小小的新加坡／Singapore - it's a small country

一直都很清楚新加坡是个很小的国家，这次出门在外，我无时无刻都被提醒，新加坡到底有多小。
Whenever I talk to other people about Singapore, one of the first sentences I will make is,” Singapore is a small country.” But on this trip, I was constantly reminded how small Singapore really is.

碰到的人中，绝大部分的人都没有去过新加坡，有的甚至连新加坡在哪里都不知道，因此像，“新加坡是不是在马来西亚／泰国／中国？”是常常听到的问题。最离谱的是一次，有人居然问，“新加坡是不是在美国？”
Most of the people that I’ve met in my journey so far have never been to Singapore, some don’t even know where Singapore is. As such, one of the most commonly asked question is, “Is Singapore part of Malaysia/Thailand/China?” And the most ridiculous question I was ever asked? “Which part of the US is Singapore in?” No joking. Somebody did ask me that question.

除了要解释新加坡的地理位置外和新加坡有多大外，每次都得费一番功夫解释，为何我能说一口流利的英文和中文，为何没有所谓的“新加坡语言”，为何新加坡人都说英文等。讲解完，还要向他们介绍新加坡有什么好玩。或许我应该向新加坡旅游局索取“介绍费”，因为我很多时候都有自己是新加坡“大使”的感觉。
Other than having to explain where Singapore is located geographically and how big in size Singapore is, I also always had to explain to these people why I can speak perfect English and Chinese, why there is no such thing as a Singapore language and why most Singaporeans can speak English etc. After the explanations, comes recommending what they can see or do if they do go to Singapore. Hmm, maybe I should get the Singapore Tourism Board to pay me a fee for being the “tourism ambassador” for Singapore?

在各国关卡是最能体会新加坡的“小”的时候。入境俄罗斯时是坐火车，所以没有碰到什么问题。出境时是乘坐巴士，必须下车自己办理出境手续。结果每个人都没事，一到我就卡住了。负责人扣住了我的护照，然后一个电话接一个电话地打。问她是不是有问题，她就只叫你在一旁等。然后就先后来了几个人，都问同样的话，“你新加坡来的？来俄罗斯做什么？现在要去哪里？”问他们是不是有问题，他们都说没有，可是就是不把护照还我。就这样拖拖拉拉过了40分钟，全车的人都在等我，原有的负责人才肯盖章，让我过关。
The “smallness” of Singapore really hits home at the borders checks. From China to Mongolia to Russia, I’ve always travelled by train and leaving and entering the borders was never a problem. Leaving Russia, it was the first time I had cross borders on this trip by bus. This time round, instead of immigration officers coming to collect the passports, we had to get off the bus and go through customs ourselves. Everybody passed through without any problem. But when it was my turn, the immigration officer took a long time to look through my passport before making me stand in one corner. Next thing I saw, she was on the phone making one call after another. I tried asking her what was the problem, but the lady doesn’t speak English, and only waved for me to continue to stand in the corner. Then came a few other officers, one after another, all asking the same questions after scrutinizing me for a good while. “You are from Singapore? What are you doing in Russia? Where are you going next?” I asked if there was a problem, always, the reply was, “No. No problem.” But they just won’t give me back the passport. Finally, after 40 minutes, with the whole bus waiting for me, the lady officer made one final phone call before stamping on the passport and giving it back to me, all the while, never making clear what was the problem.

过了座桥，到了爱沙尼亚，情况更糟糕。先来了两个负责人，什么“你来爱沙尼亚做什么？来几天？要去哪里？之前有没有到过其他欧盟国家？几时去的？”等的问题，他们一直问不停，护照前后翻了几遍。好啦，问题问完了，以为没事了，哪儿知道，五分钟后又跟我说，“我们还想再问你问题，请拿着你的行李跟我们来。”就这样，我和同车的另一个亚洲人（猜对啦，又是韩国人！）被莫名其妙地带到拘留所，被安排坐在牢房外，然后就开始漫长的等待。根本听不懂他们在说什么，也没有人来问我们问题，只知道他们好像没有看过新加坡和韩国护照一样，一直拼命打电话问什么“新加坡、韩国”之类的事情。原本说只要一个小时就好，结果我们坐了足足两个半小时，他们才来跟我们说话，要我们买旅行保险，才肯让我们入境。再加上等巴士的时间，我们在关卡被折腾了足足五个小时。
I thought that was it. How wrong I was. It was worse when we crossed the little bridge that leads to the Estonian customs. First came two officers, one shooting all the questions, the other acting as the translator. “What are you doing in Estonia? How many days are you staying? Where are you going? Have you been to any other EU countries? When was that?” and on and on the questioning went. When the questioning finally stopped after ten minutes, I was sure that I was in the clear. But five minutes later, the officer who was doing the translation came back to tell me I have to grab my luggage and get off the bus because they want to question me further. Thus, me and the other Asian (of course, a Korean! They are everywhere!) were hauled off the bus and brought to the customs office and were made to sit right outside the lockups. We waited for them to question us, but nobody did. All we heard were the officers making one call after another and the words “Singapore” and “Korea”. It was as if these people have never seen a Singapore or Korean passport before and need to verify the authencity of our passports. We were told it will take about an hour. In the end, it was two and a half hours before they finally approached us and asked us if we have travel insurances. They finally gave us back our passports and let us go on our way, after making sure we had bought some form of travel insurances. Including the waiting time for the next bus to Tallin, we arrived at our destination six hours behind schedule.

新加坡的章宜机场再出名，李光耀的名字再响亮，知道新加坡的人还真是少。　　～伟
No matter how many times Changi Airport has been voted the number one airport in the world, no matter how famous and well respected Lee Kuan Yew is in the international politic scene, it remains a fact that only a small percentage of people know Singapore.　～wei