Eat Eat Eat - The Singapore Way

One of the best things about Singapore is the variety of street food you can get all in once place under a roof that keeps out the rain! Street food is practically the national food here in Singapore, but to keep it safe, clean, and off the streets (out of the way of traffic, etc.) most vendors have moved to these big market places that hold several vendors hawking their snacks. The food is still cheap, still tasty, and still without air conditioning, but you can choose Indian and Malay and Chicken Wings and coffee drinks and bubble tea all at the same place and eat it at a table!

The People of Singapore

Today in Singapore I visited the Asian Civilizations Museum and the Peranakan Museum.

Many people in Singapore are proud to call themselves Peranakan. This term refers to offspring of the the original people who came here from foreign lands and married with local ladies. There are Indian Peranakans, European Peranakans, Chinese Peranakans, and Malay Peranakans. Each brought their culture, cuisine, and religions to this region to make it a highly diverse city where several languages hold sway.

Malay and Chinese are the official languages while English is the common language they all share (and Singlish is their own special brand of English that is recognized as a World English and therefore considered an acceptable standard English.)

It seems like the education system here is light years ahead of Hong Kong and the States. Their mathematics program is being copied in other countries and they have dealt with this Medium of Instruction issue in a way that HK could learn from.
School in Singapore is year-round and all students have to study their maternal language and their own religion. When I was at an Indian temple there was a group of school children learning about the gods depicted in the elaborate temple's roof decor.

Chinese kids learn Chinese and ... Buddhism I guess. And there are Christian studies for Christians as well.
Everyone speaks English- or at least Singlish as well as have a handle on their own ethnic language and culture AS WELL AS see themselves as Singaporean and have a pride of nationalism. Remarkable.

It's a Jungle Out There

TODAY in Singapore I went for a hike through the wilds of the reservoir. There is a suspended bridge that goes across the canopy for a view of the water in the distance and the green treetops below.

Singapore is SO green! and having the chance to hike through the steamy jungle, with monkeys and monitor lizards all around, was heaven.

I got lost a couple of times and ended up hiking for twice as long as planned, but it is really hard to get too lost. There are several trails and cell phones work; besides, I met an intelligence officer of the Israeli Army who had GPS on his phone!! But really I think it was my 0wn good sense of direction that got us back on the right road!

The first problem was that I got dropped off from the taxi in a place that was supposed to cut a couple Kilometers off my walk. I followed the sign that pointed to the hanging bridge, but ended up at the normal starting point! Meaning backtracking and going back the way I came but somehow I was on a different path? still haven't figured out what happened.

Second, my new friend and I were talking and missed the trail- there is a gate there by the way. And a sign that says "do not enter, Live Firing Range." But actually, as we learned when we returned to this spot, you just have to walk around the gate and the firing range is behind a fence so worries!

Our detour took us by rushing water and idyllic lakes edged by trees. We put our feet in the water- which is probably going to the taps of the Singaporean households, and enjoyed the detour at any rate.

There is no strenuous hiking here; the highest "mountain" is probably a few hundred feet high!
But it is mostly wild and natural. On my first foray, I was walking through the jungle on leaf strewn paths without another soul in sight. Only in certain areas was I able to see that the path was actually black-topped!

Five hours of hiking later, on the road, I saw a tail flipping around in the middle of the street. It was a squirrel! A huge truck came by and I covered my face as I thought it would be squished. The truck missed by an inch. The squirrel did not move. It missed though!
Running up for closer inspection, the squirrel was encircled by a bright green coil, a small open mouth clasped firmly on its neck. It was dead now. But the question is, would the snake escape the other huge trucks coming down the road?

Raffles

TODAY in Singapore I had afternoon tea in the famed Raffles Hotel Tiffin Room.

The Raffles Hotel was a prime destination for the globe-trotting well to-do of the turn of the century. Somerset Maughm penned several books while ensconced in the luxe colonial-style hotel. The original Singapore Sling was invented in the Hotel's Long Bar. The Tiffin Room was where ladies had tea and scones and discussed the fashions of the day, often led by local seamstress Ms. Geddes.

Walking through the hard-wood bannistered, high ceilinged, plushed carpeted lobby is like walking into another time. You can imagine the parties that were held behind the white plantation shutters or in the outdoor courtyards. You can see the men sitting in the library smoking pipes and reading the newspaper brought in from Britain. You can feel like a lady who walks with a parasol through the lush gardens of the hotel smelling the fragrant flowers and admiring the mature shade trees- rain trees they are called.

All in all, a visit to this iconic hotel is full of romance and imagination.

How green is your garden?

TODAY in Singapore, I am amazed by how green and plush the place is. The drive from the airport is quite pretty with green roadsides and lots of shade trees.

It is of course a very planned, landscaped city, but it makes for a nice, comfortable place that offers shade and flowers all around!

It is not at all as dense as Hong Kong (of course) although there are about 4.5 million people on about half as much land! And so far, not one person has bumped into me!!

There is a nice river with a cute riverfront with chi chi restaurants and bars housed in colonial-style remnants of the past, but now with waterfront seating!

There are high-end malls and shops and the whole place is quite clean (of course).

Maybe the most noticeable thing here, though, is the apparent diversity: Indians, Chinese, Malay, Indonesians, Westerners... Different faces everywhere. I like that!