Experience a crossroad of Asian cultures
It was a dream vacation, really. The company was setting up some equipment in Singapore and needed someone to go.
I traded a first class ticket for two seats in coach so that my wife could accompany me on our first trip to Asia, and after a grueling umpteen hour flight from Denver through LAX and Tokyo, we finally touched down on the island and were whisked to the Intercontinental hotel in the dead of night. The fourteen hour time difference combined with the flight made for a serious jet lag, but after some serious sleep, we were out exploring this unique nation state.Singapore is a cauldron of activity with throngs of people crammed into a small area, but it manages somehow to maintain a sense of order and calmness. Downtown, modern high-rises alongside aging colonial architecture frame broad leafy streets and lush parks, making this a wonderful city for walking. Ethnic neighborhoods offer fascinating glimpses, and tastes, of different cultures, and a series of quays along the river provide plenty of opportunity for al fresco dining. During the frequent torrential downpours and the heat of the day, you don’t have to miss a beat, descending into a sprawling series of underground malls connected by pedestrian tunnels and an easy-to-use subway system.
One such subway line carried me out to my job site the next day in the suburbs, emerging above ground into a residential area studded with lots of technology company campuses. The work I did there over the next few days was interesting, but what I really remember is lunch. Lunch was at an open air food court and market,
where technology workers sat in long tables enjoying fresh made soups, stews, meat skewers and fried things, a mix of Malaysian, Indian and Chinese. I devoured some kind of mysterious peanut soup that was fantastic and apparently significantly exotic enough to impress my hosts, who regaled stories of other foreigners who refused to eat anything questionable (which was mostly everything…). Personally, this market was exactly why I was here.Singapore’s diversity reflects its location near the Asian Subcontinent, with a large Chinese population, and lesser but still significant numbers of Malaysians and Indians, among others. While these groups live in naturally segregated areas, there is also an amazing blending. Riding the subway during rush hour, you see people of all different cultures mixing and interacting seamlessly. Streets wind past traditional Chinese medicine shops, Mosque minarets and ornately adorned Hindu temples. Small microcosms of each culture offer small shops with products imported from home, as well as authentic restaurants and food stalls. Open air markets are a tropical fruit paradise, and make sure not to miss the Durian, a large spiky fruit that smells strongly like used gym socks, leading to its banishment from indoor areas, but whose flesh is really tasty, especially in a fresh fruit smoothie.
The second week of our trip, we moved hotels from the extravagantly priced, but paid for by the company, Intercontinental hotel, to the Hilton near a major commercial area called Orchard Road. We weren’t here for the glitzy Rodeo drive lookalike with Planet Hollywood, Saks 5th Avenue and Bloomingdales, but this is where the cheaper (and mind you I have my wife with me) hotels are. It was here that we had a most challenging
and rewarding Chinese Dim Sum experience. I found a blurb in the hotel magazine about a hole-in-the-wall place called East Ocean that promised a local and authentic experience. The first challenge was finding it, which turned out to be mostly because the door was completely unlabeled, but spying a family of hungry looking Chinese heading through the unmarked door and up a stairway, we took a chance and struck pay dirt. We were indeed the only tourists in the place, which was packed and had a bit of a wait, but once we got to the table, the feast of smells, sights and tastes that define Dim Sum was unleashed upon us. We didn’t know what many things were, and the servers rolling around the little metal carts filled with dumplings and sticky buns, couldn’t tell us. That only made it better, as we bought plate after plate of the tasty morsels. The other big attraction in this western side of the island is Jarong Bird Park, a large nature area with hundreds of bird species represented in a variety of aviaries and well designed enclosures. It is a spectacular and well run park, with acres of open fields, woods and water, providing habitat for tons of exotic birds. There is also the large Singapore Botanic Gardens, which includes an impressive orchid garden, among lots of other tropical flora. Days are spent meandering through these tropical nature areas, enjoying the warm nights, eating world class cuisine and street food, and experiencing a wonderful mixture of first world modern luxuries and third world markets and ambiance. Singapore really is a truly fascinating city, clean and orderly on one hand, chaotic and exotic on the other, offering something for everyone.
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