Singapore is a very particular place with a rather special history. Founded about 180 years ago by a British knight by the name of Reffles it owns its existence originally to the interests of the British Empire but in fact brought together peoples of much more ancient cultures. An island at the end of the Malay peninsula it is a primary strategic spot for the control of the passage through the Straits of Malacca - the main naval route from the Far East to India and, via the Suez Canal, to Europe itself. Today it is one of the busiest marine routes in the woprld and Singapore has been, above all, a trading dity that has lived and profitted from this continuous traffic.
The British brought Chinese to the island, essentially to deal in commercial matters, and Indians from Ceylon - mainly as manual labourers. These remain the two main ethinic groups on the island, with the Chinese dominating with almost 70% of the population. There is also a Malay presence, naturally.
This all makes for a rich and diverse cultural make up. Announcements on the underground, just to give an everyday example, are made in Chinese, Tamil, Malay and English. There are fabulous parts of the city where these ethnic groups concentrate - Chinatown, Little India, Arab street... There is of course also all the English colonial influence here, best represented by the XIX century buildings that can be found downtown - The Singapore Cricket Club, almost as old as the city itself - neo-classical buildings most of the time, such as the Supreme Court, or the musems and government offices here as well as the most famous hotels, such as The Raffles itself.
I had lived here as a child between the ages of 3 and 5 and was very curious to see if I could still remember anything at all from the city itself. My memories were very vague indeed and the city has changed enormously in the last 25 years so it would be a small miracle if I could recall a little and I was rather excited at the prospect.
Once again I had to thank my lucky star for having the chance of staying with an old friend of my mother's here. Mollie was kind enough to come and pick me up at the airport, so I didn't even have top worry about how to get around on arrival, which is always a little tiresome.
In fact, moving around this city is very easy indeed. A great underground (or rather over-ground in this case) which is reliable and very comfortable, definitely the envy of some much larger cities I can think about. In fact, the longer I spent in the city the more I came to think of it as a kind of mini-Switzerland of tropical Asia. A funny kind of comparison, for sure, but its orderliness, evident wealth and business attitude did hint at some parellels.
The first thing I did as soon as I had left my gear at Mollie's was top go and visit the building in which I had lived as a child, since that was obviously where most memories would lie. The whole are has obviously changed very much in the last 25 plus years and at first I actually managed to get the wrong building and found myself standing around trying to remember just something and feeling mildly disappointed as no image came to my head. Eventually I did make my way to the right one and as I got nearer I got quite a few special falshbacks on the place.
I returned a couple of days later to take some pictures - so if you are wondering what that white building is doing in the album so many times, that is it :-) - and see it all in the light of day. I was happy to realise that the first recognition remained. I got speaking with the concierge and amazingly enough not only did he remember my parents, he also remembered me! I only told him my surname, and he actually recalled the floor on which we used to live and took me up to have a quick look at the at the hallway. Really something special. He was busy with his day to day routine and I didn't manage to talk to him for very long, but just as I was leaving he shouted out "Paco", remembering my name after all these years. A little sentimentalism is appropriate at times :-)
Although Singapore has probably changed beyond recognition since I was last here, I did nevertheless have a peculiar feeling of being in a relatively familiar place for quite a bit of my time in the city, so I must have retained a certian memory, however unconscious, of the place and of the people. Hot, up to a point, the island being a little less than 100 km north of the Equator, and humid at times, but not excessively so. I actually found the temperature to be quite convivial in fact.
There is a surprising amount to do in Singapore, given its size, and the truth is I barely got to see half of what is on offer di\uring my 3 1/2 days here. I concentrated on the centre, rather than the outskirts. One of the areas that I most enjoyed was Little India. Obviously the population here is, in their majority, from the subcontinent - in fact mostly Tamils from Sri Lanka (old Ceylon) and there was a very distinct flavour of Indian culture which I found very attractive - not having had the chance to experience it first hand in India itself yet. The food, the dress code, the language (including body language!), just the general bearing of the people here seemed to have little to do with what I had seen elsewhere in the city and could have been from almost another world somehow.
I also popped into Chinatown, but had the impression that this was rather less authentic, perhaps owing to the fact that the majority of the city is of Chinese descent, Chinatown itself is something rather for the tourists than the locals themselves. The Arab quarter - only a few streets - was great though. Dozens of restaurants and bars out on the streets with an almost Middle Eastern feeling to it all, quite charming. Apart from all these cultural oasis, there is also plenty of "regular services" for your usual tourist. The shopping street of Orchard Road - a little like Oxford St in London, or rather Notting Hill High St really; or Serrano in Madrid - full of trendy and expensive shops, not that I bought anything here! - and quite a few "electronics markets" quite full of the latest electronic appliances, many of which are manufactured in Singapore itself. I did fall into this particular trap and bought a 2 GB card for my camera, giving me much greater autonomy and remain independent from the need of having to back up to CD every so often. Going into Laos and Cambodia in a few weeks, I am expecting fewer Cd burners on my way than usual :-) and certainly do not want to run out of photo space in these countries!
A the same time, this being my first port of call in Asia and a good place to organise things for later, I have been giving a little thought as to what to do once my Round the World ticket expires - on the 30 June. I still plan ti return home only towards the end of October and do now have a good idea of what I want to be doing until then although a less clear idea of where to do it. I am considering going back to Argentina (Buenos Aires?) for a couple of months as probably the best place to do the things I have in mind - even though it is winter there!
But all this is for a little later. Here in tropical Singapore I was coming to the end of my 3 day visit feeling that I would have needed almost a week to do the place justice. On my last night, I enjopyed a real Indian dinner with Mollie and a very nice place. In fact, the restaurant's "system" was very curious and praiseworthy indeed. There were no prices for anything and all proceeds went toi charity - a Foundation to help the needy in certain parts of India. The cooks, waiters and everyone who worked here were volunteers. Many objects were on display throughout the restaurant - all for sale, manufactured by the same people the restaurant was designed to help and one paid whatever you thought was a fair price. The food was excellent - although I am not all that keen on spicy stuff - and I just found the whole set up admirable.
The next morning I got ready to go to the airport - a direct metro line takes you there from the centre in little more than an hour - and was only slightly disappointed to hear that my flight was 3 hours delayed - my first delay in the whole journey I think!
Singapore's Changi airport is probably one of the most comfortable to get delayed in! Free "relax sofas" where you can lie down and rest, free internet all over the place and not terribly busy - or should I say large enough to deal properly with the traffic flow.
I made the best of it, finishing my book "Shantaram" which is probably the best book I have read on the trip, and for some time before in fact, even if it does come in at over 900 pages - and getting my email tally down a few notches as usual :-)
All in all a great stay in Singapore and a wonderful introduction, albeit a rather sanitised and orderly one, to Asia. En route for Bangkok where I don't quite expect the same thing - I have been warned of its traffic and contamination - but will hopefully be getting back into a more "traveller" mode which I feel has been a little less active since I left New Zealand.
In any case, back in the Northern Hemisphere now after almost 9 months down south - literally!
que envidia, que envidia, que envidia :$
Posted by: nadia | Friday, March 25, 2005 at 19:56