Singapore - The Lion City

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So, we made it! One day late and without the comfort of Cathay Pacific - but at least we’re not stuck in Thailand like many others. We wish our Kiwi friends bon voyage as they are going straight to the airport to sit it out for their flight back home at 9pm tonight. We also say bye to Jenny from Canada (via the SFA) & Mark from Scotland who are booked into another hostel & we hop on the fast shuttle service (6 RM - Malaysian currency - each. We can’t believe that they have no ATM or exchange facilities here) to Queen Street which is in the centre & near our hostel. The drive is quick & efficient & takes about 20mins. We book into the Backpacker Cosy Corner in a lovely old building central to most things in the city. The room is basic & functional with shared facilities but it does have air con (not expected). It’s hot & humid but we decide to get some orientation (and some cash - 1US$ gets 1.5 Sing$ approx), rather than smarten up. We leave all this for later when we are due to go to Raffles & meet Shelley at 6 pm - she’s the Japanese Canadian we met on our Gap trip to Indochina.

The City got it’s name according to Malay history when a Sumatran prince visited the land of Temasek & spotted a lion - based on this good omen he created Singapore - the Lion City.

There are three things we’re definitely going to do in Singapore: i) have a Singapore gin sling at Raffles, ii) go on the Flyer - it’s equivalent to the London Eye, and iii) eat lots and lots of Malaysian food - Nasi Goreng here we come!

And as we’re starving we head off straight away to check out the local eateries. We are surprised at how much more things cost here (not quite in the London league though!). We eventually decide on a place opposite the Sultan Mosque off Arab street. It’s a place called Zam Zam where Malay & Indian Muslims do a roaring trade mainly to locals. We go for a local speciality called Murtabak - essentially a Parata filled with mutton (or chicken) with fried egg & onions rolled up served with a lovely mild spicy gravy. It’s huge & fabulous at 5Sin $s. We decide it’s a must have again before we go to Oz . We also have a mutton Biriyani which isn’t the best we’ve had but ok.

It’s then off to Little India - one of the highlights in Singapore. It’s a quaint neighbourhood of many Indian owned shops - curry houses, jewellery shops, and even an old flour mill still in full working order in the main street. It’s a miniature Southall in London really but with South Indian people predominantly from Madras. The music, books & the look of the folks is pure South Indian, though the food is a mix of Malay, Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian & Arabic. The buildings are pure colonial & have survived the old clearance plans of the government which were around in 1980 when M first came here. However, the buildings haven’t had a lot of TLC since then other than bright coloured paints that adds to the areas charm but for how long who knows.

We also head there for dinner on our last evening - trying great chole (chick peas) with parata at one place and mutton curry with a plate of veg curries in another. Both delish. We are surprised to see the streets packed with South Indian men milling around; as far as we can tell it’s a meeting point for casual labour recruitment. It’s also the red light district and a couple of places seem to be doing a thriving business. We’ve been told brothels are legal here but soliciting isn‘t.

M’s impressions is that S as a whole looks more developed but dirtier with garbage all over & some graffiti which would not have been tolerated back in the 80s. The one good piece of urban planning that has been achieved is the retention of many open green park spaces which despite the population density of the island, appears well planned with plenty of breathing space for all.

Social Housing has long been an important part of the local housing scene & there are examples of integrated communities being developed over many years in selected neighbourhoods together with regeneration projects as in China Town. This area saw the first key worker housing developed in the 19th century - an amazing and visionary approach. This investment in affordable housing is lead by the Housing Development Board (sort of Housing Corporation) who provide government funding although they have the same passion for homeownership as in the UK.

Politically the place is largely a one party state (run by the People’s Action Party - PAP) which wants Singapore to be the leader in SE Asia but according to locals is forever playing catch up with it’s neighbours. The latest is the plan to build the largest Casino in the world. Interesting priority with the country in/near recession. The government’s response to the global economic downturn is to ask Companies to retrain folks at their expense & cut salaries rather than lay off folks - however this isn’t happening apparently. We notice that domestic help is big business here for the rich who have many servants or local people who train as domestic help for foreign markets - mainly Malaysia & the Arab countries - an interesting aspiration.

We are surprised by the amount of Christmas decorations around compared to the rest of SE Asia. They are big & brash & everywhere. They definitely seem out of place in this heat & humidity though. There are shopping Malls all over - this reflects the Singaporeans passions of shopping & food (eating out) - there are Food courts are all over too. Actually it feels like Singapore is one huge shopping Mall. However, their customer care skills need a lot of working on. As for the recession - we don’t see evidence of this all the Malls are full of local folk eating, drinking & shopping. On the upside, if it’s hot one can duck in and out of air conned Malls & escape the heat & humidity all day. Alternatively one can avoid the rain when it pours.

The big story of the moment getting wall to wall coverage is the killing of a 28 year old Singaporean woman at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai by terrorists. The feeling of indignation & sorrow is intense, however, there appears to be no sorrow at the loss of lives of the other 170 or so people (and counting) from various other nationalities that also died. Sad world when it gets so partisan.

After a long awaited shower & spruce up we get ready to meet Shelley. The Raffles Hotel is a national & international icon - a sort of temple to Empire & named after Stanford Raffles who allegedly “found” Singapore in 1819!!, it’s also famous for it’s Singapore Gin Sling which C is on a mission to try even at $Sin 16 a throw. It is however an impressive building & has “the Raj” written all over it! As backpackers sense prevails, we decide to check out the Harbour side at Sunset with Shelley in toe, before getting a cheap bite to eat - C can do the Gin Sling stuff another day. We end up eating by the Bay - Nasi Goreng & Satay (beef & Chicken) washed down with some Tiger beer. We bid Shelley happy travels - she’s off to Japan next - for the 4th time. It was great to see her & enjoy her company. She eventually goes home to Vancouver for Christmas.

The old policy of government control by coercion has changed. Once chewing gum was banned as was bungy jumping (an indication of the priorities of the government). Now young folk with mobiles spend hours walking around the shopping malls taking pictures of each other - boys with punk or mods & rockers dress & haircut sense & girls in shorts & tops - very western in outlook.

Singaporeans have a lifestyle that fuses technology & tradition. The Chinese majority, about 80%, are Buddhist, Taoist, and Chinese customs or superstitions dominate social life. 14% are Malay Singaporeans & 8% Indians from Tamil Nadu in South India. Although not directly affected, the Singaporeans responded with amazing generosity after the Tsunami to help it’s neighbours by giving S$170million. There are also many Catholics here - evidenced by many quaint churches & St Andrews Cathedral from the Raj are still around as are Hindu Temples, Mosques & Buddhist temples - many going back to the late 19th century.

We have a few heavy showers but this doesn’t stop us checking out China Town which is now largely gentrified, and Charles Quay by the Singapore River which divides the city is the trendy bars & clubs area. It does look grim during the day though. Taking a tip from Shelley who had been shown around by some friends who live locally, we visit The Golden Mile Complex. It is surprisingly a neighbourhood of a large Thai community (mainly Muslim) & old Chinese inhabitants - the latter run an amazing Food Court where we try some Laksa & Chinese noodles with meat & fish ball soup - both local specialities & most enjoyable.

We try a local favourite called Kaya Toast for breakfast at The Toast Box , a dish suggested by Shelley, which is a cheese & coconut jam toasted sandwich eaten with 2 quarter boiled eggs. M likes it but C isn’t too sure - she’d prefer a half boiled egg instead. We visit a enclosed market nearby where local Chinese eat & down a couple of large Tiger beers (bottles) - it’s a treat as it’s so humid & there’s not much else to do. Then it’s off to Zam Zam again for Murtabak & paratas with pumpkin curry & bhindi (ladies finger) curry. All fabulous for $Sing 9.40 which included an amazing Lime in iced water (a Nimbhu Pani).

We catch the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) system - their metro - to the airport & then hop on the Skytrain when we get to Changi Airport to reach Terminal 1 (this took us a frustrating hour & 15 mins from the centre). What this experience showed us was that Singapore has a long way to go to achieve any good Customer Service standard, information was in short supply & what information that was available was incorrect. Another example of this lack of information was that Shelley had a really useful guide to the city which we couldn’t find anywhere in Singapore - yet she got hers in Kuala Lumpur. It’s likely that we will not come back here again or in a hurry & if at all - just to pass through maybe. It is clearly a shadow of it’s former self & needs to reinvent itself & pretty soon if it wants to be a serious player in the region.

And so we come to the end of our Indochina adventure. And we didn’t do any of the three must do’s we’d identified for Singapore; Gin Sling was too expensive, the city didn’t impress enough to warrant the Flyer, and the lovely Muslim food distracted us from our search for even more Nasi Goreng!! Next stop Port Douglas, Australia - see you there……….

Some general comments on SE Asia (including Indochina)

There are some common themes & activities that are shared by the countries in this part of the world which perhaps we haven’t made clear enough - so bear with us as we list them below:

People here are mad about football & more so the English Premiership - with Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea & Arsenal being the most followed teams. The European Champions league comes a close second. Everyone watches on the street the TV in bars & cafes when a live game is on,
They all (except Myanmar) run cookery classes on their own cuisines
It’s amazing how petrol in the rural areas is sold in bottles at about every 50 metres
Gambling by men on the street is common, using cards or a board game like a drafts set while the women do the work. Casinos are big in their countries & the biggest one is in no man’s land between the Thai & Cambodian border - which is also the dirtiest.
Clothes in cotton, silk of various types embellished with elaborate embroidery are common and look very impressive. Tailoring in a hurry, made to measure at cheap prices is also very big business throughout as is made to measure leather shoes.
Copying all brand name clothes is very common & selling them at low prices.
Thailand is more developed together with Singapore in dealing with travellers - this might explain why there are more scams here than elsewhere. The rest are fast catching up. Northern Thailand seemed more relaxed and friendly than Bangkok or the south.
Disabled people are given access to certain types of jobs - selling lottery tickets is one of them. Also many blind folk tend to sing for a living on a sort of Karaoke machine. Karaoke is also very big particularly the latest KTV - so a star is born instantaneously.
Environmental consciousness is low in all countries
Women tend to be about 50-55% of the workplace but the societies are largely male dominated
Japanese cars such as Toyota, Hyundai, Honda. Isuzu, etc have cornered the market here with European & US cars being a rarity.
The Japanese have a number of large JV projects on electricity & water treatments systems here. China also has a big influence on the local markets.
TV is quite poor in content & quality & the dubbing is done not only by subtitles but some woman constantly talking over the story - speaking all the characters words, bizarre!

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Comments

[carl]

never
Australia has some very pretty landmarks too bad I will never see them in person . xoxo someboby