Singapore 'for free'

Because our flight from Cambodia came in late, we missed our SFO flight, so Singapore Airlines gave us a free hotel. What an amazing contrast. Night before last, we were in the two-block tourist-focused 'downtown' of Siem Reap, somewhat dusty, tacky, and loud, with partying budget tourists; last night, we were in the never ending sophisticated downtown that is Singapore, with blazing holiday lights for Chinese New Years that were as bright as Las Vegas and as much action on the late night streets as Las Vegas has.


For dinner last night, we went to Clark Quay. Imagine if fisherman's wharf or jack london square were really a place locals liked to go; imagine that it all felt safe, light and bright; imagine if your choice of food there was everything and anything tasty, if you have the money; imagine that it went on and on on both sides of a river, with restaurants that have modern styling that is also a bit funny, kind of like being in a set for The Jetsons, and that brightly lit river boats went chugging up and down the river full of holidaygoers. Imagine it has liberal amounts of clean public toilets with automatic self cleaning and with airblown hand driers that dry your hands from all sides (this is ultra clean singapore, after all). Imagine everything is so much more up to date than our country, that for the wealthy everything is automatically debited practically by walking around. It's quite amazing here. And everyone seated at the tables or waiting tables is so stylish, and style-conscious. We were definitely surrounded by 'the beautiful people' of this generation, all so apparently rich (more on this later)

The specialty of Singapore is a fresh crab cooked in a thick spicy yellow sauce, called chilli crab. We went to a Chinese restaurant which is on the riverside, on an elevated dais, with overhanging white suspended round canopies that are sort of shaped like flying saucers. Because chinese new years is 6 days away, from every eave hang red globe shaped paper lanterns with gilt patterns, aglow with light. (if you want to see our restaurant, check out http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/travel/01going.html)

On the river across from us, we could see a park where people were flying remote controlled 'kites' that are lit up with neon lights so they also look like flying saucers, they are blue and red or green and red and they swoop around like the bat rays at Monterey aquarium. Apparently they are for sale over across the river somewhere but we never did check it out.
At this restaurant we ate: freshly flash fried squid, which actually didn't seem like this at all, their coating was a delicate eggshell thin brittle that was both spicy and sweet and they were the size of cashew nuts and they seemed to have no interior texture at all. They were like nothing I have ever eaten. Then we had the Chilli crab, for this we had huge aprons brought to us and fresh changes of finger-washing water every few minutes; and we had some light thin noodles with prawns as a side dish. We had local beers and red wine. It was really good. It was not cheap, we had to charge it as we are out of money, it was about $154 singapore dollars which is about $120 US. Definitely our most expensive venture on this trip. They gave us a coupon, $50 off if used within 3 months from January 31 2008, any9one going to singapore soon?

For the rest of our 24-hour stay in Singapore we ate at the 'food hawkers'. Imagine if a 'food court' were actually a good thing, a gourmet experience where everyone competes to have the best food. Imagine if every 3 or 4 blocks in the downtown there was at least one, with at least 20 restaurants each. Every imaginable chinese, indonesian, indian, ice cream, european food seems represented. In the morning we ate some dim sum at a chinese food hawker with probably 60 little stalls. At lunch we ate at a famous one in a large wrought iron antique market building that now instead of selling stinky fresh fish, has 250 gourmet food choices. Inside are hundreds of small tables, which everyone shares; to reserve your seat you toss a packet of tissues on the table top and everyone respects this, while you go off to find your food, drink and dessert while answering your cell phone and making deals. This type of meal is cheaper, about $6 singapore buys a lot of food and it's all good. Craig had a noodle/charsiu/steamed greens for singapore $3.50, I had $6 of dim sum.

We were unbelievably lucky to be 'stranded' in Singapore at this time, because of the run-up to the year of the Rat. All over, red lanterns and pictures of the equivalent of mickey mouse are up. In chinatown, endless stalls are open selling red and gold decorations, lucky cookies, lucky red scrolls, lucky new clothes, on top of the other really good but costly antique stores and very tacky clothes stores. Singapore is no bargain, it must cost a lot to live here and it is quite odd since Malaysia and Indonesia, so close, are so much less well off and consequently such an easier place to visit, for the budget minded. On the other hand, it was great to experience clean glitz for a while, and to see what might be coming our way here in the US some time. Singapore Air put us up in a neighborhood about 2/3 of the way into town, in the equivalent of Millbrae, so we took a number of ten minute cab rides to get into the center and had a good time talking with the cab drivers about their city. It's clear after a while that (as you'd expect) not everyone in this city is rich, the cabbies take home is about $50 singapore a day and the food stalls and bathrooms are constantly being cleaned and cleared by quiet somber looking malaysian looking people. But outwardly everything seems so prosperous. We have no idea where these poorer folks live or how since outwardly in Singapore all you see is tidy, massive apartment building and shopping complexes. Lots of things for sale, not many of them appealing to me and Craig.

We also had a great time in Chinatown , because today is the Friday before the school breaks for new years, I guess. Anyway, every preschool and elementary school class seemed to be out on field trips. We saw lots of classes out with teachers exploring the ancient chinese temples scattered here and there, listening to 'why the roof tiles are made to look like bamboo, because they are strong, long lasting, flexible and useful' and 'why the emperor's robe always has a dragon a tiger and a phoenix' and stuff like that. The kids were not all ethnically Chinese, many were Malay or indian. Each group had different school uniforms. We liked seeing the variety of teachers like a male sikh in a turban and a chinese-accented woman and lots of moms around as well. The kids were clearly reliably well behaved, good at quickly lining up by twos.

We had so much fun in the Chinese New Year markets, and escaping into the endless shopping centers. From every bank and shopping mall entryway air-con blasts out. Air is clean, tapwater is pure. This is an energy intensive city that's for sure!

We also got a special bonus even though we only had time to walk around the 'chinatown area'; we went into the hindu temple called Sri Mariamann and it was great. This was built in 1825, it is full of multicolored hindu deities in many shrines. Its temple areas have open sides. Many quite beautifully dressed hindu ladies dressed in gold bordered saris were preparing small food offerings, many had red bindis in between their eyes and red dots on the hairline as well. In front, priests were doing some ceremonies involving flames and candles. In the temple, people were lined up and all in prayer with hands together whether standing or kneeling. On the group, there were at least 3 musicians, one playing a horizontally held drum striking it on either end, one playing a kind of drone like a bagpipe and another with the melody. In the open patios, little pigeonlike birds with lovely white spots on the wings took off and landed, while people in Indian clothing milled around. This in the middle of chinatown and near a mosque.

We also went into several chinese temples and picked up some buddhist literature. One that we went into is apparently the home of one of the Buddha's teeth; it has a large central buddha about 16 feet tall, and the walls are full of niches each with many small buddhas or boddhisatvas carrying different motifs (conch, lotus, cell phones) and in front of each was a row of five small offerings including fruit, shells, flowers, a small mount meru like pagoda and something else. Because of the lunar new year, the walkways were lined with small pink-flowered trees hung with little year of the rat cards with the little mickey mouse motif and gilt and I suppose childrens names on them. There were several rooms with buddhas and many walls with the mini buddhas in niches. Would have liked to have understood more about this place.

We did learn, to participate in the new year here you need a LOT of cash to give out red envelopes to younguns and buy new clothes and food. So-- a lot of people choose this time to leave town! just like some of us ditch christmas....