Ilene and I are in Singapore for what are really her only days off during the Fulbright project. It takes something of an adjustment to handle being here. On the one hand, prices are comparable to what we'd experience on a long weekend in New York, which we can afford and shouldn't worry about. On the other hand, they are astronomical compared to what we are used to and the budget we've been living by in the rest of Southeast Asia, and we have trouble making the mental and emotional switch. We spent more on taxis yesterday than we spend in two months in Saigon.
We're also somewhat awed by the comparative luxury of it. Singapore seems like a miracle next to everyplace else we've been in Southeast Asia. The cleanliness and order and economic activity all feel a little overwhelming and we stand around gawking like tourists. Frankly, skimming around on the surface in our touristic way, it feels like paradise.
I love how genuinely multi-ethnic it is. Walking around Little India and Chinatown and the Arab quarter (which is underplayed in the guidebooks if you ask me) is a lot of fun. We can hear the call to prayer from the Mosque across from our hotel room and smell the cooking from the Indian restaurants in the street below.
The best part so far has been the food. Mainly we eat at hawker centers, something like the food courts of an American mall, except that instead of chain restaurants with facades signifying different ethnic cuisines, these are all mom and pop stalls whipping up the real deal. We split up and collect Indian samosas and Malay laksa and Thai curry and Chinese soups and rotis, pratas, etc. and some fantastic coffee and tea, each for about 3 Singapore dollars per serving, and meet back at one of the tables in the center to feast. I told myself I was going to treat myself to a dose of familiar Western foods while I was here, but I've been having too much fun at the hawker centers to get around to it.
On Wednesday we went to the Singapore Zoo, which is gorgeously designed to get you a good look at the animals. We could walk around below most of the birds, apes and monkeys, and you have to watch out that they don't wizz on you. I could watch the African storks soaring around all day. Seeing the very rare white tigers was once-in-a-lifetime. The Komodo dragons were a lot bigger than I ever imagined.
Back in our neighborhood for the evening, we stumbled across the Museum of Chinese Opera, which is really just a tea shop with a lot of photos of opera stars on the wall. It would be like Lombardi's in the West Village calling itself the Museum of Italian-American Heritage. We sat and had a pot of tea and some cake while a woman played several numbers on a kind of Chinese harp. She asked about us and our travels afterward and answered my questions about scales and time signatures on the music she was playing. The harp has just a five-note scale, but an amazing variety of technique is possible on it.
Yesterday was our luxe city respite day. We walked around the botanic gardens and the orchid gardens and then hit the Orchard Street shopping strip, which makes Fifth Avenue and Chicago's Miracle Mile look dowdy. We had dim sum for lunch between a few of the malls, and when the afternoon rains hit we used the underground passages to get down the street to a cinema and saw the new Marin Scorcese movie.
More museums today, and I have to find the bus station to buy my ticket for the next stage. We split up tomorrow -- Ilene on a flight back to Saigon and me to wherever the bus goes in mainland Malaysia.
-Robert
