Terribly Perfect…

I could not help but heave a sigh of regret and look at what our country could have been as I looked around me in Singapore. At one time this country aspired to be like Sri Lanka. But today the roles have reversed. What I saw was precision and perfection along with excellent planning creating a machine whose sole purpose was to suck out as much money as possible from the poor tourist who landed at their doorstep. I am not complaining. Everything was beautiful the hotel was fine but when you are charged for the water bottles they leave for you in the room you know they are over stepping the mark. I am generally a jungle person but this time I decided to head to the concrete jungles of Singapore instead during the long avurudhu holidays to give my kids the experience of flying on a plane and giving them an opportunity to visit another land. Also Singapore is a great place for kids it has so many child friendly attractions is clean though expensive. The kids loved every minute. Specially the Unversal Theme park which just opened in March. It was absolutely awesome. And worth every penny. A quick tip to anyone who is planning to go their pay an extra 30 dollars per person and get yourself an express pass which gives you priority access to all the shows and rides which means you don’t have to wait in lines to get in which can take as much as 30 minutes sometimes.

Also another awesome attraction I recommend is something called Songs of the sea words cannot describe what it is unless you see it with your own eyes.

While everything was absolutely perfect over their I felt a bit uneasy and queasy about the entire experience. My daughter summed it up in a quite succinct manner she looked at me and said “Dadda this is like living in a fairy tale or dolls house isn’t it”

And then it struck me how right she was. Singapore was perfect. Too perfect. It was as something was meant to be. They have made it the perfect tourist attraction. They have sliced it and diced it and packaged it into nice neat manageable easy to digest pieces. Nothing was too far or too long it was just right. But in doing so they have managed to suck the juice out of the entire experience and all what you are left with is something bland… tasteless though it looks good from the outside.