Singapore Sights!

It is finally my turn to write an entry, I was wondering how long Ben would let me get away without writing one! Before I recount what we did today, I must say that returning to Singapore for the second time within 6 months has made it feel as though I’ve returned home again. So many things are familiar, the family, the transport system, the distinct Singaporean odour in the air and who can fail to mention the random people catching a nap on the side of the street. So, I guess apart from the fact that I don’t have to go to work, it doesn’t quite feel like a ‘honeymoon’ as such.

Anyways, this morning we kicked off at around 9:30 after having nearly 12 hours of sleep. We were picked up by Jennifer for breakfast at Changi Village’s hawker centre. On the menu was char kway teow, radish cake & mince pork noodles along with Sugarcane juice for Ben and grass jelly drinks for the girls. The hawker centre was one of the originals left, that is, open air (no air-conditioning!), round fixed tables with round fixed stools surrounding it. Singapore isn’t a day-time city, so a lot of the stalls weren’t open at about 10am in the morning.

After a filling breakfast, we headed over to the water park in Pasir Ris hoping to spend the day floating around on huge blown up donuts in a man made wave pool or sliding down a number of water slides. However, after finding our way through the construction site, we found that the park was closed on Tuesdays! Equipped with our swimming gear (and for Ben, Jeremy’s swimming trunks) we headed back to Simei to get changed and pick up our day pack. We will go back Wednesday, between 1 and 7pm when it is suppose to be open… maybe.

Instead, we spent the day at the Tampanies mall, the Esplanade (including a walk past the giant Durians (concert hall) to the Merlion and then to Clarke Quay) and Suntec City. We had a small lunch of nasi lamak, 5 satay sticks and an otak in Tampanies.

Dinner was shouted by Jennifer at the Fairmont Hotel which featured a Chinese puppet opera. We were told the opera was in very old Hainanese and that no one in our party understood it, even my Dad’s 2nd oldest sister! It was interesting, neither Ben and I had ever been to a Chinese opera before, let alone a puppet Chinese opera. However, I think Jeremy captured all our sentiments when he said ‘it’s more like noise now than music’ during the 1st of the 4 acts!

Nevertheless, the restaurant pre-empted that no one would understand the opera and left storylines on the tables. A very rough summary of the storyline is this:

Act 1:
General gets injured, pretty girl helps nurse General. They fall in love and ‘become one’.

Act 2:
General is forced by his mother to marry his cousin whom his mother adopted. Because the General is such a mummy’s boy he does so, but doesn’t show the same affection to his wife as he would’ve to the pretty girl in the above act. Mother’s solution to her suspicions about her Son’s failing relationship is to demand a grandson. (Good one Mum.)

Act 3:
We learn about the General’s boy’s success as an imperial scholar. (Please note that we left the scene after this act… we had finished dinner).

Act 4:
Twenty years later, General meets pretty girl who tells of her impregnation when they ‘became one’ and how she bore a Son but had to give him up due to poverty. As the Son had the same name as the boy in Act 3, the General discovers that he adopted his own Son and had become a success. They unite and then it’s happily every after.

Dinner was: Suckling Pig, Peking Duck, Braised Eel, Ginger pork, San Choy Bao duck.

But, who can end a story without a classic example of asianess! Instead of leaving for home straight after dinner we waited around the hotel until 9:30pm. Not because we had nothing to do with our time or there was a long line for an item we wanted. Oh no. We were waiting because at this magical time, all pastries and sandwiches at a particular café (Pregal) were half price! What a bargain and certainly worth the wait! (Please note, heavy sarcasm). At that, I hung my head low to know I was in the company of real Asians and my husband was secretly applauding them for the great idea.

Oh, and another observation, my cousin’s son, Jeremy will one day be well equipped to serenade an unsuspecting girl as he currently knows most of the words from his Mum’s CD of the hits by ‘Michael Learns to Rock’. Very cute.