Slings and arrows

9 March 2008

Singapore

If you want a clean, orderly and well run city you will have to do a lot of travelling to find anything to beat Singapore. Of course there are plenty of things in place to ensure that it is clean and orderly and the stories of what will happen to you if you step out of line are legendary. You can even buy t-shirts that say “Singapore – a fine city” and then go on to list all the things you can be fined for. From what I’ve seen here, if you want a clean and tidy place that is green and efficient then a little bit of a firm hand may be all it takes and may not be such a bad thing.

All that being said I have to admit that I found Singapore lacked something that Hong Kong had but it’s a little difficult to put my finger on it exactly. Maybe it lacked the frenetic feel or the sense of places having just happened and now having a permanence acquired from time rather than through any form of planning.  Singapore felt a little more like it had been put there rather than having grown there. I visited Raffles Hotel, mostly for the sake of being able to say that I’ve had a Singapore sling there but also for a taste of the colonial past. Even venerable Raffles had the feel of cleanliness and orderliness, no rough edges there from the price of the drink to the souvenir shop.

I did enjoy the two days though, any time I get off the ship for a day, let alone two, is a good thing, especially since due to a miscommunication regarding some paperwork I won’t be allowed off in India at all and have to spend the next couple of weeks aboard while everyone else enjoys curries in exotic ports.

I think I made a comment some ports back wondering if that would be the last time in a while that we would see a real port building and whether we would be disembarking directly onto the pier from then on. If I did make that comment then I was completely wrong to even speculate because the port buildings seem to be getting bigger. I got lost in the Hong Kong one and Singapore was even more convoluted. This time we had the added interest of even the crew having to carry our passports with us and show them to customs every time we got on or off the ship. It was another queue to get through but at least it meant a stamp in my passport which is something that I’ve been missing only having to use my crew id in most countries.

The port building was huge, having a couple of cruise ships and numerous ferries using it any one time, and it also houses a major shopping centre and a subway station. I don’t think I ever set foot outside the building itself, I had a quick look at the shops but otherwise I just used the subway to get to other parts of the city, typically clean and tidy in that Singaporean way.

The first thing on my agenda after docking was another taster tour. This one was only three hours or so and promised a quick introduction to the island/city. The bus was the most impressive so far and fortunately they drove on the proper (left) side of the road so I felt quite comfortable as we moved off.

Driving through the city I had an immediate feeling that it reminded me of parts of Auckland. I don’t know if anyone else would get that feeling but just sitting and looking out the window that’s what I felt. Maybe it was an undefinable Englishness about the place, the design of the road signs or the footpath, or some other ‘back of the consciousness’ thing that gave me that impression, but it was certainly there. Of course stepping off the bus into the heat and humidity immediately put the location firmly in the tropics.

Our first stop was at the botanical gardens, specifically the orchid gardens. We only got a quick glimpse at the scope of the rest of the gardens as we made our way in but for the serious gardener or anyone who just likes gardens then this would be a place to visit. Beautifully presented and expansive it seemed a shame that we were only going to see a few orchids. Until we got to the orchids that is. This section of the garden (which requires an entry fee) would be impressive in its own right and an addition to any city but in this botanical garden it was simply one section. I am not a gardener of any sort but even I was entranced by the number and variety of orchids. There were orchids beside all the paths as well as in special environments ranging from misty tropical to air-conditioned coolness. The forty five minutes we had there went really fast.

Our other stops included a photo op at the Merlion Statue that stands and gushes water into the harbour, the Merlion being the emblem of Singapore. We also stopped for a short time at Chinatown, everyone immediately scattering down alleyways and into the market but somehow eventually finding their ways back to the bus, much to my relief. Other stops included the original royal palace located in Little India and finally at a gemstone factory.

By the time we got back to the ship it was early afternoon and I returned my tour report, grabbed my gear and headed back out.

Apparently Orchard road was the place to go for shopping and even though I had nothing particular I wanted to buy it was also a street that apparently provided a good variety of food, especially after dark. I purchased a subway card, charged it up with money and headed off into the station. Trains arrived every seven minutes so it didn’t take long for the right one to arrive and whisk me off to a stop at one end of Orchard Road. Getting off the train I started to follow the signs for the way out but somehow found myself in another huge shopping centre before I eventually found the exit. This is where I started my love affair with the food in Singapore. The food court here was big, varied and packed with people. It may have had the usual suspects in the form of McDonalds, KFC and Burger King but there was also all manner of Asian foods from Japanese to Korean, Malaysian to Indonesian. I’m not even going to try and remember all the things I ate over two days but they included durian ice-cream, a whole good sized lobster, various things on sticks, multi coloured sweet rice things wrapped in paper, stuff in bowls with rice, stuff in bowls with soup, fried things, steamed things and things where the tentacles would flop out as I bit into them. I had tea and sandwiches in the café at Raffles and fried squid and a Tiger beer while sitting on a (too small) plastic stool on the side of the road. The main ethnic groups of Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and European all provide some input on the food available and you can go from where fruit is squeezed into a glass using an ancient machine to the Starbucks next door. Coffee shops were everywhere but they rubbed shoulders with the smaller but no less ubiquitous shrimp ball stand. And the good stuff was cheap!

Orchard Road is certainly a shopping Mecca and each high rise building seems to contain a shopping centre that would service an entire suburb anywhere else. The lower floor would have a food court and then floor after floor of shops would rise up. I just wandered around, looking in the occasional electronics store or camera store out of idle interest. Mobile phones, cameras and mp3 players were everywhere. Compared to the overabundance of neon signs in Nathan Road, Hong Kong this was a subdued street from the outside but the glittering insides made up for it. I wandered up and down, looking and eating and eventually made it back to the ship, full, footsore but satisfied.

The next morning I was up and out early and only had two real intentions for the day. I wanted to hit Chinatown for more food and I wanted to visit Raffles for a Singapore Sling. The first part of the morning was taken up with a fruitless search along Orchard Road and various side roads for one piece of electronic equipment I thought I might like. As I was falling asleep I decided that a monitor calibration tool was something that I couldn’t live without but I ended up being unable to find one. Even an extra subway ride at the suggestion of someone in one shop was unsuccessful; none of the big electronic or computer stores I looked in had what I was looking for.

I was a bit more successful at finding Raffles however and the long walk there was enough to make me willing to part with $25 for a must have Singapore sling. The hotel does have that English colonial feel, from the liveried doorman to the ingeniously waving palm fans in the ceiling of the long bar but, as I said, it is almost too clean and tidy to be real. I savoured my drink while sitting at the bar and ate as many of the offered peanuts as I could, dropping the empty shells onto the floor along with everyone else’s. The bar was full of tourists, the vast majority with the sling in front of them and even though it was a nice enough drink I’m not sure that it’s worth the money.

Leaving the long bar I dropped a little money in the gift shop to prove that I was there and then had a sandwich and a cup of Earl Grey in the café outside. It was much better value and the old wooden tables and chairs and the marble floor had just as much of the colonial charm as the bar upstairs. The sandwich would also give me enough energy to make it to Chinatown for more food.

Outside the café I was approached by a man pedalling a bicycle rickshaw. It must have been some sort of aura I was giving off but he immediately asked if I wanted to go to Chinatown. At first I said no but then I figured that I may never do it again so I fixed a price, clambered into the seat and we headed off. I felt a little sorry for him as he first had to get momentum up with all of my weight but I think he got his revenge by weaving in and out of the traffic in a terrifying way as if everyone else should give way to him. It was one of the best rides I’ve had and provided much entertainment for the price.

He dropped me off on the outskirts of Chinatown and I started finding my way through the maze of buildings and arcades, all packed with small shops, and restaurants. I ate more things just by saying that I didn’t know what they were but they smelt good. This normally got a smile and an encouraging look as various things were put into bags or on sticks. I wandered around for quite a while, bought a couple more small souvenirs and was back at the ship with about an hour to spare. At first I was a little disappointed at having spent an hour less outside than I could have but I found that once I got back to my cabin, took my shoes off and lay down on my bunk I was glad that I had the extra time for my feet to stop throbbing. It had been two days of being constantly on my feet but it had been two days I would be happy to repeat.