| Singapore's Central Business
District. |
The famous Raffles Hotel,
where all sorts of bigwig writers have stayed & what's supposed
to embody colonial charm. It's a pretty building. It's required by
law, I think, to go to this place. In fact, I believe that if you're
here for more than a week & don't go to the Long Bar to get a
Singapore Sling, they kick you out of the country. Could just be a
vicious rumor. |
I know you're
wondering why I included this boring picture of cars and buildings.
Well, what you're looking at is the largest fountain in the world.
That's it, right there in the middle. Awestriking, no? (By the way,
those cars there are crazy expensive. Cars in S'pore cost over $100K
for just a plain old boring car, & over $200K for a nice one.
Crazy. And yet people have them.) |
Here's a view from across
the river of Boat Quay, an area with lots of restos & bars. It's
better from here than up close. |
About 80% of S'poreans
live in big ugly HDBs (gov't subsidized housing) like these. Expats
usually live in condos. Very few people live in private houses. |
I like these buildings
because they look like durians. |
These nice men
sit around on Arab Street at the only Yemen restaurant in town as
if it were their living room. They smoke sheeshas (another name for
hookah) & sip ginger tea every night, & are the warmest, friendliest
people I met in all of Singapore. I highly recommend this place. |
Some of that ubiquitous
construction work going on in front of some of those ubiquitous HDB
flats. |
Here's a hawker
center, basically an outdoor food court, super cheap, super scrumptious,
super authentic food is served in these places. |
Another one.
It costs about S$4 to eat really well at one of these places. Yum!
|
This is Chinatown.
Why, you may very well wonder, is there a Chinatown in a country that's
already 75% Chinese? Good question. Whatever the reason, this place
does have a different ambience than the rest of S'pore. You can buy
mysterious tinctures & get bargains on electronic stuff, as well
as eat great Chinese food. |
This beautiful
old Chinese temple was transformed into a small museum. That doorframe
is purposely raised in order to trip any demons who might try to enter
the place. Clearly, if I was able to get in, something's wrong with
the system. |
Here's that
same temple cum museum. |
Here are a
couple of views of a diorama set up in that temple museum. |
They're supposed
to depict how Chinatown looked traditionally, before it was reinvented
by Lee Kwan Yew in the 1960s. |
This temple
museum also had bits of ephemera and popular culture, like these old
East-West fusion pop records from the 60s. |
A very formidable
and blue Hindu deity perched on the corner of a temple. |
Another blue
Hindu deity, surrounded by his sacred cows. |
Little India
is my favorite part of town in Singapore. It has life & oomph
& grit & character. Plus, I like Indian food & fashions
best. |
The buildings
here are old & crumbly, unlike most places in S'pore, where everything
is new, maintained, and overly scrubbed. But there are still those
big ugly buildings looming in the background, just to remind you where
you are. |
The colors
on these Hindu temples are incredible. |
He's making
leaf packets full of betel nut to chew. It's kind of like chewing
tobacco, except it turns your mouth orange. |
Carol has her
mouth full with betel. |
This is an
impressive building, but I'm not sure what's inside. |
Sentosa Island
is the most plastic of all places in Singapore. The Merlion in the
middle has eyes that light up and do a laser show at night. |
But Sentosa
offers the only beach in Singapore. That's Ingrid, Me, Tioma, and
Carol. |
In typically
surreal fashion, Singapore has a huge subculture of country western
line dancers. Hundreds of Chinese people gather every weekend, all
decked out in their cowboy hats and boots, to dance to music I shunned
when I actually lived in Texas. Whoda thunk? |
daily
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