Chapter 4: Birds that can paint

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I am in the wonderful city of Singapore. (and that is not just my opinion - every Singaporean seems to think so, they are very proud of their city/country/whatever it is that they got here). It really is a nice way to break up my Malaysian vacation with some first-world amenities. Not to mention that there are a lot of really interesting things to see here. The whole city is a great collection of many different cultures, cuisines, religions and architectural styles that seem to co-exist very comfortably. All of this under the very paternalistic direction of the local government. It is hard to walk down the street without seeing a sign exhorting people to be kind to their fellow human beings and to not litter. They have a lot of rules and there is a steep fine for breaking all of them. For example 500 Singapore dollars for eating on the MRT (the local train system). Seems a bit excessive, but I must admit their trains really are very clean. As are their streets, shopping malls and restrooms.

It is a very international city, there really are people from all over the world here - working and studying mostly. From the beginnings of time (or something close to that) Melaka and Singapore have both been very important as trade cities on the Melaka Strait. Sailors from all parts of Asia and Middle East (or what they call here western Asia) came here following the Monsoon, traded and then left when it was blowing in the opposite direction. So there really have been all these old communities of different peoples and cultures here, its not a new phenomenon. I am staying in an area called Little India, and it really is full of indians as well as people who want to buy saris or indian food stuffs. But just a step away from Little India is Arab Street and throughout the day you can hear the call to prayer from the nearby Sultan Mosque. It is very pretty from the outside - I can't really go in there because I dont have appropriate clothing on. I read somewhere that the people of the city really wanted to contribute to the building of the mosque so they brough thousands of beer bottles. The bottoms of these bottles are attached right below the domes, purpose being to reflect the sunlight and make the golden domes shine even more.

After finding a hostel for me Henrik and I headed off to Jurong bird park. Its like a zoo but only for birds. Well, the one exception to that was in one enclosure where we also saw a mouse deer. It's a really small deer, about the size of a rabbit, very cute. We saw all kinds of birds and there were also bird shows every hour. We liked them so much we caught 4 of them. They are geared at children and so are quite entertaining. The first one was with parrots, I think that was the best one. The parrots did tricks, sang songs and one bird could paint by holding a brush in his claws. We were very impressed and supported the bird cause by having Henrik buy one the masterpieces to use as decoration for his bare-walled dorm room. They didn't call that bird Picasso for nothing. We also caught a show with birds of prey - they have hawks and vultures fly around the amphitheatre and do some other stuff. There is also a tropical area with what is described ad the highest man-made waterfall in the world. And finally there was a really cool area where they have a bunch of birds, mostly small parrots fly around a huge enclosure, like a little forest. People can buy this sweet stuff that the birds like and then they will sit on your hands and eat it. I was content to watch other people do this rather than doing it myself - all the entraintment without any of the scratches.

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Photos

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The artist....

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and the masterpiece (plus 1 satisfied customer)

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Guess whose flip flops are whose?