sweet singapore

this is what happens when you get off a 5-hr plane ride all oily and stressed from traveling, make your way to your hotel, get checked in and then quickly go pee, brush your teeth and touch up your makeup before heading out again - you end up under-applying ... or maybe over-applying. this photo has me question makeup all together! in any event, this is me on day one in Singapore.

From my Singapore travel journal - an assortment of random thoughts following no outline or logical course:

What a feast for my eyes. Singapore is a beautiful island nation and all outward appearances indicate the country is a wealthy one. They have beautiful buildings and well manicured landscaping. It appears that outdated buildings are either given a contemporary face-lift or torn down and replaced with something new and modern. I didn’t see a single building that my eyes didn’t appreciate. Singapore screams, “I’m RICH!” from the stately, elaborate and colonial buildings, to the lush green landscaping, to the “upgrading” construction, to the cleanliness, to the blasts of cold air-conditioned air that one can feel when walking past bustling retail entrances as though the cold air was being pumped from an unlimited supply. Singapore is so vibrant, so bright. Splashes of bold primary colors popped out in every view: on buildings, taxis, buses and street banners.

As far as I can tell the locals speak Singlish – a mixture of Singaporean (Cantonese / Mandarin) and English and it is the most intoxicating sounds to hear. Recognizable words and phrases tightly packed and interwoven into a sea of foreign tongue. I could not help but to eavesdrop if for no other reason than to try to spot the English words.

Two letters come to mind when I reflect on my comings and goings in Singapore: B.O. as in body odor. Apparently deodorant is optional for the people of Singapore. Temperatures were in the upper 80s – no rain but at times it seemed likely. Winds were surprisingly ever present. Inside buildings, stores, shops and stations the air conditioning pumped at full blast. Often I felt very cold and under-dressed when entering these chilly places.

At some times, I found myself eager to get back to Korea where I knew and understood the social customs – where one can be completely oblivious to the others one encounters (and visa versa). I like being about to push my way through crowds, weasel my way to the front of lines, elbow my way to open seats on the subway and stare blankly at anyone for any length of time for any reason at all without anyone blinking a questioning eye in my direction. But, what works in Korea doesn’t work in Singapore. There were times that I felt I was getting messages from the Singaporeans around me saying “you’re standing too close” or “you’re pushing your way through the crowd unnecessarily” or “you’re snobbishly aloof”.

My most memorable experience was the performance art piece at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). A guy named Tim Jeeves – a cancer survivor – appeared naked (okay, he was wearing boxers) in his exhibit titled “Should I be in my bodi?” Visitors were invited to write on his body using the black markers he had tied to, and hanging from, his body while he silently stared back (kinda freaky it was). One man wrote, “You are bigger than your body.” I could only watch. The exhibit made me think about my aunt, who, that same week lost her foot to cancer. Anyway, he blogged his performance experience here. Another exhibit at SAM was an artist’s collection of old buildings – constructed in small scale with mat board – of Singapore’s past that were most memorable to him as a child but vanished from the country’s footprint, edged-out by “upgrading” construction.

When asked about their impressions of Singapore many Americans say the country is strict and cite the 1994 caning of Michael Fay for committing the crime of vandalism and the gum-chewing ban to support their opinion. Even during my travel preparations I read about the steep fines and severe punishments for breaking Singaporean laws; however, I found Singaporeans to be relaxed and unafraid of their own strict laws. For example, I watched a woman throw trash in the direction of a trashcan, miss, look at her short shot result, and then walk away. And I saw many people cross streets whenever it was convenient for them (usually not at a cross walk and not when crossing traffic was stopped with a red light despite the posted signs telling pedestrians to use the crosswalk). So I would say that Singapore’s reputation for being so strict is not one that sways many locals. I’m not saying that I saw locals blowing bubbles of gum or passing the bong but just maybe the country isn’t as strict as outsiders have come to believe that it is.

Though I spent a lot of time touring alone I also joined a guided tour group to the Jurong Bird Park, which I really enjoyed. I learned that a group of pelicans is called a squadron (another fun fact for the water cooler) and the name of that cool looking bird that I photoed at the HK Botanic and Zoological Gardens is called the Crowned Pigeon. Anyway, the All Star BirdShow was awesome. They have birds trained to perform for snacks and the main message of the show was to recycle, reuse and not litter (some of my favorite messages). I recommend others to see the show. They had these huge birds flying over the crowd: a great hornbill, a pair of parrots, a turkey vulture, and a cockatoo (not at the same time). Anyone that tried to reach up for the bird flying overhead got a public admonishing by the host running the show … “No. Sit down, on your hands!” The Lory aviary was cool. You could buy feed and feed the colorful and vocal birds. A cute young couple let me hold the feed they bought and feed one of the Lorys while they took my photo since I took their photo for them. I thought it was such a kind gesture.

While on the Jurong Bird Park tour I met Ingram (or maybe it was Ingrid) from Denmark – a kooky old lady smelling of alcohol and cigarettes and a single traveler like myself, who talked far too much saying out loud what most would say quietly to themselves like “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” and “My sticker is green and everyone else’s is red, I don’t want to be on the wrong tour. I don’t want to transfer buses.” She’d walk past complete strangers at the park and just start belting out “Look at that! It’s just breathtaking. Just takes your breath away. I mean. Just breathtaking.” She was such an odd bird (no pun intended) that I wondered if she might be a little touched. Anyway, within the first two seconds of meeting her she looked down at my feet and announced in front of everyone, “You must be from India because your feet are yellow.” Huh? I looked down. I was wearing sandals. Nothing looked unusual to me. So I just laughed it off - she already had the lot of us convinced she was a nut-job but this surely sealed the deal - and then she went on to something else. Later she asked me about India. This made me laugh. I told her that I had never been to India and while lifting a foot off the ground, said, “This is my natural skin color.” She was so surprised and said that she has been a nurse for more than 30 years and was trained to notice such things. Anyway, she was a kooky one, that old lady; totally harmless and quite memorable. It was like her 20th time in Singapore.

Another tour I did was the Santosa tour. Santosa is a small island off the island of Singapore. What an obnoxious tourist trap! Disproportionally hyped up by the tourist industry. It does not deliver the fun and excitement advertised; most people’s expectations are let down upon visiting the island. My Santosa tour highlights included: the Merlion Tower, Underwater World and the Magical Sentosa Show.

The Merlion Tower was basically lame but provided nice aerial views of the island. The Underwater World aquarium was more fun – I got to see my first coconut crab (and yes, they can crack coconuts with their strong pincers) and I got to witness feeding time for the other crabs (they were fed shrimp) and I got to play with fish that came up to and then ricocheted off my relaxed floating hand in the hands-on interactive pond.

The Magical Sentosa Show was basically a bunch of beams of lights and lasers shone on shooting sprays of water while music played in the background and an overly (read: nauseously) vivacious actor (“punified” by the massive size of the laser/light/water show) conducted the event with the driest script that could possibly be written for a show consisting of so much water …and, oh yeah, they throw a couple of pyrotechnic blasts at the end. It’s the lamest show I’ve ever seen and to my surprise it was packed with people – I think all of Singapore was there to see this show, which incidentally, is a nightly attraction. I can’t imagine this show being remotely good even in the 1980s when these laser light shows were emerging as popular forms of entertainment. It was just as bad as Disney World’s Tapestry of Dreams parade at the Epcot Center: out-dated, boring and uninspiring. (Makes you wonder what they are doing with all the admissions fees.) On our way out, one of the tour guides said that this year is the last year of the Magical Sentosa Show; that the amphitheater and musical fountains will be demolished and in their place an integrated (no doubt, theme-oriented) resort casino will be built to “attract new and repeat tourism and raise Singapore's profile as a family destination” by 2010 according to this article.

Perhaps there were redeemable attractions on Santosa, which I wasn’t able to visit because of the constraints of traveling with a group. Maybe the Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom, and the Images of Singapore museum would have made a better impression. My Santosa experience cost me a lot of time and money and I don’t recommend Santosa. I did, however, get some great shots of Singapore’s port life from the cable car ride I took to get to Santosa island from Singapore.

Little India was quite cool. I liked it a lot for the uniqueness of it. I have never been to a Little India before. Chinatown was the cleanest Chinatown that I’ve ever seen (I’ve been to Washington DC’s Chinatown) and it was only marginally interesting because it seemed only partially ethnic where as Little India felt like a slice of life not found anywhere else on Singapore island. Chinatown looked much like everywhere else, but the highlight was the Modern Chinese Art gallery in Chinatown that I happened upon called Art Season. I got to be in the presence of an art buyer talking to the gallery attendant, in Singlish, about purchasing the piece of work on display. That was neat. Apparently money was of no object to the buyer. He was fascinated with the butterfly-esque girl-faced figure sitting in the grass whose head and eyes were exaggeratingly enlarged, like a cartoon figure. I couldn’t see that piece of work hanging on a wall in my home but it was really cool to hear this guy talk about buying art like I would a new pair of jeans (money is of no object when a pair of jeans fit me properly).

The tour guide on the Santosa tour told me, when he found out that I was from the US (apparently the only one), that “Americans deserved to have President Bush as their president.” He cited the Iraq war as the reason for his dislike of Bush. I couldn’t really get my head around his meaning of “deserved to have” and didn’t ask him to explain further. This guide – a 3rd generation Chinese Singaporean – told me his 25-year-old daughter studying in London likes it better there because as a journalist in London she can write about things that a journalist in Singapore is forbidden to write. I’m thankful to be a citizen of county that grants me the right to speak freely. For example, I can say, ‘listening to Bush speak makes me cringe’ and ‘I can’t wait for the Bush term to end’ and ‘I didn’t vote for Bush in either election.’ without fear of being caned for saying so.

Street food. Where were all the street food vendors that Asian cities are so well known for? I wanted to go to Singapore’s night market that I had read about but 3 nights and 4 days wasn’t enough time to allow for it. By 10pm I was zonked because by 9am each day I was out of the hotel for the entire day. It worked out that the hotel’s accommodations were so lackluster because I spent almost no leisure time in my room … unless you count sleeping and showering as leisure activities.

I walked my ass off to see as much of Singapore as I could – yeah, I travel better alone. I don’t think anyone could keep up with me. (Maybe my Dad.) In four days, not only did I go on two guided tours to see the Jurong Bird Park and Santosa island, but I also visited the Singapore Art Museum, the National Museum of Singapore (a fantastically, well organized, highly recommended attraction), Chinatown, Little India, Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Visitor’s Center, NAFA Art Gallery, Art Season Gallery and I walked along the packed and popular Orchard Road and I walked around the Marina Bay and the Singapore River and enjoyed the views of Merlion Park and Esplanade and the river taxis. I visited what I thought was the Raffles Landing Site – marked by a statue of Raffles himself in pure white polymarble – but as it turns out I was at the original statue of Raffles in dark bronze erected in front of the Victoria Theatre. By day I was a power-tourist popping in and out of attractions and by night I was pooped. Yeah, I travel better alone … but I never stop dreaming about having someone to travel with.

So I did it! I did something that I feared. I walked right into a popular bar, by myself, all by my lonesome, on a Friday night and took a seat at the bar. It was about 7pm so the after dinner crowd was in full swing. I know I looked as awkward as I felt and truth be told the whole escapade took maybe a total of 10 minutes, if that, with most of the time being taken by the bar tender in making my legendary Singapore Sling^* and in getting me my bill, because I think I had that drink drunk in under 2.5 minutes. I couldn’t control my nerves and it manifested itself in trying to get the whole experience over with ASAP. And to add more bizarreness to my existence in that place, I handed the guy a coupon. “Here’s my ½ off coupon, thank you very much.” So my bill came to 10.90 SGD, which is about $7.11 USD. Can you believe I took a coupon to a bar? I still can’t. Yeah, I was in and out of there, the famous Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, in a flash. Speaking of flashes … usually I like a photo to commemorate a special occasion such as this but I just couldn’t bring myself to draw additional undue attention to my already “blaze-orange-saves-lives” appearance in that place. So I took a flashless photo of my drink – proof of my accomplishment, though I’m not in any hurry to do that again.

I spent absolutely not even 1 SGD on anything I couldn’t eat, drink or experience. No souvenirs were purchased this go around since I went to Singapore during high season. Now … having said all of that I will say the following: tampons, tampons, tampons. Why do I always forget to pack tampons? I had to pay 30% more than necessary buying tampons at the hotel’s convenient a.k.a. rip-off mart. I’m 100% certain on this: men have it so easy when it comes to traveling. Tampons aside, traveling is getting easier and easier for me. Maybe I should consider exploring Europe?

^*Singapore Sling. This classic was created in 1915 at the Long Bar of Singapore’s Raffles Hotel and is now famous the world over. It’s a concoction of dry gin, Dom Benedictine Cointreau and cherry brandy, shaken up with lime and pineapple juices and a dash of Angostura bitters and Grenadine.