For the past couple months, construction work on the new MRT line (finally going out to the airport) has caused a slight detour for me on my walk to work. I now pass an ugly, glass-covered restaurant called TGI Friday. I think it may be an American place. Outside this restaurant is an equally silly looking sculpture by an American artist named Robert Indiana. Most Americans have seen the motif for this sculpture before. Robert Indiana is one of those 60's pop artists who burst onto the art scene with one not so original idea and stayed with it. His one idea was to take the word "love" and write it with the "lo" over the 've" and to slant the "o" (an oval "o" not a circular "o") just a little to the right. That's it. They even made a hugely popular US postage stamp with this design in 1973. Now Robert Indiana endorses all kinds of junk (cups, rugs, screensavers, etc) with this "love" motif on it.
Tell you what Robert, I'll even put in a link to where people can order one of the "love cups" you've put your signature on: {Unfortunately, these links are dead now, so you can't see the joke.} Wait, the rug one is better as it has a photograph of Bob with a headband and a stogie: {dead link removed}. Plus it says you can pick the colors of your love rug "from a selection of 24 colors chosen by Robert Indiana." However, below the color choices it says "Screen colors may not be identical to actual colors." So, first Robert picks the colors you can choose from, but then you can only pick from their screen approximations. But hey, go ahead and choose anyway. At $4k to $40k a rug, you should have some say about what color it is.
OK, the point of my telling you about this goofy love sculpture is that during the short time I've been taking a detour past this thing I've been stopped by four (!) couples requesting that I take their photograph in front of it. It's even more amazing to me because it's not in a particularly touristy area. I always oblige, even doing my best to fit in both the couple and the huge blue "love" letters behind them. I wonder if anyone can actually make it out in the final photographs?
This morning I (along with everyone else in the company) received the following email from a work colleague:
Announcement!!!
In celebration of President Suharto's historical resignation on 21st May 1998, we have planned a special price-off for merry making. Just double click on the file below.
The "file below" is a Microsoft Word file that describes a deal where you can purchase a case (!) of breath-mints (with an expiration date of July, 1998) for a low, low price. Plus you get a free bottle of suntan lotion! Just what you need for some "merry making."
Now, it is rather (annoyingly) common to receive email from work colleagues who offer special deals on soon to be expired stock. However, this is the first time they've tried to do a tie-in with a historical event. Chaos in Indonesia! Great time to pick up a deal on breath mints! Maybe they should have a "looters special" - all the expired stock you can haul away while the building burns to the ground.
Actually, I think this aptly demonstrates how Singaporeans deal with stress. They go shopping! So what if your neighboring country is the fourth most populous in the world and about to tear itself apart. Don't take to the streets, take to the malls! The local press, ever trying to put a positive spin on any event, reported that hotel occupancy rates here were finally up after months of being in the doldrums - because Indonesian refugees were pouring in. Maybe they'd like to do some shopping while they're here since the Indonesian malls are now razed.
Saturday night, we finally got a chance to visit Mazhar's apartment near Braddel. You may remember that I mentioned awhile back that his wife Reshma recently had a baby. This was our first opportunity to see his charming wife and his handsome son Ahmed. Ahmed seemed very happy to entertain visitors. Reshma made some wonderful biryani and Mazhar lived up to the high expectations he had given us regarding his cooking ability by supplying an excellent roast chicken. Yum!
Mazhar is thinking of perhaps moving to the States some day so we talked about job opportunities there and also what areas might be best for a Muslim immigrant with a young child. Fortunately, IT jobs are still fairly hot in the States so I think he should have some good choices.
Sunday, we go for an excursion to some cemeteries. Seeing all those great cemeteries in Hong Kong and Macau got us back into thinking about visiting some more in Singapore. For a long time we've seen a few large cemeteries on our detailed Singapore street map that looked interesting. Then Sybil, who has been doing some research work for Henning's friend Jonathan, started passing by the Bidadari Cemetery on the way to Jonathan's office. It looked promising, so we arranged to go there with Henning and his friend Justin.
Justin is a local guy we recently met while out for dinner with some other people awhile back. His friend Rachel also attended this dinner. So, while waiting for Henning and Justin to meet us near the Somerset MRT, Rachel shows up. Turns out Justin invited her as well. Great, the more the merrier. She doesn't know exactly where we are going though and it turns out the cemetery is right near her home! Bad planning by the excursion leaders.
Literally right before jumping on the bus I spot our friend Cathy walking down Orchard Road with a girl friend. Amazingly, Sybil tries to get her to make a split second decision to join us! This would truly have been like a kidnapping. I quickly help to get a confused Cathy off the hook as they are clearly more prepared for shopping than tramping about overgrown cemeteries.
The Bidadari Cemeteries are fabulous! I use the plural because there are separate Christian, Muslim, and Hindu sections. Lots of great statuary in a lovely wooded setting. Art Noveau Christian angels stand next to Indian elephants and traditional Chinese omega shaped grave walls. Faded photographs adorn many of the headstones. Jesuits, sailors, merchants, children of all races, are buried here at the crossroads of Asia. Unfortunately, they've actually dug up part of this large cemetery to make room for an expressway! Hopefully, they won't get rid of any more, as it is truly a treasure. (Sybil later chats with a taxi driver who says they have plans to remove the entire cemetery. Big mistake, Singapore!) Anyway, see this place now while you still can.
{Wait a second. Sybil has just learned that the plans to remove the Bidadari Cemeteries are firm and not just taxi driver gossip! They are actually planning to rip up the most beautiful old cemeteries in Singapore for an HDB and an expressway. We're going to do what we can in the short time we have left here to protest against it (some of you may have already seen my posting on the soc.culture.singapore newsgroup). If you want to help, here are some people you can voice your opinion to: Mr. Tan, an HDB executive (65) 279-6001; and Mr. Hazri Abu Hassan of the Ministry of Environment (65) 731-9012. I know it seems hopeless, but don't let this wonderful place go down without a fight!}
Nearby is the modern Mount Vernon cemetery, which is also well worth a visit. There is a crematorium here with walled boxes for the ashes. One nice touch is a large pagoda structure that contains memorial boxes. It's nine stories high and provides great views from the top. This place is interesting, but it's sad to think that all Singaporean cemeteries will soon look like this. The HDB approach to cemeteries.
We hop on a 135 bus that takes us to Aljunied MRT. There we try to decide where to go for lunch. We finally agree on a dim sum place I know of around the corner. At least all of us agree except for Henning. He doesn't believe that this place is so close, so he plunges into the first restaurant he sees, a place called the "Ci Hang Western & Chinese Vegetarian Fast Food." I am dubious, especially since the place is empty at lunchtime, but I realize that resistance is futile.
As expected, the food is bad. Everything has a dull, smoky, leathery taste. At least the signs on the walls provide entertainment. "No Outside Food Is Allowed To Consume In This Food Court Please." "Please Indicate The Amount OF Rice Required On The Menu." After this one I'm tempted to request that they place a few pieces of rice on my menu. "Cherish - Do Not Waste Food. Take Away On Your Left Over Food Are Most Welcome." Good stuff. Even the menu is entertaining as one of the drinks they serve is a "Shirley Temper."
OK, after a disappointing meal we (or some of us anyway) insist on durian for desert! Rachel thinks there is a good place just around the corner. So, after demonstrating to Henning that the dim sum place I wanted to go to is indeed JUST AROUND THE CORNER, we go searching for durian. A show-piece model apartment lures us inside, where we make jokes at the interior decorating and marvel at just how unbelievably small they can make the maid's quarters. Good thing those Phillipino maids usually aren't very large.
Then we try to visit a nearby museum, but they are closed on the weekend. At one point, while walking around, I get a bit ahead of everyone. I look up and see a group of about a dozen or so people gesticulating wildly at me. As I get closer to them I see they are pointing at my hat and making motions like shooting a gun. I shoot back at them with my fingers. Now, I'm used to people giving me strange looks about my hat. (This is the hat Sybil made for me that I lost temporarily during the Hong Kong trip.) To many people here it looks like a Japanese WW2 army hat, with the flaps down the sides and the back. OK, so I'm used to a surprised reaction, but not a dozen people making crazy hand motions at me! Turns out they are a group of deaf people and they simply think I'm hilarious.
Eventually we learn that the durian shop is closed. So, time for new plans. At first, everyone except Henning decides to go to Chinatown for durian, but Henning wants to work on getting some resumes out, so we bail on that idea. Instead, Henning goes home while the rest of us go for bubble tea. After tea, we will meet at Henning's for a swim.
OK, finally a consensus on a plan. Sybil and I have wanted to try the Taiwanese bubble tea for a long time. However, we didn't want to start off at a bad place and had no idea where to go. Fortunately, Rachel knows of a good place on the 3rd floor of the Wisma Atria.
Taiwanese bubble tea is more of a cultural phenomena than a gastronomic delight. Bubble tea shops are hang-outs for young, "Chinese inclined" (Justin's term) Singaporeans. What he means by this is the young Chinese Singaporeans who are far more comfortable speaking Chinese dialect rather than English. They turn to places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and sometimes even China for their popular culture rather than to the West. Bubble tea houses are often littered with Chinese language comics or have Chinese poems tacked on bulletin boards by the young people who hang-out there.
Bubble tea itself is a strange concoction. It looks like something out of Star Trek or Star Wars. The flavored tea comes in bright colors, primarily green or red. There is also a milky version that reminds me of the drinks in the Clockwork Orange milk bar. The name comes from the ball-bearing sized colored spheres of glutinous rice (I think it's glutinous rice!) that bounce around on the bottom of the glass. You slurp them up with an oversized straw that is just barely large enough to take in a "bubble." The bubbles slowly make their way up the straw and make a satisfying pop as they shoot out into your mouth. Pretty interesting.
Sybil and I try a couple different types. One I liked a lot and one I didn't care for (too much rose flavor). We have fun talking to Justin and Rachel. Justin lived in New Jersey for awhile. They are both very sharp and easy to get along with.
After tea, I run off for home while everyone else heads straight to Henning's. It takes me some time to uncover Sybil's swimsuit, so despite running the whole way I don't get over there for awhile. Sybil and Justin are debating the content of Henning's resume. I've already gone over this topic too many times and have put in more than my two cents worth. My best bet is to have a beer and talk with Henning's roommate Michael. (Peggy is back in Hong Kong now so it's just Henning and Michael there now.)
Henning's friend Sonja shows up wanting dinner. Then Jonathan comes over! We have more than enough for a party and the one beer turns into three. We wind up going out for dinner before anyone gets a chance to swim. Michael opts out as he's been eating KFC (and teaching us the Australian versions of their commercials) while we've been talking.
Sonja insists (!) on going to the Boat Quay for dinner. This is probably the last place in Singapore I would choose. I'm willing to go anywhere, even the nearby Newton Circus, to avoid Boat Quay. However, she is even more recalcitrant than Henning was earlier. To add insult to injury, she wants to go to an American place called "Chili's." I've never eaten at a Chili's before, and was hoping to get through this lifetime without being forced to.
I am forced to. It's not really that bad, it's just that everything there is way, way, WAY overpriced. Even a hamburger is about S$15. Nacho's are about S$14. Just ridiculous. Only tourists should pay those prices. I give up early though and stop complaining once we arrive. I even have a decent time. If you can't do anything about a bad situation, just accept it and make the best of it.
Yesterday at work I was chatting with Po Po, a local woman who has lived in the States, about the high stress level in Singapore society. My point was that there is a growing awareness in the government and in the media about stress levels and that eventually steps could be taken to improve the situation. "People will slowly begin to realize that quality of life is more important than material things," I offered. "But things are so expensive," countered Po Po, "a house and a car cost so much!" "Yes, but you can get along fine here without a car and it really doesn't cost that much to have a reasonably sized apartment." We go back and forth with her revealing stress problems and me countering with solutions. Finally she says: "But the weather here! So hot!" She's got me. I can offer no stress reducing solution for that!
Since we are still hoping to start in Java and Bali for our RTW trip (http://www.oocities.org/mdonath/rtw/) I've been poking around the Internet looking for recent travelogues. From the Rec.Travel Library Indonesian page, I found one the other day that looked promising. However while glancing through it I quickly realized that it was written by a Singaporean whose primary delight seemed to be in taking pictures of topless "Angmoh" girls, or of breast-feeding locals! Check it out: http://www.oocities.org/~kenghor/bali/bali.html. Sybil thinks that many Singapore males are in a state of arrested sexual development because this society puts such censorship constraints on all sexually explicit material. She has a point. I have noticed that S'pore guys in their 20's and 30's will pass around silly (cartoonishly provocative) sexual material lifted off the Internet. Stuff that kids in junior high in the States would pass around.
Remember when I related the story of how Sybil phoned me in tears because they came and chopped up the beautiful tree behind our apartment, supposedly because there were snakes in it? Well, Mazhar just told me a similar story. His wife Reshma just called him. She is extremely upset because the tree near their apartment was cut down to make way for a covered walkway. Can you think of anything more ridiculous than cutting down a beautiful old shade tree to put in a covered walkway?
This weekend is the start of the Duan Wu Jie festival, so there are many events going on, culminating in the famous Dragon Boat races. For those who are not familiar with this festival, I'll give a brief (and probably not completely accurate) account of its origins. During the Warring States Period in Chinese history, around 300BC, a famous Minister named Qu Yuan clashed with the chief eunich, named Zhan Shang, of the state of Chu. Zhan Shang had the King of Chu's ears. He spread lies about Qu Yuan, influencing the King so that he demoted Qu Yuan.
Soon after, the king of the more powerful Qin state invited the King of Chu to a conference. Qu Yuan advised the king not to go, but the king's son, Mei Lan, insisted that he attend. The King of Qin imprisoned the King of Chu after the conference.
Qu Yuan criticized Mei Lan and was banished. After wandering about for some time and writing some famous allegories, Qu Yuan eventually fell into despair at the corrupt state of his government. He tied a rock around his body and jumped in the river Mi Luo.
Qu Yuan was still very popular with the people. So those that heard of his disappearance rushed out in boats on the river to find his body. They dropped glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves (called zong zi) in the water, so the fish would not eat his body. They failed to recover his remains though.
Since Qu Yuan was supposed to have disappeared on the 5th day of the 5th Lunar Month, that day is commemorated. People here give zong zi as gifts and there are many musical and artistic events throughout the week. The Dragon Boat races are a custom derived from people rushing out onto the river to recover Qu Yuan's body.
It's a fun time to be in Singapore. That is, unless you're worried about your job. The government is predicting large numbers of "retrenchments" (layoffs) due to the upcoming recession. I think the economic situation here is extremely bad in the short term. I don't expect Indonesia to recover over the next few years and the entire area is in for belt-tightening.
We've been watching some Weimar Republic era films at the Goethe Institute lately. They've shown some great movies for free. Some of them don't have English subtitles, but they are fascinating anyway. We took Cathy and Sally to see "The Blue Angel," an excellent film that I've seen three times. However it has an unhappy ending and I don't think our sensitive young Shanghai friends are used to the hopelessness of 1920's Germany. Cathy was in tears at the finale.
Friday night, Sybil and I went for dinner at a Thai restaurant called "Lemon Grass" on the top floor of the Heeren Building. The food was pretty good. Sybil lectured the manager about charging us for the chips they put on the table, plus another charge for a refill. At first he replied that lots of other places in Singapore charge for every "free" amenity. When she didn't accept that excuse he replied that other places just hide that charge in the food. Sybil wisely suggests that they start doing the same. It is aggravating to be charged for every towel, napkin or chip they put on the table! I wouldn't be surprised to see a Singapore restaurant put a meter on the salt shaker.
Afterwards, we watched a "fringe" performance downstairs by an Australian group. Four guys dress in black leather and wear helmets with television screens. They creep around the audience, performing little jokes with them while spacey music plays. Actually, it was more humorous than it sounds.
At the end of the performance an announcer held a contest to give away some free tickets to another show. My kiasu Sybil wins by being aggressive. Turns out we don't go to the show, but she caught the attention of our friend Jonathan, who turned out to be in the audience with his friend Stella. They are going to Bon Marche to eat, so we decide to get desert and join them.
Now, this Bon Marche place is always packed. The way it works is you collect a card as you enter and can choose from an array of stations to pick up food. They run your card through a machine after each purchase. You pay the total when you leave. Seems pretty efficient. However, at night, and especially on Friday nights, there is a huge line just to get inside. Sybil and I have jumped the queue in the past by pretending to get carry-out and then snatching a table on our own, instead of waiting to be seated. We persuade Jonathan and Stella to try this dastardly trick.
Oops, they are on to us because now, for the first time, they stamp our cards with "take-out only." Still, we are undaunted and grab a table anyway. We're soon caught when one of the workers comes over and asks to see our tickets. He sees the "take-out only" stamp and tells us we have to return to the queue.
Now, if we weren't in Singapore, I think most of us would probably be happy to give up, apologize and leave. But here you get so fed up with all the silly little rules that it tends to make expats want to rebel in any tiny way they can. So we tell them that we had intended to get carry-out, but changed our minds. In a rare moment of Singaporean dexterity, the worker compromises by offering to let us sit at the bar. Everyone is happy.
Rachel winds up joining us later and we go clubbing. Sybil wants to dance, but the first place we go to (a place called "Retro" near Bugis Junction) plays 80's music in crowded, smoky rooms. Reminds me of bad high school parties. No room for Sybil's whirling dervish style of dancing. I get interested in watching the locals play cards and a bizarre hand-signal type of drinking game, but we soon leave.
Next is the "Liquid Room." This is one of those "alternative" places that is very much like another club we've been to in Little India. The lighting is dark and fluorescent. The furniture is mod 1960's. The music is thumpingly repetitive. A large screen plays 3-D German and American video shorts that look like demos of computer games. One video depicts a robot couple having sex. A small orange drink costs S$7. The place is full of expats and tourists! It's too loud to talk and too crowded to dance.
We're moving on. The rest of the group winds up at Fabrice's, which Rachel reports was better, but I'm pooped. Sybil and I bail out. Never was much for clubbing.
A former Singaporean living in Jamaica notes via email that "makaplace" (used way back in an early issue) should really be "makanplace" since "makan" is Malay for food. This is correct. However, sometimes the way it actually comes out of people's mouths sounds more like "makaplace."
This same person also asks about my use of the HEN term "yogi." Here is my reply: "The term "yogi" as used by HEN followers means acceptance of give and take. Sometimes you have an opportunity to take something offered (a yogi in) and sometimes you have an opportunity to give (a yogi out). Both should be viewed as opportunities. I believe the term is derived from a combination of an Indian yogi and the opportunistic Yogi Bear."
Some more Q&A lifted from email I sent to a potential Singapore expat:
> Can you drink the water?
Good question. Yes and no. The water is far better than in most of Asia, much better than Hong Kong or Taiwan. Of course the government says the water is safe, but it doesn't always seem right. I usually boil but will drink out of the tap in a pinch.
> Is it too freaking hot to function in the daylight?
Usually.
> Do people walk around in suits and ties at noon?
Ties yes. Suits no.
>Originally being from California I found that one thing I do miss is the ability to >start conversations with people you meet on the street, restaurants, bars, etc... >Hawaii is kind of closed in that respect, what about Singapore?
Good point. People are very polite and just about anyone on the street would be happy to give you directions or answer a question. However, most people here would have a lot of difficulty entering into a conversation with a stranger. They are very reserved and would likely feel uncomfortable.
> I've been to Thailand and Japan, are there any similarities or differences with > Singapore?
Well, as I've mentioned before, people in Thailand are generally much more open and friendly. Japanese people tend to be more reserved like the Singaporeans. People in Singapore also seem to be stressed and feel pressured like the Japanese. The difference is that they usually don't go out after work and blow off steam. The Japanese work hard and party hard. Singaporeans work hard and go home to watch TV. Of course these are generalizations.
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