I thought it would be a good idea to give a brief update on Singapore before I leave it too long and forget about it, which is my usual tactic, if tactic’s the right word (which it probably isn’t).
Getting into the Lion City was painless enough from KL, if I remember it was a morning train from Malaysia so I got there sometime in the early afternoon and customs wasn’t nearly as tedious as neighbouring states although I quickly dispatched my one stick of chewing gum in fear of being deported or sent to jail or something like that. A quick visit to the money changer to give me yet another set of currency to deal with and then I wandered into the train station’s car park where I was basically herded into a mini-van taxi shuttle thing, there were a few other travellers of varying nationalities so it wasn’t like I was being kidnapped or anything, even if I was I doubt it would have been newsworthy. I agreed a price with the driver who very much fancied himself as a tour guide although the area we were in consisted mainly of hotels, hospitals and commercial buildings so it wasn’t the most insightful of impromptu tours but at least now I know where Mercedes-Benz and Hewlett-Packard have their Asian (or probably just Singapore) headquarters.
The hostel where I stayed was really nice, it was essentially a converted apartment just off a main street next to the monorail station – I can’t remember the official name for the monorail as each Asian country has its own special phrase or acronym. There was a good group of people in the hostel, everyone was very laid back and chatted with each other and I shared a dorm room with a German student spending a semester in Singapore – nice for some! I didn’t really need to ask (but I did) and she confirmed that she was both an engineering student and from Hamburg (as if there are any other varieties of German).
My lack of time – I only had a couple of days – and the overall lack of many major sights probably combined well enough to make sure I saw a good deal of Singapore. A few days after my visit was their national day so I often saw bits and pieces of rehearsals or men putting up banners and lights but in general the city wasn’t as crowded as I’d been led to believe but the many stories of the city’s cleanliness proved very true! I didn’t really feel like I was in South East Asia, especially in comparison to KL and Bangkok, I wasn’t hassled every five minutes into getting my feet rubbed nor was I bothered by an endless stream of filthy vehicles as I attempted to cross a road. It was very British in a sense, not surprising considering its background but everything had a very uniquely Asian feel to it like they were proud of their history but very much heading forward as their own country.
I spent a lot of time down near the Esplanade and by the waterfront (both during the day and night) as that seemed to be a good hub from which to gather myself to wander in whatever direction. I can’t remember if I managed to spot a Queen Victoria statue but I did visit a theatre named in her honour so I guess that’s near enough. All the former government and official buildings were very much in keeping with the fashion set out by their British builders but the new Supreme Court, as an example, couldn’t have been more different to the complex it replaced. All the important financial buildings looked as generic as in any major city but just a few hundred yards away was the river and a couple of old bridges and Victorian buildings so old and new seemed to complement each other well.
I had a brief visit to Sentosa island, it’s a large theme park type place I suppose, the hub of tourist activity with an old British fort, sky tower type building and other attractions geared more towards families than geeks of architecture or culture. That’s not to say it wasn’t nice enough to have a walk round but the abundance of couples with their 2.4 children certainly illustrated the core demographic of the island. I did enjoy the cable car journey to get there though although paying that little bit extra for a pod with a glass floor wasn’t the wisest investment as it didn’t add all that much to the ride. The main cause of bewilderment and many hours of thought provoking discussion Sentosa inspired was entirely down to one of its main features – the Merlion.
For the uninitiated, the creature that is the Merlion is half fish, half lion. It really is as ridiculous as it sounds and if it was showered in myth and legend from a millennium ago, I might be a little bit more forgiving but this beast is a child of 60s and should be mocked without reservation. I had a good talk with a Tasmanian guy at the hostel about it and we couldn’t even begin to take it seriously, there were far too many unanswered questions raised by this thing. How can a so-called advanced nation not only dream up such a thing but spend millions on statues without being made accountable? It’s half fish, half lion!! It’s a non-starter. Half a fish fused with half a lion! How can you combine the circulatory systems of a cold blooded fish with a warm blooded lion? The sheer size difference between the bottom half of a fish and the top half of a lion surely makes any attempt at joining the two seem futile at best. If the two could be joined, how can a fish support and maintain the weight of a lion’s head? How does it move? It has no legs to drag itself along. Where does it live? Is it a sea or land based creature? It can’t be land because it’s half fish but it can’t be fully in the sea because it’s very much also a lion – traditionally land based. Maybe it’s amphibious? What does it eat? Other fish? I doubt it could even catch up to a gazelle or even a small mouse. Where does it originate from? Lions tend to be African whereas Singapore finds itself in Asia and with that in mind, what does it breed with? Other Merlions? Are there other Merlions? Its distance from Africa rules out possible mating with lions and what fish would dare get close to it? Even then that would dilute the gene pool somewhat. Myself and the Tasmanian went on like this for ages, no one was there to answer our questions and so it seems the whole thing is perhaps beyond logic. What would be next? The Merhopper (half fish, half grasshopper) or maybe the Merowl (half fish, half owl).
In general though, I really enjoyed my time in Singapore, the food was gorgeous too and so I would definitely go back there despite their choice in man-made mascot.