Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 22:50:06 GMT Server: NCSA/1.4.2 Content-type: text/html Last-modified: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 18:49:54 GMT Content-length: 81834
10/15/95: My wife Charmaine and I recently returned from my first trip to Singapore,
actually my first trip overseas. It was my first opportunity to
experience another culture firsthand. It was also my first time
meeting Charmaine's family. Before the trip I had briefly spoken to
Charmaine's oldest sister, Corinne, on the phone and I had met another
of her sisters, Veronica, when she visited us in December 1994. I had
no other contact with Charmaine's family.
Despite a few problems (e.g., with Charmaine's visa), I had a great time in Singapore. I got along very well with Charmaine's family, especially the kids and Douglas, one of Charmaine's brothers. Charmaine's parents and her brother Kelvin generously paid for the whole trip.
These are just some of my observations of the first country other than the US where I stayed for a significant amount of time.
Taxis are very common and convenient. We took taxis almost everywhere. Taxis are much cheaper than in the US. The minimum fare is S$2.40 (the exchange rate was about S$1.4 to $1). Our average fare for the whole trip was about S$5. During the first week, we spent S$20 to S$30 per day on taxi fares. Charmaine was averse to walking in the Singapore heat, so we mostly commuted by taxi.
Whenever I went out alone, I took the MRT, Singapore's rail system. Outside the city, it is elevated. Downtown, it is underground. It is very convenient and cheap. It has stops within a mile of just about anywhere you would want to go within the city. The trains and stations are very clean, as is all of Singapore. Actually, the law banning public use of chewing gum was passed because kids had stuck gum all over MRT stations, including in the doors, causing them to jam. We took buses a few times. Singapore has a couple competing bus services, so service was good.
Rickshaws are still commonplace on less busy city streets. They no longer travel some streets because many rickshaws were hit by Singapore's reckless drivers. Charmaine's mother takes rickshaws to the market.
Some old men can still found pushing small carts selling sandwiches, but they are rare. Hawker centers are very popular and very cheap. Hawker centers are like food courts. They are called hawker centers because the proprietors of individual stalls used to attempt to harass people into buying their food. Thankfully, this practice is now banned and only practiced at a few of the older hawker centers. Usually there is one shop in the center that sells only drinks. Hawker stalls do not supply napkins, so you have to remember to take your own. It is possible to get a good meal in Singapore for a couple dollars. Many people eat out rather than cook, because it isn't significantly more expensive.
There are more malls, restaurants, and hawker centers in Singapore than you can imagine. Practically every office building has a mall on its first few levels. Practically every mall has a few restaurants and a hawker center.
Charmaine (aka Hong) | My wife |
---|---|
Dad | Charmaine's father |
Mom | Charmaine's mother |
Corinne | Charmaine's oldest sibling |
Kelvin (aka Ah Seng) | Charmaine's oldest brother |
Alice | Kelvin's wife |
Favian | Kelvin's 9-year-old son |
Vanessa (aka Mei Mei) | Kelvin's 7-year-old daughter |
Kaharina | The family's Indonesian maid |
Molly | Charmaine's sister |
Twee Nee (aka Ah Nee) | Molly's husband |
Eleanor | Molly's 2-year-old daughter |
Veronica (aka Siew Hoon) | Charmaine's sister |
Nelson | Veronica's husband |
Douglas (aka Ah Koon) | Charmaine's brother |
Rachel | Douglas's fiance (wife) |
Valerie (aka Ah Cheng) | Charmaine's sister |
Stanley | Valerie's fiance (husband) |
Henry (aka Se Di) | Charmaine's brother |
Lorraine | Henry's fiance (wife) |
Toa Goo | Mom's oldest brother |
Francis | Toa Goo's son |
Dora | Francis's wife |
Melvin | Francis's son |
Marcus | Francis's other son |
Andrew | Toa Goo's son |
Grandma (aka Oma) | Mom's mother |
Jee Goo | Mom's second brother |
Ah Kheem | Jee Goo's wife |
Caroline | Jee Goo's oldest daughter |
Evelyn | Jee Goo's second daughter |
Annie | Jee Goo's third daughter |
Ah Yee | Mom's sister |
Anne | Ah Yee's daughter |
Alex | Ah Yee's son |
Paulette | Corinne's good friend |
Uncle George | Dad's old friend |
Note that many of these "names" are actually titles. Examples are Mei Mei, Se Di, Toa Goo, Jee Goo, Ah Kheem, and Ah Yee. When I was in Singapore, I wasn't sure whether Ah Nee was a title, his actual name, or just a nickname. All of Charmaine's siblings have two short Chinese names. However, they are usually only called by one of the names. For example, Kelvin's name is Beng Seng, but they just call him Seng. When referring to someone in the third person, an "Ah" frequently precedes the name (e.g., Ah Seng). Charmaine's Chinese name is Beng Hoon, but everyone calls her Hong, which means phoenix. Favian and Vanessa call her Hong Goo Goo, which means father's sister. Eleanor calls her Hong Ah Yee, which means mother's sister.
I listed a few people as someone's fiance. Actually, they are already legally married, but haven't held their wedding ceremonies yet. In Singapore, there is a housing shortage. New couples must wait for their flats to be built. Since they can only apply for new housing as married couples, they legally marry first and get on the waiting list, then hold the ceremony when a unit becomes available. The wait is usually two to three years.
Charmaine left a week earlier than I did to spend some time alone with her parents and Corinne, her confidante. She also needed time to go to the US embassy to pick up her single-entry visa, to pick up a visa from the Taiwanese embassy, and to fit a new dress for the wedding banquet.
We had originally planned to have a full Singaporean Chinese-style wedding, but that would have required a lot of time and money, and would have been a significant obligation to her other family members. Also, I had no family in Singapore and the groom's parents and their home play important roles in the traditional ceremonies. It would have been especially difficult since Veronica had been married in June and Valerie plans to marry in December. Because of these two weddings, we changed our trip from June to September. We also decided to only have a small banquet, rather than a full wedding and banquet. Besides, we were already married in the US more than a year ago.
Charmaine called me at the airport from Singapore. EVA personnel probably called my name, but I didn't understand them. So, I didn't find out about the call until I was boarding the plane. They pulled me out of line, told me to call her, and said that I would miss the flight. Unfortunately, I didn't speak Taiwanese, so I couldn't speak to the operator. I also had no Taiwanese money for making a direct call from a payphone. I tried to ask the EVA personnel to call, but it was obvious that they didn't understand what I was talking about. Fortunately, Charmaine called back just then. She just wanted to know whether I had certain documents, such as our marriage certificate. Fortunately I had enough foresight to bring them. This was the first I heard of her visa troubles.
Well, I didn't miss the flight. I boarded at 11am. The flight arrived in Singapore at 3:45pm. Charmaine was waiting just outside the doors to the baggage-claim area. The Singapore airport is more controlled than US airports. Most areas are only accessible to passengers.
Nelson, Corinne, and Vanessa were also waiting. Corinne has severe Lupus, and is frequently hospitalized. I'm glad she felt well during our visit.
The plan was that we would stay with several of Charmaine's siblings and her parents for a few nights each, and perhaps a few nights in hotels. We dropped Corinne at home (she lives with mom and dad), and went to Veronica's with Vanessa. We rested there for a little while, cleaned up, and went back to mom and dad's for dinner. I briefly met Charmaine's parents and most of her siblings. Everyone was very nice from the beginning. We then rushed off to pick up Charmaine's dress. It turned out that the shop ironed the ink from the price tag onto the inside of the dress when they pressed it after altering it. So, Charmaine had them alter a new one. They said it could be ready after 4pm the next day, the day we needed it.
Veronica and Nelson had air conditioning and actually used it, so we were fairly comfortable my first night in Singapore.
Charmaine had a doctor's appointment early in the morning. She needed a physical and some tests for part of her application for the immigrant visa. The embassy designated a small number of doctors that could perform the exam. All charged four to five times what regular clinics charged for the tests. After spending a couple hours there, they told us we had to return later for another test.
So, we went to have Charmaine's hair re-permed by her stylist, Jeffrey. She had it permed a few days earlier, but the curls had straightened on the first wash, so she was having it redone for free. The whole process took about three hours. During this time, Corinne called the medical clinic and discovered that the test for which we were supposed to return was not required by the US embassy. So, the two of us went back to the medical clinic to pay the bill so that the results from the other tests would be forwarded to the embassy.
Corinne, Charmaine, and I then ate at the salad bar at Ponderosa, one of the few places salad can be found in Singapore. Afterwards, we picked up the dress and rushed to the photographers to fit my suit for our photosession. By 5pm, we were able to return to Veronica's for a nap.
We then rushed to dinner (we did a lot of rushing; Singaporeans are very hyper, especially the women) and were a couple minutes late. Our banquet was at the Lei Garden, a Cantonese restaurant. Everyone listed in the cast of characters attended. We received the traditional ang pows (small red packets containing money) and took some photos. We took many group photos. For example, we took pictures of:
Finally, we sat down for the ten-course dinner. We took pictures of each table:
The courses were: roasted skin from a suckling pig (a delicacy), steamed live prawns, shark fin soup, steamed live grouper, beef and jellyfish, pork and blubber, spinach and abalone mushrooms, house noodles, red bean soup, and sweet dim sum. Many dishes are traditional and have special meanings for the occassion. For example, the pig symbolizes prosperity. By eating the head and tail of the fish together, one will then sail smoothly through life. The noodles symbolize longevity.
Between courses, we took more pictures. We also visited each of the
four tables and those at each table shouted "yum
seng," which means bottoms up! Every time they shouted, we had to
drink (we were only drinking soda). Chinese ceremonies and banquets
are very loud to chase away bad spirits. Francis (second from the
left, in the colorful shirt) was the loudest. After the dinner, the
restaurant gave us a set of cups and spoons. We were tired, so we
went to sleep almost immediately after returning to Veronica's.
Feeling somewhat relieved, we returned to mom and dad's for lunch. We then returned to Veronica's for a nap and we finished the visa application given to us by the embassy. Veronica and Nelson brought back dinner from mom when they returned. Despite the fact that, except for Corinne, all of Charmaine's seven siblings are married or engaged, all but Molly still eat dinner at home. Everyone must eat in shifts because there is not enough room to feed everyone simultaneously. This works out because not everyone arrives at home at the same time. Because everyone eats at home, mom must spend hours going to the market and cooking every day.
After dinner, we went to six different photoshops in an attempt to have pictures taken for the visa application. The pictures needed to show a 3/4 view of the face on a white background. All of the instant photoshops were setup for passport photos, which are frontal portraits on blue backgrounds. We gave up on the photos and went to the Cybernet Cafe, a coffeeshop with PCs running Netscape. Unfortunately, I could not telnet to UW. Access to the US seemed to be restricted.
We then dropped by Clarke Quay, a restored area on the Singapore River. At Clarke Quay, there are many shops, restaurants, night clubs, musicians, street vendors, and the like. We then went for satay. We sat just in front of the tanks of crabs and frogs. The satay was good, but the peanut sauce was very oily. Finally, we went back to Veronica's for some sleep.
I had to get up in the middle of the night to call Geoff, Frankye, and our bank to have financial information faxed to us. Charmaine called her boss at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to get proof of continued employment. Henry brought back a fax machine from his office and set it up at mom and dad's. All of the faxes came in during the night.
We dropped by mom and dad's to pick up a few things and then went to
Kelvin's. They have a great
house with three stories and a very nice garden.
We had a large cookout. I cooked skewered meat for hours
on the grill, then I ate some of it and ate from a "steamboat." All
of Charmaine's siblings came to the cookout.
Rachel brought an
American friend's children. They spoke Mandarin. Rachel made the
little boy (he was six or seven) sing in Mandarin, then kiss everyone
goodbye. He wouldn't kiss Vanessa, however. When Rachel attempted to
force him to kiss Vanessa, he covered his face with his hands and
fled.
I ate again with Kelvin and Alice after everyone else left. Alice has a large collection of Chinese teapots. I was the first person to comment on her collection, so she gave me of few of the antiques. Kelvin and Alice gave us a few other gifts, too. Favian showed us his stamp collection. He is trying to collect stamps depicting soccer players. If you have any, please send them to me. Vanessa showed us her phone-card collection. Collecting phone cards is becoming very big in Singapore. The new pay phones take the phone cards, which are valid for a certain number of minutes of calls. The phone cards have pictures or advertisements on one side, making them as colorful and varied as stamps.
We were close to the People's Park shopping mall, so we looked at some shops. Shops tend to open fairly late in the day and don't keep regular hours. Jee Goo's leather shop is in People's Park Complex, the oldest shopping mall in Singapore. We decided to drop by. His shop wasn't open yet, so we looked at some Chinese crafts while waiting for it to open. We had received some rings as gifts from mom and dad, but they were just a little too small to fit on our fingers. Ah Kheem took us to get them resized. We took a circuituitous route through air-conditioned malls and sky bridges to get to the jeweller's shop. They measured our fingers and said the rings would be ready after lunch.
We then went to lunch at a hawker center in the basement of a nearby mall. After lunch, we bought a few gifts for my friends and relatives. We let Ah Kheem do the haggling. Being an experienced haggler, she got us a good deal. Next, we picked up the rings, we called Alice, and she picked us up. We ate dinner at mom and dad's, and then left with Kelvin and Alice. My headache finally let up around 9pm, but I still went to bed early. Charmaine and her brother had a long talk. She and Kelvin had always been very close, and I was happy to see that had not changed.
When I was watching the ships, the kite crashed into some palm trees. I could not disentangle it, so I merely pulled on the string very hard. The string broke, and the kite fell to the ground. I was able to reattache the string and fly the kite a little longer. When Charmaine awoke, she taught me a few words and phrases of Mandarin like "I want to eat bread" and "I want to drink water," important phrases for me to know.
Alice picked us up and then dropped us at mom and dad's for a simple lunch. I didn't want spicy food because I felt ill the previous day. I read while Charmaine spoke with her mother and Corinne.
We then had to repack because we were going to stay with Molly. We took a taxi to Molly's. Molly lives in Jurong, an area outside the main city. As soon as we arrived, I played hide and seek with Eleanor. We went to dinner at the Palm Springs restaurant in a large mall. We had drunken prawns, black pepper crab, steamed live fish, squid in fried bread, mussels in hot sauce, noodles, and soup. The crab was my favorite. After dinner, we walked around the mall and bought some snacks.
Eleanor's father carried her most of the time. She avoided walking by complaining of leg pain and "backbone" pain. Molly swears she didn't teach Eleanor that word. Eleanor has picked up the bad habit of mumbling from her father, making her almost unintelligible. Only her parents can fully decode her munged speach. Only her favorite words are remotely understandable. Her favorite words to say are "don't want" and "no need." "Don't want" is a direct translation of "boo yao," which is also used more generally for "no" in Mandarin. Eleanor is going through classic two-year-old negativism, well known in the West. Just another demonstration of how alike we all are.
We went home by bus and I played with Eleanor some more, quickly becoming the child's favorite uncle. Eleanor liked to be swung in circles by her arms and liked to be thrown high into the air. It was good practice for an expectant father.
We slept in Molly's room, which had air conditioning. I think we set it too cold. We had to use the blankets. By the way, everyone sleeps with a bolster, which I have never seen here. A bolster is a long, firm, cylindrical pillow. They each sleep on their side with one arm and one leg draped over the bolster. Even children and babies sleep with bolsters. Bolster covers come with standard sheet sets.
By the end of the foot tour of the park, we were hot and tired. We took refuge in the air-conditioned gift shops and in the penguin pen. Then we left the park and ate lunch at the Burger King just outside. When we returned to Molly's, Eleanor was sleeping. Charmaine made me take a shower, then a nap. Everyone seemed to think it was necessary to take four showers a day.
Douglas picked us up and we visited his new mansionette, a large, dual-level apartment. The flat was barren. There wasn't even any flooring or paint. Douglas will have it renovated in the fall. Rachel gave me a piece of durian to try. That is when I discovered the smell. Still, I was a good sport and I ate two pieces.
Douglas drove us around to show me more of Singapore. We
ate from a Thai steamboat at Coca's: prawns, sea cucumber, beef, tofu,
and vegetables. I also had silver noodle salad, a spicy noodle dish.
After dinner, we dropped by the studio to select photos for the album.
The proofs didn't look as good as the pictures from the finished
album. That made it a little more difficult to choose.
One picture I had to choose was a funny
picture of me pretending to read a Chinese book.
From the studio, we went to Raffles City and the Westin Hotel. The Westin used to be the tallest hotel in the world; it is now the second tallest hotel. We went to the restaurant Compass Rose on the top floor of the hotel. The elevator went up more than 70 floors in less than ten seconds. It was the smoothest elevator ride I had ever experienced. We could hardly tell that we were moving. It was fairly late, so the restaurant was only serving drinks. I had a Singapore Sling. We got some souvenir glasses in the form of the Merlion with a couple of the other drinks. From the restaurant, we could see most of the city and the ocean. During the day, I'm told you can see Malaysia and Indonesia.
Before midnight, we went back to Molly's to sleep.
We then caught a free taxi ride around the corner to the MPH
bookstore. We bought a book on famous Chinese poems and another on
the birds of Singapore. We returned to mom and dad's for lunch and
ate chicken curry, rice, and bread. After lunch, we took a taxi to
the Paragon shopping mall. We looked around at the high-priced
clothing stores for about an hour. From there, we caught a shuttle to
Sentosa,
a resort island of the coast of the main island. We left our luggage
at the Rasa
Sentosa Shangri-La Hotel and went off to explore the island.
First, we went to the Underwater World. It has a neat, if small, aquarium with a walk-through tunnel. The largest "fish" were the manta rays. Chicago's aquarium is much larger. Disappointed by the aquarium, we decided not to go to any more tourist sites if we had to pay outrageous fees. We went back to the hotel and checked in. Charmaine took a nap, and I took a swim.
We took the free monorail around the island so we could quickly see everything. We got off at the hawker center for dinner. Charmaine ordered ipoh Hor Fun and I ordered wan tan and char siew noodles. We also shared a spring roll. After we finished the food, we walked around the fountain garden, the enchanted grove, and the Asian village. We headed back to the dancing fountain for a show. The dancing fountain is a very large fountain with many jets and colored lights. There is one long line of jets across the bottom of the amphitheater and rings of jets on the sides of the main "stage". The jets cause the water to move in time to music. The music was mostly traditional Chinese instrumental music, with a few old songs as well.
After the show, we almost got lost looking for a monorail station since it was very dark by this time. After walking in a circle around the fountain garden, we found the monorail station and rode back to the hotel. I wanted to take a swim, but I was told the pool was closed (it wasn't). Charmaine was hungry again, so we tried to order pizza. However, the kitchen had changed to the night menu already, so she ordered char kway teow. Why isn't pizza on the night menu?
Corinne stayed with Charmaine to talk while I went to the embassy to pick up Charmaine's visa. I was back at the hotel in about 45 minutes. As I arrived, Corinne was just leaving, so she took my taxi. Charmaine and I then took a nap.
The visa ordeal was finally over. We originally planned to leave on the 22nd, but the visa mess had swallowed up so much time that we hadn't seen anything yet. So, we decided to extend our stay by one week. Also, it turned out that typhoon Ryan was scheduled to hit Taiwan on the 22nd, and everyone else had changed their flights before us. Therefore, it was very difficult to get the flight we wanted. If we left for Taipei on the 29th, we would be stuck there until October 3rd. So, we decided to leave on the 28th and cancel our trip to Taiwan.
Lorraine picked us up for dinner and took us to Sanu, an Indonesian restaurant. Henry treated us to dinner. My favorite was the tahu telor, a basket of egg and tofu filled with vegetables and mushrooms, covered with a sweet sauce. We also tried ayam bali (a chicken curry), sambal prawns (shrimp with okra and chilli sauce), fried baby sotong (squids), kang kong belachan (stir-fried vegetables), ikan peppe (ground fish in banana leaf), beef rendang, and chendol (coconut milk, agar-coated water chestnuts, and seago). After dinner, we returned to the hotel.
We ate lunch at the Courtyard Cafe, the hotel's restaurant. Our waiter was an idiot, and he was obviously the new guy, since he was stuck with all of the work. We started out with the right silverware, but then he came and took some of it away. There were three places set at our table, but he took some of the silverware from in front of me and some (not all) from the empty place. So, I stole what I needed from a neighboring table. When we ordered, he tried to finish my sentences and didn't listen to what I was ordering. Finally, I managed to order two "garden" chef salads and a sandwich. The salads arrived after a significant delay, but they had hardly any vegetables in them, mostly sticks of cheese and lunch meat. The waiter then went back to setting up the buffet tables. There was an awful hair in my salad, but I was very hungry by this time, so I removed it and finished the salad. It didn't appear that my sandwich was going to come any time soon, so I just asked for the check and refused to pay for the sandwich. The waiter tried to give it to me, then tried to send it to my room. The manager came over to try to appease me, but I just wanted to leave at that point. In general, the tourist-oriented businesses like the hotels treated me better than Charmaine or other natives. They try to be very accomodating to western tourists. Anyway, I refused the free coffee. The manager took the sandwich and my salad (because of the hair) off the bill. I gave him cash and we walked out before he returned with the change.
We then had some coffee in our room and took a shuttle to the
Specialist Center, a shopping mall on Orchard Road, a famous
shopping district in Singapore. Right across the street was where our
wedding banquet was held.
We bought some stamps for a few more
postcards, then went into the mall. I bought a lamb's wool sweater
at Robinson's, one of the oldest department stores in Singapore. For
that, we got a free pair of gold earrings. I think they
were 18k gold. One cannot find 14k gold in Singapore. Even 18k and
22k gold are uncommon. Singaporeans like pure gold in their jewelry.
We then took the MRT from Sommerset station to Outram Park. That was the stop closest to the CID, by the way. We met Corinne, Paulette, and Anna at the station. Anna is an old friend of Charmaine and Corinne. Her older sister was eaten by a shark while scuba diving when she and Charmaine were children. I think they never found her head. Needless to say, Charmaine is afraid of sharks.
From the station, we all walked through chinatown
to the Tea Chapter, a famous tea house
run by business students. Queen Elizabeth had tea there once. There
is a picture of her just inside the door. Once inside, we had to
remove our shoes.
From the server, we learned the art of making
Chinese tea. It is a fairly elaborate process. First, hot water is
brought to the table. It is kept hot by a small burner. Whenever our
water was low, they brought more. Then we received a tray over a
large pan to catch excess tea. On the tray was a small clay teapot, a
small basin for waste tea, five sniffing cups, five drinking cups, and
five plates. Chinese teapots are made from a special, rare kind of
clay, only used for teapots. The type of clay is thought to affect
the tea in various ways. The server also brought a tea scoop, pick,
tweezers, and towel. We tried two types of tea: a green tea (I don't
remember the name) and a floral tea made of chrysanthemum flowers
(called oriental beauty). I preferred the green tea, but both were
very good.
The teapot and cups are first rinsed with the hot water to heat them. Cold cups are said to disflavor the tea. The pan catches the water. Next, the teapot is filled 1/3 with the dried tea leaves. Next, the teapot is filled to the brim with hot water. As it is covered with the lid, some water spills into the pan. After 30 seconds, the tea is discarded into the basin. The first batch is intended to rehydrate the tea leaves only. After that, the leaves can be used three times before the tea becomes weak. Each time, the teapot is filled to the drim with hot water. Then the lid is added, causing some water to spill out. The tea is then poured out completely into the sniffing cups. Any excess is dumped in the basin. It should not be left in the teapot. The tea is then served in the sniffing cups on the small plates with the drinking cups. Once the tea aroma has been appreciated, the tea is transferred to the drinking cups. The tea is drunk from the drinking cup in exactly three sips. Once finished, the cups and plates are returned to the server. Before we drank the second tea, we received a different type of teapot and we rinsed the cups.
After drinking tea and eating Chinese pastries, we took some
pictures.
Corinne and Paulette bought us a nice tea set similar to the one we
used. We thanked them for the set and went back to the hotel to rest.
I worked on finishing the postcards until dinner. We took a taxi to
mom and dad's, where we ate fish-head curry. After dinner, Douglas
dropped us at the hotel.
We then headed back to the hotel, where we met mom. I went to swim while she and Charmaine talked. When I returned, they were in the cafe. I took the key from Charmaine and returned to the room. Once I had showered and changed, I rejoined them in the cafe. We all took a taxi back to mom and dad's to eat. Charmaine napped with Vanessa while I cut beans for dinner. After her nap, Mei Mei took me for a walk around the neighborhood. She showed me which friends had dogs (she likes dogs) and where Uncle George lived. When we returned, it was time for dinner.
After dinner, Henry dropped us at the photo studio. We picked up the wedding album. We were very pleased with how it turned out, so we ordered more small pictures to give to friends. We then headed back to the hotel, where I read and watched news on TV. The hotel had CNN International. By this time, we were both sick with colds. Coughing, congested, and with a headache, I went to bed early.
I helped to cut beans again. After dinner, Favian taught me to play xiang qi, or Chinese chess. I lost the first several games rather quickly. The cannon is a tricky piece. Also, I allowed my own guards to trap my king into easy checkmates. Soon, we went to Kelvin's. We had planned to go on the Night Safari, but it was raining fairly heavily, so we didn't. It was a good thing, actually, but we didn't feel well. We looked at Alice's teapots for a while and I chose two for my grandmother. She collects teapots. I said I wasn't hungry, but when Kelvin brought back fresh bread made in an old-fashioned stone oven, I couldn't resist. Apparently, there are only five such ovens left in Singapore. That is a shame, because the bread was very good.
Charmaine, Kaharina, and Vanessa at the Yamaha Music School for Mei Mei's ballet lessons. Favian and I walked around Parkway Parade Mall. Kelvin's office is on a higher floor in the same building. Favian bought a Chinese chess set "for a friend." He showed me some books on Chinese culture in the MPH bookshop. Alice then took Favian to his abacus class and dropped off Charmaine and Vanessa. She took Kaharina to mom and dad's (the maid works in both houses). We went back to MPH and I bought one of the books on the Chinese culture and a story Favian suggested called Journey to the West. The story is about a monk who travels to India with a pig-headed man and the monkey god to find the sacred Buddhist scriptures and take them back to China. I haven't read it yet.
We then just waited for Alice. She returned with Kelvin. Alice helped us pick out a CD of traditional Chinese instrumental music. The one we chose was one of a series. I'm looking forward to buying more CDs in the series on our next trip. Next, we all went to pick up Favian, and then we ate lunch at a Thai restaurant. I ate tom yum soup (a very spicy soup with lemon grass and cilantro), vegetables, tofu, and fish. Fish is always cooked whole in Singapore (unless it's just the head). After lunch, we dropped the kids at more classes and dropped Kelvin at work.
Alice then took us to an old Taoist
temple. There were hundreds of
idols of immortals and gods, people burning incense, and people
burning paper offerings (the "money" of the immortals). Apparently,
worshippers cannot look directly into the eyes of the statues, so they
look away as they repeatedly bow and chant while holding the incense
upright at their chests. They leave incense burning in a pot of sand
in front of different areas of the temple. We also saw someone
putting real meat into the mouth of a statue of a tiger and chanting.
Intercessors were praying in the secret language of the immortals.
Intercessors aid people in their worship in exchange for donations to
the temple.
We saw someone else throwing something on the ground and stomping on
it to chase away bad luck.
After seeing the temple and coughing from the smoke, we went to the
National Museum. First we looked at a series of dioramas that
depicted the development of Singapore from the time of Stamford
Raffles. Next, we saw replicas of traditional Chinese blue and white
pottery. We also saw exhibits of some jade and quartz items and old
storefronts. The main exhibit commemorated World War II. I sat in a
hut that was supposed to be like a hut near Hiroshima when the A-bomb
detonated. However, the noise wasn't very loud and the room didn't
shake much, probably for safety reasons. We wanted to see an exhibit
on teapots, but apparently it was over at the end of August. We took
a few pictures, even though it was forbidden. We almost were caught,
but managed to escape. A guard saw a flash and came looking for the
culprit, but we stashed the camera in a bag and casually walked by
him.
After we left, we picked up the others and headed to mom and dad's for dinner. I played Chinese chess with Favian again. I beat him for the first time on my own. He then quickly defeated me three times in a row with tricks. After I learned the defenses, I began to beat him again. Meanwhile, Charmaine napped.
After dinner, we made a quick stop at Kelvin's and then headed to the
Night
Safari. We couldn't take any pictures of the animals because
flash photography was prohibited.
We took the tram around the night zoo and got off once
to walk along a trail. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park.
There were no cages or fences separating us
from the animals, so we did not walk near the tiger or rhino. I think
I heard that someone was mauled shortly after the night safari opened.
I was not anxious to be the next victim. We saw a number of animals I
had not seen before as well as some old favorites: Himalayan tahrs,
bharals, markhors, mouflons, marsh birds, otters, hog deer, a
one-horned rhino, axis deer, water buffalo, jackals, sambar deer,
barasinghas, sarus cranes, hyaenas, a lion, sloth bears, giraffes
scimitar-horned oryxes, servals, blesboks, Lechwe waterbucks,
Thomson's gazelles, Cape buffalo, bongos, anoas, bearded pigs,
barirusas, a tiger, tapirs, red dholes, Asian elephants, bantengs,
capybaras, maras, agoutis, giant anteaters, gaurs, thamins, leopards,
cheetahs, mousedeer, flying foxes, bearcats, fishing cats, and others.
The mousedeer was probably the most unusual animal. It was a small,
fat deer about the size and shape of a large rabbit. It had long,
skinny legs, however, that it extended when it got up to walk. We
didn't see all of the animals at the night zoo because we did not go
down all of the trails, and because a few of the animals were hiding.
Still, we had a great time.
We then returned home. Everyone went to bed, but I stayed up to watch a Kung Fu movie made in Hong Kong with English subtitles. I used to watch movies like that every weekend on the USA network when I was little.
After lunch, they dropped me at Haw Par Villa, the only Chinese mythology themepark in the world, and the only themepark in Singapore. I saw displays of "Journey to the West"; the eight immortals; the Buddhas; Fu, Lu, and Shou; dragons; gates; and other aspects of Chinese mythology. I ran from display to display since I only had a couple hours in which to see everything. Still, I manage to catch all three shows playing that day.
The first show was of some clowns on stilts. The second had actors dressed as the eight immortals. The final show told the story of the Lady of the Moon. The two storytellers volunteered four members of the audience to play the characters: the lady, the husband, the priest, and the dragon. It was pretty funny. The dragon wore goofy horns and a silly tail and had to roar when his name was spoken. The lady had to shy away and giggle when her name was spoken. The husband had to "twang" a toy bow. The priest had to perform a silly dance, make strange noises, and wave a special brush. The basic story is that the lady and husband are married by the priest, the dragon terrorized the countryside, the husband went to kill the dragon, the lady surprised the dragon and scared it to death, and then the lady rose up to the moon. The story may not make sense, but it was funny to watch.
Kelvin and the kids picked me up and we went back to mom and dad's. It was raining back in the city. I went swimming with the kids at Farrer Park. Their class had been cancelled, but we swam anyway. Mei Mei liked to cling to the side, but I finally managed to get her to swim across the breadth of the pool. Favian could swim fairly well. He jumped in the pool wearing special pajamas to practice his survival swimming. He removed the pajamas, tied knots in the legs of the pants, and inflated the pants with his breath to use them as a floatation device. Vanessa couldn't quite manage to do it. Favian also swam the length of the pool with me. When Kelvin and Alice returned, the kids showered and changed. I didn't bring any clothes to change into, however, so I sat on a plastic bag as we rode back to mom and dad's. Actually, I could have walked. The pool was only a few blocks from the house.
After dinner, we returned to Kelvin's and looked at old photos. There was a cute picture of Favian and Vanessa bathing when they were young. Vanessa was very embarassed by the picture and tried to get it away from us. There were also pictures of Kelvin's previous house. They moved down the street to their current house because of a dispute with a neighbor over the position of an old wall.
We had small frozen pizzas for lunch. Everyone was still sick from the lime juice, except Charmaine who didn't have any, so Vanessa didn't go to school. Until high school, the kids only go for half a day. Vanessa had morning school, but Favian had afternoon school. Favian did go to school. After we dropped him off, we went to mom and dad's. There I had congee as a second lunch.
After lunch we dropped off a roll of film to be developed and took the MRT to the Dynasty Hotel with Corinne. The hotel had been recently taken over from the Tang family by Marriott, and the famous murals were gone. I was disappointed. We then took the MRT to Raffles City and bought another Risis golden egg, this time for Charmaine's boss. Charmaine also shopped for some maternity clothes with Corinne while I looked at books.
We again went to mom and dad's for dinner. Mom spent the majority of every day shopping at the market and cooking for the whole family. We had something simple for dinner, only tofu and vegetables. Afterwards, Douglas, Rachel, and Corinne took Charmaine and I to pick up more photos at the studio and drove us around town. We had a brief discussion of Singaporean politics. Apparently, Douglas once met one of the leaders of an opposition party and the others warned Douglas to stay away from him, to not even talk to him should Douglas run into him again. I found that fear of even brief, casual contact disturbing. We returned to mom and dad's and went to bed early.
After the ride, I walked over to the Hindu Chettiars' Temple. Unfortunately, it was closed. I settled for a couple pictures of the exterior, then walked back to the MRT station near St. Andrew's Cathedral. I took a few pictures of the cathedral and went back to mom and dad's. I took a shower right away and sat down for lunch. Corinne had made speghetti for me. She was starting to sense that I was tired of Chinese food. I had planned to go to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but Nelson could not take me. He had a meeting. So, I packed and took a nap.
We were supposed to meet Valerie for dinner. So, we took a bus to the Marina Square shopping center. Singapore has two or three competing bus services, so service is fairly good. We waited a short time at a stop near mom and dad's before bus 56 came by. The bus took us directly to the shopping center. After we arrived we waited only a few minutes before Valerie and Stanley arrived in another bus. We had dinner at Kenny Rogers's Chicken.
The restaurant had many pictures of Kenny Rogers on the walls, and I think it was playing his music. Fortunately, I couldn't really hear it. The place was packed and there was a line (called a queue in Singapore) going out the door.
I had a chicken on pita bread and Charmaine ordered a chicken pot pie. We also had vegetables, muffins, and soup. Charmaine ate the top crust of her pie then gave the rest to me, asking me to leave a little for her. She mostly ate the soup. I got carried away, however, and all of her pie after quickly finishing my own food. It was pretty good. Charmaine was shocked. Thankfully, she was essentially full already, but she still teased me for the rest of the night for eating her dinner.
We went down to a hawker center in the basement for dessert. I tried the ice kachang, even though I didn't like any other desserts I had tried. The ice kachang was fruit covered by a huge mound of ice with three different flavored syrups and condensed milk poured over it. I didn't really like the syrups or the milk, so I just ate some of the fruit. Big mistake. I had diarrhea again later that night.
Stanley hopped on a bus, then Valerie, Charmaine, and I hopped on 56 to return to mom and dad's. Valerie also still lives at home until her wedding ceremony in December. After we got back, I talked to Douglas for a long time. I think I got along with Douglas the best of all Charmaine's siblings. He talked to me the most. Corinne and Kelvin, Charmaine's closest siblings, would be tied for second. I also got along very well with the kids -- Favian, Vanessa, and Eleanor.
Charmaine had studied plants in the reserve when she was a student at NUS. She told us of the huge and strange spiders, so we were looking forward to seeing them. Unfortunately, the spiders are out only for a short while after dawn, before it becomes too hot. We were lucky to see any. We were almost at the end of our trail before we saw one. The web spanned the trail and had a large spider at the center. The spider was long and narrow, maybe four or five inches in length and nearly an inch in width. Its long legs made it look like it was about the size of my hand. The body was mostly black, with a little gold near the head. As we ducked under the web, the spider slowly crawled towards us. So, we hurried along the trail. I wanted to get a picture of the spider, but I had mistakenly taken my own, cheap camera instead of Rachel's fancy one with a zoom lens.
The trees and their leaves were quite large. The trees were not as wide as those I saw in King's Canyon in California, but several were as tall or perhaps taller. Some leaves were as large as my torso, and some were nearly as large as my whole body. Banana trees, for example, have very large leaves. The ants were also quite big. They were definitely more than an inch long. I wouldn't want to find those in my apartment. The reserve was neat. Our hike was only about two hours. I hope to go back and go on the other trails that we skipped. Still, I could probably hike around the whole reserve in a little over three hours. There isn't much land in Singapore, and there isn't much left of the reserve.
Nelson dropped me at mom and dad's. I was looking forward to Corinne making pizza, but everyone else was screaming murder, so she served me her speghetti again. Favian and Vanessa claimed that Corinne's pizza made them sick. Corinne said that they just ate too much of it. Many Singaporeans are somewhat lactose-intolerant because they do not drink milk or eat dairy products on a regular basis. I took a shower before eating. After lunch, I read while Charmaine talked to mom. Corinne came by to talk to me. Charmaine's mother was starting to worry about her, since we would soon leave. I assured them that I would take good care of Charmaine.
It began to rain once again. We took a cab to Raffles Hotel with Rachel and Corinne anyway. First, we went to the museum upstairs. It portrayed the illustrious history of the grand hotel. The hotel has been visited by many members of royalty and other important persons. Nobel laureates have written about it in their works. The famous Singapore Sling was invented there. Rachel bought us some tshirts and other trinkets, after which we went downstairs. We had gone to the hotel for high tea, but we planned to have a big dinner, so settled for dessert at the Empress Cafe instead. Since the hotel was established by westerners, it had western food. I ordered black forest cake and coffee. It was very good. Charmaine just ate a cheese croissant.
After eating our fill, we returned to mom and dad's. I went for a walk with Ah Nee, Eleanor, and Vanessa. Along the way, we found a dog and, of course, Vanessa had to play with it. So, we had to wash up when we returned to the house. I decided to take a quick shower. Charmaine approved.
Douglas took us to Wong's Court Restaurant. Rachel had to pick up something on the way, so we left early. Still, we were nearly late again. Our dinner was at the same restaurant where Valerie will have her wedding banquet, and the menu was the same as well. Favian gave me the chess set that he had supposed bought for a friend. Kelvin said that was the first time Favian bought anything for anyone. I was touched. Vanessa bought shoulder-strap pads for Charmaine's car since Charmaine had commented that she liked the pads in Alice's car. I was impressed by her thoughtfulness. The dinner wasn't quite as elaborate as our first ten-course dinner. There were nine courses, some of which were similar to dishes at our first dinner (like the shark fin soup). In general, the dishes were simpler. I was actually thankful for that. It was still a lot of food.
After stuffing ourselves, we returned to mom and dad's. Rachel gave me a Chinese name (I had asked for one a few days earlier and nobody could come up with one). She taught me the strokes so that I could write the Chinese characters. The name is Kang Zhi Yuan. The Kang is actually different from Charmaine's Kang, but the similarity is nice. Mine means "picture of health." The Zhi means "great thinker" and Yuan means "great foresight." The name may or may not accurately describe me, but it is certainly flattering and it has a better meaning than sound-alikes of Brian.
Once on the plane, I felt terrible. I suffered much more than on the flights to Singapore. I quickly became congested and dehydrated. The food was awful. The movies I had already seen on the previous flights: "The Adventurers" and "Prince Brat and the Whipping Boy." If you have heard of these movies, let me know. They weren't as bad as they could have been. After we arrived in the Taipei airport, we boarded our next flight almost immediately. That flight was the tough one. The flight was nearly full, so there was no place to lie down and not much room to even walk around. We arrive in Seattle a full hour early.
We breezed through immigration and customs, so then we had to wait for Geoff. He had called the airport and knew our flight was early, but he had a quiz section to teach, so he couldn't come any earlier. I paged for him just as he walked through the doors. I dropped Geoff at campus and gave him his golden egg. We then went to the bank to deposit our unused traveller's checks, and to the post office to collect mail and restart delivery. After that, we were finally home. Charmaine went to sleep right away. I stayed up for several hours unpacking. I ordered a pizza. When it arrived, I awakened Charmaine. She went back to sleep after eating, and I wasn't far behind her.