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Published: February 13th 2006
What I was expecting from Singapore was very much different than the Singapore I encountered. To begin, I suppose I have an overly romanticized vision of many of the places I am to visit on this trip which is something that I am attempting to rectify. The more you ideas and expectations you bring into any given situation, the more apt you are to be disappointed when any aspect of your hopes doesn’t come to fruition. This is particularly the case in having seen Singapore this past week.
To begin, my vision of Singapore is one who’s city is dominated vastly by grand, white Victorian Mansions, of which whose columns are interspersed with many varieties of large exotic palms. In the center courtyard sitting by the grandiose fountain made of marble and gold, there are always old bearded Tommy Bahama type men sitting around in linen suits with short brimmed hats smoking cigars and drinking fruity cocktails with those little tropical umbrellas in them. Of course there are many beautiful young women around wearing lightly colored floral patterned sun dresses covering their legs but leave their arms to be shaded by the laced sun umbrellas they hold themselves and the
Singapore Projects
A little nicer than the Projects in Brooklyn...harsh equator sun.
I know that this image I’ve been carrying around with me may as well be considered the Great Gatsby in Panama, but for whatever reason, whenever someone mentions the name Singapore to me, this is what I think. The Singapore I encountered was one far more different than the simple images in my mind. It is a city of diversity, technology, progression, religion and pods….
The first thing I noticed is that you could walk the streets barefoot if you desired because the city was exceptionally clean. I’m not sure if you are allowed to walk around barefoot however as Singapore has many silly laws that you and I would find excessive. For instance, as is nationally known, caning is a mandatory punishment for possession of drugs and death is a mandatory punishment for drug trafficking. Among others are no chewing gum and no spitting. So if you are allowed to walk around barefoot and decide to, (while not carrying any drugs of course), rest assured that you won’t step in any spit or gum.
The public transportation system was efficient and the city has taken advantage of every opportunity to limit air pollution
and the number of cars in the streets. So after taking an overcrowded train into the part of the city closest to the CBD (Central Business District) that held a hostel within the given price range, i.e. cheap, I rose from the underground to find myself in the heart of many skyscrapers, and I wasn’t even in the CBD! If you ever decide to visit Singapore, accommodation should be no problem as my impression left me thinking that there was a 4 star hotel on every block near where I stayed.
After dropping my bag at the hostel, it was time to explore my immediate surroundings. Just down the street, traffic was blocked so that an open air market was allowed open trade. Prior to the market however was my very Hindu temple and I took the first opportunity to take a look around. Due to its placement, I figured that this temple was one more for show than for actual worship. It was situated immediately at the beginning of the street market and I assumed was hoping to attract interested tourists such as myself into coming to look for a small donation to the offering plate. I was
immediately proved wrong once I stepped inside as there were 3 monks (forgive my ignorance I didn’t ask their proper names) or shall I say religious men offering praise to a few of the alters of some of the idols scattered around the outside of the courtyard. There were also a good number of patrons congregated inside the temple on their knees praying for, as I was told, their family and friends.
I took no pictures from this place as I thought it would be rude to walk into someone else’s place of worship and begin to document my lack of knowledge of their religion. However this brief introduction to Hinduism would prove most valuable a few days later at the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur.
The rest of the morning consisted of a fresh cocoanut from a fruit vendor, a stroll through the rest of the market where I learned that Elton John’s Greatest Hits were selling at the same price as the latest release by the Backstreet Boys, 5 Singapore dollars. Apparently we were walking along a legitimate market, as I later saw cds and dvds selling at prices which would be the equivalent of what
you would pay for a used banana peel in the states.
Since there was only one day to explore Singapore before we headed into Peninsular Malaysia, we decided to hop onto the Hippopotamus bus tour. Think double decker tour bus only on steroids and purple. We were the only 2 patrons on the final tour of the afternoon and the girl issuing tickets informed us that we would be allowed to bring our own drinks onto the tour. This of course was translated into Royal and I splitting a six pack of Tiger Beer, a traditionally brewed lager with a clean, crisp refreshing taste brewed locally in Singapore. In being the only people on the bus aside from the guide and driver, the young Sing guide girl quickly abandoned playing us the prerecorded tapes explaining all about Singapore’s GDP and the per capita growth ratio that correlates nicely with the rapid growth experienced over the past 30 years within the city. Instead, she came up top and sat with us and answered out questions directly.
Without being critical, I can only liken this girl’s knowledge of the city to am alligator attempting to recite algebra to Einstein. So
that was a bit harsh, she did know what she had heard on the tapes though she couldn’t recall how many people lived in the city or nearly any question who’s answer required anything numeric. She did get most of the buildings’ names correct or I only suppose she did as I had no cross reference to dispute her facts or names. To her credit she did apologize in between our visit of little India and the CBD informing us that she was only working part time on the Hippo bus system in between schooling.
Having told her that we were only in Singapore one day and that we didn’t know much of anything about the city, she told us to get off her bus at the next stop and board another bus that would take us through another part of the city inclusive of a much more knowledgeable guide. Of course we got off, of course we got lost and never made it to the next bus and of course we were late for drinks with a contact we were supposed to meet a the Raffles Hotel for Singapore Slings.
Here at the Raffles Hotel, I found
a glimpse of the Singapore I had imagined. It has the traditional Victorian architecture I was looking for and all of the palms that I thought existed. There were however no Tommy Bahama types and no sun umbrellas but I was satisfied nonetheless that I hadn’t been carrying around a completely empty vision all this time.
The girl Royal and I met at the Raffles Hotel bar had graduated from Boston College and had been transferred from Weehauken’s office of UBS to Singapore for what she thought was 6 weeks but in fact will end up being a total of 6 months. If anyone from Merrill Lynch is reading this, feel free to transfer me to Singapore for as long as you like. It’d be a good thing! In Katy, we were able to see an insider’s perspective of being an outsider in one of the largest South Pacific cities.
Katy, Royal and I all celebrated our American Heritage by eating at a Hog’s Breath Saloon, which was terrible by the way and then heading down to Clarke Quay which is the newly revamped hotspot in Singapore. All along the river of Clarke Quay, there are restaurants with
outdoor seating inside “pods.” These pods are nothing more than permanent weather umbrellas but the effect of hundreds of pods smushed together reflecting off the river is one that will without doubt be an image that Singapore will market to tourists for years to come.
The bar Katy took us to was a blues bar called the Crazy Elephant or something of that nature and the band was playing a drawn out version of a newer Allman Brothers Band song. Turns out that the lead singer was a failed musician from LA who decided to pick up and start over across the ocean, who was backed with a band that more reflective of the ethnic region we were visiting. After being served two $30 pitchers, my night was over and I was already looking towards Malaysia.
All in all I would like to revisit Singapore, as it is an easy place for a westerner to assimilate into the culture of Southeast Asia. English is the adopted language, all street signs are easily legible and most everyone, shopkeepers, waiters and taxi drivers spoke the language well enough to understand and some even had a bountiful vocabulary. One day cannot
Karaoke
Huge in these parts... do a city like Singapore justice so I will officially add it to my must return list. Next would be Melaka and Kuala Lumpur which would both prove to be vastly different from Singapore and much more like what I had expected of Southeast Asia…
The third world…..
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anonymous
non-member comment
wow you should really be a writer. singapore looks awesome. you got a haircut!