Sweating it out in Singapore, part I

 

We didn't encounter any

Many years ago a close friend and English teacher co-worker in Tōkyō 東京 would frequently express his admiration for the way things were run in Singapore. This was a time when the then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was championing so-called "Asian values" as an alternative model to Western-style individual liberalism. This was also around the time of the controversial caning of an American teenager, a sentence my friend agreed with. The two of us agreed to disagree, and for the longest time Singapore wasn't on my travel radar. Time hasn't softened my belief that Asian values is mostly a euphemism to justify authoritarian rule, but I did come to admire Singapore's transformation into the second wealthiest country in East Asia after Japan. And with a four-day Chinese holiday weekend that began at the start of this month, Singapore looked like an ideal destination to do some traveling without having to battle the huge throngs that would descend on some of China's more well-known tourist destinations. My wife and I would actually leave the day before the start of the holiday period to beat the crowds, and return a day earlier to rest up, which turned out to be a wise decision, but more on that at the end of the next post.

Thanks to a rewards program offered by one of my banks and which I had neglected to check on for about seven years, thus inadvertently accumulating a seriously large number of unredeemed points, we were able to fly business class from Baiyun Airport 广州白云国际机场 in Guangzhou 广州 to Singapore's Changi Airport. The view out my seat's window as we were descending to land:

We checked into the Paradise Singapore hotel, located in the Clarke Quay area, an historic riverside quay that has been redeveloped into a popular nightlife district. The nearly 15-minute walk from the Raffles Place MRT station was our introduction to Singapore's year-round heat, which would become a major concern to Shu-E. Soon after dropping off our things in our room, we headed out to have a late lunch. Near the hotel and across the street was a famous restaurant called Song Fa Bak Kut Teh, noted for its bak kut teh (pork ribs in broth), which explained the perpetually long queue of customers waiting out front. So instead we were seated immediately at NG AH SIO Bak Kut Teh, a similarly renowned establishment that would also see long lines of hungry diners outside in the coming days, the result no doubt of word having gotten around that I had been spotted eating there. Our peppery pork rib soup, supplemented with some homemade Ngo hiang, was well-worth the non-existent wait to get inside:

That evening we headed out again, this time to the Gardens by the Bay MRT station. This is the view of the iconic Marina Bay Sands three-towered casino resort from the "green roof" of the Marina Barrage: 

Gardens by the Bay is probably best described as Singapore's second botanical garden (see below), consisting of two large conservatories. However, we eschewed both in favor of the gardens' other main attraction, the Supertree Grove, a grouping of towers acting as giant trellises, from which climbers, ferns and orchids are placed about. Apparently the supertrees are best seen at night when they are illuminated in a plethora of colors: 

The highlight of an evening visit is Garden Rhapsody, a light show pulsating in time to music. The performance we witnessed had a 1970s theme. I recognized all the songs that were played, baring my geezerhood for all to see. My wife, on the other hand, didn't know any of the tunes, a combination of her relative youthfulness (when compared to her spouse) and the fact she grew up in a right-wing authoritarian state that restricted many popular Western songs of the time from being heard on the airwaves (shockingly, the subversive Australian/English duo Air Supply managed to get their revolutionary songs heard in Taiwan): 

Following the light show we rode the lift to the top of the tallest supertree, which has two observation decks (one being indoors and air-conditioned). We had good views of the Marina Bay Sands and the Singapore Flyer:

Next we took a stroll along the OCBC Skyway, a connecting walkway between the two tallest supertrees. The skyway provided close up views of the "trees", which also serve as water catchments when it rains (which is quite often in Singapore):

We finished the evening with some snacks and Tiger Beers at Satay by the Bay our first taste of a Singaporean hawker center. Naturally we had some satay: 

The next morning (Friday) following breakfast we crossed the bridge spanning the Singapore River to Clarke Quay. It had been very lively the previous evening, but at this time of the day the kitschy, pastel-colored neighborhood was almost completely deserted:

Riverside Point (on the same side of the Singapore River as the Paradox) was also deathly quiet after a night of live bands and crowded restaurants. We would have dinner at a brewpub just off to the far right (and out of frame) on our last night in country:

Our first sight of the day was the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the republic's lone UNESCO World Heritage Site. The gardens were founded in 1859, and were the site of where the Brazilian seeds were first planted in 1877 that would eventually spawn the great rubber plantations of Malaya. We entered the gardens via the Tanglin Gate, the site's main entrance:  

Our first stop in the gardens was at Swan Lake, where there was at least one specimen to add legitimacy to the name:

More interesting than the swan (or the chickens strutting about the grounds) was the presence of monitor lizards: 

From Swan Lake we passed through the ginger garden: 

The only part of the Botanical Gardens that required an entrance fee was the National Orchid Garden, opened by Lee Kuan Yew and where I qualified for a senior discount:

Burkill Hall was once the residence of the gardens' director:

Another section of the garden was devoted to orchids named after visiting celebrities, like these ones dedicated to the now-Empress Masako of Japan 皇后雅子:

Queen Elizabeth was another honoree...:

...as were Xi Jinping 习近平 and his wife: 

Even Kamala Harris had an orchid, as did Joe and Jill Biden, whose flowers were located nearby:

Naturally, when Pope Francis was in town...:

And of course Singapore's first prime minister and founding father (not including Stamford Raffles) was an honoree:

The Cool House lived up to its name in more ways than one. The orchids within were pretty cool to look at, and the temperature inside, meant to mimic the misty conditions found on equatorial mountains, was, well, refreshingly cool: 

Insectivorous pitcher plants are always fascinating:

The slipper orchids were an especially beautiful flower:

The "living fossil" that is the Wollemi Pine:

Leaving the Cool House it was welcome back to the jungle:

Passing by a banyan tree as we headed toward the exit on the northern end of the gardens:

Another encounter with a monitor lizard:

In my early-mid 20s I was a semi-regular at hardcore punk shows in the Sacramento, California area. Now that I'm eligible for senior discounts (at least in Singapore) strolling through botanical gardens has become more my pace. The inevitable passage of time. 

By the time we exited the gardens I'd worked up an appetite. A short walk away was the Adam Road Food Centre. Singapore's once thriving street stalls are now corralled into these hawker centers. The food is still good, though, and more importantly the prices are much lower than in the country's more established restaurants. Here I ordered a Malay chicken rice dish which I washed down with a Thai iced tea

The 1970s food court was outdoors (though covered and with many fans in operation) so Shu-E ordered some shaved ice in a temporarily successful attempt to escape the heat:

Moving on from the hawker center we took the MRT to Orchard Road, Singapore's most well-known shopping district, and the area's most celebrated mall, ION Orchard. We didn't spend long there, however, are neither one of us enjoy shopping for expensive, designer-brand goods:

Instead we walked down the road to the Takashimaya Shopping Centre after I discovered there was a branch of Books Kinokuniya 紀伊國屋書店 there. And what a pleasant discovery it turned out to be! If I had ever been posted in Singapore I'm sure I would've spent a lot of time and Singapore dollars there. Naturally Lee Kuan Yew admirers are spoiled for choice, but I came away with a couple of other books, including a short history of the republic:

We returned to our hotel for a rest, then headed downstairs for happy hour, where I had to inevitably have a Singapore Sling, invented at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel in 1915:

I quite enjoyed it, and it took a while before the effects eventually caught up with me: 

Prior to arriving in Singapore my wife had expressed little interest in visiting Chinatown. It made sense - for a city state that is 75% ethnically Chinese it seemed surprising there should be a Chinatown in the first place, and besides we already live in China. However, after doing some reading in the room, Shu-E expressed an interest in going there as it appeared to be very different from the Chinatowns she had seen in the U.S. Her suspicions would turn out to be correct.

Chinatown in Singapore is called Niu che shui 牛车水, meaning "water cart" instead of the more common tang ren jie 唐人街, apparently because the district's water supply was transported by animal-driven carts in the 19th century. And because the area was only fifteeen minutes on foot from the hotel, Shu-E was willing to walk there. On the way we passed this interesting complex, one of the tenants of which turned out to be the Attorney-General's Chambers: 

My wife was right - the unique architecture was very different from that found in the States, as shown by this hotel's facade:

Getting down to some Hokkien tunes. Shu-E recognized this song:

We ended up spending quite a bit of time in the Chinese Heritage Centre. Housed in three former shophouses, the museum covers the difficulties faced by Chinatown's inhabitants since the first immigrants arrived soon after Raffles decided on Singapore as the ideal colonial location in 1819. I was fascinated with the how small the rooms were, and how many working people managed to occupy the spaces, especially in a time before air conditioning: 

A family of ten somehow occupied this one room:

A thriving business environment also saw its fair share of vices, as this photograph of Japanese prostitutes from the 1930s showed:

Sidewalk barbers are still not an uncommon sight in modern-day China, even in cities like Beijing 北京 and Guangzhou:

My wife was took an interest in this "Cinema-on-Wheels", in particular its tiered pricing depending on the size of the view window:

And, of course, no museum on Chinatown would be complete without a section devoted to food:

How I would look as a Chinese street food hawker:

Despite being in Chinatown we ended up having dinner at a Thai restaurant, evidence that Singapore is nothing if not multi-cultural:

Afterward we wandered the streets for a while:

Shu-E had some fun with a mall mural:

A full moon was out that evening:

And even in the historical heart of Singapore's Chinese community more recent immigrants have made their presence felt, as the lively Sri Mariamman Hindu temple demonstrated:

Next up: our last two days in Singapore. Stay tuned...