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Published: February 12th 2008
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Defaulters Parade
My colleague Jim will have to get a bigger floor, at this rate. Many people have favourite airlines, and so do we. Singapore Airlines really impressed us when we first flew with them nine years ago. It had better have been so--we were in the air for twelve hours from Vancouver to Seoul, then another six from Seoul to Singapore.
We flew Singapore Airlines again, (this time from Taipei to Singapore) and they were as good as ever. The flight was only four hours this time. Good food, no skimping on the booze buggy, good movies, and nice flight attendants. The airport in Singapore is at Changi, the site of the WWII POW camp made famous in James Clavell's "King Rat".
Sometimes people refer to Singapore disrespectfully as "Singabore". “Oh sure", (people grudgingly admit), "It's clean and safe and...but it's so boring! No doing this, no doing that, that'll be fine. Fines are at least 100 Singapore dollars and up to 500 for littering, spitting, jaywalking, not flushing a toilet, etc--and God help anyone caught with drugs or a gun.
In other words, people who annoy me do not have the God-given right to behave as they please. Being one myself, I naturally exclude jaywalkers from my list of annoying people.
Semester End Lunch 1
Aboriginal salad made from from local wild greens. Singapore is not a budget destination. Prices are very high compared to Taipei--on a par with Canada. Mercifully, Lao-puo was able to find us a really cool B&B--a 25th floor penthouse overlooking the harbour, with a private bath, for $430 (Singapore) for five nights with breakfast included. It worked out to $63.38 (Canadian dollars) per night. For two.
Sentosa Island is the playground of Singapore, with all kinds of attractions and museums. We went to Fort Siloso on the island, the site of a British coast artillery establishment that became a POW camp. 100,000 British, Australian and Indian troops were captured when Singapore fell--the worst defeat in the history of the British Army. It was very touching and moving to be there. Singabore?
I swam to Asia. Sentosa Island is connected to Singapore by a bridge, and Singapore is on an island connected to the Malay Peninsula by a causeway. Sentosa Island is therefore the southernmost point in continental Asia. There is a little islet 100 m offshore with a suspension bridge going to it, so I walked across the bridge and swam back. Singabore?
"Little India". Now there's a stop worth bailing from the subway
Semester End Lunch 2
Beautiful Chinese chicken. for! We had a wonderful and inexpensive Indian dinner on the upper floor (sitting on the floor) of a shophouse where the proprietor and his wife and family lived upstairs from there. We missed a temple festival, which was a good thing. As it stands, we could barely move with the hordes of Indian people shopping and eating and hanging out. There are four official languages in Singapore, including English, but nearly everyone speaks at least a bit of it. Not amongst themselves, and not in little India. Singabore?
If you do nothing else in Singapore, go to the zoo. We had a great time, even though our main reason for going was because I wanted Lao-puo to have tea with the orang-gutans, and they don't have that feature anymore. Something better happened.
We got to chatting with a fellow during our New Year weekend in Hong Kong--and I'll be hanged if he didn't stroll by us in the Singapore Zoo! John is an airline pilot--one of those affable cheery souls that people instinctively like. They (John and his friend Melanie) joined us for dinner at Clarke Quay on the Singapore River. Mexican food on the riverfront. Singabore?
Sunrise over the Harbour, from our Window.
Singapore is one of the busiest container ports in the world. The river used to be the harbour area, until steam power arrived and the steamships couldn't handle the shallows in the river.
Our bus to Kuala Lumpur left the next morning--but not before Lao-puo and I had iced coffee under the trees in a sidewalk cafe with a very nice young fellow who talked about the plethora of good jobs for English teachers, and the ease with which permanent residency status and even citizenship can be achieved. Singabore?
We stayed one more night in Singapore on our way back home, with dinner in the Muslim neighbourhood and an evening spent at Raffles Hotel wishing we were rich enough to afford to stay in the place.
Before we even got to Arab St, we stopped in for a drink in a jazzy office building. I remember feeling sorry for non-native English speakers when I looked for the “tandas” (see next chapter about Malaysia for an explanation). There were three doors in a row—the first was labeled “hose reel”, the second was called “mail room”, and only the third was the international stickman figure. Confusing?
I was glad that Lao-puo roped me into a bit of shopping,
Dinner in "Little India"
We sat on the floor upstairs, and the family home was upstairs again. Dinner was wonderful Northern Indian fare. because I was able to buy a nice silk shirt for a fraction of what the Canadian price would have been. That was in “Arab St”. Lao-puo caught a video of the Muslim call to prayer just before we went for kebabs and Turkish beer for supper.
Singabore? I don't think so.
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nicole
non-member comment
glad you had a good time. i liked singapore when i went last year...im going back next week for my friend's wedding....yay! ill just be there 2 days though....bu hao! :)