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Published: February 12th 2008
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Sri Veerama Kaliamman
Amazing detail! The last time I saw a Kali temple Indiana Jones was involved... 'Here are your boarding passes, oh, and I've upgraded you to business class.' Blink, blink, blink.
I look left and right, just to check if there are any hidden cameras or anything. Things such as this never ever happen to us.
'Oh, thanks' I say, feigning the modest joy that I imagine the typical upgraded passenger might experience and then can't help it, adding 'that's bleedin' deadly' like the true Dub I am.
We bounce through the airport and are first in the queue to board. 'Oh-mi-gawd, it's got an upstairs!' I say while Alan tries to shush me and shakes his head when offered a Financial Times and a Wall Street Journal. Upstairs (!!!) we were shown to our individual pleasure-pods and airhostesses sashayed to and fro with trays of champagne and freshly squeezed orange juice, I imagine some midget slotted between the toilet and the corridor squeezing the fruit for our enjoyment. To be honest most of us in f.class as we like to call it were complete liggers. There was a conspiratory giggle afoot and when it was spotted that we were discreetly photographing our excess, everyone bar the one genuine businessman whipped out their
cameras while he cleared his throat and refused the champagne.
My one complaint is that the storage space wasn't what one would need, especially as I was loathe to refuse anything and so was quaffing champagne, orange, water, white wine and coffee whilst watching Will and Grace (sadly the movies weren't turned on as the flight was too short) and reading the Marie Claire magazine they offered, my legs comfortable under my blanket in my reclined position with the chair massaging my lower back. And then the food - ha - first classers even get a choice of main-course, and a real salt and pepper container and REAL knives and forks, all COMPLIMENTARY, what a beautiful word. Of course a few days later when we were wedged into the middle of our Quantas flight to Perth and they ran out of hot dinners, all of this was a distant dream, but still, we'll always have that flight, sigh.
Once on the ground we melted our way through the humid afternoon to our very nice hostel where Connie who managed it set us up with a cup of tea and a chat about the c'ity/country. We spent the next
Raffles!
Not the name of your grannie's terrier, or a dour nightclub in the midlands ...but a man! few days sightseeing with pit-stops in air-conditioned shops "browsing". The public transport is excellent - I suppose that the population is squished onto one small island, but with a similar population, it would be great if we could learn from them in Ireland.
We went on the enormous cable-car across to Faber mountain which was fun, however it did bring out Alan's inner James Bond and he was enthusiastically considering jumping across from car to car while I was down on my knees trying to remember how the Rosary goes. After we got off we spotted a 'Merlion' Singapore's official animal which was created in the nineteen sixties (quelle surprise) - a cross between a lion and a merman... classy. They love this dude though and there are a few Merlions to be spotted around the city, causing us to go 'Merman Dad, Merman' in Zoolander voices, class.
We wandered around little India, spending time in Kali's temple where a really impressive jazz duo were playing music for the celebrants. There is also a great food-market in a victorian building which we frequented. We spent our time looking at impressive architecture, old and new. It was also a
More luxury pie, m'lady?
Aoife is to the manor born! great opportunity to go to the cinema and we were shocked to realise that Wes Anderson had a movie out that we hadn't even heard of, so we of course had to see it. The Darjeeling Limited was great, we loved seeing Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman travelling by train across India, it reminded us of the Trans-Siberian adventure we had. One night we went to Clarke Quay for our dinner. It is kind of a cross between the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Capetown and the Docklands in Dublin... I like it, but I don't love it, a bit too new and solely about taking your money, I preferred the buzz in Little India to be honest.
Singapore we found to be like a decompression chamber, a stepping stone between east and west. And when we decompressed, it was time to move on, so we packed our bags once more, bidding a fond farewell to Asia and vowing to come back very soon, and made our way to the airport. The airport for some reason bewildered us so we ran from one terminal to the next, pausing to admire their impressive robotic mono-rails which are pilot-less,
The merlion atop Mt. Faber
This trans-species curiosity is a sort of symbol of Singapore. Don't look into its eyes! Don't do it! very cool. We made our way to the check-in desk, but no upgrade this time, boo.
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non-member comment
Why are you so interested in Little India?
Are you bhudist?