For our second R&R vacation from Pakistan, we headed toward Southeast Asia again, but then we went even a bit farther south. Since I don't want to rehash our trip in the same old way, I'm going to change it up in this series of blog posts, as we amateur writers are wont to do. Basically, I want to share our adventures out of order, in hopes of making some non-chronological connections.
As it so happened, in every stop on our itinerary, we ended up on an island. In some cases, the island was a city, a country, or even a continent. So I figured, why not start with some tales of our island hopping? Then, I'll move onto our urban explorations on some of those same islands, and finally, New Zealand, a country the encompasses a few islands and a lot of cities, ends up with some posts all of its own.
Singapore
After a plane transfer in Bangkok, we started our trip in Singapore, a city/country situated entirely on an island. But of course, Singpore feels like it's on an island about as much as Brooklyn feels like it's on an island. Singapore has never been on my travel bucket list, but TJ's dad, whom I had never met before, lives there, so we figured we should stop by before we leave this side of the world.
Singapore has an interesting history, but in its long transition from colonialism to consumerism, perhaps too much of the city/country now comes in pre-packaged form. One of the first places we visited was Clarke Quay (pronounced like "key"), a warehouse-turned-entertainment district that reminded me of the The Flats of Cleveland before its sheen slid into seediness. The colorful open-air mall, which we viewed from a Singapore River cruise (left), featured a cliche version of just about every cuisine, including Wings Bar, full of inauthentically insulting attempts at U.S. military regalia. Just around the riverbend is Boat Quay, another former cargo landing where shophouses are now shrunken by skyscrapers (right). Farther inland on the river, you can find Robertson Quay, yet another commercial cluster where you can party it up amid former opium dens -- in case you don't want to get buzzed on a bumboat instead, that is.
As the river spreads into Marina Bay, the contrast between old and new continues with the water-spitting statue of a Merlion, a mythical creature related to Singapore's nickname as "The Lion City" (top). Across the bay lies the Marina Bay Sands, a casino resort that tries to cling to the past with its architecture: a rooftop "SkyPark" shaped like a bumboat and the ArtScience Museum shaped like a water lily (bottom left). Nearby lies the Raffles Hotel (bottom right), a colonial "icon" where the Singapore Sling was invented (we did not try one as it costs about $20).
In my opinion, my money would've been better spent on a $10 pair of shoes from a vending machine (left), yet another sign of the market economy that dominates Singapore. But with a limited amount of space, at least the country considers the environmental footprint in its path toward progress. In its goal to become "A City in a Garden," Singapore has many buildings with gardens (left), including the largest "green wall" project in the world. And in 2012, the city's Gardens by the Bay, next to the stunning Marina Bay Sands, was named the World Building of the Year.
We almost got rained out of a ride on perhaps the most impressive architectural wonder in the city: the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest observation wheel (left). The London Eye is 30 meters shorter; they checked. At the top of the half-hour rotation in a glass bubble, you can see a 360-view of Singapore and its diverse buildings, including the Marina Bay Sands (right). At the bottom, after you disembark, you can sample its diverse dishes at the Singapore Food Trail, a high-end food court that supposedly filled stalls with the best hawkers in the city. Even though the trail seemed a bit overpolished, I filled my belly with Bak Kut Teh, a pork-rib soup.
But all the planned development ends up creating a bit of a Disney feel, especially on Orchard Road (top), a shopping strip that was already decked out for Christmas when we were there pre-Thanksgiving. The road has an annual "best dressed building" competition, even though the most charming constructions are found among the Peranakan houses on the Emerald Hill Road offshoot. I wish the city did more to promote the Peranakans, or Chinese immigrants who blended Indonesian, Arabic, Indian, and Dutch influences into a unique culture. If you want to find culture in Singapore, you have to vacate downtown and stumble around its neighborhoods, such as Chinatown (bottom left) and Little India (bottom right).
Even the neighborhoods display their own brand of commercialism, such as the food court next to the cable car to Sentosa Island, which truly is like Disney World. At Food Republic, I was able to try some traditional dishes made palatable for the masses. The dishes that TJ's stepmom spread on the table included Char Kway Teow, Rojak, Laksa, and Chicken Satay (with peanut sauce, of course).
But the further you venture into the neighborhoods, the more authentic the eats you find. TJ and I didn't discover the real Chinatown until our second pass through Singapore, on our way back to Pakistan. On our way to Maxwell Road Hawker Centre, we wandered through Amoy Street and Ann Siang Hill, once the heart of the Chinese community. So at the food center, we shared some Chinese foods, including black Chai Tow Kway, known as fried carrot cake even though it's made from radishes (left); we also tried Hokkien Mee, or prawn noodles, and Hainanese Chicken Rice, from a stall, Tian Tian Chicken Rice, made famous by an Anthony Bourdain endorsement. On our first trip, we didn't find the heart of Chinatown with our feet, but we did with our noses. At the food court of People's Park Centre, we tried fried durian (right), recognized as perhaps the most putrid-smelling food on the planet, proving that everything becomes edible when dropped in a vat of oil.
Thanks for Sharing useful insights.
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