Life's a party
How can a journey become a Jaguar? Ask OCBC,” read an ad on the blue Toyota which overtook my cab soon after we get out of the Singapore Changi Airport. It’s about 7.30 in the morning and Jaffer, our driver, driving at 80 km per hour, has already made our journey a Jaguar (a luxury car). I look out of the window for glimpses of morning life. Jaffer negotiates a sharp turn and stops at the signal. A group of girls crosses the road. They are followed by an old man with a bagful of vegetables. The signal turns green and we move on. It’s just twenty minutes that I have been in Singapore but two things about it have already struck me: girls and cars. Both are beautiful. But there is a difference. The cars come in many varieties, but the girls look the same. More or less.My hotel, the Grand Copthorne Waterfront, is by the Singapore River. Small tourist boats pass by, leaving a trail of white on the black waters. You never get the feel of a city sitting in an air-conditioned hotel room, so I decide to walk around. It’s breakfast time and people are busy eating at roadside joints, using chopsticks. Seeing them, Mao’s words come to my mind: “Don’t overload your chopsticks, rice will get into your nose.” But people in Singapore are a disciplined lot; they don’t seem to overload their chopsticks. And one way of knowing how disciplined people are is to watch them at the traffic signal. I stop by at a non-vegetarian South Indian restaurant. It’s hot inside. Here I run into Zulfiqar, a Malayali, who speaks Mandarin with as much ease as Malayalam.For lunch Jaffer takes us to Marche, a restaurant at the Suntec City Mall. It's crowded but the young girls in yellow shirts are very efficient with their service. I try some rice with fried salmon. And then go for a Brazilian chicken kebab. The latter is delicious but I am not able to finish it. After lunch, we stroll through the huge mall. Many shops display the “Discount” board, and the discount ranging from 5 to 75 percent. It’s fun to window-shop and watch others do the same. But the fun ends when you start converting — mentally — dollars into Indian rupees. So don’t do it. Go ahead and shop.
It’s evening and time for Night Safari. “With over 900 nocturnal animals of 135 species inhabiting 40 hectares of dense secondary forest, the Night Safari is the world’s first wildlife park with a night view,” informs Rene Colond, the guide assigned by our hosts, Singapore Tourism Board. From the entrance we are taken in a horsecart to the jungle lodge. After tea, we get into a battery-powered tram for the 45-minute safari. It's dark. Traditional Chinese lanterns line the path. We see a rhino and a group of deer and some jackals. The first half of the safari is over and we stop for supper. We are also treated to a cultural show, including belly dance. The return journey is more productive. we see two giraffes under the moonlight. After that the tigers and the lions. It’s late in the night and we are back to the concrete jungle. “One world, one music, one tribe, one dance…welcome,” says Harry Ng, guest relations executive of Zouk, one of Singapore’s famous discotheques. A board at the entrance says, Male: $28 and Female: $23. The girl at the counter puts a stamp below my palm. I can’t see anything stamped, but as soon as well enter the disco, I see, under the strobelights, a silver cross on my hand.
My Marathi companion breaks into a dance, Maharashtra style, and he is soon joined by a young man and three women. There are many other nightspots in Orchard Road, Tanjong Pagar, Holland Village and Mohamed Sultan Road. Singapore’s pubs and clubs close around midnight on weekdays and 3 am on weekends. Drink prices can range from 10 Singapore dollars for a pint of draft beer to 15 dollars or more for a cocktail. Many of these pubs have happy hours before 7.30 pm, where discounts can be up to 50 percent.After the dancing, I catch up with a local friend, Ramesh, who offers to drive us around. He takes us to Geylang, one of the Designated Redlight Areas in Singapore. (Prostitution is legal here, but not solicitation). We pass by a two-storied building, where a man is sitting at the entrance with a long book (perhaps a ledger) while a woman, in her nightwear, sits inside a glass cage.
The next day, we set off for the Singapore Zoo and have breakfast with the animals. We also witness a couple of animal shows. We then move to the Jurong Bird park, a heaven for bird-lovers. Here, lories will flock to you and you can feed them. We attend a bird show conducted by students. Why students everywhere, don't they go to school? “After school they come here. They make good money too,” informs our guide. We also check out the tallest man-made waterfall.“Fun people serving fun people,” reads the visiting card of Peggy Tan, senior marketing manager of Wild Wild Wet theme park. Peggy takes us to a coffee shop and there we try Singaporean coffee. It’s a holiday today, so the waterworld is packed with people. Kids twist and turn their way through tube slides, taking the tidal wave head on. The smell of chlorine hangs in the air. Adjacent to the park is a barbecue where people bring their own stuff and cook. Our next destination is Sentosa, Singapore’s premier island resort. We take the cable car to Sentosa and on the way view the Singapore port and many other scenic spots. The cable car takes 20 minutes. After reaching Sentosa, we get into the Carlsberg Sky Tower, the tallest public viewing tower in Singapore. The elevator has a capacity of 72 in its air-conditioned cabin. From here you see the grandeur of Singapore, laid out in front of you like a garden. Only that you have skyscrapers instead of trees.
It’s evening and time for Night Safari. “With over 900 nocturnal animals of 135 species inhabiting 40 hectares of dense secondary forest, the Night Safari is the world’s first wildlife park with a night view,” informs Rene Colond, the guide assigned by our hosts, Singapore Tourism Board. From the entrance we are taken in a horsecart to the jungle lodge. After tea, we get into a battery-powered tram for the 45-minute safari. It's dark. Traditional Chinese lanterns line the path. We see a rhino and a group of deer and some jackals. The first half of the safari is over and we stop for supper. We are also treated to a cultural show, including belly dance. The return journey is more productive. we see two giraffes under the moonlight. After that the tigers and the lions. It’s late in the night and we are back to the concrete jungle. “One world, one music, one tribe, one dance…welcome,” says Harry Ng, guest relations executive of Zouk, one of Singapore’s famous discotheques. A board at the entrance says, Male: $28 and Female: $23. The girl at the counter puts a stamp below my palm. I can’t see anything stamped, but as soon as well enter the disco, I see, under the strobelights, a silver cross on my hand.
My Marathi companion breaks into a dance, Maharashtra style, and he is soon joined by a young man and three women. There are many other nightspots in Orchard Road, Tanjong Pagar, Holland Village and Mohamed Sultan Road. Singapore’s pubs and clubs close around midnight on weekdays and 3 am on weekends. Drink prices can range from 10 Singapore dollars for a pint of draft beer to 15 dollars or more for a cocktail. Many of these pubs have happy hours before 7.30 pm, where discounts can be up to 50 percent.After the dancing, I catch up with a local friend, Ramesh, who offers to drive us around. He takes us to Geylang, one of the Designated Redlight Areas in Singapore. (Prostitution is legal here, but not solicitation). We pass by a two-storied building, where a man is sitting at the entrance with a long book (perhaps a ledger) while a woman, in her nightwear, sits inside a glass cage.
The next day, we set off for the Singapore Zoo and have breakfast with the animals. We also witness a couple of animal shows. We then move to the Jurong Bird park, a heaven for bird-lovers. Here, lories will flock to you and you can feed them. We attend a bird show conducted by students. Why students everywhere, don't they go to school? “After school they come here. They make good money too,” informs our guide. We also check out the tallest man-made waterfall.“Fun people serving fun people,” reads the visiting card of Peggy Tan, senior marketing manager of Wild Wild Wet theme park. Peggy takes us to a coffee shop and there we try Singaporean coffee. It’s a holiday today, so the waterworld is packed with people. Kids twist and turn their way through tube slides, taking the tidal wave head on. The smell of chlorine hangs in the air. Adjacent to the park is a barbecue where people bring their own stuff and cook. Our next destination is Sentosa, Singapore’s premier island resort. We take the cable car to Sentosa and on the way view the Singapore port and many other scenic spots. The cable car takes 20 minutes. After reaching Sentosa, we get into the Carlsberg Sky Tower, the tallest public viewing tower in Singapore. The elevator has a capacity of 72 in its air-conditioned cabin. From here you see the grandeur of Singapore, laid out in front of you like a garden. Only that you have skyscrapers instead of trees.
Comments