Jason and Carolyn's World-Wide-Website     |     home  |   Wedding   |   Photo Album   |   The Trip   | Singapore August 1 Arrive in Singapore August 2 Singapore August 3 Depart on flight to Cambodia Notes from the road: Our flight to Singapore was uneventful. We arrived at 4 PM and were met by a driver we'd arranged from NY. He welcomed us and gave us the brief intro tour- including the helpful advice- if you are lost never ask a Singaporean woman for directions. They will always mislead you. He couldn't really give us any further explanation of this- he insisted it was a fact. We checked in to our hotel- the Allison. It was a nice  shiny high-rise kind of place with Japanese karaoke bars on some floors.The first evening we set out to walk around a bit and wandered through the Bugis market area which had all kinds of gadgets and junk stalls. We  also stopped to buy some fruit. I tried the famous Durian fruit- Jason couldn't get past the smell. Its reputation had proceeded it. On board the ship, Dick- our fellow passenger, told us a story about how Dragon airlines- his old employer, refused to carry Durians because once a whole cargo compartment full gave off such a stink and steamy mist in flight that it set off all the cargo bay smoke detectors. I can't really figure out how anybody decided these were to be eaten. The exterior has very sharp spikes all over. The Durian salesmen wear thick gloves and then hack them open with machetes. The odor arising from them is somewhere between sweaty socks and garbage in NY in August. The fruit inside is sweet and gooey and tastes a little roasted. It got all over my hands and I smelled like Durian for much of the evening. For the evening we walked around much of the colonial part of town. IT was a stark contrast from Surabaya. It felt like they were on two paths. You could see how at one time each city had the same things- colonial buildings, broad avenues,  lush tropical foliage, but somehow in Surabaya it all went wrong. In Singapore everything is manicured and pristine, almost antiseptic. Surabaya was throbbing with life, but also with burned out buildings and urban decay. Singapore manages to blend many cultures- Chinese, Malay, Indian and I think now American. American stores flowed seamlessly into the landscape. 7-11 didn't look at all out of place,  neither did the Border's Books, or any of the myriad American superstores about town. Because the natives speak 4 different languages, English is the main business language. We ate at the Lau Pat Festival Village- a  Victorian metal market structure which is filled with "Hawker stalls"which are all over Singapore- literally on every block,  these food courts offer cheap and good food in many different cuisines. The first night Jason had fried dumplings and I had a soup where you picked your own ingredients from a buffet style case- I had fish balls and tofu and some things I still don't know what they were. I also had a "Popirah" which was like a crab burrito -stuffed with fresh herbs. It was delicious. On our way back to the hotel we stopped to hear a small band playing along Boat Quay- that strip in everytown where people solicit you to sit at their outdoor tables. The band played blues and some Jethro Tull. The lead singer made lots of extraneous mouth movements which I found amusing and the bassist had ZZ top style beard which Jason liked. Ultimately though it was too loud and we continued out walk back to the hotel. We frolicked away the rest of the afternoon and then went to dinner at a restaurant called Blue Ginger- specializing in native nonya food. It was very good- kind of coconut milk and spices, and fried chicken with ginger marinade type food. 1 August 2001 Singapore We started off the day by exploring the Little India region of town. We walked through curry scented alleys draped with silken saris and spice sellers. There were several Hindu temples to tour. Neither of us had ever been in A Hindu temple before and found the experience rather fascinating. When you enter you ring a bell to let the gods know you're present. Devotees buy bananas and flowers to give as offerings to the gods. Attendants dressed in robes deliver the offerings to the gods- who take out the sustenance and then they return the actual food to the devotee who can eat it and have a little of the god's power. The first temple we visited was bustling. It was dedicated to Kali. There were giant statues painted blue with many arms and lots of colorful depiction on the parapets and along the outer wall. We visited 3 more temples in the area. One more Hindu and 2 Buddhist. The Buddhist temples had a very different feel. In one there was a 50 ft high Buddha- called Buddha of the 200 lights because of the many light bulbs all around him. A group of Chinese women attended this temple and played Mahjong. There were very few worshippers here. There was also a fortune telling machine in that temple- which made it feel like part amusement park/part temple, what with all the light bulbs, the lively game going on and the wheel of fortune. The fortune was based on the lunar year- mine is Pig (1971) and Jay's is rat (1972) . You set the dial on your year and then spin. Where it lands is your fortune. I hit 12- the time when the Buddha was king- this is very fortunate. Everythings coming up roses, that was the basic gist of it. Jay didn't want to take a spin. The other Buddhist temple across the street was much more serious than the first one. It involved wood panels and Buddha statues-a little incense- more traditional. Speaking of traditional, somehow Jason agreed to try a traditional Indian vegetarian banana leaf lunch. You eat with your fingers- Right hand only- left hand is used for unclean purposes. Its awfully hard to eat messy goopy food with only one hand. Its even harder if you're making faces like- yuck, this is vegetables-I don't like this. But to his credit Jason tried everything. I thought it was pretty good. After lunch we did a little shopping- and honed our bargaining skills a bit. Shopping is one of the main past times in Singapore. We went to Chinatown and went to the mall there and did a little shopping in Little India as well. It was strange to be bargaining in stores and not just market places, but the vendors make it pretty easy, "Oh, this is for your father, Well then 10% discount for filial loyalty" In the evening we went on the "Night Safari." This is a great idea. I don't know why no other zoo has ever thought to do it, but Singapore claims to be the worlds only night time tour of nocturnal animals. Getting out there on the subway was a bit complicated but after about 1 and half hours we made it to the zoo and boarded the tram. The zoo is very eerie in the dark. They have a moat system there so there are no fences and you are quite close to the animals. There were a ton of people around, but because of the dark there was a general hush and all the animals were very active. The lions were engaged in their nighttime bathing rituals- which included a lot of roaring. They had an exhibit of fruit bats which was very effective. You walk through and these giant bats are hanging right over your head. They have very big wingspans. One man in front of us kind of freaked out and ran through- leaving his 2 scared children with their mother who then had to coax them on under one particularly low hanging bat. In addition we sawing fishing cats fishing and otters ottering. It was the most active I've ever seen the animals at a zoo. 2 August, 2001 Singapore We took care of errands in the morning and went out to the Singapore Disneyland in the afternoon- its called Sentosa - and not really run by Disney. There is a water park and some action cinemas, etc. The park was pretty deserted on a Thursday afternoon. At first the best thing about it seemed to be the bathrooms- which were fenced in areas, still outside- like little lush tropical paradises with indoor plumbing. The orchid garden was sad and wilted looking. Volcano land celebrated the heritage of the Mayans- I couldn't figure out how that related to Singapore! We waited for about 20 minutes to get into the Volcano land "show" which consisted of a walk through a pseudo haunted environment- complete with goofy shaking elevator followed by a 3 -d movie and bad animatronic display of the history of the formation of the earth which culminated in a cheesy volcanic explosion of confetti and bad stage sets cracking and tumbling- but you could see the hydraulic lifts. After that we decided to skip the other exhibits and hit the water slides. It was the first time we really cooled off completely in days. The slides themselves were pretty fun and a few were very steep. There was one in particular which was dominated by a group of Danish kids, which you could get air on and they treated it like a skateboard ramp- competing to jump the highest. As we prepared to leave Singapore, we both liked it but weren't over the moon. It seemed very clean and generally friendly- but maybe too touristy We're not big enough shoppers to appreciate the big shopping scene. I also felt always on the verge of getting ripped off there, which I didn't expect- things like- from Sentosa we went to catch a cab and he tried to charge us Sing $29 for a ride to town, but we knew it should only be about Sing $5- so we passed it by. At one of the markets where we ate they mysteriously added up food prices from a hidden price list known only to them. Our total for 2 was less than US$20, but something felt wrong about the whole process-Especially because most of our other meals were under $10. So we weren't that sad to be leaving Singapore behind and on to the glories of Angkor Wat. Singapore links CIA World Factbook entry on Singapore