A day in the life of Singapore

Word of the day: Makan, Makan! (eat, eat!)

After our wonderful late breakfast and lots of breakfast-side pool fun, we headed out into the wilds of Singapore. Ok, so not really the wilds. We walked to Newton Circus – I think I mentioned this was a famous foodstall market – to grab something for lunch. Although we still enjoyed our lunch, the character of Newton Circus, like many other older and more interesting places, is slowly being destroyed by Singapore’s neverending obsession for the perfect city. A lot of the food stalls have disappeared from the time I was last here. Nonetheless, it was still fun for the kids to see all the options available and to stare at the enjoyably aggressive sellers trying to get you to order from their stalls. ‘Makan....makan-la’ they say, as they point to a table. And the funny thing is, no matter where you sit – even around the corner and down another alley – they will find you and bring you what you ordered. Who needs GPS? Drinks from one stall, duck rice from another, shrimp noodles from another and chicken satay across from where we sat all landed within minutes in front of us, and a crazy payment of $4SGD (about $3 Canadian) was demanded. Not bad. No sleepy waiting staff here. And hey, check out that fresh coconut water served in a carved out creamy-fleshed coconut (no dry brown husk here) that Taz is drinking, complete with straw and spoon for  scooping out some chunks of gelatinous flesh. Yummo. Not exactly take-out design, as it's kind of like a small village water tower encase in a plastic bag.

We tried to take a bus – honest we did – to the Botanic Gardens (which I kept calling the BotaniCAL Gardens, silly me) but ended up taking a taxi. They’re everywhere. Hard to flag one down mind you, better to find a taxi stand. The more rundown older cars are driven by Indians, the newer flashier ones driven by the Chinese. Being the rojak family that we are, we kept both cultures in business.

Walking through the Gardens, we were really taken aback by the feast of tropical flora and fauna. Ferns and fronds and vines and massive green growth was simply everywhere. We even visited a healing garden full of herbs, plants and trees – Hannah insisted we take a picture of it for Lynn. There were trees whose branches grew down and planted themselves into the ground, creating a cage at the bottom of the main tree trunk. There were parasitic trees on trees, some looking like you had just placed a potted plant on the side of a tree trunk, but if you looked closely you could see a connecting umbilical vine twisting its way down the trunk of the ‘host’. Bushes with the most incredible flowers resembling bright red and yellow parrot heads, others with fireworks-inspired sprays of orange, and intoxicating orchids in way too many colours for the brain to process. Heading towards the children’s garden (which turned out to be more for preschoolers but we loved it all the same), we ended up seeing more than than most, given we walked the length of the gardens. Clusters of supercute preschool children – made me think of Peggy Brewin days – were all colourfully-uniformed and giggly and squirmy as their teachers were trying to round them up for photos.

What a feast of vegetation. What a contrast to the urban sprawl. It’s almost as if all this greenery – and it is such a greenery-filled city – is competing with the buildings for space. Nice tower, Mr Singapore banker, but check out my leaves from your 10^th floor office...HA. I hope the greenery wins the Singapore race for land space.

TAXI PLEASE! Back to hotel, quick shower for Ali (ironically the one having the hardest time with the heat) and then off to Penny’s stunning house for dinner. So legend has it that Ali, Penny, Mariam, Allison and Richard were KL’s version of ‘Friends’. And they have all kept in touch, despite being in various countries, on various postings and job assignments over the years. Our home base in KL will be Allison’s place, but tonight we are graced with the delightful company of not just Penny, but also Mariam – a total unexpected and lovely surprise for Ali, as she is presently living in Sydney. Formerly deputy high commissioner of Australia, Penny has taken leave from her job for a bit of a break. So, she was super relaxed and without a doubt, the ultimate hostess. We swam in the pool, chatted over several glasses of wine and feasted on a delicious dinner of lamb, chicken, tzaziki, tomatoes & bocconcini, salad, potato wedges and baguette. I know I know! There will lots of talk soon enough around curries, noodles and roti canai – patience, my friends. But meanwhile, this lovely meal on a warm Singapore night was the backdrop to Ali, Penny and Mariam reliving old times and all their adventures – most of which revolved around food, as Mariam pointed out (surprise, surprise) – and I felt incredibly fortunate to witness, and be welcomed into, such a wonderful friendship.

Back to the overzealously named VIP hotel and it was only 8:30 – so time for journals, word puzzles and other various creative outlets. We crashed at 9:30, and odd combinations of us all awoke at different times throughout the night, something that I suspect, had it been videotaped and replayed at fast forward, would have been fodder for some wacked-out British comedy show.

This morning we checked out the over-the-top shopping mecca of Orchard Road, incredibly built up, very flashy and very expensive. But we bought some snacks for the train (in hindsight, thank goodness we did, given a few minutes ago we got a bottle of water and piece of banana bread).

So, as you might have guessed we are now on the train to KL, and Ali is pointing out mango trees and jackfruit trees as we whiz by. I use the term ‘whiz’ loosely. The Express train is well...not sure of the Malaysian definition of express. The first stop, of course, was right across the border and we all had to get out and go through customs – more face checks with passport photos, but at least more smiles and conversation as everyone seems drawn to the kids. Rock on Rojak family. So far, so good!

Amusing 'toilet humour' signage on the train: “If you unintentionally soil the toilet, please clean it for the comfort of the other passengers”. Toilet on left = squatting toilet; toilet on right = sitting toilet. Sitting toilet. Not sitting duck, lah.

Interesting financial facts about life in Singapore: Before you can even purchase a car, you have to purchase what is called a COE (Certificate of Entitlement), allowing you to buy a car. It costs $60,000 and lasts for 10 years. Then you have to buy the car which, if a super cheap Korean car, is $50,000; a BMW, about $300,000, given a tax rate of 200% tax. But yet, Singapore is chock-a-block full of shiny flashy cars. Not sure how they do it. Taxi drivers all said that your life is basically spent supporting the Singapore government who just keep building to cater to the rich and the tourists. All so superficial. And, as I mentioned earlier, the more characterful parts of the city are few and far between as everything reeks of shiny new worst-of-shallow-Westernism. (Although we did discover one street with those beautiful old Chinese shutter-windowed shophouses, which was a treat). Even the Singapore train station, a beautiful example of 1920s art deco architecture, will be torn down as of July this year to make way for...wait for it...high-end condos. The property alone (before condo infestation) is worth billions, apparently. (Ironically, it will be purchased from Malaysia...remember Singapore was once part of Malaysia). However, on one fascinating note, given Singapore’s water situation (I know you were all wondering about that, weren’t you) – they no longer get their water shipped from Malaysia – they are now efficient masters of recycling their septic waste (as well as sea water) into, you guessed it, potable water. Food for thought, Mr Bussiere?