Singapore: Feb 24: Actually Flying Home

Wednesday, our actual final day in Singapore, was uneventful. These pictures document some of what we ate during the day.

We flew through Guangzhou to Shanghai. Shanghai was a comfortable temperature when we landed (18 C / mid-60s F) -- quite a surprise to us given our experience with Shanghai's winter.

Singapore: Feb 23: Attempt to Fly Home

Tuesday was an adventure. I had an early morning meeting at work. Then, before we ventured to the airport, I dragged Di Yin to various eateries somewhat near work that I wanted to hit for breakfast/lunch or that I wanted to stop by to pick up food to bring on the plane. After our excursion, we took the mrt to the airport.

The pictures document this morning excursion, and more.

We arrived at the airport to learn we missed check-in! Too much running around buying last minute food... I was too ambitious in constructing my food list, and the worst offender on it was the (disappointing) prawn omelette, which took an especially long time to arrive.

China Southern was nice enough to re-book us at no cost. We couldn't get a flight out of Singapore the same day, so they placed us on the same flight the following day.

Using the airport's free wireless, I found us a hotel in Singapore for the night: the Aqueen Hotel (Lavender). It turned out to be a modern yet inexpensive hotel, better than the price would indicate. A new hotel (built in the last year), it was probably under-pricing its true value in order to build a reputation and customer base. A sign of how modern it is: the doors open by RFID -- even fancier than the electronic key cards you have to slide into a card reader on the door.

Incidentally, the hotel is in Jalan Besar, the neighborhood I did a walking tour of two days before.

We settled into the hotel and ate a light dinner made from the food that was intended for the plane, then used the extra night in Singapore to do something I'd been itching to do: go to 2am Dessert Bar. I had a friend, D, who's been multiple times and raves about it.

We rode a double-decker bus across Singapore to Holland Village, the Singapore's expat hangout. The temperature was nice. I'd been to Holland Village once (ever so briefly) a long time before. After a bit of searching, we found the narrow entrance to 2am Dessert Bar at the building at the end of the block and climbed the stairs to its lounge.

2am Dessert Bar predominately serves desserts and beverages. Following the recommendation of my friend, we elected to do the six course tasting menu. We declined a beverage pairing. (They offered three different pairings: beer, wine, and tea!)

The meal was amazing, like nothing I've ever experienced! (For details see the pictures.) Now I will join D in raving about this place. The six courses were enough, but I wish there was more, though I can believe D's advice that ten would be too many. In addition to the desserts, the very friendly and chatty host/sommelier didn't hurt the experience either. I'm almost glad we missed our plane because it allowed me to go to this place.

After another double-decker ride back to our hotel we called it a night.

Singapore: Feb 22: A Workday

I went into my company's Singapore office and made this day, a Monday, a standard workday.

For lunch, we went to Maxwell, the local high-quality hawker centre. I decided to try the rice soup (congee) at Maxwell's famous congee stall.

In the evening, which was a surprisingly nice temperature, we took a bus to Katong for the highly reputed katong laksa, a famous Singaporean soup I hadn't yet tried because I wanted my first try to be an exemplary instance of the dish. We went to a well respected outlet of one of the original vendors: 328 Katong Laksa at 49 East Coast Road (at the intersection with Ceylon Road).

The pictures document and describe my meals.

In the evening, we checked into the Link Hotel, which we thought would be our last hotel in Singapore. (Our flights were booked for the following day.) (We decided not to stay in our previous hotel, the Furama, because the price rose more than 50% for this night, a Monday night.) The Link Hotel is aptly named, as it spans multiple blocks and is on both sides of the street, with buildings connected via elevated pathways, i.e., links. Otherwise, the hotel was basic.

Singapore: Feb 21: Jalan Besar

After breakfast in the hotel, I went to work to use the internet and printers in order to plan my day. By noon I was on my way to explore Jalan Besar, a neighborhood just north of Little India. I choose the word neighborhood specially -- the area has a neighborhoody feel. It also has tons of shophouses; I took some good pictures of those.

I followed my walking tour map and walked this route around Jalan Besar, taking these pictures on the way.

The weather was fickle, changing between blazingly sunny and hot to cloudy and ickily warm to rainy. (It rained once while I was walking--I took shelter--and again later--a serious downpour--during dinner.) When there was a breeze and I was in the shade, it was okay. Otherwise, ...

The pictures document my walk; I have nothing to add here to them.

I met Di Yin for dinner at Food Republic. After dinner, we headed to our hotel to re-check-in. It was actually the same hotel where we stayed the previous two nights. (I didn't book a longer period at this hotel originally because I wasn't sure we'd like it. We did.) Checking in was a complicated affair because the hotel didn't have a record of our expedia reservation. I think the hotel ended up using the expedia itinerary number and called expedia to sort it out. Eventually we were given a room, yet again with a free upgrade (though to a different class of room as our last upgrade). (I imagine they were out of rooms of the class we reserved.) In comparison to our past upgrade, this time our room was smaller but had much better views. (It was on the 20th story.)

Singapore: Feb 20: Chinese New Year Festivities

I took these pictures this day. Di Yin also took pictures. The link goes to the first picture from this day (picture #531) in the album from this trip. When you come to a picture of another breakfast (picture #560), you're gone too far. I'll link to the rest of her pictures in later posts.

We returned to Singapore from Cambodia on Friday night, February 19, 2010. Because we arrived at our hotel, the Furama City Centre, late at night, we got upgraded to a suite. Admittedly, it wasn't as nice as our suite in Cambodia, but it was pretty nice nonetheless. I love checking into hotels late. :) As part of the upgrade, they said we were now allowed to attend the breakfast buffet for free. They didn't have to do that. We took advantage of their generosity and ate breakfast at the hotel: not bad.

I forget what we did between breakfast and lunch. Perhaps went to my company's offices to use the internet?

Lunch was at Maxwell Food (Hawker) Centre. After lunch, we took the bus to meet M, a friend of mine and of Di Yin's, to pick up our baggage. (He was kind enough to keep the bulk of our baggage at his place so we could travel lighter to Cambodia.) Because it took longer to get to his place than I expected, I knew I was going to be seriously late for my haircut appointment.

This haircut was a big deal to me. I didn't want to get my hair cut in Shanghai because practically zero barbers have any experience cutting hair like mine (i.e., white people's hair) and, regardless, I wouldn't be able to easily communicate to tell the barber what I wanted. By this time, my hair was longer than I was used to -- it was a month after when I normally would've gotten a haircut.

After some research in Singapore, I found a couple hair salons that specialize in cutting Caucasian hair. They weren't easy to find--Singapore's white population is small--but they existed, unlike in Shanghai. I made an appointment.

Because I was looking forward to getting my hair cut for so long, I was panicked when I knew I would be late. I tried calling but couldn't get through. I took a taxi straight from my friend's place directly to the salon in a (successful) attempt to eliminate the time I would've lost by taking public transit to the salon. Incidentally, the taxi, despite the ride being twenty minutes (which would've been at least double with public transit), was surprisingly cheap.

I made it to the salon twenty-five minutes late. They didn't complain and took me right away, though they did give me to one of the employees in training (which made me a little nervous), not the senior stylists.

The experience of getting my hair cut at this salon was a little overwhelming: they washed and rinsed my hair three times before cutting and blow-drying it, quite a change from my cheapo barber shop. That's probably why it was expensive: more than twice what I normally pay.

The money was worth it. And, even though I was cut by a less experienced staff member, the haircut was excellent. It was a good investment, and it held up better over the next couple months than other haircuts I've had.

After the haircut, I met Di Yin at the hotel and we emerged to explore Chinatown, hoping to see some of the Chinese New Year festivities that we sought but failed to find in Chinatown on the first leg of this trip. Happily, Chinatown was now active. We looked around, walked down the food street, and ate dinner in the Chinatown Complex hawker centre. The temperature was pleasant at first, but later in the evening it became hot and sticky.

From dinner, after a brief but necessary detour, we headed to Marina Bay to catch the special Chinese New Year excitement. Precisely, I wanted to see the Chingay Parade and to re-visit the River Hongbao festival at night. (This night, Saturday night, was the last day for each of these events.) The opportunity for seeing Chinese New Year festivities are why I chose to go to Singapore over the holiday and why I planned the exact Singapore and Cambodia travel dates I did.

The celebrations were fun, energetic, dazzling spectacles. See the pictures. Incidentally, I say this even disregarding the fireworks that we saw unexpectedly.

Di Yin tried to convince me not to go to Marina Bay for these events (because my stomach was acting up) and often pushed me to leave early (because she doesn't like crowds). I'm still annoyed at her for acting so unhappy during the last half of our excursion. Though seeing Chinatown and Chinese New Year festivities was the point of / highlight of my trip to Singapore, I now think of these events with a mixed memory. [I wrote this paragraph later that day. However, by the time I posted this entry, I'd forgotten about the incident.]

Singapore: Feb 15: Joo Chiat, Katong

On my last visit to Singapore, I visited only part of the Joo Chiat neighborhood in Katong. This time, our hotel was in this neighborhood, giving me the easy opportunity to finish my walking tour. We did. I took this smattering of pictures along the way. Di Yin also took pictures this day. The link goes to the first picture from this day (picture #76) in the album. When you see a picture of a woman sitting with a kitten at a bus stop (picture #97), you're done with her pictures from the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

The area feels like a neighborhood. The main street, Joo Chiat Road, has many clubs, especially ktv clubs (a type of karaoke club, sometimes sketchy). I was surprised to find a museum in this neighborhood: an upper floor of the Eurasian Community Centre has a display on Eurasians in Singapore during WWII. The exhibit was brought effectively to life by quotes from people who were there and by newspaper clippings.

We tried to have an early lunch (I had only a slice of pineapple for breakfast) at one of the famous Katong laksa places. However, they were all closed for the holiday. :( Instead, we returned to the Geylang Serai hawker centre, where I had a meal that completely satisfied me.

After lunch, we returned to our hotel for a quick shower--walking around in the blazing sun causes one to sweat--then headed to my company's office to relax and do some planning using the internet. Later, we headed to a friend's place for dinner with him and his family. (We also visited them on our previous trip to Singapore.) We had some good grilled steak for dinner (apparently he's now into meat) and received a tour of his awesome house. (He moved since our last visit.) The new house is very well designed. I want to live there. Sorry, I won't attempt to describe the house in writing in this post.

We returned home to go to bed early: the following morning we were flying to Cambodia.

Singapore: Feb 14: Chinese New Year Festivities and more

I took these pictures this day, which we devoted to exploring Chinatown. I'd hoped it would be lively on Chinese New Year's Day. Instead, it was the quietest I've ever seen it.

Di Yin, as usual, took more pictures than I. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her album from this trip (picture #4). When you hit a picture of a sleeping cat (#70), you're done with the pictures for the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

Di Yin ate breakfast at the Geylang Serai hawker centre, kitty corner from our hotel. (This is not the same hawker centre, also a block from our hotel, where we ate the previous night.) Because the neighborhood is mostly Malaysian/Muslim, biryani and nasi-something places abounded, some with long queues, others with shorter. Di Yin got a nasi padang (from a stall with a long queue) with fried chicken, eggplant, cabbage, cabbage and tofu, and some sort of shredded stuff. The whole plate was delicious. (I tried it.) I waited to have my small breakfast at a different hawker centre--there was a dish I was eying.

After breakfast, we rode a double-decker bus to Chinatown, then wandered through Chinatown, which was mostly shut. We saw lots of remains from the big party the previous night.

For lunch, we hunted for a food place that was open and inspired us. After much trying, we ended up at the dependable Maxwell's Hawker Centre.

We relaxed a bit in my company's Singapore offices. Combine beanbag chairs and massage chairs with great views, good snacks, a pleasant temperature, and wireless internet -- what more could one want?

In late afternoon, we emerged from our lair to explore the River Hongbao Festival, a festival related to Chinese New Year, in Marina Bay (a waterfront near the spiky building). Marina Bay was a happening part of town: the activities I expected in Chinatown were occurring here. We found a carnival, many new year's displays, and crowds.

The festival was jointly sponsored by / celebrating a partnership between Singapore and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in China. As such, the food pavilion was devoted to Sichuan food. I ate dinner there. Di Yin doesn't go for most Sichuan food; she waited for dinner until we retreated to an air-conditioned mall. In the mall she had delicious chicken rice. (I tried her food again.) How does she always pick so well?

After dinner, we went to Orchard Road, walked around a bit, then went back to our hotel. On the way back, we passed an amazingly long series of blocks filled with fruit and vegetable markets. We also passed block after block with tables set outside with people eating. Gosh, I like Singapore.

Singapore: Feb 13: Arrival

After making our way to our hotel and dropping our stuff off, we ventured out to a hawker center a block away for an evening snack. It was open! (This surprised me given that it was 10 or 11pm on Chinese New Year Eve. Many hawker centres aren't open that late on a regular day. This center has long hours and apparently not everyone in Singapore celebrates the holiday.) As we'd learn over the next few days, we were in a lively part of town, and the nearby hawker centers always seemed to be open.

We stayed in the Hotel 81 Classic, a budget hotel on the airport side of the city. You know it's a budget hotel when it has no windows and the staff hands you a television remote along with your room key (which, incidentally, is a physical key, not an electronic one). In addition, the mattress is plastic (and clearly felt through the sheets), the air conditioning unit has no controls, and there's no shower curtain. Nevertheless, we survived our stay after I learned what I needed to wear to sleep to be comfortable given the temperature and the mattress.

I didn't take any pictures on the way to Singapore. Di Yin took three: one, two, three. I'll link to the rest of her pictures from this trip (as well as mine) in later posts.

Singapore Overview

Over Chinese New Year, I escaped Shanghai for Singapore. I selected Singapore because I wanted to spend the time in a place I like, and where I could relax, easily get around, eat well, be warm, and yet have Chinese New Year activities.

I was in Singapore from Saturday night, February 13, 2010, through early Tuesday morning, February 16, and then again from Friday night, February 19, through Wednesday, February 24. (I left Singapore for Cambodia in the middle of week. I'll write about that trip in a series of other posts.)

As this was my third (and fourth, depending on how you count) trip to Singapore, I don't have many new impressions of Singapore to add to my first two overview posts.

On this trip I had a new reaction to Singapore's climate. It was hot and dry when we landed and walked to our hotel. This was uncomfortable weather, making me wonder how I could've forgiven Singapore for its climate on my past visits. Happily, the next day was less hot (though of course still hot) and it was much easier to survive. We also decided on that day that the area we were staying in tends to be slightly warmer than elsewhere in Singapore. From those two observations, I forgave my initial reaction. The following day, however, it was blazingly hot and sunny in our neighborhood. Maybe Singapore is icky after all, or maybe we just walked around too much. It's not a climate in which one should go on long, exploratory hikes.

Coming from Shanghai, I found it hard to get used to crossing the street in Singapore--cars actually stop when you stand near a cross-walk and look like you want to cross!

Also, although I've mentioned this before, I'll mention it again: I'm continually impressed how Singapore's government publishes good guides: walking tours of numerous districts, guides to local food specialists, event guides, overviews of tourist attractions, and even guides with descriptions of fun activities in the airport. Every time I travel to Singapore I discover new ones. They're all designed, organized, and presented well, and contain useful and interesting information.

Shorter observations/comments:

• I only now noticed that cameras are everywhere in the subway system.
• I appreciate that food comes in appropriate portion sizes, not in enormous American sizes.
• I still like the variety and availability of drinks, often freshly blended juices. On this trip, I had watermelon juice, barley tea, ginger tea, oolong tea, and water chestnut juice.
• Books are expensive.

Sometime around this trip, I learned some interesting little-known facts about Singapore:

• Singapore had a two-child policy for a while, though it now has many government incentives to encourage people (especially educated citizens) to have three or more. The article, Fertility and Population Policy: The Singapore Experience by Yap Mui Teng, published in 2003 in the Journal of Population and Social Security: Population Study, has a good overview of the policies and their effects. For more analytic articles about Singapore's population, aging, and government policies, see Yap Mui Teng's home page at Institute of Policy Studies in the National Institute of Singapore.
• Singapore censors and sometimes surveils. I always knew Singapore's government strictly enforces some stringent policies, and I knew at a subconscious level that this includes censoring media (in all its forms). However, because I'm bothered that I sometimes forget this fact at a conscious level, I'm posting this bullet to the blog. By the way, here's the best overview of censorship in Singapore.
• It's illegal to not flush a toilet.

For my own reference, some other activities I'd still like to try in Singapore (i.e., things I haven't yet done on these multiple trips):

• Explore more neighborhoods, especially via self-guided walking tours, and more parks and nature.
• Take a bumboat ride on the Singapore River?
• Visit Sentosa's Butterfly Park?
• Wander through Haw Par Villa (a.k.a. Tiger Balm Gardens), an old theme park filled with statues and dioramas from Chinese myths/stories.
• Play LilliPutt miniature golf, a miniature golf course with tiny models of Singapore's sights?
• Fish at Yishun Bottle Tree Park or the Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing & Beer Garden?

and some other dishes I've still missed:

• Yusheng ("prosperity") salad. A salad of raw fish, vegetables, and sauces commonly eaten among Chinese people in southeast Asia during Chinese New Year.
• roti john.
• yong tau foo.

(I can't believe I've nearly tackled my entire to-eat-in-Singapore list -- I thought it was almost impossibly long!)

Singapore: Jan 2: Returning to Shanghai

Saturday was uneventful. We awoke before dawn, caught our pre-arranged taxi to the airport, and checked-in. I had a breakfast of kaya toast, remembering the kaya I had the last time I left Singapore. Security in Singapore's airport was in an unusual location -- it guarded the individual gate we were to use. I recall my previous flight out of Singapore had the same setup, though in that case I thought it was because the destination was the United States.

We needed two flights to get home, first a long flight to Beijing then a short one doubling back to Shanghai. This time we flew China Air. We enjoyed the long first leg. The seats were more spacious and comfortable than China Eastern (which brought us to Singapore). Our lunch was also acceptable.

From Beijing airport's windows, the landscape looked cold and frosty. A dusting of snow (or ice?) covered the ground. The mid-afternoon temperature was -5 C (23 F), quite a contrast to the 30 C (86 F) we experienced in Singapore. Happily, the airport was comfortable (actually probably warmer than Shanghai's), and the short train that took us between terminals was quite well heated. By the way, it was a good thing we made it through Beijing this day, as that evening they reported heavy snowfall that delayed and canceled flights.

The short flight to Shanghai wasn't as nice as our earlier flight this day or our flight to Singapore. The seats were still comfortable like our first flight. However, unlike how on those two flights we had a row of two to ourselves, on this flight we were in a full row of three. Furthermore, the dinner they served was so bad as to be inedible. Nevertheless, everything else was fine. Customs was easy. Our planes arrived and departed on time. Our baggage arrived safely (though Di Yin's was slightly damaged, but the airline reimbursed her a value that was actually more than the cost of the bag).

I knew I was back in Shanghai when, while waiting for our baggage, I hear someone loudly hawk a loogie. Because it was in the airport, he was kind enough to do it into the garbage, a courtesy not normally exercised outdoors.

Singapore: Jan 1: New Year's Day Party and Katong

On New Year's Day, we were obliged to stay at our host's place for a family reunion potluck lunch. Our host's/friend's parents have seven siblings each, so even though only one side of the family came to this reunion event (and not all of them from that side), it was still a crowded, lively party. All of our friend's relatives were friendly; we were made to feel very welcome, as if we belonged there. Our friend's father made his famous dish, a Portuguese stew called curry devil. Another relative made kueh kosui (the coconut rice cake dessert we previously tried and somewhat liked) (this one was a bit better) and even gave us instructions on how to make it for ourselves. There was also roasted ham, pasta salad, delicious fried prawns, and more.

Because of the party, we didn't make it out of the house until mid-afternoon. I had hoped to leave earlier because we had planned to explore the Katong/Joo Chiat neighborhood of Singapore this day, and I wanted enough time to make sure we could see it all. When we were finally heading out, one of the family members (who was also leaving around that time) realized he was already driving in the same direction and offered to give us a lift in his convertible. On the way to Katong, he showed us around Singapore, including driving past Dempsey Hill (military barracks converted to shops). Also, he owns a catering business and a couple restaurants, so he detoured to stop by the catering area to give us a brief tour. He also owns the restaurant where the prison officers eat. (This isn't near the prison but rather part of a complex reserved for recreational activities for the prison workers.) He brought us there too. Finally, we made it to Katong, where he drove us past the highlights before we convinced him that we actually wanted to walk around the neighborhood to get a feel for it and to see the sights without being hurried by other cars behind us.

Starting with this last segment (driving through Katong), I began to take pictures. Di Yin took many pictures this day, including some from the party and from our drive around Singapore. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her Singapore album (picture #272). When you see a picture of me shaking a container of milk (picture #331), you're done with her pictures from the trip. (She took that one after we got home.)

Once afoot in Katong along Joo Chiat, we explored the Joo Chiat complex mall, then walked down Joo Chiat. We found many pretty shophouses nearby. We also noticed most of the restaurants on one block of Joo Chiat Road are Vietnamese: interesting, as the Vietnamese population in Singapore is minuscule. Much the middle of Joo Chiat is comprised of bars.

Due to our late start, we had to call off our exploration of Katong for darkness when only a third done. As it turned out, Di Yin and I would get to finish exploring Katong on our next trip to Singapore. As we headed back to the main road to catch a bus, we spotted a lively street west of Geylang Serai, including a supermarket, a hawker center with some 24 hour stands, and, in general, lots of people. We'd spend more time in here in Katong on our next trip to Singapore.

For dinner, we returned to Food Republic on Orchard Road, where we also ate on Monday night (Dec 28).

Singapore: Dec 31: Botanic Gardens, Singapore Flyer, Sentosa, and the Quays

These pictures, though not extensive, represent everything I did during this day, New Years Eve 2009-2010. Di Yin took many more pictures, and her pictures are more fun, prettier, and even better quality than usual, and also include more pictures of yours truly than usual. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her Singapore album (picture #185). When you hit a picture of a "backyard garden" (#272), you're done with the pictures for the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

Due to my activities the previous day (much walking in the sun, a late night), I needed lots of sleep so we had a late start this day. Eventually, we made it down to the Clementi town center / hawker centre for a late breakfast, finishing at noon, then boarded a bus to the Botanic Gardens. I'd previously explored part of them, so today I used my re-visit (with Di Yin) to see the rest.

On this visit, we walked through the marsh garden (ick), by the swan lake, through the ginger garden (which I've previously visited), along palm valley, through the rainforest section, by the bandstand, and through the fern garden. Our route took 1.5 hours. It was a nice (though hot) stroll; sorry, I didn't take many pictures.

From the Botanic Gardens, we took a bus down Orchard Road to City Hall, then walked underground most of the way to the Singapore Flyer. Along the way we stopped for a late lunch at a food court in Marina Square Mall. The Singapore Flyer is the world's largest ferris/observation wheel. Each pod holds 28 people, sitting and standing with room to walk around, and goes more than 500 feet high. The Flyer ride was alright. The view straight down was precarious, but it didn't feel as high as it actually was. The free audio guide was acceptable to tourists, pointing out all the obvious sights.

When we left the Flyer (after 5pm), we began to see the New Years Eve holiday crowds out and about. We walked to the metro station, and rode the metro to the monorail to Sentosa, a resort island minutes from Singapore city centre. We made it just in time to go in the water before the guards closed the beaches due to darkness. The ocean water, though up to international cleanliness standards, made me nervous due to the many industrial ships we could see parked offshore.

Leaving Sentosa, we passed many people coming, likely for a large exclusive beach party and for an elaborate sound and water show that we caught glimpses of (see the movies I took).

A monorail, a confusing mall, and two subway rides later, we were strolling down the lively waterfront promenade that is Boat Quay. Though with beautiful views and dense with restaurants, I forgot how pushy its restaurateurs are. After dinner, we continued down Boat Quay, crossed the river, and went through Clark Quay. Despite how lovely the river views were and how pleasant the temperature (a nice change for Singapore), we found the density of the crowds and activities (even a costumed parade) overwhelming. We crossed the river again near the other end of Clark Quay, and headed back to a subway station. A subway ride and a transfer later, we found ourselves headed home at 10:45pm in a subway car full of other psychologically old fogies. We stopped by our metro station's late-night hawker centre for some more food--we didn't order enough at dinner--and were home a bit after midnight. (Yes, 2010 started on our walk home.) We decided the temperature in which we walked home was perfect.

Singapore: Dec 30: Jurong Bird Park, and more

On Wednesday, both Di Yin and our friend were occupied. (Di Yin was meeting a friend I didn't know.) Thus, I had most of the day to myself. I mainly spent it at the Jurong Bird Park, where I took a ton of pictures and videos. There was a long line (with lots of kids) for tickets, probably because school was out for the holidays. The park was impressively extensive; I can believe it's the world's largest bird park. The pictures document it well. After nearly four hours I'd had enough and seen pretty much everything, so I left.

Although I took a taxi to the bird park (because it was close to the place we were staying and public transit would simply be too complicated to be worthwhile given the distance), I took a bus when I left. The bus took me to the Boon Lay metro station, where I spent a while wandering around the large mall (or malls?) and the outside storefronts nearby (protected from the sun by covered pedestrian walkways). I found a few separate food areas and bought a number of things, as lunch didn't fill me up in the least, and, on top of that, I was rather thirsty because I didn't drink anything at lunch. I found the food court within the mall rather impressive, covering a range of cuisines (various chinese regions, including Shanghai, to korean, indonesian, thai, hot pot, wonton soups, claypot specialists, western, and more). Incidentally, I later learned the Boon Lay Bus Interchange reopened after renovation the previous Sunday; I'm not sure what part of what I saw was new.

With a bit more time to kill, I took the metro to my company's offices to hang out and also print some things. Then, I left to meet up with Di Yin and our friend, and we taxied across the island to East Coast Park to meet some of our friend's friends. Di Yin took a few pictures. The link goes to her first picture from this day after I met up with her (picture #179). When you hit a picture of people looking through plastic bins of fish (#184), you're done with the pictures for the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

In East Coast Park, we walked a bit along the shore, passing the twinkling lights of countless large cargo ships, a reservoir for waterskiing, and lots of restaurants whose names I recognized as being good, before finally reaching the East Coast Lagoon Food Village (hawker centre). There we found the friends we were seeking. Our host and her friend caught up. Listening to the conversation over our tasty dinner, I learned about Singapore military service in Australia (brush fires, racial violence), areas of prostitution in Singapore, Singaporean fickleness in terms of what clubs/hangouts are cool, and the government's social development program (getting people of similar backgrounds to meet and marry / social engineering / caste encouragement), among other things. Interestingly, I found all of our host's friends reflected a great desire to pursue success (often measured on financial terms), perhaps illuminating a feature of Singaporean culture.

Oh, and it's neat the hawker centre we ate at stays open until midnight. (This is uncommon.)

Singapore: Dec 29: Bugis and Arab Quarter

We spent most of Tuesday in the Arab Quarter (Kampong Glam). These pictures briefly document pieces of the day. Di Yin also took some pictures. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her Singapore album (picture #114). When you hit a picture of "K.J. and Lisa at dinner" (#142), you're done with the pictures for the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

Again, Di Yin, I, and our friend ventured out. First, though, we stopped for breakfast at the Clementi hawker (food) centre, near the MRT (metro) stop near our friend's place. When we stopped by briefly the day before, I saw only ten stalls. Today, I saw its real extent, which is an order of magnitude larger, plus an adjacent green market.

Once downtown, we explored Bugis Junction (a mall) and Bugis Street (a series of long, narrow covered shopping streets). Di Yin was as little impressed with these as me on my first visit (and on this visit). We then walked to the Arab Quarter, where we wandered through many dress and fabric shops and she looked for textiles and gifts for friends and family. We stopped for lunch at a Malaysian place, then returned to Clementi.

Finally, we returned to our friend's place to change for dinner with another friend (a friend I also visited on my previous trip to Singapore). We took a taxi to his place near Clark Quay and had dinner with him and his family.

Singapore: Dec 28: Misc Downtown and Orchard Road

I took these pictures this day. Di Yin, as usual, took more. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her Singapore album (picture #13). When you hit a picture of "Clementi hawker center soy milk" (#114), you're done with the pictures for the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

Our first full day in Singapore was warm and comfortable. Di Yin, I, and our friend ventured downtown. First we stopped by my company's offices; I wanted to pick up my new cell phone, which I tried to have delivered there. Sadly, it hadn't arrived. Regardless, we discovered the office is on the 38th floor of an office tower in a good location. My company occupies most of the floor so we got to see tremendous views in most directions. Even our local friend was impressed and took pictures. Also, the office's micro-kitchen has good snacks.

Next we hit up nearby Maxwell's Hawker Centre for lunch. Some stalls (sliced fish soup, rice porridge, chicken rice) had long lines. I think it's funny to see twenty people lined up at some stalls and none at others. Later, however, as this scene is common in Singapore, I ceased being surprised by it. I began considering it normal.

After lunch, I showed Di Yin and her friend the models in the Urban Redevelopment Authority's centre that impressed me on my last visit to Singapore (old pics). Illustrated by huge models, the centre explores how Singapore plans its development. It was as great as I remembered.

Di Yin's friend had other obligations, so she left us at this point. Di Yin and I walked across the street to the Red Dot Design Museum. It's a fairly neat museum showcasing well-designed products ranging from Japanese toilets, computer mice, chairs, and watches to humidors and all-carbon ping-pong paddles. I liked the Tupperware exhibit. Heck, I never knew there was a guy named Tupper.

Di Yin wanted to see Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping street, so there we went after the museum. It was as I remembered: lots of malls and lots of trees (enough to make Di Yin sneezy). Many of these malls extend deep underground, sometimes four-levels deep. These underground passages (with stores of course) connect malls to each other and to the metro system. Although I didn't realize it at the time, I was later told that some of the malls I walked through/past were new since my last visit. (It was hard to tell which ones, as everything looks new and modern!)

A few malls had tall outdoor escalators, escalators that scaled multiple stories at once. We saw one series of escalators that went extraordinarily high -- we had to take them. Soon we were seven stories up yet still in the open air. A couple escalators later and we were eleven (?) stories high, though now separated from the street and the air by a glass wall. Looking down was scary! Also, I'm amazed one can build escalators outdoors, which requires them to be weather resistant.

We walked down Orchard Road. I detoured to show Di Yin Emerald Hill's old shophouses. We also stopped in one mall to browse a large bookstore, Kinokuniya, and found it surprisingly expensive (US$40 for a hardcover). We later found a Borders which confirmed that these high prices were the going rate. In all, we walked the length of Orchard Road, passing a Prada shop, countless versions of Armani shops, and three Marks & Spencers!

Walking outside, Orchard Road is pretty and leafy during the daytime but, with all its lighted decorations, it's stunning at night.

We ate a snack in the 11-story tall escalator mall, dinner in a hawker food court (Food Republic)--here we rode a four-story escalator to its entrance--in Wisma Atria (another mall on Orchard Road), and post-dinner snacks in other Orchard Road malls.

After Orchard Road, we took the metro back to Clementi and had a long, balmy walk home.

Singapore: Dec 27: Getting to Singapore

The Sunday after Christmas, December 27, 2009, we awoke at dawn to begin our trip to Singapore. Because of Singapore's equatorial climate, we didn't pack heavy coats or gloves. Consequently, I worried we'd be freezing to death while looking for a taxi in the morning in Shanghai. I needn't have been; it wasn't unpleasantly cold. (While walking outside that morning, I even decided we should be waking up and doing stuff earlier in the mornings in Shanghai. The temperature wasn't bad.) And, besides, we found a taxi amazingly quickly. A short ride later, we boarded the long-distance bus that brought us to the airport, and, from there, check-in, customs, and security were a breeze. We had tons of time to wander the terminal; the best store was one selling stuffed-animal pandas. See the picture.

We landed and headed to our friend's place where we'd be staying the whole week. Though I didn't photograph it, the house is clearly a rich place, ornately decorated. It has a study, a koi pond, workout equipment, Persian carpets, pendulum clocks, and, as we discovered another day, bats that visit in the evening. They fly in the open windows, circle several times, and leave.

After a bit of confusion regarding meeting/not-meeting at the airport, we finally found our friend/host and headed out for dinner. We stopped for dinner by the small part of the Clementi hawker centre--a hawker near our friend's place--adjacent to the bus stop (we'd explore the rest of the centre another day), walked through the small nearby mall, then headed to Little India to meet a friend of Di Yin's. We met at Mustafa, a crazy huge 24-hour department store. It sells everything! After Mustafa, we stopped for a snack at a South Indian joint nearby.

Sorry I wasn't yet in a picture taking mood this day. Di Yin, on the other hand, was. She took some. That link goes to the first picture in the album; when you see a picture of me having just woken up (picture #12), you've reached the next day's pictures. I'll link to the rest in later posts.

Singapore Overview

I spent Sunday, December 27, 2009, through Saturday, January 2, 2010, in Singapore. Nominally, Di Yin and I were there to cheer up a friend going through relationship troubles. Really, I was happy to use any excuse possible to return to one of my favorite cities.

I'm happy to report that I liked Singapore as much on my second visit as on my first. I took the opportunity to visit a few sights I missed last time, tried some dishes I didn't get the opportunity to eat last time (darn limited number of meals in a day!) and enjoyed the food and eating at hawker centres in general, and exploited the freshly squeezed / freshly blended juices much more than on my first visit. I will certainly miss these ever-present refreshing juices when I'm back in Shanghai.

The rest of this entry reports a motley assortment of my observations from this trip to Singapore.

Singapore is warm, comfortably so at times. Within in a few days, I forgot what it was like being cold.

It's also a green city: lots of grass and trees. Furthermore, in contrast to Shanghai, though Singapore also has construction, it has no dust issue at all. I have a theory that it's the vegetation that keeps down the dust. Oddly, I can't remember hearing construction noise in Singapore either; maybe it's heavily regulated to be quiet?

The government creates incentives / uses capitalism to achieve its policies. The most interesting two such goals I learned about on this trip are that the government provides money to people who have kids when they're young (i.e., encourages people to become parents early in life) and that the government requires people to be married to live in most public housing complexes (i.e., encourages people to get married). (Note: the vast majority of the population lives in publicly built housing complexes.)

It's also a capitalism/shopping-intensive city. During this trip, at some point I noticed how many ATMs there are. Once I started paying attention I realized: they're everywhere! Nevertheless, they often have lines.

Staying with a friend a wee bit away from city centre, I got to see more of Singapore's suburban architecture than I'd previously seen. Many apartment complexes are raised on pillars. When walking from place to place, one can walk under the buildings (i.e., through these shelters), enjoying the shade and an unobstructed breeze. Also, I recall that, at least in Britain, ground floor apartments are considered less desirable. With this Singaporean design, no one has to live at ground level. In addition, many buildings are connected by covered walkways, saving everyone from having to walk in the sun. In many areas, one can walk a long way in the shade using these ground floor areas and covered walkways. Obviously, this isn't true downtown, but the design isn't needed there because indoor air-conditioned malls connect buildings.

The rest of my impressions of Singpoare (as expressed in my original blog post, linked above) still hold.

One other observation of Singapore: the naming of streets is logical. When we arrived on Sunday, we headed straight for our friend's place on Sunset Vale. Sunset Vale is near Sunset Avenue, Sunset Drive, Sunset Road, Sunset Lane, ... Every street in the country/city with Sunset in the name is in the same neighborhood (except one: a mistake), making it easy to give rough directions. Other neighborhoods in Singapore have the same property: Commonwealth, Springleaf, West Coast, Pasir Ris, Telok Blangah, Choa Chu Kang, and many more.

Incidentally, in the process of preparing for this trip to Singapore, I sought out high-quality government-published walking tour booklets. (On my last visit, I used and enjoyed various publications by the Singapore Tourism Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.) Though I had trouble finding physical copies at the tourist information desk, I found them online: one large booklet briefly covering many neighborhoods in Singapore and many walking tour guides for some of these neighborhoods. Though I only ended up doing part of one walking tour this trip, I'm posting these links here because they're hard to find on the web and may be helpful for other visitors to Singapore.

Singapore: August 1: Flying Home

Although I was to fly out mid-morning, I still decided to attempt to fit in one more item from my to-do list, or more precisely my to-eat list: kaya toast. Kaya toast is toast with a jam made from coconut and eggs. I'd heard that the chain Ya Kun Kaya Toast serves a good version and that they have an airport location.

I caught the train to the airport, trammed from terminal two to terminal one, checked in, and began hunting for the kaya toast outlet. I quickly learned the outlet was back in terminal two, but made the mistake of walking there rather than taking the airport tram. Then, in terminal two, it wasn't listed on any maps or directories of restaurants in the terminal. I resorted to searching everywhere. I wanted my toast. I wasn't going to give up until I had to board my plane. I found it forty minutes after I started my quest, at the last possible place to search in terminal two.

To learn what I thought about my toast, read the comments on the pictures I took this day.

The flight home, transferring again through Hong Kong, was unremarkable. It was a tougher journey than going to Singapore because I stayed awake most of the flight and had to entertain myself. Luckily, the selection of shows that I could watch on the screen in front of my seat was passable. The only lesson I learned from this flight was that I think I'd prefer an aisle seat on extremely long flights because then I can get up and walk around whenever I feel like it.

By the end of trip, I wasn't tired of Singaporean food in the least. Rather, there were some dishes I hadn't got to try. I began looking for those in the bay area. I also hunted for other dishes I tried to learn where I could eat them again.

Singapore: July 31: Downtown and the Asian Civilisations Museum

I spent the day finishing up sights. I'd seen all the major neighborhoods of Singapore, yet had left a small unexplored hole in downtown near the entrance to the Singapore River. This day I filled in that hole. I spent the morning exploring the south side of the hole/river then met my friend for lunch. On the way back from lunch/dessert, he drove us by the Geylang neighborhood, another old part of town. I then spent much of the afternoon in a museum, finishing exploring the sights on the north side of the river before and after. Finally, I met my friend and and his family for dinner.

These pictures complete document the day's activities. You'll also note I ended up with multiple pictures of myself this day. Shocking!

The museum I spent some of the afternoon is was the Asian Civilisations Museum. Regarded as one of Singapore's top museums, it mostly covers the history and culture of the civilizations in Southeast Asian, but also has exhibits on South Asia, West Asia/Islam, and China. A wide variety of artifacts. I'd describe the museum as decent.

Later, after dinner, my friend took me to Holland Village, a hip part of town near a university and where many expats live. On the way, we drove through Dempsey Hill, a complex of old military barracks that in the last two years have been converted into restaurants, boutiques, etc.

Singapore: July 30: The City Gallery and More Chinatown

Aside from one (cool) gallery, I spent most of the day finishing my walking tour of Chinatown. These pictures provide details about the day's smaller sights in Chinatown; the bigger sights are discussed here.

The morning began with a trip to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's building and its two galleries: the Singapore City Gallery and the gallery displaying Singapore's 2008 (Draft) Master Plan. Between the two of them, this is the museum-like sight I found myself most thinking about and remembering from my time in Singapore, perhaps because they combine my interests in architecture, design, and maps with a twist of policy.

These galleries contain incredible models of the city of Singapore and the country. The two models of city show every building in its correct shape and size. You have to see the pictures to truly appreciate this fact. I like that I visited the gallery near the end of my trip to Singapore because it allowed me to identify many sights and put everywhere I'd seen in perspective.

The city gallery also has nice exhibits on the history of Singapore and on how the city and even particular neighborhoods developed. In addition, it describes some of the city's architectural features, including the designs of shophouses and bungalows.

The master plan section of the gallery hypes the plan that describes in detail the improvements the country plans to make to each district. I appreciated this rare glimpse into how a country / city plans its evolution, answering questions about how to make a place livable, how much space to keep for nature, how to conserve historical features while allowing growth, etc. The redevelopment authority describes how decisions are made and calls for feedback on the plans. The most interesting single statistic I learned from these exhibits is that most of the populace live in government housing.

I then spent a good hour exploring parts of Chinatown I didn't see the previous day.

For lunch, I was finally near the respected Hong Lim hawker centre when most shops were open. (Recall that I previously tried to visit late at night but found mostly everything closed.) Well, the second time was not the charm. The famous laksa place I wanted to try in this hawker centre was closed for vacation :(. Instead, I went for my second choice, a well known purveyor of a different dish.

After lunch, I explored Chinatown further. I spent some time in Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium, a large Chinese department store. It didn't allow pictures. :( The building, formerly a hotel, is an airy space, and even includes a nice koi pond. I browsed a display of wooden, carved teapots ranging in price from tens of dollars to ten thousand dollars. I saw pretty, decorative clay pieces as well as stunning glass figures. One of the six (?) floors was devoted for food. Surprisingly, there's relatively little clothing for sale here.

I also spent thirty minutes in the Chinatown Heritage Centre. It's a small museum in an old shophouse that evokes, through quotes, the plight of immigrants (opium, gambling, crime). At first I thought it definitely wasn't worth the price of admission, but then I found the adjacent building (another shophouse), with rooms modeled after how people used to live. After that, I felt less strongly about the museum being overpriced, though still stand by the sentiment.

The Chinatown Complex was my last major stop in Chinatown before I had to get ready for dinner. The complex, really a market and food court / hawker centre, is gigantic. There are over 200 food stalls. I know because they're numbered. I was looking for a particular one and even had its number, but it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Sometimes they move. Ah well.

In the evening, I finally met up with an old college friend of mine who lives in Singapore. (We didn't meet earlier because he was traveling for business.) His family invited me, along with a few of his other old friends (in this case, from high school), over for dinner. They're friendly people, all in the same line of work (finance). I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of the people or the food at dinner, but I do remember one really good eggplant dish.

After dinner, his wife stayed behind to watch their baby, and the rest of us walked to nearby Clark Quay for drinks at China One, one of the many hip bar-lounges in the area. It wasn't quite my scene. The music from the live band was too loud, and the chips came from a bag and the salsa from a jar. I had a Tiger Beer, a good pilsner that's sold everywhere in Singapore.