Passing through oppulent Singapore.....

           Sitting just outside the departures /check-in area, Changhi Airport, Singapore. The airport that

Colonial style bungalow, Singapore....

was claimed 20 years ago when I used to pass through here with some regularity, to be so beautiful that couples chose it as the place to be photographed in full wedding attire as part of the celebration. Changhi has expanded tremendously since circa 1996 and currently comprises four  passenger terminals. Perhaps people are a little more sophisticated now, but the place, although impressive for its efficiency and cleanliness, does not strike me as at all romantic in late 2016--- (but I am not 26!)
            I arrived in Singapore at midday after a night in a somewhat spartan room at an Air B&B in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, (the border town on the the north side of the straits that separate Malaysia from Singapore). I met the owner --a 40-ish Chinese Malay man who insisted in driving me

Tropical footpath--central Singapore.

to the border crossing point, but only if he could buy me lunch. Interesting chat with him and he explained how he operates 5 properties (houses) in partnership with his sister who is property cleaner & who  arrived for her duties in an impressive Mercedes 500. Good luck to them!
          With about 10 hours to kill before my 1.30am departure for Seoul, en route to Toronto, I wandered the main streets of this city state. Wow--impressive---would be two adjectives. I always remembered the place as clean, smart, efficient, well run----but now add beautiful to the list of superlatives. Especially as the city---and the island of Singapore is total non-stop city. I criss-crossed the place by rapid transport and did not spot a single acre that was not claimed and developed.
           Like Malaysia, Singapore has aggressively adopted the Christmas festival as an excuse to decks the streets with massive street lighting displays. The money in this city oozes----80+ floor towers by the dozen crowd whole areas of the metropolis, much bill-boarded with names of various international banks and financial management operations shouting out brashly to all the world that

Clean city.......

Singapore is the leading money centre in the Far East.
               It struck me rather forcefully as I promenaded through the central area, that Singapore has been eminently successful in combining architectural style & beauty with massive growth, in this hard charging capitalist mini-state. To me, this begs the question, as to why so many large cities in the western world have been so spectacularly less successful.  With a few hours to fritter until my flight, I have been enjoying some passive people watching---I am refraining from street photography in this very security conscious airport. It underlines to me that the "good times" have arrived for so many in this part of the world--reflected very noticeably in the extended/inflated waist lines of so many people. Especially regretful, as in North America, is that whole families gorging at McD. seem to be afflicted by obesity that could be in the region 30+ BMI.