Welcome to the Concrete Jungle

When I read about the city-state of Singapore my mouth began to water. It seemed to contain everything I'd been missing for the past 3 years: concerts, museums, good food and a functioning infrastructure. I expected to be wined, dined and cultured and I was willing to splurge a little in order to do so.

When we arrived, we called up Per, an expat Swede working in Singapore whom we had briefly met in Danum Valley and who so graciously offered his spare room. Thankfully the room was still available and so we set up house in a nice centrally located modern apartment. Per's generosity will not be forgotten as it allowed us to venture around the expensive city without completely blowing our budget. Naturally, we had expected spending more than in Malaysia, but we hadn't anticipated the degree.

Walking around the city here are some things we noticed:

1. Cleanliness: guess people really don't vandalize when the punishment is caning.

2. Efficiency: What happens when the general public learns to queue up.

3. White People: Everywhere! But not all retired men, which was SO refreshing. (pardon the politically in-correctness).

4. Fast-paced Lifestyle: Everyone's in much too much of a hurry. Running to catch the train that arrives in 10 minutes will not make it arrive any quicker.

5. Anonymity: Eyes avert when trying to make friendly how-you-do eye contact to strangers on the street. Since there are so many white people and everyone's so busy, no one cares about the people around them.

6. Fashion, Fashion, Fashion: Dressed to the nines to eat at hawker stalls, honestly, why put up the effort?

7. Upgrading: The city seems to be in a constant state of construction, or "upgrading" as they like to call it. The Singapore motto (in my eyes): If it's not bright, shiny, trendy ad new then get rid of it!

8. Shopping, Shopping: Singapore's motto #2: "Shop til you drop" or "Always keep within eyesight of a mall".

9. Fresh Air: People comply with auto emissions regulations when the punishment is caning.

10. Diversity: Malay, Chinese, Indian and English are all widely spoken and all written on signboards and money.

Reality Check
For the most part, our transition back into modern city life went smoothly, though there were a few hitches along the way:

Eating Western Style
Our host invited us out to dinner with some of his expat friends and their friends. We went to one of the most upscale restaurants I've been in for a very long time. Like many upscale restaurants, the table was set Western Style.

Looking at the place settings I began to think "Ok, a knife, I remember that. How can I avoid using it? Don't order meat, right." Eggplant and veggie kabobs for me, thanks. Then the meal arrives and it's accompanied by...dun, dun, dun...RICE (high pitched scream!). It's a high end Persian restaurant so this isn't Asian rice and the grains are as separate as grains of sand. Everyone pics up their knives and forks and they dig in. Everyone except me. How can they expect me to eat rice with a fork, grain by grain? I assume my usual spoon and fork stance and hope no one realizes how uncouth I am. I'm relieved with KC follows suit after much fork frustration. I realize there's no going back to the knife method. Can I get away with this forever?

To reinforce this thought: We were eating at a delicious local Indian eatery where the meals are served on banana leaves and you're expected to eat with your hands. After finishing our meal a few of the locals some up to compliment KC on his hand to mouth technique. If it works, why dirty the silver?

Keeping Clean
It really should not take 1/2 hour for 2 college graduates to figure out how to operate a washing machine. In our defence, it was covered in funny pictures instead of instructions.

Pushing Buttons
Likewise, it shouldn't take 20 minutes for 2 college grads to operate a TV and DVD player properly...but it did. That's what happens when you're out of practice and the newest models look nothing like the 3 year old editions we had when we were at home.

The Garden City
There is so much to do in Singapore just the thought of trying to plan a day out makes one's head spin. We were here for 5 mights and still didn't get to see all we wanted to. However, we were pleased with what we did see:

Caged Animals: The reputation for the Singapore Zoo is incredible. It's sister zoo, the Night Safari is all the rage among tourists. In light of all of this, we decided to put aside our mixed feelings regarding zoos and spend the day among the animals, especially after discussing the zoos with a tourism officer who mentioned that the idea is to keep cages at a minimum and use psychological barriers to keep the animals int heir places. Apparently, psychological barriers include electrified wires. Actually, these were minimal though it did seem to me that the psychology was geared towards disguising the barriers to make the patrons of the zoo believe the animals weren't caged.

Despite all of this, we were amazed at how close many of the animals are allowed to get and at the number of species which weren't caged at all (mostly monkeys and birds). I was impressed by the zoo's conservation efforts - they support a number of projects mainly throughout SE Asia. Equally impressive is the zeal with which they denounce the exotic pet trade as well as the use of animals as "traditional" medicine. This is especially important in Singapore and Malaysia where many of the specimens for these medicines originate and where at least 1/3 of the population is of Chinese decent, who are most of the middlemen and consumers of these products. Tiger bones are one such popular medicine and in the white tiger exhibit there was a TV only in Chinese about stopping the illegal tiger trade.

I also applaud the zoo for their use of alternative medicines to treat their vet patients - herbs are used to treat irregularity and a number of the animals receive acupuncture to relieve various maladies.

Although we enjoyed the zoo, The Night Safari, on the other hand, we weren't so impressed with. The premise of this park is to see large nocturnal animals in action. Each exhibit is lit with soft lighting that 's supposed to resemble the moon, though i doubt it changes with the phases. Because of it's popularity, this park is more expensive than the zoo. Ti makes no real attempt to educate the public on the animals or conservation. most of the animals on display can also be found at the zoo where they are seen in action during normal daylight hours. For example: the giraffe is shown at both where they can be seen doing giraffe-y things because they only need 1/2hr-4hrs of sleep/day. The highlight of the nocturnal park was the flying squirrel exhibit which is a large aviary where the squirrels fly overhead at close range. The greatest problem I had with the park was with the treatment of the animals by the public Everywhere we looked, there were signs saying not to use flash photography but you know people, if they want a pic of the jaguar feeding they will ignore what they're told. But the flashes are particularly disturbing at night when they blind their subjects.

As I watched people disturbing the animals I was reminded of an episode of the Twilight Zone where a human is abducted by aliens then placed in a facade house where doors don't open and appliances don't function. At the end of the episode the abductee discovers to his horror that there are aliens ogling at him because he is the newest edition to their zoo. If you were a caged specimen, how would you like blinding flashes and annoying finger taps on your window panes?

Civilized Learning
We spend a day wandering around 2 wonderful museums. The Singapore Art Museum has a grand collections of mostly contemporary Singaporean and SE Asian Art work. In some galleries there are even explanations by the artists. Definitely worth a visit and refreshing to see such good artwork coming from a region which is not known for encouraging artistic creativity. The Asian Civilizations Museum is a HUGE museum with extremely detailed information on about 5 different regions of Asia. In three hours we barely finished half of the large gallery on SE Asia. There we learned about everything from the arrival of Buddhism to the origins of rice cultivation. By far one of the best museums I've EVER been to!

Little India
This district is extremely popular with local and foreign tourists as evident by the large number of cute tourist shops selling Indian imports. Because of this, many of the Indian restaurants are pricey, but we discovered a way to get the best food at the best price - flout the foreign filled joints and eat where the local community flocks. We stuffed our faces with delectable Indian breads and veggie dishes all served on a banana leaf and eaten with the right hand. After serving the bread, the waiter comes around with 3 buckets, each filled with its own richly spiced dipping sauce. They ladle a healthy portion onto the banana leaf where the sauces are soaked up by the bread. Anytime you wish, you may ask for more of these dips which you lap up with chunks of bread until you're stuffed to the gills. This experience solidified one thought in both our minds: we MUST make it to India.

Chinatown
Similar concept to Little India at the location of the historical Chinese village, though almost anywhere in Singapore could be considered Chinatown as most of the stores rout Chinese names and wares and by far the most popular hawker stands sell Chinese noodle dishes. What makes Chinatown unique are the many historic building that somehow survived the mass upgrading of Singapore. Most of these are reminiscent of the English colonialist influence. Of course we walked through apothecary stores selling everything the Singapore Zoo was preaching against - there were velvet coated antlers (can't get those by waiting for the deer to shed it's antlers), dried sea cucumbers, shark fins and seahorses plus dried swift spit which is used to make the famous bird's nest soup.

While in Chinatown we stopped off at a small tea cafe called the Tea Chapter. here they serve Chinese tea in the traditional style and if you are an inexperienced tea drinker they plain the difference between the teas as well as teach you how to make a proper cup. We learned the 3 most important factors for making a delicious brew are: the amount of tea leaves used, the temperature of the water (never boiling) and the duration of infusion. We also learned how to appreciate the fragrance of our tea before we appreciate its taste. T he Chinese are so fond of the aroma they've created a special cup specifically designed to concentrate the tea vapor so the drinker may sniff the aroma before transferring the tea into the drinking cup. It was a pleasant and relaxing respite from the bustling city and we sipped tea until our bladders were full.

A Brief and Incomplete History of Singapore
The island of Singapore is located across a small channel at the Southern tip of the Peninsular Malaysia and lays just north of the Indonesian island of Sumatera. At one time it was thick with jungle and was home to many magnificent creatures including the Malay tiger.

The name Singpura is said to have been given to the island be the first king because upon docking at its shores he saw a large animal, resembling a lion, run into the thick brush. Now this of course was impossible to see since lions are only in Africa but the name, meaning "Lion City" stuck.

During the prime of European colonization of SE Asia (or the East Indies and Indochina as much of it was referred to) Singapore was ruled by the British. To encourage growth of the British trading companies, the government encouraged immigration from their nearby colony of India as well as from China. A large number of both ethnic groups came to Singapore where most engaged in blue color jobs such as porters, coolies and rickshaws drivers. Today, like much of Malaysia and the Philippines, many of the shops are owned by the Chinese. I noticed that most of the laborers (ie construction workers) are of Indian decent. One can easily find newspapers and magazines in these 2 languages alongside Malays and English language products. The government even writes in all four on signboards and money.

Singapura was originally grouped under Malaysia when it was randomly formed 50 years ago but this made many Singaporeans unhappy and the island was eventually kicked out of the state of Malay. The now free Singaporean government rules with an iron fist and it's ever presence has lead itself to the nickname of the Nanny state (Big Mama is always watching). Many tourists we've met actually applaud this government as a viable means toward development and low crime rates. Someone even mentioned how their home country should adopt the punishment system in order to deter would-be criminals in order to make their country a safer place for women walking solo at night. Though I'm not sure how the crackdown would fly among those who value their freedom form state induced physical violence and death.