From the Marina Bay area, we drove out toward the airport on the East Coast Parkway (ECP), nice drive, beautiful blue sky, sunny day, passing ritzy condo buildings close-in, then government developed/subsidized (for Singapore citizens) housing estates. Next, we went west to pick up another of my wife’s (J’s) childhood friends, then returned to an East Coast waterfront park for some snacks and juice, before heading back downtown on the ECP, then heading west on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (ARE) (south coast expressway) all the way across the southernmost part of Singapore Island and across the Tuas Second Link into Malaysia (the Johor Baru area) for a delicious crab dinner.

The drive along the ARE was notable for some nice architecture along its eastern section and for the businesses of foreign national companies along its western section. All along, as we drove, we learned more about life in Singapore from Ah-Liang. This is by far the most efficiently run city-state I’ve ever seen. The lives of Singapore citizens are managed in a benevolent/authoritarian, very capable manner by the government (democratically elected, parliamentary, but one party has been in complete control forever). Housing, retirement pensions, medical coverage, etc., all are managed by government mandated private savings schemes. It’s been a very good system thanks to the capable administration of Lee Kwan Yew and his successor (but at the cost of personal freedom of action as the state may be described as “paternalistic”). Lee Kwan Yew was like a benevolent philosopher king, albeit one with a very conservative, rather authoritarian philosophy. It’s been a golden era – let’s hope the culture of effective government continues, else the lack of personal freedom will surely bind.

After dinner in Malaysia, we were delayed for an hour or two getting back into Singapore, owing to the line of vehicles at the border (apparently due to fact that this was the week of Ching Bing, the time when Chinese families honor their ancestors by tending to their graves in a ritual ceremony). Quite a few Singaporean Chinese, who had emigrated from Malaysia, had gone back for ceremonies over the weekend.

Back from Malaysia, we ended the day back at Marina Bay, near The Barrage, where we walked up a curving walkway for a nighttime view of The Sands and the Singapore Flyer (giant Ferris wheel). It was a beautiful, balmy evening with young lovers strolling along the bay or sitting on the park’s grassy lawn, watching young people flying their fancy kites high in the night sky.