" I don't claim to know / Where my holiness goes.. "
...
Singapore was a mad, mad whirl of "so what do we have to do today", every day.
Poor TigerEyes. He knew vaguely what he was in for, coming with me to the Tropics, to meet my family. I don't think he realised exactly how much family I have - and we only really met those at one remove, like the first and second cousins, and significant family friends.
It was interesting to see familiar things through his brand new perspective. Despite initial misgivings, the population density and humidity didn't bother him at all, though he was always amused by not only the island-wide resemblance to Sydney's Haymarket (it's called 'Chinatown' for a reason) and by locals apologising for the recent apparent spate of heat. The days varied between a max of 32 and 35 degrees Celsius, which really wasn't much after a 40something degree summer.
Things I noticed, that I'd always taken for granted or just not seen, that TigerEyes pointed out:
- The streets are chock full of new cars. It seemed, especially in the financial and shopping districts, like every other car was a Mercedes or BMW. And less high-end cars tended to be high end models of the same, and tricked out with plenty of extras. We saw at least two Lamborghini's, two Ferrari's, four Maserati's, and lost count of the Porsche's sighted.
- Entrepreneurial and retail competition is vividly alive and fierce there. The typical local mall would have lots more shops in the same area than an Australian mall - there'd be heaps of tiny, narrower shops, and each stretch of mall would have a double row of freestanding stalls in the middle. Plenty of specialisation too - I availed myself of the services of a beauty salon (it has at least four branches across the island) that devoted itself to brows and eyelashes, and nothing but.
- Everyone is at least bilingual to some degree. I have only smatterings of Mandarin skill, and am functionally illiterate, but was amazed to see it all come back when bantering and bargaining. TE seemed amused when watching me beat shop prices down, even when the old guy in Little India pretended to sob into his shirt.
- The local hotels get itchy about sloppily dressed male tourists, especially in the evenings, at their restaurants. I got annoyed about one of my favourite spots who decided that TE was inappropriately dressed, despite his wearing exactly the same shorts as I was - we bought them at the same time, so I can confirm this.
- The standard of local restaurant service is sadly lacking. The usual Asian viewpoint is that a good meal is all about the food and the price. As long as one gets what was paid for, you really shouldn't care about surly or clueless waitstaff. The concept of a meal being an experience that includes good service is a Western innovation, and slowly percolating through. Although we did experience a new low - our waiter went home around the fifth course of an eight course degustation, without handing the table over to another server.
- So much vegetation, on everything! As TigerEyes commented, "Stand still for long enough, and something will grow on you." Ferns and lichen everywhere!
Memories I'll cherish:
- TigerEyes demanding a breakfast "like the locals". Refraining heroically from booking a 'Breakfast with the Orangutans' at the Zoo, we arranged breakfast at a local suburban hawker centre (Ghim Moh), which included roti prata with curry gravy, fishball dry noodles, sticky soy carrot cake, and local chicory coffee. Reprised this with more roti prata and murtabak soon after.
- The view from the 70th floor, having dinner at Jaan - despite the Disappearing Waiter.
- Wandering through the Botanical Gardens, peering at native bees and footlong bronze skinks, and being peered at by the local mice. It was really nifty getting into the cloud forest greenhouse, with all the insectivorous plants, the Ginger garden, and seeing real, live lingzhi growing out of a treestump ('OMG, it really looks like the ancient paintings!")
- TE's face when he saw his first Lamborghini, and his trying to convince me to drape myself across the bonnet for a photo.
- Getting a tour of the kitchen at Iggy's, including an introduction to the smoking-hot (skills, not looks) young chef (only 28, and he staged at Arzak!), and being given the GM's personal business card with the comment "next time you're in town, just book with us directly".
- TE's face when we peered in a display window at Van Cleef and Arpels (he'd by then gotten inured to the Cartier, Prada et al. boutiques in the building) to discover that a platinum, diamond and ruby necklace had a price tag of $1.3 million.
- Contemplating buying a girlfriend a set of jellyfish bra inserts that were proudly listed as 'grope tested'.
- Discovering that the Raffles Hotel actually makes pathetic Singapore Slings - they had them on tap! - but that our hotel bar made better ones.
- Meeting the sweetest little adolescent 'drain cat' kitten (so called as they live in the storm drains) at the wet market, camping the fishmonger's aisle. Was happy to accept pettin's.
- Discovering the existence of local cool-drink brands "Anything" and "Whatever".
- My Auntie A's expression when TE insisted on trying durian. He didn't hate it, and didn't mind it. We had to camp a particular fruiterer, who was getting his delivery at 11am.
- The first day, after a sleepless redeye flight and a couple hours' snooze, I fed TigerEyes a sugarcane juice with a squeeze of lime. He started vibrating..:P
- Buying two dozen donuts for the housekeeping staff as a thank you for looking after us during our stay.
Wanna go back. Sad now. Too many friends having too much pain and troubles in their personal lives. Want another holiday - we didn't get to do half of what we wanted to do. And dammitall, we weren't done with it all!:P
Singapore was a mad, mad whirl of "so what do we have to do today", every day.
Poor TigerEyes. He knew vaguely what he was in for, coming with me to the Tropics, to meet my family. I don't think he realised exactly how much family I have - and we only really met those at one remove, like the first and second cousins, and significant family friends.
It was interesting to see familiar things through his brand new perspective. Despite initial misgivings, the population density and humidity didn't bother him at all, though he was always amused by not only the island-wide resemblance to Sydney's Haymarket (it's called 'Chinatown' for a reason) and by locals apologising for the recent apparent spate of heat. The days varied between a max of 32 and 35 degrees Celsius, which really wasn't much after a 40something degree summer.
Things I noticed, that I'd always taken for granted or just not seen, that TigerEyes pointed out:
- The streets are chock full of new cars. It seemed, especially in the financial and shopping districts, like every other car was a Mercedes or BMW. And less high-end cars tended to be high end models of the same, and tricked out with plenty of extras. We saw at least two Lamborghini's, two Ferrari's, four Maserati's, and lost count of the Porsche's sighted.
- Entrepreneurial and retail competition is vividly alive and fierce there. The typical local mall would have lots more shops in the same area than an Australian mall - there'd be heaps of tiny, narrower shops, and each stretch of mall would have a double row of freestanding stalls in the middle. Plenty of specialisation too - I availed myself of the services of a beauty salon (it has at least four branches across the island) that devoted itself to brows and eyelashes, and nothing but.
- Everyone is at least bilingual to some degree. I have only smatterings of Mandarin skill, and am functionally illiterate, but was amazed to see it all come back when bantering and bargaining. TE seemed amused when watching me beat shop prices down, even when the old guy in Little India pretended to sob into his shirt.
- The local hotels get itchy about sloppily dressed male tourists, especially in the evenings, at their restaurants. I got annoyed about one of my favourite spots who decided that TE was inappropriately dressed, despite his wearing exactly the same shorts as I was - we bought them at the same time, so I can confirm this.
- The standard of local restaurant service is sadly lacking. The usual Asian viewpoint is that a good meal is all about the food and the price. As long as one gets what was paid for, you really shouldn't care about surly or clueless waitstaff. The concept of a meal being an experience that includes good service is a Western innovation, and slowly percolating through. Although we did experience a new low - our waiter went home around the fifth course of an eight course degustation, without handing the table over to another server.
- So much vegetation, on everything! As TigerEyes commented, "Stand still for long enough, and something will grow on you." Ferns and lichen everywhere!
Memories I'll cherish:
- TigerEyes demanding a breakfast "like the locals". Refraining heroically from booking a 'Breakfast with the Orangutans' at the Zoo, we arranged breakfast at a local suburban hawker centre (Ghim Moh), which included roti prata with curry gravy, fishball dry noodles, sticky soy carrot cake, and local chicory coffee. Reprised this with more roti prata and murtabak soon after.
- The view from the 70th floor, having dinner at Jaan - despite the Disappearing Waiter.
- Wandering through the Botanical Gardens, peering at native bees and footlong bronze skinks, and being peered at by the local mice. It was really nifty getting into the cloud forest greenhouse, with all the insectivorous plants, the Ginger garden, and seeing real, live lingzhi growing out of a treestump ('OMG, it really looks like the ancient paintings!")
- TE's face when he saw his first Lamborghini, and his trying to convince me to drape myself across the bonnet for a photo.
- Getting a tour of the kitchen at Iggy's, including an introduction to the smoking-hot (skills, not looks) young chef (only 28, and he staged at Arzak!), and being given the GM's personal business card with the comment "next time you're in town, just book with us directly".
- TE's face when we peered in a display window at Van Cleef and Arpels (he'd by then gotten inured to the Cartier, Prada et al. boutiques in the building) to discover that a platinum, diamond and ruby necklace had a price tag of $1.3 million.
- Contemplating buying a girlfriend a set of jellyfish bra inserts that were proudly listed as 'grope tested'.
- Discovering that the Raffles Hotel actually makes pathetic Singapore Slings - they had them on tap! - but that our hotel bar made better ones.
- Meeting the sweetest little adolescent 'drain cat' kitten (so called as they live in the storm drains) at the wet market, camping the fishmonger's aisle. Was happy to accept pettin's.
- Discovering the existence of local cool-drink brands "Anything" and "Whatever".
- My Auntie A's expression when TE insisted on trying durian. He didn't hate it, and didn't mind it. We had to camp a particular fruiterer, who was getting his delivery at 11am.
- The first day, after a sleepless redeye flight and a couple hours' snooze, I fed TigerEyes a sugarcane juice with a squeeze of lime. He started vibrating..:P
- Buying two dozen donuts for the housekeeping staff as a thank you for looking after us during our stay.
Wanna go back. Sad now. Too many friends having too much pain and troubles in their personal lives. Want another holiday - we didn't get to do half of what we wanted to do. And dammitall, we weren't done with it all!:P