Travelogue- Singapore trip

Our sojourn down South had a convenient excuse for its ‘unplanned’ nature due to Naeem being hospitalised on Sunday and being discharged the next day for what seems to be fever caused by mysterious unknown elements. His muallim made a comment about the ‘keras’ nature of Ulu Yam, site for Naeem’s camping adventure a few days before, and though I’d have my doubts on this, I cannot argue on the features of what seems to be a strange fever rising up to 40C before receding just as strangely. Anyway, it was this excuse that we unashamedly plonked to Nik and Hamidah for gatecrashing Simei that rainy Tuesday evening, despite almost 2 months of missed opportunity to lockin hotel accommodation.

Tuesday night saw us have dinner at Tangs in Bedok, a short 10 min drive away from Block 102 Simei, which is a nice Chinese restaurant certified halal by MUIS. Nik seemed to enjoy his dinner, and we spent that night catching up since when we last met. The kids were pretty well behaved and warmed up to Nik and Hamidah very quickly. After dinner, Nik turned babysitter for the non-babies who were already exhausted, whilst Hamidah turned tourguide to bring us- the adults- to Mustafa. It was a fascinating place, a gargantuan mamak retail shop the size of a whole block (or 2 or 3) of 4 storey shophouses along Little India selling everything that you can think of under the sun at cheap cheap streetware prices. (well, relative to the bloated Singaporean retail shops anyway) I was unimpressed by their toilets though, which seemed to reinforce the stereotypes of old despite Singapore’s best efforts to maintain its hygienic standards. After securing 6 1kg basmati rice packs, we got home after midnight via the AYE interconnection, a scenic “coastal” (inverted commas as the boundaries are redrawn all the time as Singapore continues its expanding reclamation works in its quest for more landmass) road, and Hamidah pointing out the old redlight areas and pointing out that Batam is the place old men get their kicks and have some boogieing fun away from the straitjacketed Singapore culture.

Next day was a further demonstration of our indecisiveness in travel planning. We set out about 10 to Singapore Zoo, again our generous hosts deciding to show the way and patiently waited until we secured tickets and were ready to move in. We had Sentosa in our mind later in the afternoon and thought we could meet up later, but after 5 hours in the Zoo, and after seeing the animals and viewing the shows, I thought that it was just a larger and perhaps a more organised version, though not by much of the A Famosa resort. We were hungry by then, and decided against having lunch at the fast food joints (they had Ben and Jerry) in the Zoo and wanted to try out the famed food of Arab Street. Through the GPS, at last we managed to locate Arab Street after some difficulty and had high tea of nasi campur just as the azan for Asar was proclaimed from the nearby Masjid Sultan. Hafiz was beginning to get accustomed to Singapore by now, after sleeping in the Zoo’s explorer trolley for almost 3 hours, and was getting acquainted with pavement stuff. As a show of the Singaporean culture, as I was leaving, a number of the restaurant visitors called me to point out that I had left my bag containing the cameras and passports under the chair – kudos to Singaporean powers of observation and kindness. We had Asar in the Masjid after a visit to an Islamic bookshop – which had a lot of Sufi-style books, but had interesting musical CDs. We went to Golden Landmark Hotel to ask for accommodation and as expected they were full apart from a suite, which we can sagfely conclude will be inferior to Nik and Hamidah’s anyway! Dian managed to find time to go shopping for clothes, and I must agree that the quality of textiles there were pretty good and attractively priced, though that is without being able to compare to the Jakels of Jalan TAR. Lesson learnt - information asymmetry is fine when you’ve got dosh to spend on things that you like.

By now, we had already communicated with our (hopefully not reluctant) hosts that the Sentosa plans were off and we were making up our plans as we go along – and we drove to the Esplanade via the commercial side of Singapore. These guys are impressive town builders. The level of urban planning detail and the execution to achieve their stated objectives were impressive. There’s a lesson there somewhere for DBKL in urban city management. This part is built for people, those who work here, those who play here, those who LIVE here. Walking, or cycling, or just hanging out- they have thought of it and everything’s a cinch. Try walking in KL, and I have as per a previous entry, and the feeling of suffocation abounds. We here are really in need of a regeneration, whilst those folks down south, their challenge is to fill their impressive structures with “life”, outside of their utterly dominating presence of capitalism.

I digress. We spent about 2 hours in Esplanade not really doing anything other than walking around aimlessly. Hafiz has now fully recharged his batteries and we spent most of the 2 hours trying to get him to follow our general direction, and not wherever his feet take him. After one month of learning how to walk, his new-found skill is being used most enthusiastically, resulting in fatigue for his minders. We had dinner in Geylang, again after I announced that I have had enough of eating places at convention centres given my working premises is next to one here in KL. Little did I know there are interesting night-life activities in Geylang, and it didn’t seem that way when we were there. The verdict on the food? Well, Malaysia is still a foodie’s heaven! The GPS gave up on us that night but we made it safely to Simei about 11pm and Nik already in dreamland.

Next morning, we had a good chat over breakfast on the differences I observed between our countries, so close in proximity but so far in outlook. We talked about regulatory enforcement and fines being such a major part of life in Singapore, and lo and behold, as I went down to check on my car there’s this white slip sticking out under the wiper of the Odyssey. Let’s omit discussions on what was done next from this blog however. We made our way to Sentosa that morning, again our most beneficient hosts showed us the way up to the Bridge leading to the small isle. There were a few places we went to – Imbiah lookout, we saw the luge, the cable car, the nature observation centre, the history gallery (didn’t go in though), but the highlight for the kids were the 4D Pirates show, and the virtual reality Log ride. We had snacks at Coffeebean (I think!?), then made a short tour of the islet before heading back to the main island. (it’s just wrong to call it the mainland!) Again GPS-free, but we made it to Jurong Science Centre around 5pm after I made a spontaneous detour to Biopolis and Fusionopolis via the NUS exit. From what I can see, the facilties are fully utilized, though I could be wrong, again, an abject lesson for our policymakers who designed Cyberjaya, and maybe Biovalley, the object of a recent misguided and wrong Economist article. SILC and BioXCell are recent developments, so I will save the abuse for now.

The Science Centre had a Plastination exhibition, which closed as we walked in, being as it were already New Year’s Eve. So that counted as a missed opportunity for me, to be counted together with Songs of the Sea for Ummi. We made our way to the IMAX theatre instead, which had this absolutely ginormous circular 3D screen and a full auditorium of people – Singaporeans must really be into science! Hafiz’s eyes were so wide as he looked at the 3D projected images life of sea creatures, it must be so real to him. At the close, we again made our way to Arab Street, this time to try out the murtabak. The City Centre was surprisingly relatively quiet and we found our parking quite easily, again illegal, but I’m beyond caring at this juncture. Nik called to say he had an appointment with his friend, so it was up to us to amend our impulsive “itinerary” and it was back to Mustafa for last-minute shopping. We were back in Simei and chatted to close to 2am.

It was then Friday, and it was time to pack up. After breakfast at a food court, we bade our goodbyes. Nik and Hamidah were the perfect hosts, we were the unashamed guests barging in onto people’s homes but again we’d pray for their well-being and hopes to be met. It was a quick trip, rather packed in its spur of the moment itinerary, but hopefully provided for memories to cherish and thoughts to ponder on the fates and destiny for these two neighbours, both intent to go their separate ways, and still maintain a semblance of cordiality.

My visions for Malaysia

One thing we haven’t been good at is how we approach our development. Take KL, it’s hot, suffocating, roads are jammed, public transport is crowded and unsafe and everything else you can think of to moan and complain about. Little can we boast of to compare with beautiful cities that incorporates the environment within its development context – I’m thinking Zurich, Johannesburg (well, according to my wife), St Louis – well, Frontenac anyway, perhaps Singapore from the pictures that I’ve seen. Having said that, we’ve followed the path of London, Seoul to a certain extent, Munich – from what I can remember – where industrialization priorities overrides all else.

That was my opinion until I came across pictures of the Belum Resort (link here: http://www.belumresort.com/hotel.html) and I was blown away. This just looked the most pristine location that I’ve seen here in Malaysia. So, there is something we are good at, and perhaps this can be a model for our development, where our co-existence with nature is emphasised, and sustainability is a design element.

My Beautiful Country. Part 1

I am in one of my nationalistic pangs today. Thing is, it arrives in a sort of inverted, transposed order, where the beauty is seen in its absence.

I took the LRT from Serdang, unknown to me that today is a Selangor public holiday. It was late by 3 mins, jampacked with people, and I had failed to get entry earlier through the TnG barrier, although after checking later, I was really cleared but didn’t know it. That was only the beginning.

After squeezing in, and changing trains at KL Sentral, I queued up and expected things to be OK as the LED display proclaimed train frequencies at 3m 44s. I was 9 mins before the next one came, and even though I was 6^th in line, I couldn’t force my way in. I managed on the next train through, about 4 mins later, but it was so crammed I was basically doing a salsa to this lady next to me. Had to forcefully focus on other things as my body parts attempted to betray me as I had a growing erection. By the time I arrived, I was sweaty and tired. Sat down for breakfast, and finally started work at 9.25, about 1 hour later than I usually came in, despite leaving the house about 10 mins earlier.

Learnings: Our public transportation design in the Klang Valley is meant for the poor, downtrodden, salt of the earth population who cant afford to buy a car. I would never ask my wife, or indeed any ladies, to take the LRT during peak hours anymore.