After 15 hours of flight time & a total of 24 hours of travel time, we are back in our nook of the world in Los Angeles, California.
We left Pan-Pacific Hotel at 6:30am, ate some mediocre dim sum at the Singapore Airport, & boarded a 9:40am flight with Singapore Airlines. After a 6-hour flight, we landed around 6pm in Tokyo's Narita Airport for an hour layover, went through security for connecting flights, & hopped back onto the same place (different staff) for a 9-hour flight to Los Angeles.
The way back west was much faster than our first trip going toward Asia. With tailwind, we cut an hour from our Tokyo-to-LA flight. We were also better at managing Atticus, who was, again, so well behaved that he cried 2-3 times for no longer than 3 min. His problem was easy to figure out: he was hungry. On our descent into Los Angeles, he sat on my lap with his own infant seat belt & smiled & laughed with the flight attendant who sat opposite us. He was an angel on board.
Next to us sat a young Indian couple with a boy of about 1.5 years of age. He was a incorrigible little brat, but from watching him interact with his parents, it was clear to us that his parents were to blame for his behavior. On taking off from Singapore Airport, the boy cried loudly & uncontrollably upon being put into the infant seat belt, & instead of chastising his behavior, they argued with the flight attendants on the necessity of using the belt. As we took off, the mother pulled him out & held him, & the flight attendants looked over at her disapprovingly. The parents also resisted putting their belongings in the overhead compartment. Since we were sitting in the bulkhead seats, we had no storage space under our feet, so everything went up top. The poor, beleaguered flight attendants had to explain, insist, & warn the parents to comply with the policy.
Throughout the flight from Singapore to Tokyo, the little boy was either misbehaving or crying. He would sweep his hand over his father's food tray & send cups & utensils spilling onto the ground. He would pick up his toys & throw them at his mother or on the floor. Or he would just cry loudly when he didn't get his way. Instead of admonishing him, the doting parents tried distraction, placing another object in front of his face or picking him up. They gave him an ice cream bar, which he held & ate, though he spilled chunks of ice cream all over his mother's lap & seat.
Robby wanted to speak with the parents about his behavior, but I warned him of a recently established rule that we have been discussing lately:
Never criticize a parent about his/her parenting.
Nothing productive can come of it. Parents already feel insecurity about their skills as parents, so criticizing them will make them angry & defensive. I reassured Robby that the parents probably already felt embarrassed by the irritating scene that their son was making. It was obvious to everyone that their little boy controlled them. The descent into Tokyo was another melodramatic scene with the little boy & parents' refusal to use the infant seat belt. I had to sing to Atticus to keep him from turning his head toward the little boy & crying from empathy (Robby has told me something about mirror neurons...).
At Narita Airport in Tokyo, I kept my fingers crossed & wished that another family would be placed in our row, but to our misfortune, the same family returned. This time, before taking off, Robby suggested to the mother that she administer Baby Benadryl to her son to calm him. What a suggestion...your child is inconsolable, so give him some drugs! She said that his behavior wasn't so bad & that worse behavior might warrant some baby drug use. Luckily, for the entire flight, the boy was reasonably quiet. I don't think his parents changed their behavior, but I think that he was tired.
In conclusion, parents do not welcome criticism of any sort about their parenting skills. They/we are very sensitive about them & will react with anger, denial, or resentment. They might be thinking, "Try raising this kid" or "You don't know a thing about kids" or "You've got one kid, try raising two!" & it's true, we're new parents with a pleasant-tempered 4-month-old baby. WE LUCKED OUT with such a well-behaved baby. So we might as well count our blessings & keep our mouths shut when other parents struggle.
Now with that said, I have to go back my older postings & insert pictures.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Day 6: Red Light District & Satay
Slow morning today. At 9:30am, we have to queue in a long line for the breakfast buffet of our hotel. After a scrumptious meal of rice porridge, dim sum, salad, noodle soup, roti prata, vegetable samosas, & muffins, we walk around the Millenia Walk Mall adjacent to the hotel & come back to our room to rest. Atticus is very tired & a bit fussy, so we think it best to let him sleep in his crib.
After a nap, we head to Geylang to meet a few of Robby's colleagues. Geylang is Singapore's red light district. The temperature outside is unbearably hot & oppressive, & we walk towards Geylang from the MRT station in searing heat. Poor Atticus. He is drenched in his own sweat. We find Patrick & Scott in the middle of Geylang District, which appears to be pretty quiet and unassuming in the afternoon. The night walkers & johns don't emerge until 7pm, we're informed. We do pass a few massage parlors with women standing outside. They look into the stroller as we pass, & both Robby & I notice the melancholy expression on their face as they see Atticus. We guess what they might be thinking. Even though it is not time for the prostitutes to come out, the street is filled with mostly men, loitering men who sit at open-air restaurants. Everyone looks curiously at us, a couple who has brought their baby to the seediest & most licentious place in Singapore. We see a few prostitutes waiting on the side of the street. They are dressed up, teetering in heels & modestly covered with make-up. We also walk by a brothel, a large house set back from the street with beaded curtains in front of all the doors and windows and women sitting on plastic chairs inside.
Although Singapore is famous for its strict adherence to moral laws, the government seems to leave the Geylang District alone. It is hardly immaculate with its littered streets. There isn't a family or a child in sight. It doesn't have the touristy feeling of Amsterdam's red light district or the glitzy lights of Tokyo's red light district. Here, people are allows to indulge in the usual vices. This place depresses me, & I can't imagine the lives of the women who work & live here.
(We've been told that prostitution is legal here.)
For dinner, we meet up with Joe at Lau Pa Sat, a hawker food court near Raffles Plaza & the business district of Singapore. A few blocks are closed to cars & tables are set out for patrons. We are here for the satay. With smoke billowing from the food stalls, the hawkers aggressively usher us to empty tables & follow us as we wander to look for Joe. When we finally sit down, we order over 70 skewers of chicken, lamb, beef, & shrimp. Each skewer has two small pieces of meat, so we each eat around 20 skewers. 
The satay sauce is delicious & a little spicy. Different than the satay sauce we get at Thai restaurants in the U.S. But Robby & I wish that we had come to Lau Pa Sat earlier this week. It's an incredible experience.
We return to Los Angeles tomorrow on a 9:30am flight. It's another 16-hour flight...23 hours of travel time, from waiting at airports to layovers to picking up luggage...
Goodbye, Singapore! Goodbye, Pan-Pacific Hotel, the most extravagant hotel we've stayed in! Goodbye, Chinatown, Little India, & Kampong Glam (Arab District). Goodbye, Doby Ghaut, Orchard Road, City Hall, Esplanade, & Raffles Plaza! Goodbye, Sun-Tec Convention Centre & Food Republic! Goodbye, dim sum, soy milk, paratha/prata/roti prata, congee (rice porridge), satay, black pepper crab, bee hoon noodles!
After a nap, we head to Geylang to meet a few of Robby's colleagues. Geylang is Singapore's red light district. The temperature outside is unbearably hot & oppressive, & we walk towards Geylang from the MRT station in searing heat. Poor Atticus. He is drenched in his own sweat. We find Patrick & Scott in the middle of Geylang District, which appears to be pretty quiet and unassuming in the afternoon. The night walkers & johns don't emerge until 7pm, we're informed. We do pass a few massage parlors with women standing outside. They look into the stroller as we pass, & both Robby & I notice the melancholy expression on their face as they see Atticus. We guess what they might be thinking. Even though it is not time for the prostitutes to come out, the street is filled with mostly men, loitering men who sit at open-air restaurants. Everyone looks curiously at us, a couple who has brought their baby to the seediest & most licentious place in Singapore. We see a few prostitutes waiting on the side of the street. They are dressed up, teetering in heels & modestly covered with make-up. We also walk by a brothel, a large house set back from the street with beaded curtains in front of all the doors and windows and women sitting on plastic chairs inside. Although Singapore is famous for its strict adherence to moral laws, the government seems to leave the Geylang District alone. It is hardly immaculate with its littered streets. There isn't a family or a child in sight. It doesn't have the touristy feeling of Amsterdam's red light district or the glitzy lights of Tokyo's red light district. Here, people are allows to indulge in the usual vices. This place depresses me, & I can't imagine the lives of the women who work & live here.
(We've been told that prostitution is legal here.)
For dinner, we meet up with Joe at Lau Pa Sat, a hawker food court near Raffles Plaza & the business district of Singapore. A few blocks are closed to cars & tables are set out for patrons. We are here for the satay. With smoke billowing from the food stalls, the hawkers aggressively usher us to empty tables & follow us as we wander to look for Joe. When we finally sit down, we order over 70 skewers of chicken, lamb, beef, & shrimp. Each skewer has two small pieces of meat, so we each eat around 20 skewers. 
The satay sauce is delicious & a little spicy. Different than the satay sauce we get at Thai restaurants in the U.S. But Robby & I wish that we had come to Lau Pa Sat earlier this week. It's an incredible experience.We return to Los Angeles tomorrow on a 9:30am flight. It's another 16-hour flight...23 hours of travel time, from waiting at airports to layovers to picking up luggage...
Goodbye, Singapore! Goodbye, Pan-Pacific Hotel, the most extravagant hotel we've stayed in! Goodbye, Chinatown, Little India, & Kampong Glam (Arab District). Goodbye, Doby Ghaut, Orchard Road, City Hall, Esplanade, & Raffles Plaza! Goodbye, Sun-Tec Convention Centre & Food Republic! Goodbye, dim sum, soy milk, paratha/prata/roti prata, congee (rice porridge), satay, black pepper crab, bee hoon noodles!
Day Five: Megamalls on Orchard Rd. & the Night Safari
Today is another family day. We plan on going to Kampong Glam (known to tourists as Arab Quarters), but when we wake up at 6am, there is a thunderstorm pouring down outside. The sky is white & misty & appears to be foggy. But with a closer look, we see medium-sized drops of torrential rain. Not a good day to be outside.
We have a yummy breakfast at the Food Republic food court in the Sun-Tec Convention Centre: pratas (a Singaporean invention based on the the paratha - pretty much the same thing), warm soy milk, a curry puff, & a sesame ball filled with red bean & peanut chunks).
The food court is behind us in this photo.
Since the rain has not let up by 10am, our destination is Orchard Road. Originally, we were not planning to go there - the street is full of huge malls & international brands, much like Ometesando Road in the Harajuku area of Tokyo... not up our alley as far as tourist destinations go. But we figure that the malls will offer some shelter from the wet. We take the MRT from City Hall to Orchard Road & emerge from the subway station to see a large street lined with enormous modern-looking malls, mostly glass and steel buildings with outdoor digital advertisements.
Besides the massive malls, Orchard Road is lined with tall, tropical Heritage trees which had thin, dark trunks & a wide umbrella-like canopy of leaves. They're beautiful, lush, & add so much green to the steel city.
In the cheaper, no-AC, no-lift (what they call elevators here) Lucky Plaza, I find the one souvenir I want from Singapore. I couldn't find it in neither Chinatown nor in Little India. The problem with buying souvenirs in Singapore is that this country is such a product of distinct regional & ethnic culture that it's hard to find something distinctly Singaporean besides the food (& it's a shame we can't bring the food home). Souvenirs can be distinctly Chinese (marble stamps and lion-dancing puppets) or Indian (bejeweled jewelry boxes or little brightly painted Vishnu statues). But I've discovered my fondness for the uniforms of Singapore Airlines flight attendants, particularly the print of their clothing, so a few days ago I set the goal of searching for the fabric. I find it in Lucky Plaza, but it costs of pretty penny: $45 for a 2-meter square. I have a feeling I have paid too much for it, but Robby is absent (getting hot water to heat Atticus's milk) when I try to bargain. He is far superior than I am in the art of bargaining. I don't have the stamina or wit for it. I buy the fabric $15 less than ticket price, but I have a feeling the saleswoman would have dropped her price even more if I had hesitated a bit more. Oh well. I hope I wasn't ripped off too much.
One observation: The majority of housekeeping staff members in our luxury hotel are young men. Why is that?
Another observations: I have encountered more young men who speak English more fluently and comfortably than young women.
We have lunch at a far-out mall called Orchard Central. We find a Mos Burger there, a fast food, hamburger joint we adored in Japan. I have a Mos Cheeseburger, & Robby has a Spicy Mos Burger & Rice Ebi Burger. It isn't as good as I remember it. Here is Robby with the Mos Burger menu:
In the evening, we meet up with 14 other ICA convention-goers (mostly graduate students from USC Annenberg East & West) & walk to Carlton Hotel for a $5 shuttle to the Night Safari. We brave our way through Friday evening traffic. When we arrive to the Night Safari, we are immediately disappointed. The decor looks too much like Disneyland. Employees wear safari outfits, the entrance is decked with fake huts...Generic Polynesian percussion music blaring from the speakers. There are hundreds of tourists milling about, mostly families with rambunctious kids. Tickets are a hefty $22 with $10 for the tram ride. All of us graduate students grumble as we stand in line to buy tickets. Some of us have been traveling or will travel through other Southeast Asian countries & need our money to stretch a bit more. Atticus is tired & grumpy, but thankfully he sleeps through most of our trip through the Night Safari. We hop onto a long tram, & a guide sits at the front & explains the animal habitats on our route through the safari. The path is dark and dimly lit, & each habitat is softly lit with a tall lamp. Between us & the animals is a small, shallow stream. We see lions (between us is a large ditch), deer, rhinoceros, elephants, tigers, hippos, different kinds of hyenas, giant rats, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, mountain goats, the Southeast Asian version of the wart hog, etc. Halfway through the ride, we hop off & take the walking path. We see civets, large otters (hanging out on tree branches), clouded leopards (one stands on a branch staring at the lion across the way), leopards, flying squirrels (very large, fuzzy squirrels that could beat the crap out of our college campus squirrels), & smelly porcupines. Our most favorite experience of all is walking through the bat enclosure. In the dark, we find small bats hanging upside down from branches & flying silently past us from tree to tree. They are both cute & frightening looking, with their big eyes & rodent-like face & angular, skeletal wings & little claws. They hang from trees looking like dried leaves, squirming ornaments. On the netted ceiling of the enclosure are much larger bats that hang, large cocoon structures that make us think of science fiction aliens. No wonder these creatures evoke horror stories.
Keep in mind that we see all of these animals (except the lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceros, & hippos) up close and personal. The bats & flying squirrels are an arm's length away, & though the leopard is behind glass, he stretches & sleeps just a few feet from us. Despite the cheesy amusement-park feeling, the Night Safari is worth the visit. This isn't meant to be ironic, but the animals, especially the bats, make it all worth it.
Did you know that Malay tigers can climb trees? Or that hippos can open their mouths up to 150 degrees wide? Or that hyenas' jaws have the strength of 1000 pounds?
We have a yummy breakfast at the Food Republic food court in the Sun-Tec Convention Centre: pratas (a Singaporean invention based on the the paratha - pretty much the same thing), warm soy milk, a curry puff, & a sesame ball filled with red bean & peanut chunks).
The food court is behind us in this photo.Since the rain has not let up by 10am, our destination is Orchard Road. Originally, we were not planning to go there - the street is full of huge malls & international brands, much like Ometesando Road in the Harajuku area of Tokyo... not up our alley as far as tourist destinations go. But we figure that the malls will offer some shelter from the wet. We take the MRT from City Hall to Orchard Road & emerge from the subway station to see a large street lined with enormous modern-looking malls, mostly glass and steel buildings with outdoor digital advertisements.
Besides the massive malls, Orchard Road is lined with tall, tropical Heritage trees which had thin, dark trunks & a wide umbrella-like canopy of leaves. They're beautiful, lush, & add so much green to the steel city.
In the cheaper, no-AC, no-lift (what they call elevators here) Lucky Plaza, I find the one souvenir I want from Singapore. I couldn't find it in neither Chinatown nor in Little India. The problem with buying souvenirs in Singapore is that this country is such a product of distinct regional & ethnic culture that it's hard to find something distinctly Singaporean besides the food (& it's a shame we can't bring the food home). Souvenirs can be distinctly Chinese (marble stamps and lion-dancing puppets) or Indian (bejeweled jewelry boxes or little brightly painted Vishnu statues). But I've discovered my fondness for the uniforms of Singapore Airlines flight attendants, particularly the print of their clothing, so a few days ago I set the goal of searching for the fabric. I find it in Lucky Plaza, but it costs of pretty penny: $45 for a 2-meter square. I have a feeling I have paid too much for it, but Robby is absent (getting hot water to heat Atticus's milk) when I try to bargain. He is far superior than I am in the art of bargaining. I don't have the stamina or wit for it. I buy the fabric $15 less than ticket price, but I have a feeling the saleswoman would have dropped her price even more if I had hesitated a bit more. Oh well. I hope I wasn't ripped off too much.
One observation: The majority of housekeeping staff members in our luxury hotel are young men. Why is that?
Another observations: I have encountered more young men who speak English more fluently and comfortably than young women.
We have lunch at a far-out mall called Orchard Central. We find a Mos Burger there, a fast food, hamburger joint we adored in Japan. I have a Mos Cheeseburger, & Robby has a Spicy Mos Burger & Rice Ebi Burger. It isn't as good as I remember it. Here is Robby with the Mos Burger menu:
In the evening, we meet up with 14 other ICA convention-goers (mostly graduate students from USC Annenberg East & West) & walk to Carlton Hotel for a $5 shuttle to the Night Safari. We brave our way through Friday evening traffic. When we arrive to the Night Safari, we are immediately disappointed. The decor looks too much like Disneyland. Employees wear safari outfits, the entrance is decked with fake huts...Generic Polynesian percussion music blaring from the speakers. There are hundreds of tourists milling about, mostly families with rambunctious kids. Tickets are a hefty $22 with $10 for the tram ride. All of us graduate students grumble as we stand in line to buy tickets. Some of us have been traveling or will travel through other Southeast Asian countries & need our money to stretch a bit more. Atticus is tired & grumpy, but thankfully he sleeps through most of our trip through the Night Safari. We hop onto a long tram, & a guide sits at the front & explains the animal habitats on our route through the safari. The path is dark and dimly lit, & each habitat is softly lit with a tall lamp. Between us & the animals is a small, shallow stream. We see lions (between us is a large ditch), deer, rhinoceros, elephants, tigers, hippos, different kinds of hyenas, giant rats, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, mountain goats, the Southeast Asian version of the wart hog, etc. Halfway through the ride, we hop off & take the walking path. We see civets, large otters (hanging out on tree branches), clouded leopards (one stands on a branch staring at the lion across the way), leopards, flying squirrels (very large, fuzzy squirrels that could beat the crap out of our college campus squirrels), & smelly porcupines. Our most favorite experience of all is walking through the bat enclosure. In the dark, we find small bats hanging upside down from branches & flying silently past us from tree to tree. They are both cute & frightening looking, with their big eyes & rodent-like face & angular, skeletal wings & little claws. They hang from trees looking like dried leaves, squirming ornaments. On the netted ceiling of the enclosure are much larger bats that hang, large cocoon structures that make us think of science fiction aliens. No wonder these creatures evoke horror stories.
Keep in mind that we see all of these animals (except the lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceros, & hippos) up close and personal. The bats & flying squirrels are an arm's length away, & though the leopard is behind glass, he stretches & sleeps just a few feet from us. Despite the cheesy amusement-park feeling, the Night Safari is worth the visit. This isn't meant to be ironic, but the animals, especially the bats, make it all worth it.
Did you know that Malay tigers can climb trees? Or that hippos can open their mouths up to 150 degrees wide? Or that hyenas' jaws have the strength of 1000 pounds?
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Day Four: Wakeful Baby, Chinatown cuisine, Little India
Last night was a rough one. Atticus went to sleep at 10:30pm without a fuss, but he woke up at 2, 4, 5, & 6am to feed. At 4 & 5am, he cried out & thrashed around. At 2 & 6am, he stirred whenever the pacifier fell out, so I decided to feed him anyway. He drank 3-4oz of milk for the first three feedings, then 1.5oz at 6am.
What's going on? How come he is constantly hungry?
Here we are giving Atticus a bath in the sink:
___________________________________
This morning, we return to Chinatown via MRT (subway). Emerging from the Chinatown MRT, we find difficulty getting to the ground floor & end up carrying the baby + stroller down a long flight of stairs. We stroll along the shopping stalls, making our way to the Buddha Relic Tooth Temple & the Chinese Complex.
Lonely Planet is right: Chinatown does appear to have received a Disneyland makeover. The buildings are obviously old but newly painted on the outside with brightly colored shutters that cover seemingly fake windows. Despite the touristy appearance, there is an air of poverty in this neighborhood. Old Chinese people linger around public parks, trudge along alleyways carrying lots of bags, play Chinese chess in open-air squares. This Chinatown reminds me every Chinatown that I've been to - from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Montreal, Chicago, New York, & Boston. It is occupied by an older Cantonese-speaking generation & it looks like it might have been a lively community thriving on something other than tourism once a long time ago.
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple looks innocuous from the outside. There's a small display with incense burning in front of it. When we walk past it & a sign that prohibits the wearing of sleeveless, bareback shirts & miniskirts (I cover up appropriately with a proffered shawl), we enter another small room with a golden bodhisattva & a beautiful red & white rug depicting a lotus flower. Beyond that is a large room with hundreds of Buddhas built into the walls. A huge, thin, sitting golden Buddha sits on one end of the room, & facing it are some orange-clad Buddhist monks & many people reading & chanting in unison. Each monk chants into a microphone, with a head monk sitting above & facing everyone, & each person in the congregation (most of them are old people) hold a book full of sutras, I think. They chant in Mandarin, as far as I can tell. The loud, deafening chant has a soothing quality to it, & the sound ebbs from soft to loud like steady breathing. It's very captivating.
The pedestrian street full of food stalls is closed during the day, so we meander along the small streets, looking at the generic Chinese souvenir shops. The alleys remind me of the LA fashion district, where each storefront is an awning with tables of wares - kitschy gold and red decorations, cheap t-shirts, silly magnets, etc. Robby is thirsty so we purchase a cup of grass jelly, apparently a very common drink here, & a cup of soya milo (chocolate soy milk), which tastes even more disgusting than Ovaltine. It's actually a Nestle product. We buy a few delicious pastries at a pastry shop: lau po bing, lotus seed bun,and a BBQ chicken pastry. They are fresh & piping hot. The outer crusts are not greasy but flaky and buttery.
Then we explore the China Complex & find a large hawker food court upstairs. Our first purchase is a failure; the stir-fried rice noodle with shrimp is limp, saucy, & overcooked. Our despair disappears when we buy a few cups of sugar cane juice, freshly squeezed by an old man using a large, strange juicing contraption. The juice is so refreshing and light that our spirits and energy are lifted. 
We wander the food court some more but are too hesitant to order any food after the gross noodles. We see many people eating from large plates of whole boiled or steamed fish. Some people are eating fish head stew. Pretty elaborate dishes for a simple food court.
The weather is considerably hot with the sun out. The baby is being pretty patient considering the lower half of his body is suffocating in a diaper. We stumble upon a Hindu temple called Sri Mariamman Temple, pay a small fee to get in, & wander around to look at the colorful statues of gods. Musicians playing loud percussion instruments perform at near the head of the altar, where tourists are prohibited. Thankfully, Atticus doesn't freak out from the clanging cymbals & thumping drum. Actually, he smiles as he looks around at the Hindu followers in colorful attire & make-up.
Later in the afternoon, we take the MRT to Little India, which is packed with Indian people. The streets busy & the sidewalks narrow. We find a large banyan tree on the corner of two streets & walk much of the length of Serangoon Road. I notice that many jewelry shops that sell gold are run by Chinese merchants. There are some glamour-shot studios & beauty salons that offer eyebrow threading. We are too tired & hungry to do the walking tour offered by the Lonely Planet guide, so we find a restaurant to sit and rest. Robby orders a rava masala dosa (spelled "dosai" on the menu), a chili crab masala, & a salty lassi, while I order a masala dosa, plain paratha, & mango lassi. The food is outstanding. I have never had a paratha before, & I fall in love with the texture and taste of it. It is a bread that is spun & stretched to a thin layer, covered in oil, & folded over & placed on a grill. The result is a bread that is both chewy & crunchy.
I'm glad we finally hit up both Chinatown & Little India. Chinatown is definitely more touristy with its brightly painted buildings & souvenir shops (not unlike the ones in San Francisco Chinatown). The facade of Chinatown hardly hides its poverty. We heard that Little India is filled with itinerant workers, but I don't think I saw any today. Little India feels more like a community where Indian Singaporeans reside, not a tourist trap. I'm very happy about our exploration of Sinaporean food. I'm glad to leave the business district for better meals.
Hindu souvenirs
What's going on? How come he is constantly hungry?
Here we are giving Atticus a bath in the sink:
___________________________________
This morning, we return to Chinatown via MRT (subway). Emerging from the Chinatown MRT, we find difficulty getting to the ground floor & end up carrying the baby + stroller down a long flight of stairs. We stroll along the shopping stalls, making our way to the Buddha Relic Tooth Temple & the Chinese Complex.
Lonely Planet is right: Chinatown does appear to have received a Disneyland makeover. The buildings are obviously old but newly painted on the outside with brightly colored shutters that cover seemingly fake windows. Despite the touristy appearance, there is an air of poverty in this neighborhood. Old Chinese people linger around public parks, trudge along alleyways carrying lots of bags, play Chinese chess in open-air squares. This Chinatown reminds me every Chinatown that I've been to - from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Montreal, Chicago, New York, & Boston. It is occupied by an older Cantonese-speaking generation & it looks like it might have been a lively community thriving on something other than tourism once a long time ago.
The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple looks innocuous from the outside. There's a small display with incense burning in front of it. When we walk past it & a sign that prohibits the wearing of sleeveless, bareback shirts & miniskirts (I cover up appropriately with a proffered shawl), we enter another small room with a golden bodhisattva & a beautiful red & white rug depicting a lotus flower. Beyond that is a large room with hundreds of Buddhas built into the walls. A huge, thin, sitting golden Buddha sits on one end of the room, & facing it are some orange-clad Buddhist monks & many people reading & chanting in unison. Each monk chants into a microphone, with a head monk sitting above & facing everyone, & each person in the congregation (most of them are old people) hold a book full of sutras, I think. They chant in Mandarin, as far as I can tell. The loud, deafening chant has a soothing quality to it, & the sound ebbs from soft to loud like steady breathing. It's very captivating.
The pedestrian street full of food stalls is closed during the day, so we meander along the small streets, looking at the generic Chinese souvenir shops. The alleys remind me of the LA fashion district, where each storefront is an awning with tables of wares - kitschy gold and red decorations, cheap t-shirts, silly magnets, etc. Robby is thirsty so we purchase a cup of grass jelly, apparently a very common drink here, & a cup of soya milo (chocolate soy milk), which tastes even more disgusting than Ovaltine. It's actually a Nestle product. We buy a few delicious pastries at a pastry shop: lau po bing, lotus seed bun,and a BBQ chicken pastry. They are fresh & piping hot. The outer crusts are not greasy but flaky and buttery.
Then we explore the China Complex & find a large hawker food court upstairs. Our first purchase is a failure; the stir-fried rice noodle with shrimp is limp, saucy, & overcooked. Our despair disappears when we buy a few cups of sugar cane juice, freshly squeezed by an old man using a large, strange juicing contraption. The juice is so refreshing and light that our spirits and energy are lifted. 
We wander the food court some more but are too hesitant to order any food after the gross noodles. We see many people eating from large plates of whole boiled or steamed fish. Some people are eating fish head stew. Pretty elaborate dishes for a simple food court.The weather is considerably hot with the sun out. The baby is being pretty patient considering the lower half of his body is suffocating in a diaper. We stumble upon a Hindu temple called Sri Mariamman Temple, pay a small fee to get in, & wander around to look at the colorful statues of gods. Musicians playing loud percussion instruments perform at near the head of the altar, where tourists are prohibited. Thankfully, Atticus doesn't freak out from the clanging cymbals & thumping drum. Actually, he smiles as he looks around at the Hindu followers in colorful attire & make-up.
Later in the afternoon, we take the MRT to Little India, which is packed with Indian people. The streets busy & the sidewalks narrow. We find a large banyan tree on the corner of two streets & walk much of the length of Serangoon Road. I notice that many jewelry shops that sell gold are run by Chinese merchants. There are some glamour-shot studios & beauty salons that offer eyebrow threading. We are too tired & hungry to do the walking tour offered by the Lonely Planet guide, so we find a restaurant to sit and rest. Robby orders a rava masala dosa (spelled "dosai" on the menu), a chili crab masala, & a salty lassi, while I order a masala dosa, plain paratha, & mango lassi. The food is outstanding. I have never had a paratha before, & I fall in love with the texture and taste of it. It is a bread that is spun & stretched to a thin layer, covered in oil, & folded over & placed on a grill. The result is a bread that is both chewy & crunchy.
I'm glad we finally hit up both Chinatown & Little India. Chinatown is definitely more touristy with its brightly painted buildings & souvenir shops (not unlike the ones in San Francisco Chinatown). The facade of Chinatown hardly hides its poverty. We heard that Little India is filled with itinerant workers, but I don't think I saw any today. Little India feels more like a community where Indian Singaporeans reside, not a tourist trap. I'm very happy about our exploration of Sinaporean food. I'm glad to leave the business district for better meals.
Hindu souvenirs
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Where are all the mixed children?
Atticus gets lots of stares here. Robby & I get lots of stares as well.
This confuses me. Singapore is a mecca of Asian, South Asian, & Southeast Asian cultures. Singaporeans learn English at school, but they also pick up several other languages in school and at home. Many of their families have been here for generations, not like the United States, where most Asian Americans are first immigrants or second generation offspring. There doesn't seem to be a clear indigenous group here, unless it's the Malays. It's just a panoply of Asian cultures. Yet, we see very few interracial or interethnic couples. We see exclusively Chinese couples, exclusively Indian couples, etc. We have yet to see an interethnic couple.
Where are they? Is it taboo?
It occurs to me that perhaps people from ethnic groups seek out one another because they speak the same home language. If I speak Mandarin in my community, why date someone who speaks Hindi?
Nonetheless, this issue baffles me. I will have to find someone to ask...
Oh, Atticus gets stared at ALL the time. I am almost afraid that one moment I'll look away & look back to find him gone, kidnapped by an eager Singaporean woman who has been smiling at him in the subway. I know, I sound paranoid. I'm not used to being in a culture where people love children & babies so much. In America, we can express interest in strangers' children, but we always maintain a clear aloofness so as not to appear suspicious. Locals here like to smile at him, sometime tap his blanket or his hand. They show a real genuine interest in interacting with him. I like that.
This confuses me. Singapore is a mecca of Asian, South Asian, & Southeast Asian cultures. Singaporeans learn English at school, but they also pick up several other languages in school and at home. Many of their families have been here for generations, not like the United States, where most Asian Americans are first immigrants or second generation offspring. There doesn't seem to be a clear indigenous group here, unless it's the Malays. It's just a panoply of Asian cultures. Yet, we see very few interracial or interethnic couples. We see exclusively Chinese couples, exclusively Indian couples, etc. We have yet to see an interethnic couple.
Where are they? Is it taboo?
It occurs to me that perhaps people from ethnic groups seek out one another because they speak the same home language. If I speak Mandarin in my community, why date someone who speaks Hindi?
Nonetheless, this issue baffles me. I will have to find someone to ask...
Oh, Atticus gets stared at ALL the time. I am almost afraid that one moment I'll look away & look back to find him gone, kidnapped by an eager Singaporean woman who has been smiling at him in the subway. I know, I sound paranoid. I'm not used to being in a culture where people love children & babies so much. In America, we can express interest in strangers' children, but we always maintain a clear aloofness so as not to appear suspicious. Locals here like to smile at him, sometime tap his blanket or his hand. They show a real genuine interest in interacting with him. I like that.
Day Three: Atticus Got the Crabs in Singapore
Tonight, we meet up with Robby's colleague and head to Chinatown. We stumble upon a busy pedestrian alleyway filled with restaurants on one side & food stalls on the other, with tables on the street. Finally, some food outside of the business district!
We start with a snack of satay (chicken, pork, & mutton). They are 60 and 70 cents apiece & they are very small - only two pieces of meat on each skewer. Skimpy, if you ask me. The peanut sauce is delicious, a dark brown sauce with peanut chunks...not at all like the smooth peanut butter consistency we get in the states. I could be very happy just pouring it over rice & gobbling it up.
Then we find another stall with black pepper crab for $19 a piece. We hear that the black pepper crab is better than Singapore's famous chili crab. We order a plate of two, along with a plate of ong greens (sauteed with lots of garlic & a jalapeno), grilled shrimp (with big heads & little but fleshy bodies), a fried egg pancake with onions, & a version of what we in America call Singaporean noodles, stir fried, thin egg noodles with little shrimp, scallions, onions, & a curry flavor. All of it is DELICIOUS.
(Insert pictures here)
I have difficulty with the crab, which is not fun at all to eat. None of these restaurants provide napkins, so our hands are sticky & smelly. Sometimes, I doubt that the adventure eating any crab is worth all the work. But the flavoring is delicious (garlic & pepper), & we have fun cracking the shell open with a pair of walnut cracking tools. In fact, I have so much trouble with the tool that I crack one & the shell & crab flesh sprays everywhere around me. The largest piece hits the top of Atticus's head. He is sleeping so soundly that he barely stirs. I watch a few passers-by smirk, then commence to pick the big black peppercorns out of his hair. Boy, is Atticus a good sport...
The food is absolutely delicious. The three of us ate for $75, probably pricey in this touristy area, but we're happy to experience Chinatown if only for a few hours.
We start with a snack of satay (chicken, pork, & mutton). They are 60 and 70 cents apiece & they are very small - only two pieces of meat on each skewer. Skimpy, if you ask me. The peanut sauce is delicious, a dark brown sauce with peanut chunks...not at all like the smooth peanut butter consistency we get in the states. I could be very happy just pouring it over rice & gobbling it up.
Then we find another stall with black pepper crab for $19 a piece. We hear that the black pepper crab is better than Singapore's famous chili crab. We order a plate of two, along with a plate of ong greens (sauteed with lots of garlic & a jalapeno), grilled shrimp (with big heads & little but fleshy bodies), a fried egg pancake with onions, & a version of what we in America call Singaporean noodles, stir fried, thin egg noodles with little shrimp, scallions, onions, & a curry flavor. All of it is DELICIOUS.
(Insert pictures here)
I have difficulty with the crab, which is not fun at all to eat. None of these restaurants provide napkins, so our hands are sticky & smelly. Sometimes, I doubt that the adventure eating any crab is worth all the work. But the flavoring is delicious (garlic & pepper), & we have fun cracking the shell open with a pair of walnut cracking tools. In fact, I have so much trouble with the tool that I crack one & the shell & crab flesh sprays everywhere around me. The largest piece hits the top of Atticus's head. He is sleeping so soundly that he barely stirs. I watch a few passers-by smirk, then commence to pick the big black peppercorns out of his hair. Boy, is Atticus a good sport...
The food is absolutely delicious. The three of us ate for $75, probably pricey in this touristy area, but we're happy to experience Chinatown if only for a few hours.
Day Three: Self-Presence, Robots, & Mall Food
This morning we wake up extra early to get ready for Robby's talk at 8:30am. Because I had dragged Atticus on our 5-hour excursion yesterday & because Robby dragged the both of us to the opening social event of the ICA (International Communication Association) Conference in the evening, he was wiped out by bedtime and slept 6 hours straight.
We head to the food court on the first floor of the Sun-Tec Convention Center. It's called Food Republic & it has regional ethnic foods behind glass counters. We try some soy milk, a curry puff, a sesame ball, & some more dim sum (siu mai, ha gao, & bbq pork pastries).
YUM.
It's the type of dim sum one can find in Los Angeles but SOOOO much better! The flavors are different & subtle, & overall the dim sum is less greasy than what we get in California. The soy milk has real soy flavor because it hasn't been watered down. The curry puff is spicy with a distinct curry flavor & a flaky crust on the outside. The sesame ball - Robby's favorite dim sum dish - is filled with red bean paste with bits of peanuts mixed in. The siu mai is topped with salmon roe. Mmmmm. If the dim sum in this generic food court is good, imagine how delectable it must be on the street! in Chinatown!!
Robby is the first to give his talk, which focuses on this dissertation topic of self-presence. It goes over well. He even manages to include Atticus at the end of his talk. I hand him over to Robby like a trophy while he stares blankly at the audience. Since there is no one to chair the talk, in which 4 presenters share their papers, Robby happily takes on the role of a pseudo-moderator. People trickle in through the hour, & the presenters receive some helpful input from the audience members.
After Robby's talk, we wander upstairs to watch another convention going on called Robocup, an international robotics soccer competition. High school, college, and graduate students convene to do battle. Battle their robots on mini soccer fields, that is. Boy, this convention sure beats Robby's ICA Conference! Different kinds of robots compete with each other on a small artificial green field and an orange ball the size of a golf ball. The two teams of programmers sit on either end of the field with their numerous laptops, looking nervously as their robots shuffle toward the ball. Occasionally, a team member will switch out a fallen robot with another. When I say "shuffle", I really mean shuffle. These are not robots sprinting & dodging & jumping. These are ponderous, lumbering, clunky robots whose feet barely leave the ground. They really do shuffle slowly toward the still ball. There are rarely simultaneously moving robots on the field. Most of the time one to three robots are moving on the field at the same time. Some robots approach the ball, turn their heads left & right, the gingerly kick the ball. These are the somewhat anthropomorphic robots. There are also cube-like robots that spun and rolled on little wheels. At these games, there are about 8 of them on the field, & they dart around like those popular little hamsters (Zhu Zhu) that little girls play with nowadays.
Robocup is awesome. I am a little embarrassed that Robby & I giggle at how cute the robots are & cackle whenever one falls over or kicks the ball. I'm sure the programmers work very long and hard on their masterpieces. But it is pretty hilarious.
In the late morning, Atticus & I nap. Then we have a late lunch with one of Robby's former professors. We decide to go somewhere close by, so we opt for the Marina Market (mall) adjacent to the hotel & convention center. We decide on Thai. All I have to say about mall food is... YUCK. Granted, it's better than anything we'd eat in an American mall (hands down), but it's nothing special. The Thai iced tea in California is better. The real deal. You can see the condensed milk sinking into a rich burnt caramel-colored tea. Here, at the mall, it was a pre-made concoction that consisted mostly of ice and water. & the food was spicy with no distinguishing flavors. Very disappointing.
So, I've made a new rule about the rest of our stay here in Singapore: NO MALL FOOD ALLOWED.
Keep in mind, we are in the business/financial district of Singapore. We can't find street food here because we are surrounded by spotless streets, enormous hotels, & shiny malls. We have to venture out of the Colonial District (business center) in order to find better food, I think.
We head to the food court on the first floor of the Sun-Tec Convention Center. It's called Food Republic & it has regional ethnic foods behind glass counters. We try some soy milk, a curry puff, a sesame ball, & some more dim sum (siu mai, ha gao, & bbq pork pastries).
YUM.
It's the type of dim sum one can find in Los Angeles but SOOOO much better! The flavors are different & subtle, & overall the dim sum is less greasy than what we get in California. The soy milk has real soy flavor because it hasn't been watered down. The curry puff is spicy with a distinct curry flavor & a flaky crust on the outside. The sesame ball - Robby's favorite dim sum dish - is filled with red bean paste with bits of peanuts mixed in. The siu mai is topped with salmon roe. Mmmmm. If the dim sum in this generic food court is good, imagine how delectable it must be on the street! in Chinatown!!
Robby is the first to give his talk, which focuses on this dissertation topic of self-presence. It goes over well. He even manages to include Atticus at the end of his talk. I hand him over to Robby like a trophy while he stares blankly at the audience. Since there is no one to chair the talk, in which 4 presenters share their papers, Robby happily takes on the role of a pseudo-moderator. People trickle in through the hour, & the presenters receive some helpful input from the audience members.
After Robby's talk, we wander upstairs to watch another convention going on called Robocup, an international robotics soccer competition. High school, college, and graduate students convene to do battle. Battle their robots on mini soccer fields, that is. Boy, this convention sure beats Robby's ICA Conference! Different kinds of robots compete with each other on a small artificial green field and an orange ball the size of a golf ball. The two teams of programmers sit on either end of the field with their numerous laptops, looking nervously as their robots shuffle toward the ball. Occasionally, a team member will switch out a fallen robot with another. When I say "shuffle", I really mean shuffle. These are not robots sprinting & dodging & jumping. These are ponderous, lumbering, clunky robots whose feet barely leave the ground. They really do shuffle slowly toward the still ball. There are rarely simultaneously moving robots on the field. Most of the time one to three robots are moving on the field at the same time. Some robots approach the ball, turn their heads left & right, the gingerly kick the ball. These are the somewhat anthropomorphic robots. There are also cube-like robots that spun and rolled on little wheels. At these games, there are about 8 of them on the field, & they dart around like those popular little hamsters (Zhu Zhu) that little girls play with nowadays.Robocup is awesome. I am a little embarrassed that Robby & I giggle at how cute the robots are & cackle whenever one falls over or kicks the ball. I'm sure the programmers work very long and hard on their masterpieces. But it is pretty hilarious.
In the late morning, Atticus & I nap. Then we have a late lunch with one of Robby's former professors. We decide to go somewhere close by, so we opt for the Marina Market (mall) adjacent to the hotel & convention center. We decide on Thai. All I have to say about mall food is... YUCK. Granted, it's better than anything we'd eat in an American mall (hands down), but it's nothing special. The Thai iced tea in California is better. The real deal. You can see the condensed milk sinking into a rich burnt caramel-colored tea. Here, at the mall, it was a pre-made concoction that consisted mostly of ice and water. & the food was spicy with no distinguishing flavors. Very disappointing.
So, I've made a new rule about the rest of our stay here in Singapore: NO MALL FOOD ALLOWED.
Keep in mind, we are in the business/financial district of Singapore. We can't find street food here because we are surrounded by spotless streets, enormous hotels, & shiny malls. We have to venture out of the Colonial District (business center) in order to find better food, I think.
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