I had a layover in Singapore of sufficient time to take the light rail into the downtown and tall building area and walk around for a few hours. Things I must confess in my ignorance didn't know about Singapore before visiting here briefly today:* Singapore is one of the worlds three remaining city-states in the sense it's a city entirely self-governed (along with Monaco and Vatican City)
* Singapore is the sixth wealthiest nation in GDP/capita
* When I think of English-speaking places I seldom thing of Singapore but really should... Today walking around I overheard Mandarin, English, Malay... and I guess there's an additional national language called Tamil that I don't know by hearing it - but probably heard English most
* White people are a certain minority, it's extremely diverse. As many Indians as Silicon Valley and as many Asians as Seattle (or more). Still a little European in vibe and lots of British English spoken by people of all skin color
* Singapore has only been an independent state in it's current form since 1965
* Though a democracy or close to it, speech is not free and remarks against the government are punishable. In 2005 three bloggers were convicted for racist blog posts
* Singapore is set to host a Formula 1 race for the first time in about a week from now and the whole city is a buzz for this. Seems every advertisement on posters and walls and all promotions in stores currently are based around this race. It will be the first night race added to the Formula 1 circuit. Grandstands are set up in the downtown area and barriers are already in place along sidewalks.
