We’ve been roaming around Singapore, getting to some areas that are new to us. Its a busy place, buildings going up all over. Lots of traffic. Everything seems to be very tidy. We haven’t been everywhere, but we haven’t seen any litter, or graffiti. There are garbage cans in the parks and they are not overflowing. The subways are spotless. Its not a perfect place and I’m sure there are people who are unhoused. But we don’t see them – certainly not camping in public parks.
What we do see a lot of are signs. Lots of signage directing behavior. There’s the infamous ‘no durian fruit on the subway sign…
Feeding pigeons is also a no-no – with serious fines
And don’t be letting your dog roam about.
One of the food centres we visited had this one:
makes one wonder what goes on at that place?
And the subway has lots of reminders about lots of things
And they are not kidding about being watched – the number of cameras everywhere is quite surprising.
And then there the ‘let’s use the public toilets nicely’ messages.
Gent’s versionAnd for the ladies. On the mirror it says ‘Are you nice when no one’s around? Do it right for everyone’
And lastly – this message on the table at the food centre near us.
The housing board will add 19,600 new flats to the pool in 2024.
When we are traveling on big trips like this one Wilf does a huge amount of research. In the case of this trip – much postponed and reworked – the research went on for years. He drafts up a calendar, marking events that happen on certain days and filling in other days to keep us entertained. He does the planning, I’m in charge of execution.
This morning he was a bit cagey and announced that today’s excursion was a surprise. Okay then – off we went. Onto the newest subway line and off to the suburbs. I knew a park was involved and when we got to Mayflower Station I had Mr Google point us in the direction of the park. (and I’ll just mention it was 30C plus and terribly humid. We were not looking for the usual Mr Google diversions…)
We got to the food centre and through it we could see the park. Wilf was muttering to himself ‘Oh no – are we too early or too late? Where are they?’
And then we came around the corner to this….
Yes, I know it looks like a field of flagpoles. In fact this is …
The Kebun Baru Birdsinging Club. The only one left in Singapore and the largest in SouthEast Asia. Bird aficionados from all over Singapore come here – especially on Sundays – and bring their birds for an airing. The field of poles (there are hundreds of them) are for zebra doves . Zebra doves nest in trees, so they get to sit up in the sky with a view. This seems to be a predominantly male activity, and the whole time we were there men would arrive carrying bird cages with a cloth cover and walk out, untie a line and drop a hook down, uncover the cage, attach it to the hook and hoist the cage into the air. The men had chairs and they would sit and chat while their birds sang to each other.
There is another whole section for birds that live in small trees and shrubs – these are small roofed areas. The birds are clustered by type – redwhiskered bulbuls, long tailed shamas and an assortment of tiny songbirds. All swaying in the breeze. All the cages hang from hooks and each hook is numbered. At first I thought each person had an assigned position but as we watched there seemed to be a lot of moving cages around – a bird would be in one place for awhile, then moved to the other side of the compound.
Apparently there are competitions held regularly and the birds are judged on their attractiveness and their singing. And they can be very expensive.
The Singaporean government regulates housing, and provides most of the housing in the city/state. Eighty percent of people live in public housing. In the district where we are staying the public flats are 15 to 20 stories, arranged in clusters of about 5 buildings. These clusters have ground floor shops, food courts, daycare, medical facilities, playgrounds, parks and more. There are often schools, especially primary schools, associated with these clusters. They are served by the excellent transit system, which is ever growing. And the fact is, in an island nation, the only way to go is up.
In the area where the Birdsinging Club is the public housing is not quite as dense – the buildings are not as tall. But from the map below you can see the clusters of housing units. But I do wonder what the arrived of the new subway line will do – will some of these older housing complexes fall so that bigger ones can be put in their place?
You know you are near the Birdsinging Club when the food centre has a little atrium off of it so the uncles can safely stash their birds while they go in for a snack. No animals in the food centre!
And here’s a video of what it sounds like with all those birds! And I should mention how beautiful their cages are – fine woodwork, hand painted china water dishes, carving and inlay. Really lovely.
And no, it wasn’t like visiting the 7th circle of hell.
Singapore’s Changi airport is an interesting place, but most of the time we are hurrying to catch a flight, or hurrying to get into the city so we don’t get a good look at it. However, a few years back a new part of the airport complex was finished. It is called the Jewel, and it is an entertainment complex.
Long stretches of moving sidewalks connect terminals 2 and 3 to the Jewel, and you can see the dome shape of it glittering in the sun. It is sort of shaped like a big sports arena, with a concourse around each level filled with shops and restaurants, and in the middle – well, there is this:
Yes, that is an enormous 40 metre waterfall that falls through an infinity edge pool. And yes, there is a jungle, a forest in there.
Lots of details over here Changi Jewel. All this for a mere S$1.7billion! On average 300,000 people a day go through the Jewel. A huge percentage of them are pulling suitcases behind them…..
There are five stories above ground and five below. You can check in for your flight and deposit your luggage for transfer to your plane.
On the top level there is Canopy Park, a ticketed area. We went up and walked on the glass bridge:
Up by the roof – doesn’t look too scary…The view over the railing – too much reflection to take a picture through the glass floor of the bridge!
Wandered in a maze
Some of the hedges have motion sensors – beforeAnd after!
We thought we’d try the net walk:
but thought better of it fairly quickly:
The attendant at the entrance sent us over to the exit – she said we could pose on the netting there and pretend we had done the route. As we were wobbling away on the netting there were kids shrieking with delight as they scrambled up, down, and all around. We finally found something that we had to admit we were too old to do!
It was Valentine’s Day and staff were handing out bouquets of roses so it was a very floral day!
And then there were these guys!
The waterfall falls down down down – so we went to see where the water goes.
The infinity pool above actually falls inside this thick plastic tube, so no splashing , no sound, just amazing patterns as it flows down the walls. The waterfall from the ceiling falls through the centre. The sound of the water is loud up top, but there is none on this level.
Here are a couple of short clips to give you an idea of what it is like…
And then, not to be outdone, over in Terminal Two there is a digital waterfall. What’s that? A digital waterfall?
And this is what it sounds like…..
So – a day at the airport and then a long train ride back to our hotel. It may be time for a rest day…..
Kampong Glam is the centre of Singapore’s Muslim community. At its heart is the Sultan Mosque. We have been there before and on this trip we made a return visit. Turns out it was a Friday, and it was Chinese New Year’s Eve, so things were hopping.
We wanted to re-visit a restaurant we had eaten at back in 2018. It is called Hjh Maimunah and it serves Malay food. It is a little confusing for us, as the food is served almost cafeteria style, and nothing is labelled. You tell the servers behind the glass what you want and they put a plate together for you. It is called nasi padang, and begin with rice. Since nothing is labelled and the servers have limited English it is rather a gong show as we try to ask questions and point at random items. The arrangement seems to be a serving of rice, two proteins and two sides. And then sauces.
Last time around we had acquired our food and settled ourselves at a table and were well on our way to eating our meal. Wilf had selected a small grilled fish that had sambal oelek on it (that’s fire in sauce form!). A woman was walking by and saw Wilf’s plate and she stopped. She pretty much took the fork from his hand and said ‘Oh no! this food is too hot for English people’, ignoring the fact that he had already eaten half the fish with the fiery sauce. We had a lovely chat, were introduced to her mother and answered many questions. I noticed that everyone around us had stopped eating and were listening to the conversation – they must have been wondering where we were from and how we found the place.
How could we not go back? So – once again we point and assemble a meal, including a grilled fish. I took the tray to pay and sent Wilf off to find a table. While I was at the cashier one of the waiters came and took the tray and said he would find us a table. By the time I got outside Wilf was ensconced at a table beside the street, the food was all organized and he had been joined by an auntie. Her friends were at a nearby table but she popped over to see what was up. When I arrived she was explaining to Wilf that he mustn’t drink milk after eating the meal because it would curdle in his stomach after eating all the hot spices. She asked me if we liked hot food and if we were okay eating it. I told her that we had been practicing by eating Korean food and thought we were up to the challenge. I’m not sure she understood that…. But once she was satisfied that we could safely eat the meal she wandered off.
You can see the bright orange sambal oelek on each plate – I guess the server figured we could handle it. (We could not……) And see the little limes with the fish? They make the most delicious lime drink with them. I’m working on developing an opinion about who makes the best version. So far the aunties at the Maxwell Food court are winning!
After our meal we wandered through the area a bit – the Friday service was in full swing at the mosque and attendees were spilling into the courtyard in front. There’s a big Turkish presence in the area, too – lots of Turkish restaurants and souvenir sellers. It was so blastingly hot and humid that we walked around a bit but when I saw a cab I looked at Wilf with a ‘I’m getting in – you coming too?’ expression and we headed back to our hotel.
Shop house street
We’ll be back – there is much to see and I think Wilf has a hankering for Turkish food…….
We’re in Singapore for Chinese New Year - and its a big deal. Our hotel has filled up and the city is decorated to the nth degree.
This morning the lion came to dance at our hotel. This was a much more elaborate event than I have experienced at home.
First came a pair of lions – they danced around the lobby and reared up over the crowd.
Next came a single orange lion with very expressive eyebrows and ears. He danced all around and then jumped up on a platform. On a pole above the platform was a scroll that the lion unrolled.
Once the lion was back on the ground a tray was produced, which had another scroll, oranges and lettuces on it. The lion settled in for a snack, ‘eating’ the lettuce (throwing bits of lettuce here and there), then ‘eating’ an orange – orange peels sailed through the air. The scroll was presented to a representative of the hotel.
And when lions were done in came the dragon. That was another remarkable performance.
They also visited all the restaurants in the hotel and when we went out into the neighbourhood we could hear the clang and bang of the drums and cymbals as lions were blessing businesses all around us.
Wilf had seen information about a big drone show down at the Marina Sands area further into the city. You’ve probably seen pictures of the hotel – three towers that look like a ship is perched on top of them. Anyhoo, we figured that it would be a madhouse to try and get near the actual site, but we figured we could see everything from across the bay.
We were a little concerned about the crush in the subway, but pretty much everyone got off a stop before our target. We arrived to find a great view point across the road from the waterside park looking back at Marina Sands. There were big shallow steps to sit on, so we did. At 8:00 a fleet of hundreds of drones took to the air making patterns in the sky. About two minutes in we felt a few raindrops. Ohoh! And just when things were getting interesting the skies opened in the way that they do in this part of the world. At first we tried to deploy our umbrellas, but soon we were awash. People were dashing around, children were crying – it was a mess. We made a run for the subway – each time we peeked over our shoulder there was a dragon or something amazing to see.
Here’s Wilf’s video of how it went down….
And here’s the last shot before we ducked inside…
Now that we know where to go to watch we’ll try again later in the week - the show runs for several more nights. We got very wet and laughed a lot!
Yesterday I tried out the hotel pool – excellent. Today we are on a little trip to Sentosa Island, which is a big play space in Singapore. There are theme parks and all sorts of attractions. But if you carry on past that end of the island there are beaches.
We have settled at the Tanjong Beach Club. Lovely infinity pool, beautiful beach. We have a poolside lounge under an umbrella and it feels like we are far far away from the city.
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