Messages From Myanmar #11
17 February 2016
Photo Update Alert:
“Singapore”
Hello there… Rodger French
here.
This past weekend was a
double dip for national holidays: Friday was Union Day, when Myanmar celebrates
the Panglong Agreement of 1947, and the following Monday was President’s Day,
when the United States celebrates mattress sales. For A.J and me, the long
weekend provided an opportunity to take a break from Yangon, so off we went to
Singapore.
I don’t know a lot about
the world’s only island city-state, but I can testify to the following: It is tropical,
crowded, and booming, with construction everywhere. It is very clean (seriously,
there is nearly no observable funk) and everything seems to work, especially
the excellent public transportation system. Singapore is also saturated with
immense shopping malls, in some areas literally every single block. It’s
actually amazing.
[Commerce Sidebar - Amazing and yet somewhat depressing. This worldwide
trend for malls that have the same brand-name stores and carry the same
brand-name brands makes for a generic/boring brand-name shopping experience. It’s
like walking through an endless Duty Free zone.]
In our defense, we didn’t
spend much time haunting the malls. We chose instead to utilize the Singapore
Airlines Hop-On Bus and joined other tourists (mostly Chinese and Australian)
in exploring the city and its attractions:
Singapore Flyer - A 165 m (541 ft) Ferris wheel that provides wicked cool views of
the entire city, particularly Marina Bay. Unfortunately, the capsules are
enclosed (some trifling safety concerns, one imagines), so photoz tend to have
an unavoidable bluish tint. But a lovely ride, just the same.
Chinatown
- The Lunar New Year (Year of the Golden Monkey) was still being celebrated and
the ‘hood was decked out accordingly. Strolling past the Buddha Tooth Relic
Temple and Museum, and the Sri Mariamman (Hindu) Temple, we made our way to Maxwell Market, a place
famously fraught with food hawkers, with hopes of an exotic lunch.
[Exotic Lunch Sidebar - Some guidebooks suggest that the best approach
to hawker stalls is simply to get in the longest line, the length of the queue
being indicative of the quality of the food. But standing for over an hour just
to eat chicken and rice did not seem the wisest use of our time, so Anne and I
bailed on Maxwell Market and scored some delicious “KFC” (Korean Fried Chicken)
in a quiet little place on the main drag.]
Singapore River Cruise - We love boat cruises, so the opportunity to get
off our feet and into a breeze was most welcome. The history of Singapore is
fascinating, especially the era when the port was still a haven for the
disreputable and dangerous. The highlight of the cruise was the spectacle of
the Merlion (head of a lion, body of a fish, and all kinds of awesome), the
official national icon.
Raffle’s Hotel Singapore - Named for Sir
Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, this very swank and
metastasized 5-star joint has been catering to the connected since 1887. It is
indeed a beautiful hotel and the gift shoppe is quite deluxe. We arrived at
11:30 and the gringos were already lining up at the Long Bar, home of the
Singapore Sling (interestingly, a ladies alternative to scotch invented in
1915 by bartender Ngiam Tong
Boon).
Peranakan Museum - Housed in a refurbished Chinese school, this small gem of a museum is
dedicated to the culture of the Peranakan; meaning, as I understand it,
mixed-race descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled on the Malay
Archipelago. We latched onto a tour in progress with an expert docent who
exposited on many topics, particularly Peranakan wedding customs. It was a
wonderful way to spend the afternoon and the cultural highlight of our visit.
On our final evening, A.J.
and I walked to the slightly downscale mall next door and had Indonesian fast
food: Cheap, plentiful, and tasty (and no lines) - a fine way to wrap up our
holiday. And we returned to Yangon with a list of sightseeing possibilities for
another occasion when our two great countries inadvertently sandwich a weekend
between national days of celebration.
Onward.
Rodger
