I get into work a bit late this morning and am surprised to see a large crowd of people in the hallway as I get off the elevator. They are surprised to see me too because I'm dressed in sandals, shorts, and T-shirt while they are all very properly attired. Since I slept badly the night before, I'm sleepy and don't pay much attention to them. Walking past them, I open the door to our office; it's sticks a bit, but opens right up. Only when I hear a collective "ahhhh" do I realize that all of these people were waiting outside the office because they thought it was locked! There were about 40 people in the hallway, including at least two managers, and none of them really tried to get in the door! They're all just content to stand around and wait for someone else to deal with it. I realize that this sort of thing could happen anywhere, but I can't help strongly suspecting that there is a much greater chance of it happening here.
Last night I had dinner with the guy 3 rungs up the corporate ladder from me. He said he understood that we needed to make changes in our department. He offered to push aside my boss and my boss's boss (replacing him with a guy I know is far more competent) and to give me my boss's position. Where was this guy when I needed him a few months ago? It's a very gratifying offer and I think that the DFI managers will eventually iron out the problems in our IT department. I'm not sure they can do it fast enough to convince me not to leave though.
Saw a wonderful Taiwanese film Thursday night as part of the Singapore Film Festival. It's called "Wolves Cry Under the Moon" (Guo Dao Feng Bi). The director, Ping Ho, is relatively new, but very promising. The same can be said for the cast. Annie Shizuka Inoh is fabulous as the drifting Jade. Her phone flirtation with a man whose car she's stolen and the sometimes surrealistic representation of their conversations is the highlight of the film. Chang Shih's maniacally comic performance must be seen to believe. Watch for his defining moment at the end of the film, offering cake to a guy he's been trying to run his car into! The interaction between the bus driver (Gu Bao-ming) and the killer (To Tzong-hua) is another highlight. Great stuff all around.
Interesting to see this Taiwanese film in Singapore too. It reminded me of the many similarities between the two islands. One striking difference though is the openness of government criticism in the Taiwanese film. This criticism is subtle and mild by American standards, but extremely bold by Singaporean standards.
Another excellent Taiwanese film at the festival was "Love Go-Go," an often hilarious bittersweet comedy that was very popular with the audience. The director and two of the main players showed up for the screening. "Wolves Cry Under the Moon" wound up winning an award but the biggest prizes at the festival went to a pair of Iranian films. Unfortunately, I missed them but will try to catch them when I can.
Friday morning, I come in to work and see a sign on the door to our office (not the door people were stuck outside of yesterday) saying: "Door spoilt. Do not close the door." The door is spoilt? Was it left out of the fridge for too long and gone bad? Or have we been treating it with excessive leniency in the past and now it has become obnoxiously recalcitrant?
Now for the moment I know some of you have been anxiously awaiting. I know that some of you are reading this for Singapore tourist information, greedily grasping at tidbits of travel tips between my office gossip and film reviews. OK, as Mazhar taught me to say in Singlish: "Caaan!" Here comes my advice for going to the most notorious tourist trap in SE Asia and coming away without your wallet cleaned out and actually feeling like you had a good time.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (Chicago actually) I remember hearing my friend Sam Yoo cursing the hated name of Sentosa. "Sentosa sucks!" he would vehemently repeat, sounding almost like a shell-shocked war veteran. I was reminded of a crazed Marlin Brando repeating "the horror, the horror" in Apocalypse Now. Yes, Sentosa can have a very strong negative effect on people.
The "horror" of Sentosa comes from the charge levied for almost everything there (careful where you stand, you might be charged for it) and from the overpriced food available. True, it's a tourist trap, but not one that you can't outsmart. Sentosa seems like such a blatant rip-off because they charge separately for almost everything. It's annoying to Westerners who are used to paying one admission charge, but it's actually to the clever tourist's advantage to pay separately.
I had a pretty good time at Sentosa and didn't pay anything more than the S$5 admission charge. Since this charge includes transportation on the Sentosa monorail and buses, it's actually a pretty good deal. First tip is to go late. I left with Sybil and Henning at around 5:00pm. This is actually a bit too late, so I would recommend leaving at around 3:30pm. No crowds at night, the place is cooler for walking around, and many things are lit up and more attractive.
We tried to be clever, taking a local bus to the bridge (Sentosa is an island south of Singapore) and planned to walk across. Unfortunately, the walkway is under construction so we wound up having to take the ferry from the World Trade Center. Since the last ferry from Sentosa is at 9:00pm and the last bus is around 11:00pm, I would recommend taking the special E bus to Sentosa from Orchard Road. This bus is only slightly more expensive (S7$.00) and it takes you right into the place with your admission paid.
Once there we took the monorail to the Underwater World, where we enjoyed watching the sea turtles in the pools outside but were not tempted to shell out S$12 to see the fish inside. Actually, it's supposed to be one of the better attractions at Sentosa, so I think it may be worth going inside if you have time. Instead, we headed for the nearby Siloso Beach, which Henning think is the best around Singapore.
He might be right, but today we see large craned shovels adding in wave-breaker mini-beaches to protect all the Sentosa beaches (Siloso, Central, and Tanjong) against the enormous amount of erosion they have suffered. The sides of some of the sidewalks have fallen to create a 60 degree angle as the beach underneath collapses away. At one point, while walking around a collapsing sidewalk, I sunk up to my knees in quicksand! They have to find a way to stop the southern part of the island from floating away. Once they halt the erosion it should be a great beach. Of course the water isn't perfectly clean, but it's better than East Coast Beach and of course the temperature is perfect. After swimming, Sybil and I walk around a bit before we all head back for the "magic fountain show." Yes, this is hokey, but it's free and not at all bad. The water fountains dance to music while a laser show beams lights all over. A large Merlion statue gets involved at the end by beaming colored headlights from his eyes.
The other big tip for Sentosa is to bring your own food and drink, as prices are higher there. They do have one attractive coffee shop that tempts Henning, but he will save it for another time with his girl friend Melanie. Henning wanted to sneak into the Merlion statue by going in by the back door. It's perfectly possible, but not worth the effort for free, let alone paying S$3 for the privilege.
The real treat of the evening is the fountain behind the Merlion statue. It's a long, quirky affair, very modern European looking with a fantasy motif. Henning and I both like it a lot. Spice and aroma gardens surround the area, very pleasant at night and perfectly deserted, even on a Sunday evening. You can definitely find many enjoyable evening rambles around Sentosa.
Walking through a garden, I put something that I thought was a betel leaf in my mouth and Sybil wisely makes me spit it out. History has proven me prone to putting all sorts of nasty unknown things into my mouth and this leaf proves no exception. I once told Sybil that she's just going to have to get used to me trying to poison myself.
So what else is on Sentosa that we skipped? Plenty and really not much after all. There are several museum type buildings (Fort Siloso, Volcanoland, Maritime Museum, Asian Village) that don't appear to be particularly appealing. They have holiday chalets, camping, and even a Youth Hostel. There's a golf course and a cable car ride across the harbor to Mt. Faber. Henning told me they are planning on redesigning the cable car ride to have transparent bottoms. Sounds interesting, as well as scary. The scary part comes from hearing that a few years ago the cable snapped and some tourists plummeted to their death.
Riding around on the monorail past the fake ancient ruins near the "Asian Village" I joke: "Now this is Asia! Why bother to go anywhere else when you have it all right here." We make a facetious vow to return to Sentosa every weekend.
Back at work, I often go out for afternoon tea break with some of my Indian co-workers. Of course there isn't any official break time allocated to us, it's just something they started doing. Recognizing a good idea when I see one, I quickly joined them. Usually Mazhar leads the charge out the door, but now, on days that Mazhar isn't around, I gather the troops for tea. I like to talk with them about India as I'm very interested in traveling there. It's amazing to hear from them about how many Indian technical workers are abroad. The tide is turning as big US companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco are setting up shop in India in order to utilize the cheaper work force. The Silicon Valley of the 21st century will probably be outside Madras or Bombay (oops, I mean Chennai or Mumbai, or maybe that will have to wait until the 22nd century).
Went swimming at Henning's place (Cavanaugh Place apartments) last night. In the pool we start discussing whether the watermelon Sybil and I brought could stand the fall into the pool from his 11th story balcony. At first I think it will survive intact, but while standing on the balcony I decide the fruit is too ripe and would probably break, leaving a mess in the pool. Plus I know I would have to plop it directly into the deep end and that is no easy task at that height. So I toss down an avocado instead. It hits the edge of the deep end and I am not surprised to see it doesn't break. I'll probably get Henning kicked out of Cavanaugh Place some day if I'm not more careful.
Our friend Peggy is staying at Henning's place now, so when they are both home and their other roommate Michael (from Australia) joins us, it is almost like a party. We talk about the problems facing Indonesia and whether it is safe to travel there. Michael has just returned from Jakarta and he and Sybil tend to think it would be better to wait. I think this is a fabulous time to be in Java and am keen to make this the first stop in our upcoming Big Trip. Somewhat surprisingly, Peggy also wants to go there to work a short-term contract job in Jakarta. Henning is ever the diplomat when Sybil and I disagree and doesn't offer an opinion.
Walking home from Cavanaugh Place Sybil picks up a business card from the ground. It says "Focus Food and Beverage Management Consultants" and has the name of a salesman. "Oh," says Sybil, "a job for Henning." She says this because he used to be a consultant for a food company. The next day she calls the company, on the assumption that their man must not be doing too good a job since people simply toss his card in the gutter. After finding out a bit about their business, she tells them she knows someone who is perfectly qualified to work for them. They give her the manager's fax number to send Henning's resume. If this one works out then the card was surely a kan-kan.
The Singapore coins all contain the National Coat of Arms on one side. This depicts a lion and a tiger (who both look like they're wearing sunglasses) holding up a shield with 5 stars over a crescent moon. Below them are the words "Majulah Singapore" which can be translated as "Let Singapore Flourish" or "Onward Singapore." Around the edges of the coin is the name of the country written in Malay, Chinese, English, and Tamil.
All of the coins are uninteresting except for the one dollar piece. This one stands out because it is gold colored, has the words "Republic of Singapore" around the edge, and has an eight-sided indentation inside the round coin. Everyone says they added the indentation because eight is a lucky number in Cantonese, as the word for it (baat) is similar to the word for rich (faat). You see lots of eight-sided Chinese amulets and other charms. In any case, the one-dollar piece is the best-looking S'pore coin so I intend to save one as a souvenir.
Sybil and I have returned from a wonderful five day trip to Hong Kong and Macau. I'll devote the next issue to our travels there.
Went to a farewell lunch for Peggy with work colleagues. I've learned to skip these events as they are always excessively expensive and usually the food is bad. However, I went to this one because it was for Peggy. Typically, they picked an expensive Indonesian restaurant for the affair. Never mind that all the food is spicy there and Peggy doesn't like this. On top of that, they ordered all the food before she even arrived to voice any preference! Then at the end of the lunch, my boss's boss teases her by saying it is a tradition for her to go around and kiss all the bosses. He and a few others embarrassingly go on about this. In the States this would result in a sexual harassment suit. Actually, a more likely scenario is that someone would mention sexual harassment and anyone who was stupid enough to tread on such tasteless and unpopular topics would realize his error and shut up. Not here though. I'm not saying that the PC (politically correct) police mentality in the States doesn't go too far sometimes, but Singapore could use a good dose of sensitivity. It's a tough place to be an attractive unmarried female professional.
Wrote up the introduction to the Round The World Journal. Yes, the Singapore Journal's days are numbered and I will start a new account in July. You can find it at: http://www.oocities.org/mdonath/rtw/. I'm focused on getting ready for the Big Trip. Unfortunately, our first two destinations of Indonesia and India have been having riots and "nuclear testing fallout" right now. Unfortunately, the situation in Indonesia has taken a turn for the worse. Interesting times to travel in, but we have to do some contingency planning.
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