Once again I'm feeling heaty and have a rash in the groin area. (Dr. Lim continues to maintain that I'm just not designed to live in this climate) So, seeking a cooler walk to work, I start to put on my sarong in the morning. Sybil sees me and says I can't do that. I'm already pushing the limit by coming into work in shorts and sandals and changing in the restroom. She goes on to accuse me of wanting to wear the sarong to work "just for shock value." I confess that I'm not above this, but in this circumstance I'm truly just trying to be more comfortable.
Sybil winds up convincing me to switch back to the shorts. She says the shorts are about as cool anyway and this is probably true. She also makes our running quote list with "rugged individualism doesn't count for shit in this country." Well put Sybil darling. Give me a few months though and I may be able to wear the sarong to work without anyone thinking any less of me (than they already do). I just have to slowly get them used to expecting the unexpected.
We had a very pleasant dinner last night at the Marco Polo hotel (great seafood buffet) with C.M. Chue and Peng Hwa Ang of Deka-Com. Ang's charming wife Caroline also joined us. They contacted me because they were interested in buying the Singapore Journal to put up on their extremely promising Expat Singapore web site. It was a tempting offer, but I don't want to worry about editorial constraints here and like having this on the Rec.Travel Library site.
Instead, we worked out a deal where I would write other pieces for them. I think it's a better situation all round because I've wanted a chance to expound on certain issues and thought I would get too wordy if I tried to do this on every subject here. In addition I intend to include much more logistical detail in the pieces I write for them and will include many more links to useful web sites. So, if you really want nitty gritty details on ex-pat life here or on travels in the region, check out my contributions to http://www.expatsingapore.com/index.htm. They're still getting things ready so check back later as they will have more updates in place.
Aside from the business arrangement, I enjoyed meeting these guys. They're both very intelligent and well rounded. Chue studied 16th Century English Literature in college, so he and Sybil have a common interest. Ang is a professor with a good business head and an excellent familiarity with the States. He was able to talk with Sybil about LA and Boston and spent some time in my hometown of Chicago. He even mentioned visiting with a friend of his in Skokie, IL, where I went to high school.
Saturday was Sybil's B-Day so we go over to "Beans in a Mug" in the SingTel building to have Western style pancakes. Sybil loves pancakes and the owners (VJ and B) are very nice people and the cakes are good. We like to sit there and read the paper on weekends.
At Raffles Place they are holding a "China in the City" exhibition that includes arts and crafts from Mainland China. We saw lots of interesting art here but the most curious was the "microscopic engraving." This is where they engrave tiny detailed work that can only be seen under a microscope. The most bizarre example was a strand of "animal hair" on which the engraver had drawn portraits of all of the US Presidents! You could purchase this for S$600.
Equally amazing was the dance performance given by Chinese children. One group of young girls (I'm guessing their ages at between 7 and 10) did an incredibly complicated dance routine, full of twirling splits and other acrobatics, all while holding rice bowls and never failing to smile maniacally. It was too much to be believed. I told Sybil you could never get American kids to rehearse for such a complex and arduous number. They were truly as good as professional dancers. Sybil agreed and said she suspected they were actually midgets and not children. I suggested that maybe the Chinese extracted growth hormones from these dancers and injected it into their swimmers.
Sunday we went to the wedding of one of my work colleagues (Lynn) at the Pin Hsiang restaurant. I knew from past experience that Chinese weddings are big and often expensive affairs. This one was relatively modest but still entailed two professionally produced photo albums (filled with an array of on location shots at Fort Canning Park and several vintage costumes) and three wardrobe changes by the bride during the dinner. The couple entered the dining hall to music, light effects and dry ice smoke. The food was served nine-course Chinese banquet style where the fastest with the chopsticks gets the choicest pieces from each dish. All the guests rush out the door the moment the dinner ends. Bride, groom and family wait there to collect the hasty farewells.
Because Chinese weddings are so costly the gift is higher and given in cash (hwang bao). After you add in enough to cover dinner, along with some extra for a gift, it turns out to be at least 1.5 times the cost of a typical present at an American wedding. The past year was a record one for weddings in Singapore primarily because next year is a tumultuous Tiger year and not considered a good year to get married. Far better to marry in a stable, dependable Ox year.
Chinese New Year is just a few weeks away and all preparations are in full swing. Some of the malls simply paint the beards of their Santa Claus decorations black, turning them into Chinese sages. Others play up the tiger motif, often pictured with circular chi life force at the base of the tiger's spine. Since I was born in an Ox year and Sybil in a Tiger year this current changing of the Chinese zodiac is particularly interesting to us. Every Chinese horoscope book we've ever read cautions against the pairing of Ox and Tiger in marriage. A cute Chinese horoscope site is at http://found.cs.nyu.edu/liaos/horoscope.html. Here's what this site says about my Ox compatibility with other signs (1 - least compatible, 100 - most compatible):
Once again the Ox-Tiger match rates very low. It's true we have had some spectacular conflicts and often have difficulty understanding each other, but when we do work together it is a very strong match.
The legend of the twelve animals in the horoscope goes like this. The Jade Emperor (in some versions it is the Buddha) sent an invitation for all of the animals to visit him on Chinese New Year. Only twelve of them managed to make the journey. The Emperor honored each of the animals with a year in the order they arrived to meet with him. The diligent Ox was the first to arrive but the crafty Rat stole a ride on his back and scampered down to the Emperor's feet first. So the order of the animals is Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.
It's interesting to compare the New Year traditions here with those I've seen in Beijing and in the States. In all three places people give money in red envelopes to children, clean up the house (don't sweep the dirt outside though or out goes the luck) and get together with family to have a meal. In Beijing the traditional food is jiaozi (dumpling) because the literal meaning of the word means to setup a home and have children, which is seen as prosperity. Some people hide small items in the jiaozi such as coins, sweets, nuts, or sometimes something nasty like charcoal. Getting one of these special dumplings is supposed to foretell your luck for the year. The two other main traditions in Beijing is watching the special New Year's show on TV and blowing off tons of firecrackers at night.
The celebrations in the States also have firecrackers-to scare away the evil beast Nian and welcome in the New Year. This evil beast Nian has a name that is the same as the Chinese character for "year." (BTW, this character is also very similar in appearance to the character for "ox.") A god disguised as an old man was able to lead Nian off and stop him from terrorizing people but the old man warned everyone to be diligent against Nian's return. The color red is also supposed to keep this beast away and bring good luck. Chinatowns in the States often have a parade that includes dragon and lion dances, along with a lot of drum beating and firecrackers.
Fireworks aren't allowed here in Singapore and jiaozi is not a common New Year's dish. Traditional New Year's fruits like pomelo (in Chinese, yu, it is a homophone with the word for "protection") tangerines (homophone is "good luck") and persimmons (don't know why-maybe because they're easy to grow?) are popular here. Fish is another popular food as its homophone means "more than enough," meaning prosperity. Chinese sausage and dried BBQ pork sheets (rou gan in Mandarin but around here people use the Hokkien name bak kwa) seem to be very popular here. Sweet rice cakes are also for sale everywhere.
Incredible hawker stand story of the month. I stopped by Zhujiao for my favorite Black Carrot Cake stand. As tasty as ever, but not quite enough for lunch. So, I went to the other side of the food court to a North Indian stall where we once had some decent daal. Here I got a fish curry for S$1.70 (less than $1 now) that included a large piece of fish fillet and a nice cucumber salad. I ate this with two chapati and was very happy indeed. They even gave me a cup of water-a first for me at a hawker stand. I needed it too because there was some kick to this curry.
The currency collapse has made us reconsider whether we want to stay here long term. When I negotiated my contract (in Singapore dollars) the rate was 1.5 S$ to 1$. Now it is about 1.8S$ to 1$. I actually took a slight pay cut to come over here (just for adventure, I know I'm daft) but now that Sybil earns far less money and my earnings are worth less, it has started to become a larger issue. Actually, it's a bigger problem for Sybil, as I don't care too much about money. She does manage to catch my attention occasionally when she says we could travel more if we had more money. (I'm still struggling to grasp the concept of why we should want the stuff.) There were some positive indications recently that the worst of the Asian currency crisis may be over, so it may not be a concern for long.
"Bombay is in the south, right?" asks a young Chinese guy in the office to Mazhar. "No-la!" he replies emphatically. It is amazing that despite the large Indian population, people here seem to know less about India than just about any place. BTW, Mazhar's wife is about to have their first child and he will soon be taking a month off for the event.
For many years I've been traveling with my lucky red OR rain hat. It has held up incredibly well, works perfectly in rain and it does indeed bring me extra luck. It has a few flaws though-too hot for this climate and it doesn't provide enough protection from the sun. OR makes a very nice sun hat too and I was tempted to get one but I hated to give up the luck of my red hat.
Sybil comes to the rescue by starting to make a sun hat for me. She's hand sewing everything so it's taking some time but I'm already convinced it will both block the sun and prove even luckier than the red hat. She's going to sew my email address on it in case I lose it.
Saturday, Sybil and I organize a return excursion to Pulau Ubin. This time we bring a company that includes Cathy (Sybil's tutor from Shanghai), Cathy's friend Sally, Peggy (visiting from Hong Kong and working at my company for a few months), and Christiane (older French woman who is staying with her son in Singapore for awhile). Our plans are modest-just to pop over to PU for another look and be back before dinner.
For weeks, Sybil has been calling her tutor "KC" instead of "Cathy" because that's how Cathy's pronunciation of her name sounds to Sybil. She almost makes a similar mistake with her friend Sally, starting to call her Sandy, but learning her lesson she is careful to get it right straight off. Peggy's English is good and she can also speak some Mandarin to Cathy and Sandy, so she can easily talk with us or the two women from Shanghai. Christiane has little spoken English and less Mandarin but Sybil and I know some French and Christiane is very creative with her gestures in explaining things and this makes it quite entertaining for anyone to communicate with her.
We hire bicycles but don't plan to ride them as much as we did during our first trip. Instead we head out to a trailhead we'd spotted previously. It overlooks a large quarry and we take the trail up to the top of a large hill. From here we can see the entire island as well as Singapore and Johor. However, it is a warm day, we are hot from the climb and large red ants terrorize Cathy so we don't stay on top for too long.
We peddle over to the northern beach, an area Sybil and I skipped the first trip, with the vague hope we could have a swim there. The water's too dirty for this though so we sit in the shade and share our packed lunches. We spend the next few hours walking, chatting and riding. Peggy's bike is a bit too large for her so she develops a habit of spectacularly crashing it to the ground while leaping off it to the side when she slows down too much to control it. Sandy is wearing city shoes so she is uncomfortable hiking up hills. Christiane sometimes rides either well ahead or well behind us. We do get some rain and Cathy comically tries to ride her bike while holding her umbrella, but it doesn't dampen any spirits. Everyone is very game and in good humor, so the outing is a success.
Truly, this is the key to the success of any excursion. It doesn't matter much what you are doing so long as everyone is interested in cooperating and in gaining from the experience. I think this is what people mean when they say things like "we had a good group." So, with this in mind, we had a good group.
Sunday, we laze around a bit in the morning, as we have become wont to do. Then we aimlessly pop over to the Great World mall. This is a new mall and the atmosphere is very (upscale middle class) Chinese. We stopped to watch a series of performances based on a theme of nostalgia for the "good old days" in Singapore. By this I would guess they mean late 1960's when the rural influence was more pronounced. First they have a musical number where dancers in various bumpkin outfits move to music that I would describe as Chinese Country.
Then a comic skit is performed, all in Chinese and I don't think the Orchard Road malls would do this. The audience is familiar with the main character-a man in drag playing a middle aged woman. Another character is supposed to be his (oops, I mean her) henpecked daughter and two other women friends of the lead fill out the cast. They speak very quickly and with a lot of what I would guess is old-fashioned slang, so I can't make out much of the skit. The humor is often in the over the top gestures though so that translates easily.
After Great World we head over to Little India. That's right, it's Sunday night and we're heading over to Little India. Anyone who is local and reading this right now is completely convinced of our insanity because Sunday nights in Little India are truly insane.
Sunday night is when all, and I do mean all, the Sri Lankan and Indian men in town go to Little India and hang out. The main drag of Serangoon Road is jam packed with men and all of the side streets and shops are completely full. What are all of these many thousands of men (and it is bizarre to be around so many people of the same race and sex) doing here? Well, mostly just sitting around talking. Guys are sitting everywhere, often smoking, sometimes holding hands or with arms draped around each other in a good-natured manner. They get some food and perhaps do a little shopping. We walk around and see there are some vices here (alcohol and prostitution) but really it's amazing how peaceful and law abiding the area is considering all the frustrated hormones that must be held in check. Still, this part of Singapore sheds it's modernity on Sunday nights and looks decidedly third world, so the local Chinese are repelled and we are attracted.
We had a foolish plan to eat up here but every place is too busy to get in. So we head toward the Sultan Mosque near Arab Street in order to get some food. Ramadan is still in progress so we're hoping for something interesting. On the way we pass through the weekly flea market that's held in the huge lot just before crossing the canal heading east. Hmm, I guess those directions are a bit vague. It's just a bit northeast of Sim Lim Tower.
The vast majority of stuff for sale there is always junk though; crap that should be mercifully tossed in the bin. However there are a very few things of interest. Sybil buys an old cassette tape for 50 cents. I look at a framed Guinness poster of a woman wrapped around black sheet that resembles the stout drink. I've seen this poster before and have admired its tackiness, but the poster has some small blemishes and the frame has a dent-all that could be expected for S$3 but I pass it by. We see a good fortune New Year's scroll in good condition that is equally cheap but it doesn't quite capture our fancy enough for us to want to hang it up.
It rains a bit and vendors scramble frantically to put stuff away since they will stop soon anyway. The rain subsides though while still threatening torrential downpour. "This is when you can get a good deal," I say to Sybil. We're almost done looking when we see our opportunity in a very nice Cultural Revolution vase depicting Mao and his Long March cronies. The Chinese vendor also has a pair of what I'm guessing are pencil holders painted with pictures of Mao and his sayings. He wants S$25 for the vase and S$25 for the pair of holders. This seems high to me but not so high as to be out of reach. Gone are the days where you could pick up stuff like that for next to nothing. Today everyone knows waiguoren will pay high prices for these things.
Now I have an unusual way of bargaining for things. Basically, I don't bargain at all. I just figure out what I'm willing to pay for something and stick to my offer. You don't get a lot of stuff this way (which is good) but when you do buy things you always get a good deal. Sybil and I talk and I decide on S$25 for all three. Sybil thinks this is too low, even for a first offer, but I don't think so.
We make the offer and the Chinese guy laughs. He shakes his head, rolls his eyes and says something to another vendor about our pathetic offer. He counters with S$40 for the three. Sybil thinks about offering S$30 but I shake my head and repeat our offer of S$25.
Many people have said that the trick to bargaining is in being able to walk away from the deal if you don't get your price. I will extend this philosophy to add that you must genuinely be able to give up wanting the item(s) in question. If you can do this then the seller will surely sense it and know the sale is lost unless he changes his terms.
So, we don't just walk away, we leave completely and definitely. I've already given up on the sale in my mind. The vendor calls us back though and says he will go down to S$30. No, the offer is S$25. It's just about to pour and the guy probably hasn't sold S$25 worth of stuff all day. Plus I'm certain he paid practically nothing for these things. He takes our offer.
So our Mao pottery collection stands in our trophy case along with the Rugby ball Sybil caught at the first Chinese test match, the Coke polar bears I yogied from work, Sybil's earrings and sunglasses from the Obiang Contest, a pewter dish I received as an award at work, a colorful anti-smoking pamphlet, a video from the jump rope contest, a cutout of Barney the dinosaur (because I used to work at Smith Barney and Sybil joked my job was to dress up as Barney in the "Boom Boom room") and a lot of other memorable junk. These are all proudly displayed in a very fancy Chinese display case that sits in our dining room.
We did finally get over to the Sultan Mosque but a downpour filled the restaurants near there as people lingered, reluctant to brave the rain. The stands setup outside the mosque for Ramadan provide a few nice tidbits though. We also get some fish covered with chili and coconut and wrapped in leaves to take home and eat over rice. Sybil also buys some durian paste, which a man describes to us as "like gum only you can swallow it." It is thick and powerful but not bad.
My friend Mike Frey is in town. He's here on business, working for ABN-AMRO, who I used to work for in Chicago. Some day I'm going to have to dig up my "Glacier Journal" and put that online because Mike and I once shared an extremely interesting backpacking trip to Glacier National Park. There are also some good mountain climbing tales accumulated during another trip to Colorado.
Mike and Gary Silverman, another ABN-AMRO colleague, want to go to the Night Safari. The previous night Sybil and I had stayed up late after going to dinner with Peggy Wong and Mazhar so we were a bit hesitant at first about another late night out. We quickly regained enthusiasm though as we've wanted to go to the Night Safari and how often do friends visit you when you live on opposite sides of the world?
We have a beautiful night for the outing and the Night Safari lives up to expectations. It's similar to the zoo in that you can get very close to the animals and the surroundings are lush with greenery. Seeing them at night is a novel experience though! Watching them emerge out of the darkness is quite thrilling. A tram takes us around the park and we get off and on to follow several walking trails. The lighting is soft so as not to disturb the animals and they don't allow flash photography.
Here's one mental snapshot from the Night Safari. Standing on the little path that leads up to the giraffes, I face the animals with the wide vista of the Kranji Reservoir in view to my left. I know I'm not in the wilderness of Africa but it truly feels like it. A giraffe notices us and comes a bit closer. The giraffe appears to be shy and comically seems to be hiding behind a small tree and peeking out from behind. A large beast bellows off in the distance. The nearby ferns have a prehistoric look about them. The stars are out and far more visible than usual in this Singapore of too many lights. It is January and the air is perfectly warm and comfortable. The night is blessed and I embrace it.
Just came across some notes I'd jotted down a few weeks back during a group meeting. Lionel, my boss, tells us the theme for our group during this upcoming year is "Dependable IT Support for Business." Soon after he changes this to "Dependable IT Service for Business" because he thinks it sounds better. He tells us he originally wanted it to be "First Class and Best IT Service for Business" but he didn't think we were good enough to make that claim. He says he didn't want to have us try to "climb Mt. Everest when we can't even climb Mt. Faber." (The latter is a local hill.) I wasn't the only one who though this was a very funny line.
I was standing in a wet market today, eating a mango, when I saw an elephant man. He was sitting on a cement bench cutting hair from his face with scissors. His face appeared to be melted, stretching all the way down to his chest. Of course I didn't want to be rude enough to stare at the man, so I refrained from doing so even though he caught my curiosity. I wondered how he could eat with his mouth so far away from his throat.
I've been reading Thomas Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge" aloud to Sybil. I often read aloud to her in the evenings. Some of our more recent books include "Alice in Wonderland" (amazingly she'd never read this), "Persuasion," and "Jane Eyre." As these are all set in England, I've been getting some practice with English dialogue. However, Sybil doesn't like my imitation of a Scottish accent. Hmmph! Only one character in "Mayor of Casterbridge" is Scottish so I do find it a bit hard to switch back and forth between accents. Some of the terms are archaic as well so that makes it even more difficult. A bit funny to be reading this in Singapore.
Friday night, after a great Northern India dinner with Mike, Gary and Eric (their ABN-AMRO colleague) we hang out in the nearby Indian temple and then take a long, ambling walk down Orchard Road. Eric, and then Gary, drop out and return to the Merchant Court Hotel for sleep, but Mike, Sybil and I decide to watch a midnight show at the Cineplex. This is a spur of the moment decision so we have no idea what's playing. Even after we hear the titles we still don't know much about the films but decide on "Red Corner" because we know it has something to do with China.
Very strange how the world works and how coincidences can become so meaningful in your life. The movie opens with a shot of Purple Bamboo Park in Beijing. Aside from my silly "Singapore Journal" and my Singapore Expat contributions, I've been diligently trying to get a novel about Beijing during the Tian'anmen Square massacre rewritten. Just that morning I'd been working on a scene in Purple Bamboo Park and had relived vivid memories of it. Later in the movie they show Radio Beijing. I worked there for a short time and one of the main characters in my novel works there. There's another scene in the beginning of the movie where Richard Gere first notices the cameras panning around Tian'anmen. A character in my book, "A Few Flies Get In," has a similar revelation.
"Red Corner" is not a great movie and has some serious flaws. However I enjoyed watching it and thought it well worth viewing. More importantly, the visual images of Beijing helped me focus back and reinforce the feel I have in my mind for the place. I really needed this in order to complete the finishing brushstrokes of my little painting.
OK, well past time to address the questions I've been getting from people through email. Here is a recap of some of them and my responses. It's good that people ask about things because I know I'm not always clear about everything.
"Who is Garuda and his Naga brothers?" - I mentioned this back when I was describing the poem next to the Merlion statue. Garuda and the Nagas are characters from Indian mythology. As related in The Mahabharata, Garuda is half-bird half-human and kind of a god-like creature. He's supposed to be guarding his half-brothers, the Nagas, who are serpent-like creatures, but when he gets bored he eats some of them. There are some great tales of Garuda searching for the vial of Immorality in order to free his enslaved mother. He eats up a lot of gods along his quest. Hungry guy!
"What does "Peranakan" mean?" - I think Peranakan means "half-breed" or "mixed" or something like that. The term refers to the Straits Chinese who were Chinese men who came into the area and married Malay women. I think I did mention the Babas (men) and the Nonyas (women) in the journal. This refers to the Straits Chinese or Peranakans.
"What is a busker's festival?" - These are just street performers who are slightly more organized. Actually, you need to obtain a busker's license in Singapore before you can legally perform. This is a new thing as previously street performers were completely outlawed. Very few people have applied for the license as it involves an audition and other bureaucratic hassles.
"What are "HEN philigious beliefs"?" - Now I'm going to get myself into trouble. The Singapore government is very uptight about religious cults. Despite this, on every form I've needed to fill out that asks what my religion is, I've put down "HEN." Very basically, HEN is an acronym for "Happy Epicurean Nihilists" and "philigion" is a mixture of "philosophy" and "religion". Aspects are borrowed from Bokononism (yes, check your Vonnegut) and Budhism, as well as from other philosophies and religions. Proselytizing is not part of the philigion however (S'pore government take note!) so I have to be careful about explaining too much as it may seem like I'm trying to convert people when I have absolutely no wish to do so.
Since I happen to be a HEN believer I spout out HEN nonsense once in a while. Terms such as "yogi", "kan-kan," and "karass" are all HEN terms. Some of these terms (like the latter two) are originally derived from Bokononism. The shared terms have meanings that are decidedly different to HEN believers, but they are close enough that I can point you to a Bokononist web page (unlike HEN, they do proselytize, although not that much) for partial explanation: http://acad.fandm.edu/~al_burgman/vonnegut/BOKONON.HTML. I will reveal that we HEN do the Boko-maru ritual and say the Boko-maru calypso (with a few word changes) the same way as Bokononists.
"Why did that woman give the Seychelles a thumb's down?" - I think the reason was because it was rather expensive and she found the people not all that friendly. We'll check with her because Themara has just finished her trip to Bali (thumbs up) and has returned home.
"Isn't 'makaplace' a typo for 'marketplace?'" - Makaplace is Singlish (Singapore English) for a food court. Maka means eat in Malay so the meaning is like "eating place."
"There are a few delights you haven't mentioned yet, ... fish head curry and black pepper crab" - Yes, two of the most famous Singapore delicacies, and justly so. However, everybody writes about these great dishes. Far better to describe the lesser known (and far cheaper) delights of black carrot cake and curry puff. Speaking of the latter, this same gentleman waxes nostalgic at the thought of the curry puffs from the Selera Restaurant. This is indeed an excellent place to get the delicacy and at S$.70 they have got to be the street food buy of the planet. However, I often find myself heading across the street from this famous place to the little stand across the street, next to the silly children's amusement rides, to get a curry puff there. They cost S$.80 here but they are good enough to draw me away from Selera on some days.
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