Haze

I've been looking forward to this trip to Singapore for awhile. It's a very cool city with incredible architecture, beautiful gardens and amazing food, but the trip is not turning out the way I thought it would. Most of Southeast Asia is shrouded in a thick haze caused by forest fires in the area. I brought my camera with me, but I haven't taken it out of the case yet because you can't see anything.

Most of the fires are on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. The fires were set deliberately by farmers as a slash and burn method to clear the land for planting and now they are out of control. I read in the paper that slash and burn is illegal in Indonesia, but it still happens. This happens every year apparently, but because this is an El Nino year, it's worse than usual. We are experiencing the same thing in Papua New Guinea, but on a smaller scale. The saving grace for PNG is the wind blows most of the smoke away, while here it's trapped by thermal inversion. Lori found a great article online with before and after photos that shows how bad it is.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/singapore-indonesia-haze-interactive-before-after-photos-show-dramatically-reduced-visibility-1521643

Yesterday I went out and explored the city, ignoring the haze. By the end of the day, I had a headache and was constantly clearing my throat. Now I understand why people wear masks over their nose and mouth. Today I went out as well but instead of going to outdoor markets, I stayed in the shopping malls and instead of walking, I took the subway. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hard done by. If the metro stations in Paris looked like this, I would have taken them everyday.

I would just prefer to walk, even though the humidity is unreal. I'm still eating really good food too, it's just in an indoor food court and not in an outdoor hawker centre.

From what I've seen on the news and read in the papers, the Singapore government seems to be very frustrated with the Indonesian Government. They feel not enough is being done to stop the illegal burning and it's affecting daily life here and across the region. It's hurting the economy through decreased tourism, but more importantly, it's hazardous to everyone's health. They update the air quality throughout the day. This sign was posted this morning in the lobby.

At 7:00am the air quality was Unhealthy and they expect it to reach Very Unhealthy by the end of the day.

Lori's final meeting next week was cancelled so we are going home on Monday. We still plan on getting out and seeing the city this weekend, but some things will have to wait until our next visit. There is no sense going to the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, if we can't see the city below.

db