Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 12:17 PM
Writing this e-mail at a hotspot on Orchard Road in Singapore. Arrived here this morning. Could say it's culture shock. Long time ago I saw sky scrapers, a functioning metro, people dressed in the latest design. Staying near Raffles Hotel, and from my room there are about six wireless networks, not that I can logon. They're all encrypted. Here I feel there are two worlds on this earth. The one managing poverty, the other improving on existing technology. Orchard Road for me looks like the largest shopping mall on earth. Everybody here is gallivanting a bit, browsing the shops. It's good to have this impression, after all a lot of my reporting goes to Western viewers, who are used to this.
Tomorrow morning I am departing to Banda Aceh, most probably to get a culture shock from a totally different nature. It's just on the other side of the sea.