On day 3, we had a coffee by the river and found a fault in Singapore's armour - some poor service. It took a reminder from us before the barista realised there was an order on his screen that our waiter had electronically taken. We decided not to pay the 10% service charge that is automatically added!
We also walked around Clarke Quay, benefited from the cheap lunch sets the many restaurants do there and strolled around Fort Canning Hill. At the top was some interesting archaeological excavations and The Battle Box. This is the bunker where the British military command was based trying to co-ordinate the defence of Malaysia and Singapore when Japan attacked during World War 2. The museum in the bunker recreates the last few days with models, audio-visual etc. Nicely done it was interesting and I learned that even before the military had been defeated, the British had to surrender because the Japanese had seized control of (or destroyed) the reservoirs that provided drinking water and the the food supplies. It would be three years that Singapore was occupied for and 50,000 were killed during the occupation.
My mum (who was in Singapore on vacation and the reason I came here) and I also went to some of the galleries ('Singapore Living') in the National Museum and were blown away with the design, layout, content and technologies used to make the exhaust truly interesting and a joy to view, read, listen to or watch. Rooms on fashion, cinema, family and others were very well done (and free in the evenings). There was even a special exhibit on black dresses which was interesting (at least for me, that not being a topic I am overly familiar with). In short it was everything almost all Mainland Chinese museums are not (HK has some good ones). The only half decent museum I've come across on the Mainland is the Overseas Chinese Museum in Xiamen which of course is funded and created by Singaporean Chinese (mostly)!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Efficient, clean, multicultural, river-side bars... It must be Singapore!
Singapore may be different to China: 4m people instead of 1.4bn, but 70% of its people are Chinese and it shows that not only is there a way for a Chinese country to be run as a democracy whilst being an autocracy, but that a Chinese city can be clean with its citizens learning to respect strangers and public goods. It is the kind of city where people immediately rush to help others (I saw a young lady slip and fall in the rain and 3 other women helped her up)!
Arriving in Singapore, I headed to my friend (Kitty)'s who I'd be staying with. She lives with a family in typical HDB housing (built by the government) which has everything within the estate including supermarket, food court, clinics and so on. Practical and surprisingly spacious, and of course in great condition, they seem nice places to live. Most only seem to be 12 stories high - Hong Kong's local residential buildings are much taller, in worse condition and not as conveniently designed. Somehow Singapore has ensured some space is set aside for greenery everywhere in residential communities including having grass on the pavements!
Nearby we walked past some of the fancier condos, all of which looked nice and new with beautiful balconies. The third level of accommodation in Singapore are houses. Many of these (and the cars in their driveways) are opulent to say the least. It is funny walking around residential Singapore as parts can feel very British (well, compared to some of the nicer parts of the UK that are clean and with nice houses) which you don't feel as much in Hong Kong. Everything there is more Chinese: chaotic, messy, crowded, run-down and of course full of Chinese writing everywhere along with English. In Singapore, you'll often only see English including on road signs, shops etc.
My breakfast that morning was kaya and butter bread with eggs - very Singaporean I was told, and quite tasty. As was lunch of Laksa (coconut flavoured shrimp noodles), Otah (BBQ'd fish cake served in a leaf) and Rojat (crazy mixture of vegetables, tofu and things covered in peanut flavoured sauce) for lunch
On a very Singaporean day, Kitty and I strolled along the East Coast Park, a long strip with bits of beaches and plenty of people cycling, roller blading and jogging. We then went to join the weekly Dragon Boat training. It was a sweaty 2 hours paddling in the boat along with 15 others but a great way to see downtown Singapore for the first time as we paddled all the way to the heart of the business district to the mouth of the Singapore river. It's a popular activity here with well over 15 teams, many of which had 2 boats out. Awe finished at 6 just before the thunder, lightening and rain and huddled under the boatsheds drinking beer. This week it was the Aussies who'd brought along a BBQ and tents. I heard the previous week the Spanish team I joined had done the same. A great social event.
Its quite a shock coming from Beijing, and not just because they drive on the left here. Taxi drivers won't stop to pick you up anywhere near a bus station, drivers stop at zebra crossings and at junctions to let you cross, taxi drivers force front passenger seat drivers to put seatbelts on and of course no matter whether the Chinese speak mandarin or English their accents are hard to understand!
On day 2 in Singapore we watched frogs being skinned in the Chinatown wet market and saw humorous T-shirts on sale joking about all the fines in Singapore. We found one -and only one- piece of litter (a scrap of tissue on the pavement). We enjoyed walking around the smattering of skyscrapers which are much fewer and less architecturally interesting than Hong Kong but were suitably impressed by the crazy boat that stretches across the top of all 3 buildings at the casino/hotel by the harbour. We also saw a few nice Chinese temples and churches (though no nice Mosques, must have missed them) between the nice older Singaporean buildings and some wonderful colonial buildings including the famed Raffles Hotel that was suitably impressive even down to its shop although the famous Long Bar where the Singapore Sling was created was a bit disappointing. I'm sure it was still authentic. The nobility and wealthy that stayed there in the past must have preferred a less regal drinking environment.
We ate at a Chinese hawker centre and gazed at the attractive Chinese buildings in Chinatown. We took buses and subways and walked along the river which had many tasteful bars and restaurants along it. Before the very interesting Singapore River History exhibit in the Asian Civilisations Museum, we even squeezed in time to watch the end of the formula one as we sheltered from the daily 4pm or 5pm downpour. The exhibit began with a great sentence along the lines of 'Though not as long as the Nile or Amazon, the 4km long Singapore River, has played a crucial role in the development of Singapore from a fishing village to one of the world's premier trading centres'. Classic.
We grabbed Indian food in Little India on a Sunday night where it felt like a football match had just finished with thousands of men just mingling and sitting around-though we still felt safe. Singapore is almost like a virtual city with everything you could ever want to put in a city. There is no expense spared on railings, ramps, crossings, dog runs, signage, public facilities and so on. There is a seedy underside that we saw on Joo Chiat Road but the city certainly lived up to its reputation. It is multicultural and efficient.
Arriving in Singapore, I headed to my friend (Kitty)'s who I'd be staying with. She lives with a family in typical HDB housing (built by the government) which has everything within the estate including supermarket, food court, clinics and so on. Practical and surprisingly spacious, and of course in great condition, they seem nice places to live. Most only seem to be 12 stories high - Hong Kong's local residential buildings are much taller, in worse condition and not as conveniently designed. Somehow Singapore has ensured some space is set aside for greenery everywhere in residential communities including having grass on the pavements!
Nearby we walked past some of the fancier condos, all of which looked nice and new with beautiful balconies. The third level of accommodation in Singapore are houses. Many of these (and the cars in their driveways) are opulent to say the least. It is funny walking around residential Singapore as parts can feel very British (well, compared to some of the nicer parts of the UK that are clean and with nice houses) which you don't feel as much in Hong Kong. Everything there is more Chinese: chaotic, messy, crowded, run-down and of course full of Chinese writing everywhere along with English. In Singapore, you'll often only see English including on road signs, shops etc.
My breakfast that morning was kaya and butter bread with eggs - very Singaporean I was told, and quite tasty. As was lunch of Laksa (coconut flavoured shrimp noodles), Otah (BBQ'd fish cake served in a leaf) and Rojat (crazy mixture of vegetables, tofu and things covered in peanut flavoured sauce) for lunch
On a very Singaporean day, Kitty and I strolled along the East Coast Park, a long strip with bits of beaches and plenty of people cycling, roller blading and jogging. We then went to join the weekly Dragon Boat training. It was a sweaty 2 hours paddling in the boat along with 15 others but a great way to see downtown Singapore for the first time as we paddled all the way to the heart of the business district to the mouth of the Singapore river. It's a popular activity here with well over 15 teams, many of which had 2 boats out. Awe finished at 6 just before the thunder, lightening and rain and huddled under the boatsheds drinking beer. This week it was the Aussies who'd brought along a BBQ and tents. I heard the previous week the Spanish team I joined had done the same. A great social event.
Its quite a shock coming from Beijing, and not just because they drive on the left here. Taxi drivers won't stop to pick you up anywhere near a bus station, drivers stop at zebra crossings and at junctions to let you cross, taxi drivers force front passenger seat drivers to put seatbelts on and of course no matter whether the Chinese speak mandarin or English their accents are hard to understand!
On day 2 in Singapore we watched frogs being skinned in the Chinatown wet market and saw humorous T-shirts on sale joking about all the fines in Singapore. We found one -and only one- piece of litter (a scrap of tissue on the pavement). We enjoyed walking around the smattering of skyscrapers which are much fewer and less architecturally interesting than Hong Kong but were suitably impressed by the crazy boat that stretches across the top of all 3 buildings at the casino/hotel by the harbour. We also saw a few nice Chinese temples and churches (though no nice Mosques, must have missed them) between the nice older Singaporean buildings and some wonderful colonial buildings including the famed Raffles Hotel that was suitably impressive even down to its shop although the famous Long Bar where the Singapore Sling was created was a bit disappointing. I'm sure it was still authentic. The nobility and wealthy that stayed there in the past must have preferred a less regal drinking environment.
We ate at a Chinese hawker centre and gazed at the attractive Chinese buildings in Chinatown. We took buses and subways and walked along the river which had many tasteful bars and restaurants along it. Before the very interesting Singapore River History exhibit in the Asian Civilisations Museum, we even squeezed in time to watch the end of the formula one as we sheltered from the daily 4pm or 5pm downpour. The exhibit began with a great sentence along the lines of 'Though not as long as the Nile or Amazon, the 4km long Singapore River, has played a crucial role in the development of Singapore from a fishing village to one of the world's premier trading centres'. Classic.
We grabbed Indian food in Little India on a Sunday night where it felt like a football match had just finished with thousands of men just mingling and sitting around-though we still felt safe. Singapore is almost like a virtual city with everything you could ever want to put in a city. There is no expense spared on railings, ramps, crossings, dog runs, signage, public facilities and so on. There is a seedy underside that we saw on Joo Chiat Road but the city certainly lived up to its reputation. It is multicultural and efficient.
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