To Serve or Not to Serve

I've realised that there are two types of customer service in Singapore: either you get followed round the shop by some smiling person folding up everything you touch and giving helpful advice, or you get ignored.  I don't know which I prefer.  After many years in Kalgoorlie I am so used to being ignored that the other type is a bit scary.  

As you may have guessed I was in another mall today, this one covered a mere 34 acres and was once, very briefly, the biggest shopping centre in Asia.  It lasted about a week until an even bigger one opened in Dubai.  Probably shaped like Michael Jackson.  To be honest it's just the tiniest bit too big.  I was having a wander round and found some nice jeans in a shop but I thought "no, I won't get them now I'll have a look at what else is available and come back later". The problem is that 'later' you have no idea where the shop was, it's lost among the thousands of other shops all selling pretty much the same things. As you can probably tell I am suffering Mall Fatigue, a recognised ailment in these parts.  Tomorrow it's the Botanic Gardens to try and get my brain back into gear and out of "it's Tuesday, then it must be Raffles City Mall" mode.

I've noticed something else here as well, the whole country seems to be in a constant state of alert.  Everywhere you go there are posters about being alert, reporting suspicious people and all that.  There are even videos playing in all the MRT trains and stations showing what to do about the above "suspicious people", along with really graphic footage of the Madrid and Mumbai train bombings. You know, blood covered corpses and all. In fact the media in Asia seems much less squeamish about showing the gory aftermath with no warnings. For example this morning the front of the Straits Times had a full colour picture of dead children trampled in a temple rush in India. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't see that on The Australian or the Telegraph, even if they are foreign people and not australian/british corpses.

It's also a general feeling of being under threat too.  For example did you know Singapore has one of the biggest armies in the world per head of population? Or that it has an amazingly high-tech and heavily armed navy and airforce too? I assume it's because they feel so outnumbered here by the countries surrounding them. However it does appear that most of the armed forces were shopping in the City on a Saturday, in full camouflage, so I don't hold out much hope if Malaysia invades on a weekend. If they do invade though I hope the first person they go after is the white, dreadlocked backpacker playing the didgeridoo outside the hotel this morning. This is bloody Singapore not Circular Quay!

Anyhow I've had a busy day so I'm having a nice sit down and a glass of refreshing Sweat before I go out again...