I am in Barcelona... but want to post last bits about Singapore before they get overwhelmed by Barcelona. Si?
The following in this font are rambling notes from my iPhone with the occasional pics and interspersed with current (absolute) ravings in this font!
They may sound critical but have no doubt that if I had time for the reflection that I did in Singapore when I'm in Melbourne then a blog from there would be at least as apparently reflectively critical...
What would happen in Singapore if no electricity- imagining relative silence!
ACtually to a depth that I had never imagined SIngapore utterly relies on electricity - at every moment so many people are shopping underground or living in towering buildings, darting around in the complex maze of metro trains... airconditioners whirr, building projects pierce and automated voices/instructions echo in every space.
Everywhere you look there is construction underway... rumour has it every 10 or so years housing developments (HDBs) are just pulled down and rebuilt. Certainly things are "renewed" with great frequency... as one Singaporean I met reflected - the government decides what is allowed to be kept for history! Interesting
Back to the HDBs - these places where a large proportion of Singaporeans live, there is cultural profiling that decides the allocation of flats eg - not actual! 15% to Indian descent, 35% to Malay descent, 35% to Chinese descent, 10% to middle-eastern descent, 5% to other. This engineering of multiculturalism appears to work - I find it fascinating - unity blah blah blah mottos...
Efficiency vs environment vs natural evolution and decay....
I LOVED being part of the crowd (not that I eva really could be - fat, pierced and tattooed Anglo (?) chicks are a rarity.) But hawker stands and PT were awesome and easy to negotiate...Having my haircut was unique (they wash your hair while you are sitting in the chair!)
When we go to popular tourist attractions do we all have the same experience? Do you ever get to see more than what we are directed to?
As predicted by many I enjoyed Little India and the Arab quarters most - forgot to take pics ... telling really! They are touristy but are more earthy and grungy than the rest of Singapore... primarily because they are allowed to be - they draw tourists that way! hmmm...
But are they any more or less real than Sentosa - a frightening beach/theme park with manicured palm trees. Someone should tell the government Sentosa would feel a whole heap less cosmetic and cynical if dozens of tankers weren't floating in the immediate sight line of pristine beach play areas.
Turns out I frown or smirk when I take my own photo!
PS a whole dragon fruit was the same price as 1/4 of an apple or orange!
Anyways I did have a trepidacious swim - and fell asleep ERROR 1. Waah major sunburn (as those who peruse facebook would know!) I ensured my absolute tourist status by drinking a coconut while there. ERROR 2 Didn't know I was really burnt til I went and got an Indian hot oil head massage - turns out even my scalp was burnt! Lucky for me, my olive skin reclaimed the 'burn' within 36 hours so I just looked a little tanned and sun-kissed
I think I am too 'critical' seeing the long working construction workers and cranes rather than the shiney smiley billboards and manicured bougainvillea. The ignored maids and intellectually disabled cleaners concern me more than the precision coordinated and pressed ensembles worn by sales assistants impress me - though they do!
Singapore's sound track is a thin tinny boy-band, no bass sounds - no grunge anywhere!
There is a written or oral instruction for everything but people only half listen. At train stations they are constantly told to stand back while people alight. Ignored.
I saw/smelt 2 of these rules ignored (um-mah)
Singapore reminds me of an ant colony with high rise ant hills and labyrinthine worlds of underground tunnels people moving in an orderly fashion along predictable paths but you know if anything unexpected happened everyone would run around randomly in chaotic panic
Do our ads seem as silly - no doubt - to outsiders... has anyone thought that collagen is cartiledge and bone bits floating in their juice?
ANyway it's time for bed
... so I can wake up and tell you all about my "journey" I mean that literally and not in that over-used TV-talk-show kinda way
and then I can start on Barcelona!
