Around noon I awoke to a knocking on the door. Dazed and use to sleeping on a low-to-the-floor sofa, I fell out of some high-rise-bed and stumbled to the wall, looking for the doorknob. After seeing the tops of buildings and a cargo-boat-filled-Bay out the window to my left - I remembered where it was. And the knocking came again.
"Who Is It?"It was my friend Sabrina, and she wanted to take me out to eat Lunch, and then we'd head over to her place, where I'd be staying til either my contacts came through or I got my own place.
My first steps into the Singapore daylight...A bustling city-life was my view. Shielding my eyes from the intense glare cast by thousands of sun-reflecting windows of the many office buildings, I was told to "Get in the Queue.""Get in the What ???This, I found, was to be my first introduction to "English." British English, to be a bit more exact. I had always thought that American English and British English were pretty much the same - with a few minor vocabulary differences...Well - it seems as if this were true - but the "few" differences have turned out to be quite a "lot."
Anyway - a Queue, is a waiting line, and NO ONE says "Get in Line." It's "Get in Queue..." for taxies, movie tickets, and just anything that you can stand around and wait for.
One by one we advance our positions in queue and arrive to the glorious "Next" position, and hop into the arriving taxi.
Once we got out of the lunch-hour traffic and began to pick up speed, I hear a beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep and learn something new - the same cool satellite system has a little black-box (hmmm maybe that's where that one from the felled airplane went ;) ) that adds costs to the fare depending on traffic and route taken - was now beeping to alert the driver that he was going over the speed limit!!! Now get this - it can beep for a little while to let driver slow down - but if it continues beeping past a certain amt. of time or number of beeps - then the black box sends back word to the satellite system that the driver is speeding, along with the driver's "Car Number" (what they call the License Plate number), and the driver gets a speeding ticket in his mailbox in a few days!
Sitting in the back seat, as you normally do in a taxi cab, I found myself looking around at the interior of the cab - kinda like reading the graffitti on the inside of a bathroom stall. Generally, a taxi ride will vary in price depending on distance of trip, regular road or a monitored one during high-traffic times, and time of day, because after midnight the price is double. There are usually minimum prices, depending on the same as well. I didn't forget to put on my seat belt when I had gotten into the cab, thanks to the automated little female computer voice instructing me to do so. A sign hanging from the headrest down the back of the seat in front of me informed me to "Be Courteous and No Tipping." And hanging from theother seat was the latest copy of Cabby Magazine!
We shortly arrived at our destination: an Indian restraunt in Little India, Serangoon Road, called Apollo Banana Leaf. Actually there are two Apollos right next to each other, but the one we went to this afternoon was the oldest one, having been there since the late 70's - the other one is a more recent addition and stands right to the left. What's the difference aside from the obvious age? The decor, atmosphere, and food. In the states, I have seen "Indian" restraunts before, but this was the first time that I was exposed to the 2 main different cuisines: Northern and Southern. This day we ate of the Southern style at the original Apollo.
Stepping out of the cab, onto the sidewalk towards the restraunt, I learned of Singapore's drainage system...Between the street and the sidewalk was a miniature moat surrounding the city block we were stepping onto; it was dry of course, but you could follow the intention of the design for when it rains. Later on, after many more days and many more miles spent in and around Singapore, I was to learn that this drainage system was used everywhere, and I do mean everywhere that street meets block.
Anyway, the place was very nice and the food was pretty much kick-ass. Actually, writing this chapter long over-due, I can honestly say that I there was been very little food here that I didn't care for...I love to eat and am usually not very picky - but everything here has been great. Here at the Banana Leaf, we ate on a Banana Leaf - a huge square-cut real leaf, not a plate.
Which brings us to some more learnings... The silverware consisted of a Fork & a Spoon. I have yet to see a knife set at a table. But wait, you say, of course - I am in Singapore, right? Since the majority of folks here are of Chinese descent - we should think of chopsticks as the main utensil here as well, huh? Nope. I've also yet to see Chopsticks at a table - they have to be asked for - the regular thing is the Fork'n'Spoon duet... Also, I've learned that quite a few Indians - enjoy and feel quite at home eating with neither of the provided utensils, but rather with hands and fingers, regardless of the type of restraunt they are in. So, fingers to banana-leaf, my friend Sabrina began to consume her servings, as I attempted to manage the fork-n-spoon, slip-thru-sauce, rip-thru-leaf, dropping-rice-on-pants, hot-sauce-sweating, catastrophy, that I've since gotten a better handle on.
Another interesting difference I began to encounter on this day of eating out, is the usual absence of Napkins. Although not missing altogether, paper or cloth napkins are very rare commodities in the food joints of Singapore. There was a time that I could eat pretty spicy food without missing a beat - but spicy food here, whether Chinese, Indian, Thai or whatever - aint like spicy in the states...Dude it's Damn-Near-Atomic ! There have been times that my friend Sabrina has walked over to a nearby shop and purchased a small pack of tissue for me to use - LOL! Seriously. I'd be sweating, sniffing and crying...
So - let's say you are one of those people who fancy eating with your hands... How the hell do you wipe your hands then??? There are two main things to look at here:
First is the fact that the term "Bathroom" is usually not used, but Wash-Room is. And second is the fact that although napkins are hard to come by, the little fancy wet-naps are provided at every freaking place. When you walk into the "Washroom" of a restraunt via a uni-sex door, you'll either find a common room with a lavetory containing only washbasins for you to wash your hands before and after eating, or you'll walk into your "Gents" or "Ladies" washroom (spoken as washroom - on written signs as Toilets) where you first encounter your washbasins and then the toilet area...
Now, I hate to have to go here, but... Depending on the "classy-ness" of the place you are in, you either got sitters or squaters, as far as um... making bowel-movements are concerned.
Flush Flush.
Ok - Enough of That. We Washed, We Ate, and then We Drank...Lime Juice - which has become one of my new favorites - the juices here are pretty close to 100% natural.We left Apollo, and Sabrina guided me to the next taxi queue via a route that cut through a piece of Little India that left me with my mouth open.It was the first of that type of experience I had ever had - I've met a few people from India in my time, and have read and know some small things of the culture - but to walk through this little community was something very interesting indeed. Colors and smells of a wide variety flooded my sensorium and I have to say that I enjoyed it to say the least. So we walked on through and crossed a street to end up waiting in another taxi queue, to go back to the hotel.
Once there, I checked out - we hopped in yet another taxi, and headed for the community of Yishun, Sabrina's family's apartment, where I would be staying. We rode from the Western side of the island, up through the center, arriving at the northern part.
We walked over to Block 663-A, up three flights of stairs and turned right, to her apartment, which had a metal padlocked gate in front of the door. She unlocked the gate, unlocked the door, and we entered the front little room, where you take off your shoes and tuck them away. Walking in, I was greeted by a wonderfully decorated Muslim home, painted in an earthy-yellow with earthy-brown trim.
After hastily unpacking, getting the short tour of the apartment, meeting her very friendly parents, I then took a shower and got dressed; Sabrina had wanted to take me out to see a movie. Yep - into another taxi cab!
Each community in Singapore has their own shopping mall, movie theater, parks, and all sorts of other things, so of course we went to the Yishun community movie theater, at the mall - NorthPoint - LOL - no, not the one in Alpharetta ;). We ended up watching the movie The Ring, which is an OK movie I guess - nothing I'd really rave over though.
The "going to the movies" experience was the interesting thing though, in and of itself. We walked up to the ticket window, told the attendant what movie and showing that we wished to see, and she then pointed down at the counter-top, which was glass, and to the computer monitor facing up from beneath. What was on it was a visual diagram of the movie theater layout, and darkly color seats were already taken. We could then choose from the remaining open light-colored, available seats. We chose and were given our tickets, which then also contained the information as usual, but now with our "assigned seating." I found out later that the option to choose your seating is not always the case - sometimes you just gotta take the seat that you are given.
The movie was in English, with Chinese character subtitles at the bottom of the screen, and there were about a Billion previews before the movie, including what we're seeing in the states now too - regular commercial advertisements for various branded products. I've since been to see other movies at other theatres, and it seems that the theatres in the downtown districts have different sets of commercials, previews and advertisements - but the ones in the communities generally have the same ones. Let's see...There's one with this Chinese girl taking a shower, and talking in Chinese about the wonders of Lux Shower Gel, and how it helps with her An Mo practice. There's one where some bored kid comes into a library to study - he stretches and yawns, spies an advert for some Blizzard type of drink, and of course -WOW- zip, zing, yadda yadda, bullshit. Then the annoying IT chick who goes on and on in her stuffy British accent about how wonderful her hair feels after using blah blah shampoo. And the one for Carlsberg beer, where people are blowing into the tops of their bottles to make that little sound, and each one makes a different pitch and they make a song "I Love You, Baby." Yeah, ok. And then there's my personal favorite one for Tiger Beer.
Tiger Beer's basic motto is "It's Tiger Time," so then you see lots of ads around town saying "What Time is It?" Anyway, these movie-commercials for Tiger Beer always start off with these two dudes who are D.J.s for a Singaporean radio station, and they're always in some weird situation & play off of the motto. Here's an example: The duo start off at one of their houses, just sitting around and talking. And one is talking about the test to get your Driver's License, saying how difficult it was to remember all of the crazy road-signs there are. He of course just happens to have a few of these signs behind the couch, which he pulls up and says see what I mean, brother? Ok - What's this mean? And the guy answers, then the other says, no it's blah. Anyway, he goes on for a minute, and then says finally "What Sign Is It, brother?" (Sign rhymes with Time) And then - regardless of where they are, at home, in a locker room or even on an elevator, this music starts up, and like 20 of these hot cheerleader type girls come dancing in around them, going "It's Tiger Time! It's Tiger Time!" They hand the both of the guys a Tiger Beer, walk out and the music stops, and the duo says one last funny as hell thing and that's it. Sounds like crap - I know - but it's funny as hell. See if you can find one on the net - there's gotta be one you can peep at.
Anyway - after the movie, we came back to Sabrina's place, had a bite of dinner to eat, and then I went to bed, thinking of the day behind me and the days ahead.
