Singapore

“Attention! Ladies and gentlemen!” The voice of the male flight attendant came over the intercom and pulled all of out of a deep sleep.  “The Malaysian government requires the cabin to be sprayed prior to arrival; so please cover your nose and mouth and prepare for the fumigation.”  Good grief!  The fumigation?  I quickly looked around to see if hoses were dropping from the ceiling of the plane or if guys in hazmat suits carrying pump sprayers full of disinfectant were making their way down the aisle.  Turns out, the “fumigation” consisted of a flight attendant walking the length of the plane spraying an aerosol can above the baggage bins, which created an orange-scented cloud that descended upon the passengers.  Not altogether unpleasant but strange, to say the least.  We touched down at the airport in Kuala Lumpur at 6:30 PM and spent the next two hours hustling through the terminal claiming one bag, checking in for the next flight, wolfing down dinner from McDonald's, and going through one more security check.  By the time we reached our gate, the flight was ready to board, and we were off to Singapore as a long travel day continued. We already missed the comfort of the Wheel Garden residence in Siem Reap.

We arrived in Singapore at 10:30 PM and went through one of the smoothest immigration procedures we’ve experienced to date and walked to the front of the airport where we quickly secured an Uber ride.  After a smooth trip on wide, clearly marked roads, the driver dropped us off at a twelve-story highrise. We rode the elevator to the top floor, found our unit, and then waited for an hour outside the locked door because the person scheduled to let us in was late.  By the time we fell into bed it was 1:30 AM, and we were done.   Rents are very high in Singapore; so we had to secure a private room in an occupied apartment, but as providence prevailed, the owner was traveling to Hong Kong for the weekend, and we had the place mostly to ourselves.  Our room is very tight with two single beds along the perimeter and a mattress on the floor between the beds.  We have our own bathroom, but the hot water isn’t functioning, so we’ve been granted permission to use the shower in the owner’s bath.  The owner’s friend, Andi, pops in and out unannounced, so we’re doing our best to stay organized and inconspicuous, but it’s difficult in such small quarters.

The apartment is small with a long narrow living room combined with a kitchen and two small bedrooms.  There are no closets or pantries, and the owner’s belongs are stacked neatly along the length of the walls and on shelves bolted above the small appliances that fill the kitchen counters.  The walls are painted egg-yolk yellow bordered by white trim, and the floor is tiled with black and gray granite.  The only air conditioners are in the bedrooms, so the windows in the main room are open all the time to take advantage of the cross breeze. Large floor fans help to break up the humidity.  There’s a washer in the corner of the kitchen, and just outside the rear window under the sill are six-cylinder shaped receptacles in which long sticks full of clipped clothing can be placed for drying like flags flapping to celebrate Laundry Day.  According to one of our Uber drivers, most Singapore citizens live in high-rise apartments just like the one in which we’re staying, so I guess we’re experiencing life in the city the way it really happens.

Singapore is actually a city-state which goes by one name denoting its sovereignty like the Vatican, and this one name gives it a lot of street cred as it does for mononymous people such as Plato, Voltaire, and Cher.  Colonial Singapore was founded by Stamford Raffles (one of the all time great personal names) in 1819 as a strategic port for the East India Trading Company (one of the all time great business names) and was occupied by the British.  The Japanese controlled Singapore during World War II and was included with Malaysia until seceding and gaining sovereignty in 1965.  Since that time, Singapore has grown to become wealthy with some of the lowest unemployment rates and one of the best infrastructures in the world.  I’ve formed impressions in my mind of the way places we’ve visited might look based on research and pictures, and by and large, most of those images have turned out as expected with the exception of actual life on the street.  I can say without hesitation that Singapore looks nothing like what I had expected, and it’s the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited.

Due to the late night and travel hangover, we took our time getting out of bed Saturday, but eventually hunger and my desire for coffee motivated us to throw on some clothes and explore the neighborhood.  Thankfully, the highrise next door had an open first-floor breezeway lined entirely with food vendors called hawkers in Singapore, and the area was anchored by a coffee shop with a no-nonsense proprietor.  This guy was gruff and covered with buddhist monk-style tattoos, and he made an excellent strong brew by straining fresh grounds through cheesecloth into a stainless steel pitcher.  His cheerful smiling daughter poured the finished product into clear glass mugs pre-filled with sugar and finished with a swirl of condensed milk.  As we walked with our steaming mugs, we discovered an Indian Muslim hawker's stall that specialized in various forms of prata, a thin fried dough similar to a crepe filled with egg or cheese and served with a spicy sauce.  We loved these tasty things, and they served as a hearty breakfast every morning of our visit.

They use the whole chicken, it makes the difference

The four languages spoken in Singapore are Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and English, and most residents are fluent in at least two of these with English serving as the common bridge across the communication barrier.  All of the signs around town are written in English, and the Uber drivers speak it fluently; so we used this excellent service and app as our means of transportation while we explored the city.  Since we got a late start, we decided to hang around the apartment so the kids could work on school stuff, Deena could research New Zealand, and I could write.  Our goal was to attend the 5:00 PM Saturday evening service at the International Baptist Church preceded by stroll around Chinatown and a late lunch— which was a good plan that would have worked perfectly if we hadn’t given our driver the wrong address.  

We typed the address of the Chinese Heritage Center into the Uber app, and our driver who looked like the Asian version of David Bowie, arrived a few minutes later, and we eased into his sleek, black Mercedes-Benz ready to tackle the city.  About twenty minutes into the ride that should have lasted only ten, we realized there were two Chinese Heritage Centers, and of course we had keyed in the one way out by the university instead of the one in the middle of Chinatown.  Our driver was understanding, changed his route, and we enjoyed this serendipitous tour of Singapore which opened our eyes to the fantastic and futuristic look of this island city.

The cars are all brand new, clean and shiny, and they travel on perfect roads with wide lanes that undulate through high rises and business districts in a way that makes it seem like a monorail ride through town.  The many overstreet pedestrian walkways draped with vines bearing pink and purple flowers and together with old-growth trees and their thick terraced branches give the city a lush, green appearance.  The roadsides are all lined with perfectly clipped hedges, and I noticed that the tight, ficus-type bushes were planted and maintained for the sole purpose of hiding the guardrails.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I asked our driver if the whole city looked like that. His descriptive, insightful reply was, “Umm...yeah.”  This place looks like the Walt Disney Corporation was given the directive and unlimited funds to create the most beautiful city in the world, and they exceeded expectations.  With perfect planning, and absolutely no litter or graffiti, the city looks, dare I say it, even cleaner than Disney World, and only my fellow hardcore Disneyites will understand the weight of that statement.

Our driver dropped us in the heart of Chinatown where we spent an hour wandering through the narrow streets full of tourists on a sunny and steamy afternoon.  We found a small restaurant in an out-of-the way spot and shared a luncheon of griddle chicken and potatoes and tender dumplings filled with minced pork and vegetables.  After lunch, my pursuit of a much-touted Singapore geocache led us to a nearby six-story shopping mall rooftop where we had incredible views of the city, and much to our surprise, Spiderman dropped by during his patrol of the skyscrapers.

Spidey

We made it to church just a few minutes late and settled in for an hour and a half of worship with the congregation at the International Baptist Church in their spacious modern sanctuary where a praise team from South Africa led the singing.  During the welcome time, pastor Rodney Woo came over and greeted us warmly before delivering an intense sermon on the opening verses from the Gospel of John.  We stayed for a while after the service and talked to a lady from Australia and her two daughters. They had some good tips on sights to see on our last day in Singapore.  We enjoyed attending worship on a Saturday night and talked about how we wished that trend would take hold back home as we drove home through a city that looks more similar to our hometown than any place we’ve visited in the past eight months.

We spent a good bit of the next day hanging around the apartment and had a late lunch before heading downtown to meet a walking tour scheduled to start at 4:30.  The tour was led by three young women who are students at one of the local universities and conduct tours to improve their English skills and earn course credit.  They did a great job as they guided our group for many kilometers over three hours along the Jubilee Trail, which includes points of historical and cultural interest all along the riverfront.  

Most of the history came from British colonial times in the form of old churches and government buildings, and we stopped at some war memorials set in large parks with sports fields all around.  The waterfront yielded the best views of the incredible architecture on display in Singapore. We marveled especially at the three towers connected by a causeway in the form of a curving ship at the top.  The cityscape reminded me of the unique architecture in Chicago, and I continued to be impressed with the cleanliness of the streets and the river.  There are strict laws in Singapore regarding litter and graffiti with offenses punishable by fines, jail time, and as American Michael Fay discovered in 1994, multiple lashes with a bamboo cane.  The results of this policy are evident with spotless streets and buildings and a wide river meandering through the city free of floating rubbish.  

Legal graffiti 

After an excellent tour, we said goodbye to the friends we made in the group including Lawrence, a tall English bloke who had just begun a one-hundred-day adventure through southeast Asia.  Talking with him brought back memories of the beginning of our own journey, which seems so far back now that we are in the eighth month and still traveling.  We followed the advice of our Australian friend from church and spent the rest of the evening at the amazing Gardens by the Bay with its views of the skyline and huge man-made trees the size of apartment buildings glowing with slow-pulsing colors that created a fantasy land as we walked around ponds full of pink blooming lilies and bordered by thick towers of peach and purple orchids.  From the hawker stalls, we chose middle eastern for supper with a plate of hummus and a bowl of lamb moussaka with loaves of freshly baked pita bread right out of the brick oven.  

With only a weekend to spend in Singapore, we knew we wouldn’t be able to see everything the city had to offer, but we saw enough to make a lasting impression of this world-class city.  I wasn’t exactly expecting to see old men on the street corners with long beards and silk robes sharing an opium pipe, but I sure wasn’t prepared for the huge scale of urban beauty presented by this sovereign metropolis, and I’m glad we made room for Singapore in our ever dwindling itinerary.