Singapore For A Day or Two

Please note: This post is up to date, and other posts, posted after this may be back dated… Just to confuse you… I’m not a slow writer, just a lot of stuff worth documenting occurs!

I’m sitting at the bottom of a large apartment complex in Toa Payoh, a heavily populated suburb, on the outskirts of Singapore City. School kids are walking past on their way home from school, dressed in their navy blue and light blue uniforms, whilst their parents try and persuade them to stay out of the heavy tropical rain. An elderly couple are trundling by with a giant yellow umbrella, stopping occasionally to talk to other residents, no doubt about the weather.

It is very humid, and the rain has been steadily falling for the better part of an hour. There isn’t much traffic, apart from the occasional purple, red and silver SBS Transit busses, a few small tray trucks and some bright blue taxis, with bright LED lined adverts on the top. I’m sitting in Govins Grandfather old wooden chair, with pink flower patterned cushions, out the front of their ground floor apartment. I get a strange look occasionally from a passing resident, as this suburb is predominately not inhabited by young white people.

We are on a quick trip to Singapore, so that Govin can visit one of his friends whose mother is ill. We drove up yesterday, doing the customary 160km/h on the very well made tollway. We arrived at his grandparents apartment, being offered mountains of food and drink. It is too expensive to park the car here, so we headed off to his uncles house, a private residence in a gated community, where we can park on the street without a problem. Govins Grandfather drops us at his friend Avanash’s house, in a suburb a bit further out of the city. The house is four storey, and very art deco 70’s with each floor becoming a mezzanine above the previous.

We drink Heineken from what appears to be very small 330ml cans, compared to the usual 440-560ml from England. Govin and Avanash catch up on post show events, and the happenings in Singapore. I receive a call from Squeak in England, he has managed to get a phone finally. I explain the finer details of our volunteering at Leeds Festival in the crew kitchen, in exchange for a ticket to the festival. We are both equally excited about seeing Limp Bizkit, Blink 182 and Cypress Hill. I also speak with Hamish about the arrangements I have made for this weekends gig in Wales, Greenman Festival.

I find an open wireless network, and take the opportunity to email the volunteers for the weekend gig an info sheet. I also catch up on the latest news from the election campaign, Gillard is ahead of Abbott in two party preferred, with him making a fool of himself in several interviews recently. I rejoin the conversation, and then it’s time for dinner.

We walk about 10 minutes to the local strip of cafes and restaurants. We do a full circuit trying to make a choice. Avanash buys cigarettes, and Govin and I discover all sorts of Arnotts products, Tim Tams, Pizza Shapes, JATZ, and then Natural Confectionary Company Jellies. We make a pact to come back in the morning and stock up, but never do.

We walk back along the road, and in the end settle on a Brazilian meat grill place at the end of the street. We settle in, drinking Corona, whilst Avanash smokes Sampoerna, an Indonesian clove cigarette. Several different types of meat are continually brought to the table, with the chef calving off sheets for each of us. It is amazingly good food, and after a while we are having to send him away, “later, later…” we say. We share stupid stories of travel, drunken escapades and girls.

There is a lot of white expat businessmen and their families on the tables surrounding. A young boy is zooming around the footpath and down the ramp onto the road, on his new Razor scooter, whilst his mother keeps an eye out for traffic. Govin speaks Spanish to the chef, teasing him about soccer, his replies are fiery, and in the  end brings us a free apple pie with vanilla icecream. By this stage, all three of us are going to pop, and the decision is made to struggle through the walk home.

We get back, and settle in to Avanash’s amazingly comfortable couches. His housemates arrive home and we spend some time chatting on the front porch. One of his housemates is an older guy from the UK. He is impressed with my wristbands and we spend some time discussing the craziness of the UK. He is adamant that he won’t return, I find that interesting, and we discuss it for some time.

They are both working in the morning, and so we settle into a movie, Pretty Woman, as chosen by Govin, who Avanash and I decide is gay. It is actually pretty entertaining, mainly because of how dated it looks. I receive an email asking for me to fill in shifts for work at Leeds, and I rush to Avanash’s computer to try and get the good shifts. I manage to get all of Saturday off, which is when the bands we actually want to see are playing. I come back to the movie, and we watch the end, then sleep.

We wake late, and catch a cab with Avanash to his office tower, he is a lawyer. We head to a recommended café, enjoy a good coffee and a full English. We then board the SMRT back to Toa Payoh. Govin sleeps, and I sit out the front, and write, listening to OK GO’s new album.

We catch a cab to the city to the Australian Consulate, so that I can place a vote in the federal election. We both have to hand over photo ID and our camera phones, then up the drive we head. There is one guy sitting out the front at a table with posters of Tony Abbott, and no one at the Labor table, just a few how to vote cards. He offers me a how to vote card, and I explain that if Tony gets in, I’m not going back. He then responds and I quote “So you’re voting for the Ginger Ninja then? At least she’ll have your back… Ask Kevin?” Govin starts a “To-ny! To-ny! To-ny!” chant and the guy totally misses the sarcasm.

I head inside, fill in a form to confirm my address, and am handed a Maribyrnong Balot Paper. I fill in the house of representatives form and then ponder for a while whether I fill in one number above or 60 numbers below… I end up doing one above, cos I’m worried that if I fill in below, Steve Fielding might get elected again. We then exit, joking with the ladies on the election papers desk whilst we leave. We try and avoid a conversation with the fat liberal guy out front, but he just makes the same jokes, as we leave.

Once we’ve got our phones and IDs back, I take a picture of a sign (above) just outside the embassy, and get told to delete it by the security guard, to which I put on a good show and don’t delete it.

Then these guys arrive…

Nah, not really, they were just sitting on the side of the road a bit further up, opposite the British Consulate. We headed up to Orchard Road, past all the fancy shopping malls to a plaza so that Govin could buy his mate a phone that has only been released in Singapore. We walk through a shopping centre called Ion Orchard, which features some awesome LED screens, see the picture.

It has been a fleeting trip to this island country, one that is bizarrely clean, and has strange rules. Govin brought some chewing gum in Malaysia just before we crossed the border, and as soon as we got into Singapore, he deliberately popped several into his mouth and started chewing enthusiastically whilst driving down the PIE freeway, with a massive smile on his face.

Back to the airport tomorrow at 4am, heading to Cebu for a well earned break. Below is a crazy Fire/military truck I saw near Govin’s Grandparents Apartment tower! NIIICE!