A week-end in Singapore

Let me tell you two stories which I think are quite telling about life in Singapore. Saturday, I played golf with a French guy who runs Channel in Asia and an Indian business person that travels 200 days of the year. We played at the public course in Marina Bay which is where the big race is to-night. They both thought the course was fantastic, but it was so Singaporean I could not believe it.

First of all, I think it was something like $250 to play a public course. I think that there was a mistake or my partners payed for me because I only paid $90. You had to take a cart and at the bottom of the screen it told you how many minutes you were behind and since we started a few minutes late we never seemed to catch up. They also had paid advertising on the screen so you never felt you were on a golf course in the middle of nowhere. In fact, you knew you were not in the middle of nowhere because from the first tee you could see the whole course it was that small. Land is valuable in Singapore and time is money, both characteristics in full disclosure on this course.

There were marshals everywhere. Whenever you got too near a green or bunker, the screen told you to back off and a marshal was not far behind. I really felt like I was in the middle of the F1 race. First of all, you could hear the engines roaring literally roaring around the course just beyond and secondly there was construction everywhere. You were never out of eye-site of either a construction zone, cars, or buildings. The exact opposite of the ocean course I use to play in Costa Rica where every hole was surrounded by ocean.

And...it rains intermittently in Singapore almost every day (and this is the the dry season!) so we had our rain for about three holes which made it miserable, in my opinion. The Singaporeans simply put on their raincoats, pulled out their umbrellas and carried on.

To-day, Sunday, I went down to Orchard Road and stumbled into Lucky Plaza. It looked like a typical Bangkok mall except for one thing. There were more Philipinas than in Manila. The Philipina domestic workers have Sunday off and they all congregate in this mall to send money home, buy air tickets home and eat typical Philipino fare. There had to be ten of thousands of Philliipinos on six floors. I could not believe the line-ups around the hallway to send money home. I am just reading Ayaan Hirsi's latest book and she makes the point that immigrants who constantly send money home consign themselves to a life of poverty and the cycle continues for generations. She suggests they save and change their lives being in Holland, United States or Singapore.

I keep wanting to get to the Bird Park and other 'tourist' places, but people places are just so much more interesting.

The Attributes of city-state life

In Costa Rica, when the week-end arrived I had virtually three choices...beach, beach, or beach. This week-end, my first real week-end in Singapore, I had so many choices I hardly left the house because I would have had to make a decision about where to go!

On Saturday, I headed for the Jurong Bird Farm but the stop before got off at a place called the Chinese Garden. What the heck...I am going to be here all year, may as well see everything. This week is the mid-Autumn Moon Festival so the gardens were really dressed up and later that evening thousands of party-goers were going to descend to see fireworks and play games. At school, some of the teachers and I are dancing for parents and kids, on Tuesday I believe. There are eight of us and we have a choreographed dance. Unfortunately, we have to do some dance steps and at the same time twirl a red sash we are wearing around our waist in four different directions. What I have found is that I can do the dance steps or twirl the sash, but not both at the same time. I think I will go for the sash!

To-day our kids were in a soap box derby at Marina Bay so I went to watch. Marina Sands Hotel just happened to be across the street and wouldn't you know it, a casino right next store. Singaporeans have to spend $100 to get into the casino, before they bet a cent. There are 4 floors of tremendous games and according to a pit boss, every table and machine is always busy. I can't believe it. The minimum bet is mostly $50. They won't be taking my money any time soon, when I can bet in Costa Rica for $2 minimum. Mind you, it would take me $2000 to get there!

What is great about city life is there are an endless variety of things to do and on the way home went to a drumming concert in the cutest little amphitheatre just outside a subway stop. They were absolutely great. If I was not so exhausted, I could also go out to-night and find loads to do. Maybe I will just go and eat supper. My apartment is across the road from the equivalent of Yorkville, with the exception of the hawker stand I usually eat at. It is the only thing in Singapore that is cheap, relatively speaking. I can eat dinner for $5 Singapore dollars.

Have a good week and again, happy New Year. In Singapore with all the ethnicity's and religions, someone is always celebrating something.

Sir, you will need a passport for that!

Sir, you will need a passport for that!

Some of my favourite stories so far. The first day I went into a 7/11 and asked if they had any gum. With a mixture of shock and disgust, the woman told me I had to go to a special store and show my passport. I have not found that special store yet, and come to think of it, I have no idea where my passport is!

I just got back from the bank where I set up an account. It was a three hour ideal with signatures, paperwork and forms galore. To get into the Internet to do your banking you have to use four levels. Your name and password and telephone number and a special code which changes by the moment. I have a gadget that I must keep and press for a number when I want to get into my account. However, that is not the story. I was waiting for the woman to meet with me to do the paperwork and old Chinese guy with one tooth and a great smile sat down beside me. As we were talking he said; “ Enjoy your youth while you have it!” Nothing like an experience like that to make me feel younger.

Last week-end I went to Little India and was quite impressed with the sounds and smells, which I imagine might actually be like India. What surprised me the most were the” authentic” Thai massage places. Authentic in the sense that you get a traditional Thai massage for $40 that would cost you $10 in Thailand but given by trained Thai masseuses. Like my first Thai massage many years ago, my masseuse could not believe how inflexible I was and kept calling through the curtain to the other massage lady telling her about me and laughing her head off. My body parts simply refused to be coerced to go in the directions she was pushing and pulling them. I could not move my neck all week and my legs were stiff for about three days.
I did buy a phone and the first night dutifully charged it, all night. Actually, the light from the telephone kept flashing all night and kept me up. When I got to school, I asked a colleague how it worked because I could not turn it on. He fiddled with it for about five minutes and he could not get it to work either. I did not feel so stupid until he took the back off and saw why it was not working…no battery. I had no idea I even had to put in a battery!

The first night I was in the new apartment , it is two bedroom with two en suites if anyone wants to visit,I took a bath, which was fairly uneventful. When I got out of the bathtub I was shocked that the floor of the bathroom was covered in water up to my ankles. I called a guy to fix it and found out the problem. There is one drain, for the toilet, sink, bath and so on and it could not drain fast enough when I let the water out of the tub. The poor guy had no tools, which I found dubious but he had no trouble fixing it. He simply opened up the drain and spent the next thirty minutes dredging up the gunk that had accumulated over the years and was blocking the free flow of water. His arm was so black he could not even wash it off. Now I can’t wash the gunk out of the sink.

Talking about black…I was fingerprinted. No, not before they put me in jail. To get an apartment, or work for that matter, you have to get an employment pass. I was shocked when I was told to put my thumb on this machine. I do have a good looking thumb, mind you.

Who knows what adventure will happen to me this week-end. Happy New Year to you.