Getting to Singapore
I set my alarm today for 5am. Exactly 12 hours later, I walked into my hotel room in Singapore.
Upon first awakening, I want back to sleep. To snooze is divine as the old saying goes. I made it out the door of my Hangzhou hostel by 5:30am, proud of myself for allowing extra time (as I always do) for my 8:10am flight. I found a cab and we rode in silence through the completely empty streets and under the gray skies that persisted for much of my visit. Hangzhou does have more green than the other major Chinese cities I've visited, I'll give it that. It's not hard to see why it's a popular escape for Chinese tourists and a romantic getaway for young couples. We passed many trees and parks on the way to the airport, though it isn't quite enough to take away the somewhat bleak look of the city away from the lake, a look shared by many other Chinese cities. There's something that's just too spread out, too big, or too sprawling. Maybe it reminds me of LA too much. Maybe it's that it feels like in order to travel within it, you have to be part of the perpetual (except for at 5am) traffic jams. Maybe it was just the crappy weather.
We arrived at the airport at about 6am. I figured out which counters were servicing check-in for my flight but it turns out, they don't sweat it too much in China and hadn't yet put any personnel there. So the passengers who'd arrived early like I did pretty much sat around til about 6:30 when they started check-in. I figured it was an international flight so maybe best to be on the safe side, but it turns out it was only sort of international. We flew to Fuzhou (capital of Fujian), got off the plane, went through immigration, then got back on the plane and flew to Singapore. The flights were about 1.5 hours and 4 hours respectively. I slept a little on the first but mostly worked on the second. The flights were pretty easy although there was this queasy guy next to me with his girlfriend who kept picking up the barf bag which concerned me. I don't normally get any kind of motion sick on flights although we had experienced a bit of turbulence so I could see where the guy was coming from. That said, there is nothing that makes me sick quicker than having somebody getting sick right next to me. I think it's mostly the sounds they make. An old blog entry from what I'd guess is 2007 recounts a similar anecdote on a minibus in northern Laos, although that one involved many people getting sick and actually throwing up. This one is happily anti-climactic in comparison.
This is a completely meaningless detail. The girl was rubbing her boyfriend's back to soothe him as he considered puking. When she rubbed his back, she repeatedly restarted at the top, like petting a dog or cat. I think most people rub up and down or in circles. Seemed weird to me.
We finally landed around 3pm as I recall. I was starving since there was no vegetarian meal or anything on the flight, so upon spotting Burger King I decided to get fries. I love fries. I experienced my first local Singlish expression when the girl said, "Having here?" I had to ask her to repeat herself cause the first time I wasn't sure what I'd heard. Studying the free tourist map as I ate my fries, I observed the new mix of faces walking in every direction. Singapore they say is about 75% Chinese of varying descent, then a whole bunch of Malay and Indian, then a mix of other countries for the last 3% or something. As I took the subway to the hotel, it was the first time in a while I listened to conversations around me and had absolutely no idea what language was being spoken. I mean, I know what languages are spoken in Singapore mostly, but a lot of the Chinese dialects in common use here as well as Malay, Tagalog, or any Indian languages are pretty much unknown to me. Of course I don't understand them, but I mean I can't even distinguish them. Being on the train and looking around, there were indeed a decent number of apparently Chinese faces, but it really did seem more varied than any other non-American city I can recall being in the recent past. Even in Hong Kong, most of the people you see are Chinese and it is not a close call. This is the first place where multiple minority groups seem reasonably well represented.
So now having been here for an evening and walked around a bit, I've got a very slight sense of the place. First of all, I have spoken almost entirely English. That seems to be what people lead off with and what everybody speaks by default. I have heard other languages of course, but if you go into some store or have any exchange, it's hard to know what the other person might speak besides English so that seems to be the starting point. One guy in a 7-11 spoke particularly brutal Singlish and looked Chinese so I switched to Mandarin which sort of worked, but may have caused more confusion than it helped to clear up. So much for Mandarin practice in Singapore.
The restaurants and shops are wide and varied. Things are pretty modern on the streets. Well, completely modern. In some ways it feels very western in terms of modernity and cleanliness. The city is incredibly clean by the way. Probably because I saw a $300 fine for littering sign. Also $1000 for smoking on the subway and $500 for eating and drinking on the subway. For a lot of things they cane you here. That means they hit you a bunch of times with a thick, rattan cane. There turns out to be a whole article on caning in singapore. It sounds unpleasant and worth avoiding. Interesting, one of the ways you can get caned here is by overstaying your visa. I'm sure a few of us remember that American guy who vandalized a bunch of cars here and got caned. You can get caned for drug us, although importing drugs means the death penalty. I looked it up cause I was curious and the death penalty is carried out here by hanging. So tonight when I was about to cross the street, I waited for the light. Interestingly, a lot of locals waited too. I don't think they cane you for that, but I wasn't 100% sure and I figured I'm not in such a big rush that I care to find out. Back to how modern the city is, I have seen fast food chains everywhere from many countries, including a lot of Burger Kings, a KFC, and a Long John Silver's of all things. Lots of Asian snacks in fancy storefronts, and then lots of more cafeteria and casual style places. Obviously there are a billion shops and shopping malls.
I took a walk for dinner and found myself in nearby little India without aiming for it. The city is fairly compact and easy to navigate on foot so far, though it's not as small as certain folks seem to think it is. In Little India, there were without exaggeration a half dozen completely vegetarian Indian joints within a few blocks of each other. Many more had signs on the front saying veg and non-veg. It looks like some large number of the vegetarian restaurants here are going to be Indian, but tomorrow I'm going to look into this in greater depth. I got a rava dosa with sambar and a bunch of chutneys for 5 SGD. 1 USD is 1.20 SGD or so depending on where you exchange. I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was the only non-Indian dude in there and the food seemed pretty tasty to me. I went with the crowded rule, and it was pretty much full to the brim. I ate with my hands. I eat dosas with my hands sometimes in the US, but this time I really went for it. Normally I kind of half-ass it with a fork and knife to help along. I figure I'm going to be in Indian soon and that's how they do it, I might as well stop being afraid of getting my hands dirty. For those wondering, yes, there is a place to wash your hands before and after. That said, we will see what happens to my stomach. Singapore is a warm-up for India. I have had astonishing good luck stomach-wise, something I should probably not say, but apart from some Hong Kong gurgles, I survived a month in mainland China without a single incident of any sort. And that's eating street food probably 70% of the time I'd guess. I'm pretty good at sticking to really hot food most of the time which is safer than the alternatives. I'm excited for Singapore's hawkers' markets filled with street snacks. I got a line on a good place to go tomorrow night, hopefully it can live up to China's street food. I love the Indian stuff and will probably eat it here and there in Singapore, but I'd rather try to go to some more unusual places serving Western (if it exists), Malay, Chinese, or really any kind of Asian vegetarian food. Something a little more unusual would be nice, cause for two weeks after this I'm gonna be eating the real deal in Mumbai and I don't want to be sick of it already by the time I show up. I have avoided Indian food pretty much since Hong Kong for that reason, so I don't want to ruin it now.
So anyway, yes, Singapore, amazingly modern but still pretty intense walking down the street surrounded by not just one alien culture but several all at once, and packed into this weirdly surreal modern society reminiscent of the US in many ways and yet with lots of Asia in the mix. Tomorrow I will explore more, though carefully during the day cause when I arrived this afternoon it was really, really hot. That's another thing I'd better prepare for in Mumbai cause I think there it will be similar or even hotter. The evening tonight was fantastic though. I love that warm weather at night, it's my favorite. Now I get to wear my flip-flops all the time for real, along with everybody else who lives here.
I also want to add, all these people told me a week was too long to spend here. I guess I must really be a city guy or something as a few have pointed out to me recently, but how anyone could have trouble killing a week here is beyond me. Much more to come soon.
Oh yes, I'm also glad the internet work and that I can brush my teeth with tap instead of bottled water again.
Upon first awakening, I want back to sleep. To snooze is divine as the old saying goes. I made it out the door of my Hangzhou hostel by 5:30am, proud of myself for allowing extra time (as I always do) for my 8:10am flight. I found a cab and we rode in silence through the completely empty streets and under the gray skies that persisted for much of my visit. Hangzhou does have more green than the other major Chinese cities I've visited, I'll give it that. It's not hard to see why it's a popular escape for Chinese tourists and a romantic getaway for young couples. We passed many trees and parks on the way to the airport, though it isn't quite enough to take away the somewhat bleak look of the city away from the lake, a look shared by many other Chinese cities. There's something that's just too spread out, too big, or too sprawling. Maybe it reminds me of LA too much. Maybe it's that it feels like in order to travel within it, you have to be part of the perpetual (except for at 5am) traffic jams. Maybe it was just the crappy weather.
We arrived at the airport at about 6am. I figured out which counters were servicing check-in for my flight but it turns out, they don't sweat it too much in China and hadn't yet put any personnel there. So the passengers who'd arrived early like I did pretty much sat around til about 6:30 when they started check-in. I figured it was an international flight so maybe best to be on the safe side, but it turns out it was only sort of international. We flew to Fuzhou (capital of Fujian), got off the plane, went through immigration, then got back on the plane and flew to Singapore. The flights were about 1.5 hours and 4 hours respectively. I slept a little on the first but mostly worked on the second. The flights were pretty easy although there was this queasy guy next to me with his girlfriend who kept picking up the barf bag which concerned me. I don't normally get any kind of motion sick on flights although we had experienced a bit of turbulence so I could see where the guy was coming from. That said, there is nothing that makes me sick quicker than having somebody getting sick right next to me. I think it's mostly the sounds they make. An old blog entry from what I'd guess is 2007 recounts a similar anecdote on a minibus in northern Laos, although that one involved many people getting sick and actually throwing up. This one is happily anti-climactic in comparison.
This is a completely meaningless detail. The girl was rubbing her boyfriend's back to soothe him as he considered puking. When she rubbed his back, she repeatedly restarted at the top, like petting a dog or cat. I think most people rub up and down or in circles. Seemed weird to me.
We finally landed around 3pm as I recall. I was starving since there was no vegetarian meal or anything on the flight, so upon spotting Burger King I decided to get fries. I love fries. I experienced my first local Singlish expression when the girl said, "Having here?" I had to ask her to repeat herself cause the first time I wasn't sure what I'd heard. Studying the free tourist map as I ate my fries, I observed the new mix of faces walking in every direction. Singapore they say is about 75% Chinese of varying descent, then a whole bunch of Malay and Indian, then a mix of other countries for the last 3% or something. As I took the subway to the hotel, it was the first time in a while I listened to conversations around me and had absolutely no idea what language was being spoken. I mean, I know what languages are spoken in Singapore mostly, but a lot of the Chinese dialects in common use here as well as Malay, Tagalog, or any Indian languages are pretty much unknown to me. Of course I don't understand them, but I mean I can't even distinguish them. Being on the train and looking around, there were indeed a decent number of apparently Chinese faces, but it really did seem more varied than any other non-American city I can recall being in the recent past. Even in Hong Kong, most of the people you see are Chinese and it is not a close call. This is the first place where multiple minority groups seem reasonably well represented.
So now having been here for an evening and walked around a bit, I've got a very slight sense of the place. First of all, I have spoken almost entirely English. That seems to be what people lead off with and what everybody speaks by default. I have heard other languages of course, but if you go into some store or have any exchange, it's hard to know what the other person might speak besides English so that seems to be the starting point. One guy in a 7-11 spoke particularly brutal Singlish and looked Chinese so I switched to Mandarin which sort of worked, but may have caused more confusion than it helped to clear up. So much for Mandarin practice in Singapore.
The restaurants and shops are wide and varied. Things are pretty modern on the streets. Well, completely modern. In some ways it feels very western in terms of modernity and cleanliness. The city is incredibly clean by the way. Probably because I saw a $300 fine for littering sign. Also $1000 for smoking on the subway and $500 for eating and drinking on the subway. For a lot of things they cane you here. That means they hit you a bunch of times with a thick, rattan cane. There turns out to be a whole article on caning in singapore. It sounds unpleasant and worth avoiding. Interesting, one of the ways you can get caned here is by overstaying your visa. I'm sure a few of us remember that American guy who vandalized a bunch of cars here and got caned. You can get caned for drug us, although importing drugs means the death penalty. I looked it up cause I was curious and the death penalty is carried out here by hanging. So tonight when I was about to cross the street, I waited for the light. Interestingly, a lot of locals waited too. I don't think they cane you for that, but I wasn't 100% sure and I figured I'm not in such a big rush that I care to find out. Back to how modern the city is, I have seen fast food chains everywhere from many countries, including a lot of Burger Kings, a KFC, and a Long John Silver's of all things. Lots of Asian snacks in fancy storefronts, and then lots of more cafeteria and casual style places. Obviously there are a billion shops and shopping malls.
I took a walk for dinner and found myself in nearby little India without aiming for it. The city is fairly compact and easy to navigate on foot so far, though it's not as small as certain folks seem to think it is. In Little India, there were without exaggeration a half dozen completely vegetarian Indian joints within a few blocks of each other. Many more had signs on the front saying veg and non-veg. It looks like some large number of the vegetarian restaurants here are going to be Indian, but tomorrow I'm going to look into this in greater depth. I got a rava dosa with sambar and a bunch of chutneys for 5 SGD. 1 USD is 1.20 SGD or so depending on where you exchange. I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was the only non-Indian dude in there and the food seemed pretty tasty to me. I went with the crowded rule, and it was pretty much full to the brim. I ate with my hands. I eat dosas with my hands sometimes in the US, but this time I really went for it. Normally I kind of half-ass it with a fork and knife to help along. I figure I'm going to be in Indian soon and that's how they do it, I might as well stop being afraid of getting my hands dirty. For those wondering, yes, there is a place to wash your hands before and after. That said, we will see what happens to my stomach. Singapore is a warm-up for India. I have had astonishing good luck stomach-wise, something I should probably not say, but apart from some Hong Kong gurgles, I survived a month in mainland China without a single incident of any sort. And that's eating street food probably 70% of the time I'd guess. I'm pretty good at sticking to really hot food most of the time which is safer than the alternatives. I'm excited for Singapore's hawkers' markets filled with street snacks. I got a line on a good place to go tomorrow night, hopefully it can live up to China's street food. I love the Indian stuff and will probably eat it here and there in Singapore, but I'd rather try to go to some more unusual places serving Western (if it exists), Malay, Chinese, or really any kind of Asian vegetarian food. Something a little more unusual would be nice, cause for two weeks after this I'm gonna be eating the real deal in Mumbai and I don't want to be sick of it already by the time I show up. I have avoided Indian food pretty much since Hong Kong for that reason, so I don't want to ruin it now.
So anyway, yes, Singapore, amazingly modern but still pretty intense walking down the street surrounded by not just one alien culture but several all at once, and packed into this weirdly surreal modern society reminiscent of the US in many ways and yet with lots of Asia in the mix. Tomorrow I will explore more, though carefully during the day cause when I arrived this afternoon it was really, really hot. That's another thing I'd better prepare for in Mumbai cause I think there it will be similar or even hotter. The evening tonight was fantastic though. I love that warm weather at night, it's my favorite. Now I get to wear my flip-flops all the time for real, along with everybody else who lives here.
I also want to add, all these people told me a week was too long to spend here. I guess I must really be a city guy or something as a few have pointed out to me recently, but how anyone could have trouble killing a week here is beyond me. Much more to come soon.
Oh yes, I'm also glad the internet work and that I can brush my teeth with tap instead of bottled water again.
posted by Dan at 9:14 AM
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