Hello and welcome to the first independent travel podcast of the week with me Simon

Calder and I'm at the corner of Cecil Street and Cross Street in Singapore where my goodness

the afternoon is extremely warm probably about 35 and quite humid but we're very very close to the equator

so that's i guess to be understood i wanted to provide an update on travel in this part of the world

because some things are interesting and new and different others are

just the same and i wanted to explain how i am finding them after some time here in the city-state

at the southeastern tip of the southeast Asian peninsula. Well, still very friendly,

very welcoming. The way you get into Singapore has changed. Used to be you fill in a little form,

on a piece of paper, now you fill in a little form by scanning a QR code. It sort of works quite well. You get off

the plane and there's big sign saying, oi, here's a QR code. Scan this, then fill in the form

that results. Here's some free Wi-Fi for you in the airport and off you go and that

does seem to be a pretty secure way of doing things. My flight arrived oh before 6am and what a

breeze getting through. I mean I didn't have any checked luggage, but it was a question of,

ee, meeny, my, nemo, which of these passport desks shall I choose,

since they're all devoid of customers?

I guess that's probably because lots and lots of people on my flight were

changing planes as opposed to terminating in Singapore. Well, it's been fun since then. A few surprises

like having to wear a mask on the MRT. That's the very, very efficient

train service which runs from the airport. Is it that efficient actually? Yeah, the annoying thing

about it is that the train goes two stops, then you have to change trains.

They don't have direct trains downtown.

Now it's a short cross-platform connection, so it's not the end of the world.

...