Would the Real Singapore Please Stand Up?

We stay on a college campus, the National University of Singapore. We dine and shop along Orchard Boulevard, the glamorous touristy district. We taxi to the nighttime zoo, the Singapore flyer Ferris wheel, and to famous buildings.


So where is the "real" Singapore, the place where everyday folks do everyday things?

Thankfully, my longtime pal W. lives here and decided to introduce us to more Singapore than the average tourist finds. He picked us up and drove us through a lightning storm, past the embassies, past the police station, past the ritzy high-rise casinos. Oops, they use the euphemism "integrated resorts" here! Quite a bit fancier than even the Beau Rivage in Ocean Springs, MS, that we visited, David! (Without gambling a dime, I might add for other readers!)

Finally, we arrived at his neighborhood of Ang Mo Kio to eat at an outdoor set of stalls called Chomp Chomp. Very fitting title, because boy did we chomp down on some delicious "real" Singaporean food! The stalls each had a specialty, and W. went to at least five or six, ordering the best dish from each. Our eyes widened with amazement as the dishes were delivered to our table, steaming and aromatic. We ate spicy green beans, a seafood noodles dish, chicken/beef/mutton satay, packed rice, cream dumpings, and more which elude my description and memory.

C. and I enjoyed sipping on fresh sugarcane juice through neon straws from tall, deep steins. The condensation on the outside of the glasses complemented our sweating foreheads from the spicy food!

For dessert, we headed over to a place just around the corner. Most desserts featured ice, close to the American version of ice cream, and fruit. I had a strawberry and mango ice, which consisted of a plump scoop of vanilla ice cream sitting on slices of mango and strawberry all swimming in a caramel sea of shaved ice. Absolutely refreshing!

We enjoyed ourselves so much that random other people joined in!

W. patiently corrected, informed and inspired us regarding the "real" Singapore. Just with any nation, the insider's perspective can often be more valuable than even a critical, objective reporter's perspective.

As for me, I believe that one cannot help but to view the touristy, ritzy parts of Singapore as also mini-cultures within Singapore itself. These parts say something about Singaporean culture as much as the small neighborhoods do.

We continued our cultural exploration by touring Chinatown. Now honestly, it is difficult for me to distinguish between the Chinese of Chinatown and the ethnic Chinese Singaporeans who visit Chinatown. We, of course, did not blend in in the slightest, swinging plastic bags of our purchased treasures through the narrow alleyways among stalls. It wasn't an issue though, because everyone was focused on ferreting out the very best deals!

The swinging red Chinese lanterns above our heads mirrored our buoyant mood, as we realized the incredible value deals before us. Tiny intricate Chinese knots made of thread were a mere dollar, hand-painted images of flowering trees on long fabric rolls were always under twenty, silk purses and wallets and beaded hair clips were each three for ten dollars. Jade carvings and faux-pearl necklaces were set off by sparkling jewelry cases and mirrors as long pashminas of all colors swayed in the breeze. We gorged ourselves on sights and barely kept our money from flying away into the hands of the kindly, smiling merchants.

While on our way, we caught a few unguarded moments of "real" Singaporeans. Here a group of elderly men watch a game of checkers, coaching without solicitation!

















We visited many stalls and malls, seeing advertisements and shirts which looked familiar, too, like this Avatar poster and Internet- joke shirt.













These shocking food options and offensively-named wallets for sale gave us a start!


















We'll continue on our quest for the "real" Singapore -- till then, stay tuned.

Once You Pop, the Fun Might Stop: Pringles in Singapore

I'm sitting cross-legged on my red sofa, listening to thunder from another Singaporean storm rolling through, and munching on soft-shell crab Pringles.

You really did read that correctly. Soft-shell crab Pringles! Although original, sour cream & onion, and barbecue varieties are here, there are also many unusual kinds too, such as Lemon & Sesame, Grilled Shrimp, Blueberry & Hazelnut, Wild Spice, and everyone's favorite: SEAWEED!! The seaweed-flavored chips themselves are even green! I'm convinced the barbecue variety contains curry seasoning.

Final verdict on the soft-shelled crab chips: they taste surprisingly like your amazing crab dip on crackers, Aunt Mary!

What makes these different tastes so appealing to people from different cultures? The curiosity of marketers demands answers.

The Procter & Gamble marketing folks here have really spent time and fortunes delving into where Asian and Western tastes diverge for Pringles. Not only are the flavors different, but smaller chips are easier for smaller mouths, lighter seasoning makes for a more subtle flavor, and the can itself is narrower. I cannot even get my hand into the can!

When we visited Procter & Gamble on a company visit for class, the marketing and finance directors sent us on a brand scavenger-hunt. We took the metro to grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies to compare how brands were displayed, packaged, priced, promoted and positioned next to competitors.

For this entire trip, my responsibility is Head & Shoulders, the anti-dandruff shampoo/conditioner typically geared toward men. We noticed that H&S is typically bottom shelf, not necessarily the eye-level desired position. We're going to do further research to see what matters to Asian consumers. So far though, it seems that poor Head&Shoulders for men is always placed in the women's section. Asian retailers have a beauty section or a men's grooming section, and shampoo is not considered grooming. So, men's shampoo gets stuck with the women's products. This will likely be a point of recommendation for us.

I continue to try new products and foods at an alarming rate. For food, I go for half-familiar, half-crazy, always with a healthy dose of Pepto Bismol later! The soda I have liked best is called "Qoo," a Coca-Cola variety that is white grape-flavored. It reminds me of sparkling grape juice at New Year's, Virginia! Plus the character on the can is really cute.



More on food later! We're off to dinner at the Blue Ginger restaurant!

Eyes Wide Open at the World's First Nighttime Zoo

After being caged in class all day, learning about Singapore's industrialization and future economic prospects, a group of us hopped in a taxi to visit the zoo!

This zoo was not just any old zoo. Just like Bruce Wayne, its nighttime identity is a whole different story. Singapore's Night Safari is the world's first nighttime zoo open to the public. To showcase its nocturnal animals, the zoo built a cunning series of lights and stages along a tram track.

You remember what it's usually like at the zoo for those poor nocturnal animals:

Little Boy: Mommy, why's the bat sleeping in the daytime?
Uneducated Parent: It's lazy, honey. C'mon bat! I paid money for this! *taps on glass furiously* Wake up wake up!


And so the story goes, until many poor animals go crazy and run in circles. But here in Singapore, the nighttime experience is one in which flash cameras aren't allowed and visitors get to see those often-snoozing creatures strut their stuff.

I loved it - especially the unusual animals, such as tapirs, which look like pigs crossed with elephants, and capybaras, giant rodents!

We got an extra show featuring humans, not animals. A team of barely-dressed young guys hooted and danced to the beat of drums. Then they started to chug beer, spew it and set it on fire, that's when we started backing away!



Dinner was chicken satay, a delicious twist on the ol' shish kebab. Rice cooked in braided bamboo leaves was ehhh.

We were disappointed in only one thing -- where were the adorable bush babies?!?! After wandering around after the tramride for quite a while, we came to grips with the fact that the sweet little marsupials were nowhere to be found. The zookeeper informed us that the sweeties had been "transferred to above" and we shrieked, "THEY'RE DEAD?!?!" Actually, he just meant they had been sent to another zoo for a while. Bummer. At least they aren't dead.

This is the only bush baby we found, waaaaahhh!!

Finally, as we left the park, we saw people placing their feet into large tanks of tiny fish. Turns out they paid for this pleasure! $10 for 5 minutes of little fishes eating the dead skin off their feet as a spa treatment!

Sunday in Singapore

It’s Sunday in Singapore. We’ve mostly shaken off the jetlag from reversing our days and nights. No, literally reversing them – it’s a 12-hour time difference ahead of the eastern U.S.!

This morning J, C and I left our rooms at the National University of Singapore to find a church. J & C are Catholic, so we took a taxi down the street to the Church of the Holy Cross. It was lovely – an open space lined with wooden pews, each filled with casually-dressed Singaporean families. And when I say Singaporean, multiple images should come to mind. Singapore is a mix of ethnicities: Chinese, Indian and Malaysian. These folks filled the church right up and sang each worship song with verve.



The Catholic Church is well-known for being standardized across the globe, but cultural differences still permeate the printed script of the liturgical handbook. C, from Haiti, was disconcerted to find that the eucharist wafer was placed in her hand, not her mouth. J, from the U.S., felt sheepish for shaking hands with a priest rather than bowing, as is customary. A female cantor made them both start in surprise.

These things aside, worshiping the Lord was still worshiping the Lord. If anything I felt a rush of euphoria for standing side-by-side with brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world. Especially pertinent for us and Pentecost was the subject of the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit and being admonished by Jesus to have a spirit of unity. Perhaps “noodles versus pasta” debate is less relevant in the religious sphere, as Asians have many religions and Westerners do too. “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight…”



This unity carried us through the day, as we went to eat at an outdoor market nearby on Clementi Avenue. Plenty of “noodles and pasta” there, plus a lot more! The market held a number of small square stalls, each not bigger than 15 square feet. Each proclaimed a sign and variety of photos of the food they sold. I picked the “Indian – Muslim Food” stall which turned out to have delicious chicken murtabak with curry sauce. Basically it was flattened, folded chicken in bread – filling and fabulous! We each got a lime juice, which is like lemonade but with lime.


For dessert, we split a “paper prata with chocolate,” which was an upstanding triangle made of paper-thin fried dough beringed with chocolate sauce. Flaky and sticky all at once!

Walking back to the university was a loooong adventure for our feet. As I mentioned in the last post, taxis must wait in queue for passengers. Consequently they cannot just pick people up from the street, it seems, and without phones, we couldn’t call one.

Soon as we got back we jumped in with our group for a tour of campus. The National University of Singapore is the oldest and biggest university in the nation, housing 32,000 students. Afterwards, we had a fancy barbecue feast with our professors. Here is a photo of my plate, which includes not only Mongolian lamb with mint jelly but also scallops on a half-shell and stingray filled with cartilege!!! Our Coca-Colas and Sprites were poured into wine glasses!

I’m getting ready for bed now – it’s been a long, hot and wonderful Sunday here in Singapore, but I’ve got class early tomorrow morning!

Singapore is AWAKE

I yawned as I woke up, rubbing my eyes. They were tired from watching the screen ten inches from my face. Over the 23 hour flight I had enjoyed selections from a list of eighty movies, Nintendo games and language-learning programs. I could even play the Gameboy versions of Pokemon Gold and Legend of Zelda - the best was playing a game of chess with my seatmate over the flight screens. Haha! I did my best to learn 1-10 in Mandarin and Cantonese, realizing that this snatch of language was only a drop in the vast ocean of communication in Southeast Asia. The only solace for my glacial pace of absorption was a line from “The International Move Challenge,” one of the articles we are expected to read: “Learn the language—it’s not about fluency; it’s about respect.”



Respect indeed. As I came closer and closer to Singapore, my respect grew. I saw the squiggle of rivers with half-finished bridges aerially from the airplane window, the gleam of mammoth hotel skyscrapers from the taxi streetside view, and the sinewy knuckles of our cabbie as he swung our luggage from ground to trunk. Everything in Singapore seemed to move in tightly-wound forward motion.





It was the ride around the Singapore Flyer that shook up my sense of speed in Singapore. From our 541-foot perch atop the tallest Ferris wheel in the world we could see cranes leaning over construction sites, bare swaths of red dirt and building skeletons draped in green fabric. Yellow hard hats scurried quickly around below our feet, preparing for the 2010 Youth Olympics soon to come in August.
A vast array of container ships in all colors and sizes moored just outside the port, waiting their turn to enter the world’s busiest port.



Although the warm sun and jetlag made us sleepy, Singapore is awake. Wide awake, developing the island’s buildings and businesses to compete with its blurry blue neighbors in the distance and those too far away to be seen.


Our taxi cab driver, Hong, informed us that to be Singaporean means to be both hard working and tired of working. He works 14-hour days driving through the island. The government dictates that he accept any passenger that flags him down, and that taxis must taken according to their order in queue. Here they are very very intense about "the queue," or waiting in line. He fussed at us for not taking the taxi in front of him in the queue. I responded that in the U.S., usually you pick the taxis based on perceived expense and availability and they pick customers based on the direction of their destination. He nodded, saying he understood that New York cabbies refused to take passengers to Washington, D.C., simply because it was too far from their territory. Under Singaporean law, however, he had to drive all over Singapore.

We thought his job still sounded great. Meeting so many interesting people! Ferrying those interesting people to interesting places all over Singapore! Although we marveled at the glamour of his work, it was clear he felt little enthusiasm. The stress of the endless scramble for getting ahead was evident in his complaints of fatigue and observations of shopaholic Singaporeans who relieve stress by credit card.

Whatever the underlying feelings of working Singaporeans, the nation is awake and moving fast. It’s going to take a lot more than our sleepy first impressions and counting 1-10 in Mandarin to grasp where it is going. We’re ready to get started.

On the Other Side of the Planet

She leaned over to me across the aisle as my rowmates snoozed in their seats. Her black upswept hair and beautiful traditional uniform made me very aware of my rumpled t-shirt and mussed ponytail. The Singapore Airlines flight attendant whispered through a perfectly lipsticked smile: "Would you like noodles or pasta for breakfast?"

Rubbing my eyes free from the grit that somehow accumulated over the past twenty-three hours on the Singaporean Airlines flight from JFK to Singapore, I debated the difference between the two. What to choose? Maybe they were the same thing anyhow? The terms were too vague to really be descriptive, or were they? Noodles, a more common term in Asia, probably meant a soup made with long slim noodles. Pasta was likely drier noodles in any given shape covered with sauce.

Another question following would likely be a fork or chopsticks? Tea or soda?

It was then that the idea for a blog struck me. These questions glance off the surface of what it means to be more Asian or Western. Just like saying noodles or pasta, the terms each encompass so much in an imperfect way, but they do describe certain aspects particular to each. If I could write a blog discussing the similarities and differences between my observations in Southeast Asia and my American background, maybe yall can comment.

Together we can come closer to the definition of Asian versus Western. If, of course, those are really the terms we want to use. I'll share my observations and photos from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong on my trip for studying international business in graduate school. Let me know what you think!

For now, know that I have landed safely in Singapore, hungry for more noodles and pasta.