Singapore: Eat, Shop, Eat, Repeat
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2011
1
86
Trip End
Dec 25, 2011
Singapore, Singapore
Friday, October 14, 2011
But I guess that’s why it’s a good rest stop in a long arc of travel. Arriving in Singapore, I felt a lethargy I must have been combating through adrenaline and sheer bloody mindedness for the last few weeks. With no schedules to really make and no long haul trips to arrange and no internet surfing to find accommodation every other day, I got to the hostel, plopped myself down and sat on the carpet in the AC for an hour, just staring into space (partly explains why this blog is so late). All the vague ideas of doing a quick hop to some Indonesian island or even a bus daytrip into Malaysia evaporated into thin air. There’s just a point in which your gut knows you’re at the right place at the right time to just stay for awhile and do nothing. Well, nothing extraordinary anyway.
Weirdly enough, Singapore offered me the opportunity to reestablish the pattern of mundane normal life, an unexpected luxury when you consider that on the road you’re always aware of the clock just ticking by—if you don’t spend your time doing something cultural or amazing, then you’re wasting money and effort. But Singapore is just fundamentally different. Though I try to find things to do in all the places I visit, to a degree Singapore had me stumped. Not exactly because there’s nothing to do—in fact, it appears that Singapore has not just a little bit of cabin fever being such a small country, and is constantly developing ‘attractions’ to give the populace something to do or look at. Really, the problem was finding the motivation to do the things on offer. After all, they all revolved around some artificial construct to create a spectacle—Sentosa resorts with its imported sand and Club Med-like atmosphere; the Night Safari which actually did sound interesting but at its heart is just a zoo in the dark; Orchard Road with its unending gauntlet of shopping malls. And it just didn’t quite appeal because I could do that back at home.
So that left the more everyday activities, which in the end are what make Singaporeans Singaporeans—eat, walk and shop. In these basic activities you can start to appreciate how each ethnic group in Singapore goes about their lives in a different way. For a country its size, Singapore has a great diversity in terms of population. This is mostly due to location and also to the necessities of generating income in a tiny city state. Born as a tiny, swampy island at the Southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore was basically a small fishing village, dwarfed by its neighbor Melaka, a huge trading center and big money maker for the Malay and Chinese, who backed Melaka. However, the British wanted a piece of the Straits action and Sir Thomas Raffles (he of the frowning statue in front of the Asian Civilizations museum) in 1819 decided to take hold of this small town and turn it into a major port. Surprisingly, it worked and Singapore became the new cosmopolitan center, taking over from Melaka.
Times went from sweet to sour during World War II, but Singapore emerged, battered, as again a backwards town as part of Malaysia. However, because of their political and ethnic rivalries (in Singapore, laws a favorable to the Chinese, while in Malaysia, it’s the Malays who benefit), it was kicked out of the Malay federation, with nary any concern on the Malay side. Looking back now, with Singapore’s huge wealth compared to developed, but still trailing Malaysia, I guess it would be Singapore that laughs last.
Through the last half century, Singapore’s success can be attributed to the rapid industrialization heralded by the socialist government. What was a fishing center became a modern factory based country with a huge shipping quarter. However, the recent rise of China and Southeast Asia has meant that Singapore’s industrial wealth is waning. Instead the country is now striving to be the major shipping center in the region, and like Hong Kong is rapidly increasing its financial services sector. In addition, with the presence of Novartis and several universities, Singapore is working its way towards being a center for biomedical research center and now also a burgeoning tourist hotspot. For the latter, I think there’s a lot of work to be done, especially in trying to create a persona for the country that tourist can appreciate and want to learn about.
A good starting point is working with its very diverse population. Founded as Malay village, but then seeing large waves of Chinese immigrants, Singapore has had to recruit new labor, many from Tamil speaking Southern India (and now other Southeast Asian countries) to fill the many new jobs on offer. Consequently, the majority of Singaporeans are Chinese, with Malay and Indians making up a substantial segment and a largely invisible Southeast Asian minority.
And you would think this makes for a very raucous, vivid city, but it ends up being, as it is often referred to, ‘Asia-lite.’ The place lacks bite and grit because to overtly encourage pride in a specific ethnicity means waging a battle between cultures. And for a united Singapore, that’s anathema. Of course the flip side is that the rules and laws somewhat mute the different ethnic groups, with the aim of establishing a neither here nor there mixed population. The irony is, though, I’m still not convinced Singaporeans today really have a good sense of what unifies them as Singaporeans. Eating and shopping can only extend so far, but I guess it’s far enough, as tourism goes.
Food for me is the best way to see the variety of cultures in Singapore, and it is the one major sin that is not taxed to death by the government. And it is undoubtedly a sin here, because much like how you end up eating and snacking when you’re bored, I suspect Singaporeans do this on a daily basis to forget they’re trapped on a tiny island. Add in the fact that food is cheap, hugely varied, written in English and sanitary, then you’ve got the great makings of several tummy busting days just waddling back and forth between food centers. You’ll also realize that there is a certain mythology in Singapore, a trail of elusive and legendary meals at specific stalls scattered across town. The more locals you meet the more local favorites appear on your list and what starts out as a quick meal becomes a gastronomic quest. At some point you will find yourself, bedraggled, feet aching, in a maze of food stalls, looking high and low for a no name counter with a single burner and a queue that stretches into infinity, all for the sake of a small plate of fried noodles. And at that moment you will know that you’ve become Singaporean.
The above quest is typical for a city covered in food courts and independent food stalls. They’re not exactly like the street carts in Taipei or Bangkok and not exactly the many 10 seater counters of Japan with separate entrances. Here, it’s all about the hawker center, an oversized food court with dozens of stalls and a central numbered seating. And horrible as that sounds, it’s a modern day way to concentrate what used to be many scattered and unhygienic eateries at a more manageable site. And each has its own flavor so locals scout out which location and eatery is their favorite and return time after time. You can grab a table, remember the number and go up to a stall, order and they’ll deliver the food to you. Unless there’s a sign saying ‘Self-serve’ in which case they call you back up and you pick up your food. Actually the latter is a better idea for single travelers, as it feels a bit dicey to leave anything of yours alone at a table out of eyesight for any amount of time.
The hawker centers are also where you’ll find the cheapest alcohol in the city—a large beer may set you back $7-$10 Sinaporean dollars, while a small bottle in a bar will likely set you back over double that. The relative expense of alcohol in Singapore is part of a sin tax—the locals are subjected to high taxes on less morally upstanding activities, including drinking and gambling (foreigners can enter the Sands casino for free, the local population has to pay S$100 for entrance).
The hawker centers also offer you a chance to hopscotch yourself around Indian, Malay and Chinese food (OK, some stalls serve ‘Western’ fare (burgers, steak, chips, etc), but I don’t know why you’d go there with everything else on display). And while you can usually find all three cuisines within the same hawker center, there’s definitely a well established reputation for certain cuisines at certain centers. This matches the local ethnic distribution—the Tekka center in Little India has, as you might guess, really good Indian food, with the biryani a specialty. In fact, that was my last dinner in Singapore: a heap of spicy biryani on wax paper, washed down with sour cherry juice, and I left bloated, happy and food drunk. You can also find centers that cater to the growing Southeast Asian population—the Golden Mile complex is a dark, industrial looking mall near Kampong Glam that houses all sorts of services and eateries for the local Thai community.
On the tourist trail, you’ll find the country’s 3 major ethnic neighborhoods: Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam (serving the Muslim Malay community). As authenticity goes, the centers of each of these areas have been turned into giant souvenir hawking streets. In Little India you’ll find a very bright and busy covered arcade selling anything and everything Indian related. Likewise in the Chinatown, Temple Street is lined with lanterns, overpriced roadside eating stands and stall after stall selling the same fans, the same chopsticks and red, tassel-y Chinese trinkets. Kampong Glam is a bit odder, with less ‘souvenir knickknacks’ (but you’ll definitely find them, with their elephant printed change purses and postcards). But the lifeblood of Kampong Glam seems to be having a coffee and snack at the many cafes and then wandering to Arab Street (this sounds so non-PC as I write this) to find the cheapest silk or cotton scarf/sarong you can find among the many fabric and (flying) carpet shops.
This is not to say there’s nothing worth looking at in these places—in Chinatown, you can visit the Buddha Tooth Relic temple, which was purported to house a tooth from Buddha (but likely not). However, the temple is big, red and has a nice open interior, as well as a courtyard behind which serves as a strange sort of dance/exercise floor. Drop by in the evening around dinner time and music will be playing from the speakers (both old songs and modern pop), with middle aged women (mostly) line dancing in what must be a thoroughly choreographed daily routine. This is a very Chinese pastime, used as exercise as much as having fun and socializing, but also very odd and entertaining. Next door is the Chinatown complex, which has a vast array of stalls on the second floor. The Chinese food in Singapore is of the Southern school of cooking with Cantonese and Hokkien cuisine a central player. Going around the complex, your head will spin because you’ve got so many options to choose from, from stir fried soy sauced noodles (Kway tieo), barbecued pork (Char Siew) to Hainanese Chicken rice. The Char Siew here is not as sweet as I’ve had in the state (a plus), and comes in combo with fried, fatty pork pieces (so fantastic all around), but the Hainan Chicken Rice remains the best meal I had in Singapore. There are lots of places serving this dish and apparently I ended up at a really famous stall (it was plastered with newspaper clippings), which I can’t remember the name of (and it was either in Chinatown Complex or nearby Maxwell Food centre).
Funnily enough, on first look, it doesn’t sound like chicken rice should be good at all—poached chicken on top of white rice with some soup on the side (the bland, hospital special). But they brine the chicken and lightly poach the chicken to keep it super moist, they cook the rice in the bird fat to get more flavor and the soup is made from the bones. It is intensely chicken all around, but still delicate in taste and has this moist, succulent, simple quality. Mix in a bit of chili they give you on the side for some extra zing, but I loved it pale and plain.
The other big sight in Chinatown, ironically, is the Hindu temple, Sri Mariamman, the oldest in Singapore. Not only is it colorful and has its fair share of many flower garlanded Hindu deities, but it was all abuzz with the beginning of Deepavali. To celebrate, the temple this weekend was undergoing a series of ceremonies in prayer to the goddess Draupadi. On the Saturday, the grounds were packed, with locals and tourists alike, to watch as saffron wrapped men hoisted a Draupadi shrine atop a palanquin onto their shoulders and paraded it around the temple grounds. It’s people, music (drums, blaring horns) and color everywhere, a very exotic sight for most tourists. At the end, the shrine was placed in a cart in the back of a truck, where devotees passed platters of offered fruits, flowers and silk over the statue and fire in prayer. And after the prayers are completed, the shrine is driven off to tour the surrounding blocks.
But that’s only the beginning. On Sunday, the true test of devotion begins with the annual firewalking ceremony. Worshippers in saffron walk over glowing embers to show that their devotion to Draupadi is stronger than their own physical needs. While the information claims the ceremony starts at 6 PM, this is only for praying locals. All tourists will have to wait until 8 PM to access the temple, but that in itself is a horror beyond words. I arrived at 8:30 PM, to find myself mobbed in a crush of local worshippers. You occasionally hear stories from India about people being trampled to death during festivals and I could see why—you were literally chest to back, barely able to breath the sweaty, humid air, in a mob that was desperately trying to move closer to the temple or to the video screens, but seeming to go nowhere at all. Those lucky few were either already in the temple with ringside seats, as it were, or had sat themselves down in front of a TV screen showing a live broadcast of the firewalking pit. I, unfortunately, was pressed back against a chain link fence, on tiptoes just barely able to make out the screen, all the while with a never ending stream of people squeezing by.
I was able to catch about 45 minutes of the action before the intense claustrophobia and incipient respiratory distress forced me out of the crowd and back into the safe embrace of the traffic laden street. But I like to think it was worth it—everyone who walked the pit made it across, but you could definitely see the whole range of heat tolerance. Some ran like the dickens, hitting the coals with maybe three of four thumps as they jumped their way across and into the trough of cold water at the end. Others walk defiantly slow across the orange embers, some face completely loose, lost in a trance, others with their chins wobbling, holding on for the sake of pride. You can usually tell who’s got the trance going when they hit the water because the white knucklers stay a very long time in the water, while the devotees just pass right through. Occasionally you’ll get a walker who struggles half way, lost in a mild panic when the heat catches up to them; that’s when helpers come in from the sides, each grab an arm and lift the victim right up off the coals and into the water.
Incidentally, if you’re there during the festival, the firewalking goes on all night and presumably by midnight, there’s way fewer people watching, so if you don’t mind a bit of late night Singapore walking (subway services terminate somewhere between 12 and 1 AM), you can enjoy the event without the craziness, unless that’s part of the deal for you…masochist.
After hitting Chinatown and Little India, it was on to the last of the big three—Kampong Glam. The biggest sightseeing draw here is the grand mosque, Sultan Mosque. Built as a Sunni mosque, this serves the local Malay population and is both large and beautiful (it was constructed by a local entrepreneur back in the 1800s). Be aware that the doors are closed to visitors several times a day, to accommodate worshippers—most inconveniently perhaps, it is closed for a couple of hours from noon. However, if you get there in time, I would definitely go in. I wandered in, donned a blue floor length coat (I was in shorts and a T shirt…a no-no) and had a really nice conversation with a woman (from Texas, from an Evangelical family who converted to Islam—something tells me family dinners were a bit strained there) who really helped me get out of some narrow minded thinking about Islam. I can’t say I’ve taken to the worshipping aspect (apparently, all humans are built as devices for worship first and foremost), but she helped me open my mind to the subtleties of the different forms of Islam. I used to think in terms of whether different sects were more fundamental and restrictive or more moderate, but it’s different all over the world in a different ways. As a woman she had felt more open in India compared to the Middle East, but in India unlike in Saudi Arabia she wasn’t even allowed in mosques. So there’s a lot of leeway between different denominations of Islam that made it more approachable and familiar (like Christianity) rather than this all imposing, ‘scary’ cloak and dagger religion.
So I spent a good hour just wandering around, reading up on the displays they had (all religious propaganda, but then what church/temple/mosque doesn’t have this stuff?) and I almost got away unscathed, but I was ‘gifted’ a stack of pamphlets at the exit by my hosts and I was too embarrassed to politely refuse and save the environment a little. Funnily enough, they even had a translated pamphlet in Chinese for me, though I can tell you, I can’t read a single word of it. But still informative and totally worth it.
For about two days, I hit the different neighborhoods and eventually came upon the bit that I was less enthused about—the colonial and modern districts. To be fair the Colonial district, which is based in the central business district (CBD) felt like Hong Kong or all the random city centers of Southeast Asian cities. There was the neoclassical court building, the parliament, the very English or Continental architecture with palm trees, the giant white cathedrals, the cricket ground and golf club. This is Singapore as a haven for British bureaucrats and it looks it. Honestly, you can take an hour’s wander, see all of the sights and wash your hands of the place. One exception, though, would be the museum district. There are actually several museums, but it happened to be open house day in the Asian Civilizations Museum, so for free entry, you got to enjoy three hours of air conditioning and seeing all the different cultures you’ve already passed through—Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese, with some others like Indian and Indonesian that I haven’t experienced. As museums go, it’s well organized and has a good narrative, but on the whole, it’s just a bit dry. The interactive exhibits like shadow puppetry and drums and a mock up Bedouin tent are more fun and the special exhibition, which was on the Xian terracotta warriors was a good complement to the real thing I had seen in China. At the very least, there were placards and information that you just didn’t get wandering around the pits in Xian.
The museums sit around the waterfront, where you’ll find a variety of tourist minded restaurants selling the famous Chili crab (pricey, especially for 1 person) and offer boat rides with commentary. To be honest, I’d just hoof it over to the real waterfront, where you can get your obligatory photo taken with the weird hybrid merlion (half fish, half lion) fountain that the tourism board decided would be the face of Singapore. From the waterfront, it’s a short walk to Raffles Hotel, which houses the Long Bar, where the Singapore sling was invented. But it’ll cost you $20 for the cocktail (near $30 for the upmarket version). Not in the mood for overpriced liquid diabetes, I took a second option, which is to walk to Lau Pa Sat festival market (a hawker center), get a sugary iced coffee and a fried spring roll to munch on as I swung back around towards Chinatown.
But eating is only half of the equation, with shopping being the other big Singaporean pastime. Honestly, the sheer credit debauchery to goes on in this country is somewhat terrifying. Unlike shopping being a necessity or even a rainy day activity, this country has made it so that you will and must buy every second of every day. On the cheaper end, with actually nice merchandise (anything from souvenirs to clothes and accessories), you can hit Bugiis street, a covered maze of small stalls and the occasional air conditioned building filled with even more twisting avenues of independent shops. Very soon you realize that shopping in Singapore, while more expensive than say Thailand, is still hugely cheap. And of course, it’s easier because everything’s in English and there’s less bartering (which I love, if only to avoid the awkward bit where you’ve traded prices and but the thing is still too expensive for your taste, but can’t find the courage to leave after expending all this effort).
Having gotten souvenirs and a new watch and sunglasses on Bugis street, it was on to the glittering angular monstrosities that are the megamalls of Orchard Road. This is the street of high end shopping, where your credit card will smoke with the frequency of it being swiped. It is literally miles of malls after malls. In a strange way, I guess there’s something sightseeing about just doing mall crawl down Orchard road. Though you can’t really afford anything (and why should you, because it’s all western brands), there’s at least air conditioning and you can hit the food courts, which can have pretty good food (though a few dollars more than hawker centers).
Basically I spent an afternoon whiling away the time in the malls before meeting up with a professor who had spent some time in my lab. We chatted, strangely enough, not about science but just being on the road and waited out the monsoon like heavy downpours that are apparently part of Singapore life.
The downpours reminded me that despite its modern exterior, there is no doubt Singapore was a primary jungle with jungle weather. In fact, I’d have to say the jungle is one of Singapore’s big (and underrated) attractions, though admittedly it’s not really being marketed as such. For the people in Singapore, it’s amazing that half the island is effectively uninhabited, instead being set aside as natural parks. In the center of the island, aside from the zoo, is the MacRitchie reservoir, which not only houses the water supply, but also has paths through the remaining primary jungle. I chose to do a long loop through the MacRitchie reservoir, specifically to go over the treetop bridge (which turned out to be closed on Mondays, damn it). But it’s a very peaceful walk, dirt paths, wild monkeys and lizards abound and parts that seem like you really are on a different island. Of course then you turn the corner and have to walk alongside a golf course before getting to forest again, so you’re definitely still on Singapore. For those with more time and desperation to find solitude, the MacRitchie paths connect to the much larger Bukit Timah reserve that spans the western side of the island.
Buoyed by some nature trekking and injured ankles (flip flops really don’t cut it in jungle, I found out), I headed back out into the concrete and glass city to meet up with a fellow backpacker (June) who I had met in Hong Kong, but lives in Singapore. In a way, she is the typical affluent Singaporean: working at a bank, driving a BMW, driving in Singapore at all. We met in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt, the poshest place I’ve been in a long time and then proceeded to drive out to Robertson Quay, a new development of sleek restaurants and chunky organic coffee houses. We basically just whiled away time over expensive coffee, talking about uncertain futures and listening to the rugby mad Australians (apparently Robertson Quay is very popular with Aussie expats) glued to the Australia-New Zealand semifinal.
By the time we finished commiserating about dead end jobs, New Zealand was in the final, disappointed Aussies were heading en masse to the toilets and bar staff were cleaning up the heaps of empty beer bottles littering every surface. In a way the way this Singapore trip ended, with malls and high end coffee and ennui sums up the modern day quagmire of Singapore. Without an identity to push forward and develop, the place seems like it’s drifting in limbo, with eating and shopping distractions to pass the endless time. By June’s estimation things are getting better, at least in developing an art or music scene, but as of right now, Singapore remains a nice place to relax on a long backpacking trip, but not really a special stop for the sake of tourism. You wouldn’t want to be here on the beginning of a trip because it doesn’t pack the exotic punch you look for in Asia, and neither do you want this at the end because there’s no big blowout, ‘ta da’ moment on the island. But for what it was, I through enjoyed eating (and to a lesser degree, shopping) my way through the country. I’m leaving with heavier body, heavier backpack, but lighter shoulders and more energy and that, is for sure made this layover worth it.
But next is Australia, the Land Down Under, with its skyrocketing currency, host of weird and unique animals and maybe the strangest of them yet, the Aussie people. Onwards to sun, surf and beer!
