everybody has a job: people grow happy and tolerant.

Anyway, I nearly reached the equator, since Singapore lies at only 1,2 degrees north. For my first time I saw the southern cross in the sky. Four big stars arranged in the shape of a cross. It must have made a huge impression on the first Portuguese sailors that crossed the equator. It must have convinced them that there was divine approval for their endeavours.

Imagine how big the world is: after all that travelling I still haven't even crossed into the other half once. I will not, for now. I flew back to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur, since the school holidays came to an end on the 22nd of April. Expect more about my job and the school in my next blog.