Forthnights

My holiday

So i know i said Wednesday, but here it is, my account of my little trip. So take a deep breath, take a sit and take your time in reading. Ill try to upload the pics after this

Just so you know, it wasnt easy planning this trip. One, we didnt have much money. Two, it was hard to find a time where all of us were free at the same time, especially since my girlfriend is a student nurse. We left on Thursday night on the 12th October and was back by16th October morning. So it was really a short trip

Off to Pontian

Nothing much to say here; We just went to Puduraya (local bus station), took the earliest but to Pontian and slept all the way there. Well, at least I did. My girlfriend couldn’t since she isn’t accustomed to it. I on the other hand have been traveling long distances since primary school, so needless to say, I slept like a log. Arrived there at 11pm.. and my friends parents brought us on a mini tour around their little township and supper. The town is located right beside the ocean, which is really nice, but unfortunately, there’s no beach. Its all just mud, mud and mud. Its more fishing village than beach resort. I have heard countless times from friends out of town that the food in KL sucks, it comes no where near the ones in theirs smaller but beloved towns. I used to brush it off, thinking its some sort of small town people mentality to defend their town pride against the might and sophistication of a metropolitan, but I found on soon enough through my early supper that they were right all along after all. Yes, it took a lot longer to prepare, but maybe that’s why it taste better. The people there had no great rush or million dollar business to make, so they took time and the pains to do whatever they were doing properly. In KL, as long as the food doesn’t kill you, its fine, even if it looks like prison food. To quote a friend “The food in KL requires little ‘Kung Fu’ to make it big. Bring the same food here (small town) and they wont last a week doing business.” So, when my friend told me that the food in Singapore is worse than anything else I will eat in Pontian, I just had to give her the benefit of the doubt.


Early sunrise, dogs on water and puffer fishes

We were planning to leave to the fishing village (destination for the morning) only at 7am. But since we were on holiday, I was totally not myself. I had this strong urge to start clicking away with my friends digital camera at everything. Top of my list was to see a sunrise by the ocean! What could be more beautiful? Big red sun rising on the blue horizon, lighting up the sky; making it look like the sky was on fire, silhouettes of birds in the sky… I just had to see one this holiday. So I pitched the idea to everyone and agreed to wake up at 5.30am instead of 7.00am to reach the sea side before the sun rises. Did I mention I was out of character? See what I mean? Me? 5.30am? Only on a holiday my friend. Arriving at the seaside, after walking deep into the fishing village, I was ready for that magic moment to be immortalized in my mind. *Sigh* No such luck… Firstly, there was no beach (expected), but mud everywhere. The sun was rising, but we couldn’t see it. Why? Well, thanks to our beloved neighbours in Indonesia, almost the entire country has been covered in haze due to their open burning. We were hoping the haze would lift, but it was worse than ever, and all we say was just fog, for and more fog. But I wasn’t going to let that spoil it all. Instead of birds in the sky, we did other more unexpected things. There were mud skippers ….well.. skipping in the mud…duh… so that was a rare sight for city dwellers, and also dogs…. But these dogs were in the middle of the sea. Let me explain. The place was a fishing village. So, they rear fish in this floating platform by the shore. According to our tour guide (friends father), the dogs were kept on the platform as a companion and a warning alarm at night. It seems there are pirates/looters who steal machinery, fish and anything valuable from these hard working fishermen whenever they can.

He told us how as a kid, he would jump into these waters (or more precisely mud) and play the entire day catching crabs and mud skippers, despite being forbidden by his late mother. That was how they had fun in the old days; tree climbing, swimming in the..ahem.. mud… and cycling on hours end around town. That was living life he said.. Not sitting in front of a computer screen getting virtual experience and virtual fun.. He had a point there.. and for the record, I did climb trees as a kid, but not jump into the mud. After that, we went for breakfast and went on a boat tour around the village and to a mangrove reserve nearby. Again for the record, I ate what I suspect is the worlds-largest-pau during breakfast (see pic to believe)

Boarded the small boat, just the 3 of us, and we were off. Feeling the ocean breeze on my face as the boat moved, I couldn’t have been happier (or sleepier) in coming this early. I took a deep breath and smelt the ocean and..well.. fish (not that romantic huh?). The boat guide showed us around the village, and we even stopped on one of those platforms with the dogs on it. The guide fished out (mind the pun) all sorts of crustaceans and marine life from the nets. Archer fish, puffer fish, small sharks, sting rays, star fish, oysters, sea urchins, we saw them all. The puffer fish was cute, since you could literally hear him puffing to inflate itself when caught. But our tour guide kept on deflating it by squeezing its mouth, only for it to puff all over again. Next, we went the mangrove forest/island, and managed to spot a wild boar and an abandoned ship.. The captain must have been drunk to get the boat up there. (see pic).

After seeing the forest (just trees, trees and oh ya.. mud. Hey, it is a mangrove forest!), we headed back to my friends home, ready to go to Singapore! If course, not before buying the mandatory souvenirs for those at home. Not a bad visit really. We got to see how these fishermen actually live their lives. The seafood there are probably so fresh, you have to kill the fish yourself. Anyway, as a boy used to city life, it was refreshing (and shocking) to see how people live in the village. No shopping mall, no parks, no lrt, buses come once an hour, but plenty of chicken farms, coffee shops and oh yes.. fish!

Singapore, here we come!

So on the bus we went again to meet my friends other relative in Johor Bahru, which is right beside the causeway. After about 1 and a half hours of riding on the bus we met her relative, and that was when I sat a Lexus for the first time in my life… Ill risk sounding like a ‘village’ boy here by saying I was a little excited about it since I have always and ever admired this automotive beauties, albeit from afar. This was my first chance to be inside one of them. With the engine purring down the highway, we arrive at the immigration checkpoint at the border within minutes. We waited for about 30 minutes for 5pm to arrive. Most of the Malaysian cars were doing so since Singapore charges a $20 dollar fee per car entry before 5pm. It was also there that I had my first demonstration of Singaporean efficiency and uptightness and of course the total lack of in our Malaysian counterpart. There is always a great big jam when entering and leaving Singapore by land. But the bottle neck is always at the Singapore side, never on the Malaysian side. You might be forgiven in thinking that our Malaysian immigration officers are so much more efficient. But the reality is, the opposite is much closer to the truth. Crossing the Malaysian immigration, the officer didn’t even bother to look at our faces, he just quickly waved us off without so much as a glance and the whole check took no more than a minute. But across the bridge half a mile away, you see something very different. First thing that caught my eye were rangers wearing great big hats walking around with assault rifles at the ready. They seem to be just watching everything, anticipating something to happen, looking for some suspicious things. You don’t see any “WELCOME TO SINGAPORE!” signs anywhere. The message is clear; no monkey business when in Singapore, or else.

According to my friend, the Singaporeans were much stricter about immigration. They checked every passport, every face, and every car boot tirelessly and diligently. If they even sniff something remotely funny, a strip search will ensue. True to their reputation, the officer was quick at his work, but skipped nothing, carefully matching each passport to each passenger in our car. I guess it comes with being a tiny dot for a country. Ironically, Singapore is so many times richer than Malaysia, with just a fraction of our population, yet their people are so much more insecure about themselves. But to be fair to them, the threat of terrorist attacks is always there, and all the scrutiny convinced me that at least Singapore IS a safer place to live, compared to Malaysia. Our immigration officers couldn’t care less about who goes in and out of the country. He didn’t even look at my face! I could like Osama for all he knew. I guess it shows how laid back we are.

The first welcome message I did get from Singapore was surprisingly from my phone. Suddenly, STARHUB (Singaporean telco) was on my screen and a message of “Welcome to Singapore” was sent to me. So there we were in the car, speeding down the Singaporean highway. 3 things I noticed. The highway is smooth, without pot holes everywhere. In Malaysia, driving feels more live going through London after the Blitz with all the holes and uneven roads. The taxies are so nice and clean! All the taxies in Singapore were Toyota Crowns. The only other kind of taxi I saw was a Mercedes C-Class, but who could possibly afford that? No black smoke, no crazy driving, and no rude nose picking driver. To top it all off, every driver had an LCD screen panel to their right! Why would taxi drivers need an LCD screen? Beats me, but it certainly gave me a good impression. Sensing my preoccupation with the local taxies, my friend informed me that all taxi drivers were require to attend and pass basic hospitality courses to properly treat guest coming to their country; Impressive and very thoughtful. Strangely, everyone warned me against driving into Singapore if you are here for the first time. They said the roads are very confusing, but I found the road signs and directions quite obvious. (Of course, I speak relative to our KL roads, which deliberately mislead you instead of pointing you to the right place) Lastly, being a motorbike rider, I immediately noticed the bikes. There were no Honda EX5s to be seen, no ‘kapchai’ little bikes around like mine. Harleys here, Aprillia’s there. All the bikes were big, beautiful, and very cool. Till the end of my trip, I still didn’t arrive at the answer as to why so many Singaporeans go for such big bikes. The petrol there cost twice to us, and they have no roads to speed on! But I know many of them cross the causeway to travel on our long highways on their giant beast for the weekend.

So I hear that Singapore is squeaky clean. No doubt the city is much much cleaner than KL, but that’s not to say there was not a single piece of rubbish on the floor. There was, and I took photos to prove it. (Man, what’s got into me?) The first place we went was Shin Yu (or was it something else) and Bugis Street. It was a 3 level walkway, entirely covered, so you get the feel of walking outdoors and indoors at the same time. I must say I enjoyed walking around, looking at the shops, since the variety was so much more than what we usually get in KL. I took lots of photos of the place, but was sadly (and accidentally) deleted by my friend. The Bugis street right opposite was a lot like our Petaling Street, with the same concept; Lots of cheap stuff to buy (great souvenirs place) and lots of things to see and eat. Only difference you would expect (being in Singapore after all) was that everything was much more organized, cleaner and price tags were displayed for everything. I bought 4 shirts for Sg$10 dollars. Cheap, even with the exchange rate.

For dinner, we just went back to the shopping mall to eat at the food court. As we went, something dawned on me. There seemed to be many good looking people in Singapore. Many of them were very well dressed, and the women dressed more sexily (again relative to Malaysia) and openly. Not bad if you are trying to ‘cuci mata’ (wash your eyes) with some beautiful sight. But I don’t know if its just me, the people there aren’t that friendly. I’m not talking about the staff at Sentosa Island resort or other tourist spots. I mean the everyday people. They seem to have a slight frown on their face, and a hint of.. is it pride?.. is it arrogance? … I don’t know.. just a hint of snobbishness. I have been told before by my father, and friends who have been to Singapore that the people there aren’t that much of a cheerful lot, but to their credit, their real work horses. By the time I sat down for dinner, my impression of them were pretty much cemented by the lady at the counter who served me my food; ruthlessly efficient, but don’t expect a smile, unless they are charging you for it. Another interesting thing was the toilets. Yes the toilets. To those who have never been in Malaysia, be warned. The toilets here are horrifying. In many places, you have to pay to use the toilet, but don’t expect much. Just get in, do what you need (small business only) and get out before you suffocate. For bigger business, just hold it till you get home. In Singapore, you pay for everything, except toilets. That’s clean, and it’s free!

Back to more serious stuff, after dinner, we stayed at my friend’s relatives place. But of course, being guest there, and being Chinese custom, our host just had to bring us out for a meal. Food has always been the preoccupation of the Chinese. When 2 of them meet, they inevitably ask “Have you eaten?” So, for the second time that day, I sat on (another) Lexus, this time belonging to a different brother (how rich are these people anyway?), and he brought us to Geylang, the red light district of Singapore. Now, I have read a lot about the place, and I was kind of excited to see it. Singapore is a land of contrast, I tell you. There’s the rich who can afford cars and semi-d’s (which are really very expensive there) and the rest of the folk who live in the thousands of apartments and take public transport). Prostitution is legal (to my surprise) but no soliciting. Oral and anal sex is illegal, even among husband and wife. So, being in Singapore for about 8 hours by then, I had my expectations of Geylang street, and it all turned out to be true (boringly predictable), vibrant, clean, no hanky panky. You wouldn’t think you were in a red-light district. Neon lights, busy streets and an entire street full of restaurants. I did spot some scantily clad women, but there was no way of telling who is and not a ‘hostess’. Our host brought us to a Beijing restaurant, and we were served ‘Chinese’ food (meaning from China, which IS different from ours) by mostly ‘Chinese’ waiters. Isn’t that ironic? You travel to Singapore to eat food from China. Despite being in a red light district, everything was kind of ‘upper-class’ and the food amounted to over Sg$200 dollars. Plus, the waiter took our order using a PDA. What happened to pen and paper? Why would a waiter need a PDA? Are you going to Bluetooth the order to the Chef on his PDA to Bluetooth his assistant to start cutting the onions? So after dinner, we retired back to our accommodation and I slept my first and last night in Singapore. We were leaving the next night (it was a short holiday)

Pulau Sentosa, land of synthetic beaches and everything else

So the next day, we went to Harbour Front, ready to cross to Sentosa Island. Sentosa Island is the resort island of Singapore, where all the people go for a weekend of relaxing. We dropped by Vivo city, the newest shopping mall in Singapore, and went for a walk. They had these weird characters walking around in their funny helmet and whistle, urging us to shop. On seeing a camera, they were only too happy to whip out all sorts of poses. They were also these guys going around in the Segway machine, saying good morning to everyone. Nice, something we could really learn from in Malaysia

We initially wanted to take the cable car over to the Island, but it was $15 dollars. Being on a budget, we took the less romantic, but more affordable bus for $1! In Sentosa Island, things are (again) very efficient, and the staff are all super helpful and friendly. (I think it was because we were paying for it!) As expected, every attraction on Sentosa required an additional ticket purchase. Being the cheapskate I was (hey, I’m not rich you know), we went to all the ‘free’ stuff, with the exception of the Underwater World, which was $20 dollars, but we just had to go, since I have been hearing about it since I was a kid. Visited the ‘fake’ Merlion. (according to my friend, the real one is somewhere else), the Underwater World, the beach and the water fountain show. To me, the best part of it was still the beach. My girlfriend has been badgering me for months and months to bring her to a beach. And one of her prerequisites during this holiday was to go to a beach, any beach. So, I finally fulfilled her wish, and we both dipped our toes into the waters of the beach together. Now, Singapore has no natural beach. If you want clear blue waters, with corals, sandy beaches, snorkeling, come to Malaysia; go to Redang, Or Pangkor, or the Islands off Sabah. It’s one of the best in the world. But if you want 7-eleven to your left, and a synthetic beach to your right, come to Singapore. The sand is uniform, all of the same size (which is kind of strange) so its different from walking on a real beach. There’s no crabs, there’s no random rock here and there…. Just a uniform, strategically planned out beach, convenience, just another walk away. Which speaks volume s of their society.

Synthetic or not, I walked and walked with my girlfriend along the beach, savouring the moment together. I’m not the romantic type, but I was glad that we had that moment together. At the end of the trip, I told my girlfriend “If after traveling all the way to Singapore, and spending the money we have, all we did was walk on that beach, I would still consider the trip worthwhile.” I never fancy shopping malls, and the thing I enjoyed the most was still something simple and free, a walk on a beach with the one I love. That is invaluable, more than diamonds or pearls, more than anything else in the world. To end our trip to Sentosa, we went to the Water fountain show. Packed to the max, it was a laser show with water fountains catching the lights. Battling through the loads of tourist all around, we rushed to the bus stand to catch the bus back to the ‘mainland’, to in turn rush to Johor to in turn rush back to KL! I seriously thought that we weren’t going to make it since the line was sooOo long! But my worries proved unfounded. Typical of them, the buses came one after another in quick succession, and what would have been a 4 hour wait in Malaysia took about 10 minutes to clear. I guess they predicted the lines too.

But as efficient as they were, I still couldn’t shake off my impression of Singaporeans. Not too courteous people. I saw little smiles from them, notorious for being kiasu and materialistic. Did you know that their divorce rate is something like 30%? Many of their women don’t get married even into their 30’s. Some say its because they want a career. Others say its because they have high requirements of their husband, and being so successful themselves, there are little Singaporean men who can live up to their standards. The men on the other hand have taken to marrying Malaysian women, or even Vietnamese women; more feminine, less materialistic and more down to earth, cited as the main reasons. (That’s right Malaysian ladies, you show them how to behave!) As for the Vietnamese, they actually get married through marriage agencies, who supply young, willing, virgin brides from Vietnam from $20,000 to be married to lonely Singaporean men who just ‘don’t have time’ to find a wife, or can’t match their demands. Back on the bus, I could help but notice it was every man for himself when it comes to sitting. The younger men and women just sat glued to their seats, despite an elderly man standing so obviously in front of them. No doubt, they had the right to keep their seats and not give it up, but it does not make them right in doing it.

Home sweet home!

Uneventfully, we crossed the Johor causeway, passing through the Singaporean and Malaysian immigration. Same scenario as entering, so there’s no need to elaborate. As I turned back and watch Singapore Island getting smaller and smaller, I told myself “Well, that’s my first holiday, but it won’t be my last. I’ll be back.” We boarded the bus in Johor at 1a.m. and arrived early in the morning to home sweet KL. Not a bad place to live in really, especially if you have money. Everything is so modern and nice, Singapore. Despite all that I have said, it is a lot like Malaysia, only one step better in everything; at least, everything material. Their people are hard workers, maybe a little too hard. Ours on the other hand don’t work had enough. We laugh at their kiasu’ness and materialism, they laugh at our laziness and laid back attitude. We envy their facilities and wealth. They envy our warmth and friendliness.

Overall, it was a memorable holiday for me. One with all sorts of contrast, from the rural fishing village in Pontian, where people (can afford to) wait for hours for a bus to ultra modern Singapore, were everyone’ in a hurry, too busy to smile or get married; from the mangrove forest of Kukup to the not-so-seedy red light district of Geylang. Its great to be able to see these different walks of life. Interestingly, by seeing more of others and how they live, we actually understand ourselves better, more aware of how we live and how we want to in the future, whether its in a rural village or giant metropolitan. In the mean time, I was glad to be back in KL. Despite all its inadequacies, it is still a place I grew up in, a place I love, and a place I call home.

posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 5:53 pm Comments: 0