Sunday, October 07, 2007

Newbie.

Today I was taking the train to the Expo.

On it were two caucasian tourists heading to the airport.

And I must say.

I love tourists!

I wish I could start a tourism centre and tell tourists about Singapore. Or go on exchanges with people from other countries.

I'm so curious. My ears perk up, my eyes rivet onto them, whenever I see tourists!

If they're more well educated and widely travelled, would they be thinking, 'Hm, this iS a beautiful place. But it's so hot! Damn. And heh.. they may have all the creature comforts of the Western world, but deep beneath the thin pretty facade is a society which is without free speech, a society that still believes in the cane, a society which censors its movies, and suppresses public demonstrations. This mAy be a first-world environment, but it is also a Third World society. In other words, un-American.'

I think this is simply jealousy, that a tiny Asian country can rival the almighty Western civilisation, and magically convert everyone to English, no?

Or if they're Chinese mainlanders or from a less well-off country, would they be thinking, 'WOW! What a beautiful, organised place! And it's full of Chinese! I think China should really learn from here. Singapore is like a vision of China's bright future.'

In fact, this is true, as many Chinese students go overseas to study, then return to China to contribute to their motherland, which means that they take what they learnt from overseas and try to make China equal the country they experienced. (and then there are others who don't, which is the famous, much-reported Chinese brain drain.)

I know of a Malaysian who got a scholarship to study engineering in NUS. Growing up in a suburban area, nature was always close by, and once forced to live out of a high-rise apartment, and stressed by school's workload, he had a breakdown and discontinued his studies to return to Malaysia.

Interesting, huh? How we are used to HDB flats and high-rises, our 'meat', which is 'poison' to another, who has a breakdown simply by living in a flat.

I am soo curious about these things, because I am a tourist myself. When I travel to a foreign land, my eyes are wide open... Every little detail about daily life in a place so distant from home, thousands of miles away, they all interest me. It's the sheer beauty and awesome-ness in realising that humanity is united by countless similarities, while remaining unique to their place of dominion.

Man, I love travelling.

jOhn thought at 1:33 PM