Our New Office

Monday, November 24th, 2008. Can I tell you how much I missed a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich? When traveling in China and Thailand for the last 6 or so weeks, there was a trick associated with cheese…if and when you found some, the trick was enjoying it. Cheese was usually off-white, bland, and lacking in texture. Yesterday morning, after a nice business meeting that Sara set-up (good work baby), I enjoyed the greatest breakfast sandwich of my life. Sadly, I didn’t take a picture.

Yesterday and today have been split between sightseeing and working. Singapore is an expensive city, but there’s plenty you can do without spending much money. It’s also a surprisingly small city – we managed to cover most of the city on foot today.

The highlights:

• We visited an amazing (and expensive) Indian restaurant for brunch this morning. The food was served on a big banana-leaf place mat, and we enjoyed some of the best Indian food we’d had in a long time. Our hotel (the Albert Court) bordered on Singapore’s “Little India,” and it was an interesting preview of a trip to India that Sara and I hope to take someday. On a side note, many famous people had visited this restaurant before us. Bollywood stars, politicians (Hillary), and even Mel Gibson. Neato.

• Malls, malls, and more malls. Lots and lots of them. Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, and even Burger King were everywhere. Singapore is very Western, good and bad.

• We found Fort Canning park and Clarke Quay (Quay is pronounced just like “key” – crazy Brits). We even found a funny sign at the top of the hill that Fort Canning once sat upon.

If you trespass, you better have your arms raised when the awkward gone-toting soldier rolls by.

• Sara captured one hell of a sunset photo:

Some people say equatorial sunsets are better – this photo makes me tend to agree. Singapore sits at about 1 degree north of the equator.

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008. So our last day in Singapore is here, and I’m feeling short-changed. I like this city. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s haflway across the world (and therefore conducting business in the US is difficult), I would seriously consider camping out here for a few months. The great food, the interesting culture, and the safe and comfortable environment are compelling. If you’re looking for a city to visit in Asia where you get a chance to see a little bit of everything, Singapore has certainly got to be at the top of list.

Today, in an effort to recreate my “greatest breakfast sandwich ever” experience, Sara and I started our morning at a branch of the chain coffee shop (not Starbucks -can’t remember the name) where I had my life-changing breakfast experience two days ago. IMAGINE MY DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN THIS PARTICULAR LOCATION DID NOT CARRY THE HAM, EGG, AND CHEESE SANDWICH. I was feeling homicidal, but I got over it. Slowly. Fortunately, the Singapore Art Museum was nearby and Sara and I enjoyed some amazing Korean contemporary art.

I’m a big fan of art. Sara will tell you I’ve spent hours at the art museum staring at famous, and not so famous, paintings and sculptures. The MFA in Boston, the National Gallery in D.C., the Met and MOMA in NYC, the Getty in LA, and a host of others. I’ve seen quite a bit of stuff, and I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. Yet no matter what I see, contemporary art always moves me the most. It’s a cerebral experience that sometimes causes a physical reaction – very powerful. Korean contemporary art was no exception. Sara and I stumbled upon this experience and it might just be the thing we remember the most. Very cool.

After a spontaneous visit to the Art Musuem, we went to Chinatown and visited the Chinese Heritage Museum. It was fascinating to see what life was like in a restored Chinese shophouse, not to mention the stories of the thousands of Chinese immigrants that came to Singapore.

We happened to visit a Buddhist awareness center that Sara and I both found enlightening, as well as visiting the Sri Mariamman Hindu temple. Singapore is an amazing place – a melding of Indian, Chinese, Malay, and British traditions and culture. I’m sad to leave.

The Sri Mariamman Temple in Singapore, devoted to Mariamman, a south Indian Mother Goddess, was first built in 1827.

Friday, November 21st, 2008. After a full day of flying – from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Singapore – all Sara and I wanted to do was grab a meal and crash. Like most couples, finding a dining option that is mutually acceptable is as much a negotiation as an art form. For example, here’s a common pitfall:

Jason: “What sounds good for dinner?”
Sara: “I don’t know, anything I guess.”

Now only a fool would interpret Sara’s response to mean that “anything” is acceptable. “Anything” is most certainly NOT acceptable – the actual meaning (a translation, if you will) is “I’m hungry, but not hungry enough to know exactly what I would like and I am open to suggestion. Still, I have some strong opinions about what I will and will not eat.”

Being that I’m an experienced dinner negotiator, I’ve learned to respond to Sara’s statement with “Well, what doesn’t sound good?” Then, using a process of elimination, we arrive at a cuisine that’s mutually acceptable (albeit not exactly what either wanted). Such is life.

HOWEVER, while visiting Singapore, we’ve discovered a way to both get exactly what we want without compromise. The solution, known as a “hawker center,” is a large food court that offers at least 12 dozen types of food at ridiculous prices.

Sure – I know what you’re saying: “Jason, I’ve been to a food court before.” Well maybe so, but you’ve never seen this kind of variety of quality, fresh-cooked food. I’ve been to food courts too, and between the Sbarro and McDonalds and the Pei Wei I usually find in a U.S. food court I’m rarely enthused. Most of that food is already cooked, fatty, and bland. Not so at your average Singapore hawker center. The ingredients are prepared as you wait.

These food courts are called “hawker” centers because food vendors call out to you as you walk by their counters, shouting out their best meal offering to you in the hope that you’ll acknowledge them. You must take care when responding to these unsolicited offers – even the slightest acknowledgment is considered a commitment. Instantly, this “commitment” results in a flurry of activity. When you correct the hawker and tell them that you’re not interested, they feign confusion while wearing a very sad look on their face.

This has nothing to do with this post, but isn’t this a cool-looking building? It was a block away from our hotel.

For the un-initiated Asian traveler, this display will often cause a flood of guilt followed by a purchase of food you didn’t really want. Once you come to learn this is nothing more than a scam – a ploy to get tourists to buy food they didn’t order – you can begin to appreciate this highly developed sales technique.

Still, don’t let my comments give hawker centers a bad name. If you want to find a wide variety of quality food like you would find in a restaurant, for obscenely low prices (nothing was more than $5), a hawker center is the way to go in Singapore. Just watch out for the hawkers…

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008. We left the hotel this morning excited to engage in a little old-fashioned tourism. After a brief tour of Singapore last night, we were looking forward to being in a “Western” type city. Not to say that Western is better than Eastern of course, it’s just that Singapore felt very familiar and “easy” to a couple of travelers that have been on the road in Asia for 6 weeks…anyways.

First up, we visited Raffles Square. Stamford Raffles, famous for founding modern-day Singapore in 1819, established quite a presence in this city. Raffles Square is the home to the country’s financial center and a host of impressive skyscrapers. Oddly enough, it was also the scene of an international rowing (or is it skulling) race (video to follow…hopefully).

This is quite an impressive statue, but you can’t really tell from the photo. Imagine a big spiral of bronze with an island at the base, depicting the various stages of development of Singapore.

Next, we walked out to the famous “Merlion” fountain.

Finally, we wandered around the historic area of Singapore, took photos of some impressive monuments, and visited the Raffles Hotel.

First, a quick note about Singapore and the Japanese occupation in WWII. Upon capturing Singapore in 1942, the Japanese were quick to reverse the fortunes of many in the local population. The Allies in Singapore, and anyone who was sympathetic to their cause, were imprisoned or killed. Many Chinese, or anyone who was sympathetic to the Chinese cause (China had been fighting with Japan for years by this time), were killed (25 – 50k by some estimates). There are a few memorials dedicated to these war crimes.

On a more odd note, here’s a little story. The Japanese, intent upon establishing a permanent presence in Singapore, decided to construct a memorial to the Indian National Army shortly before the end of the war. The idea was to polarize the Indian residents of Singapore and incite a revolt when the British tried to take back control. India, as you may recall, was a British possession at the time, and many Indians wished for independence from British rule. When the British took back Singapore in 1945, they immediately destroyed the Indian National Army monument that the Japanese had built to quell any thoughts of resistance in India. 50 years later, a monument to the destroyed monument was constructed. Irony.

Our last stop, the Raffles Hotel, was interesting. We enjoyed a couple of famous “Singapore Slings” (mine was non-alcoholic) and soaked in the ambiance of the Raffles. Never in my life have I been to a bar that charged $20 for a mixed drink, that was decorated as well as a famous colonial mansion, and that let patrons throw peanut shells on the floor. Pigeons were free to fly in and out and pick at the shells on the ground to boot – where else but Singapore?

Jason enjoying an alcohol free Singapore Sling among the antique decorations, pigeons, and peanut shells.

This is us in Singapore…not now, but a few weeks ago.

Merry Christmas to everybody and thanks for reading all of our traveling ramblings.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really sure why Jason wanted to go to Singapore. But then we got there, and I had a great time. What a surprise.

Singapore does a lot of things right.

For example, every day between noon and 2pm the art museum is free. Lucky for us we showed up at 12:05 and were able to enter…for free. We weren’t really planning on seeing more than the gift shop, so it was a great treat.

Next on the list of things Singapore does right is the Singapore Sling. Holy Yum. That’s good stuff. It’s a whole mess of ingredients that I won’t ever try to replicate, but it is fruity goodness for sure. Apparently these things are famous. Something to do with … don’t really remember, but Jason will probably tell you and it tasted good anyway.

Third: We were concerned that Singapore was going to be too expensive for our tastes. It was a little pricey in some places, but if you are brave enough to eat at a Hawker Station, then it can be incredibly cheap. We’re talking just a couple of US dollars and you’ll have eaten plenty and it will be good.

A Hawker Station is essentially a food court, but instead of chain restaurants they are hosted by a variety of different ethnic foods ranging from Western to Indian to Korean. All very yummy.

Last, it’s true that Singapore really is clean and tidy. It was a bit of a bummer to not chew gum, but otherwise it was quite nice and there was really no difference between Singapore and Denver. Well, except for the fact that Singapore has a subway system, you can walk from one part of town to another, and it’s only 1 degree away from the equator.

On second thought, it’s actually nothing like Denver except that both cities are pretty clean and normal smelling.

Thanks Singapore. We like you.