Friends and strangers in Singapore

I feel tall in Asia.  I like that.  As a 5’8” man, it’s unusual for me to be looking down at the top of people’s heads when I’m in the hotel elevator or on the subway.  I’m not towering over people, but few people are towering over me, which is a nice change. 

It’s easy to feel small in downtown Singapore, no matter how tall you are.  The city skyline is jammed with massive skyscrapers, shooting upward like saplings yearning for sunlight in a dense forest.  The most striking structure is the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino complex.  It gives the appearance of a cruise ship that fell out of the sky and landed on three tall buildings.  There is an observation deck on the very top, but we never made it up there during our time in Singapore.  The rainy weather, the quest for visas for Vietnam, and a mission to recover a misplaced IPad kept us occupied.

Singapore has a reputation of being a very clean and safe city, especially for one of it’s considerable size, and it certainly lived up to that.  There’s no sign of homelessness, little if any litter, and no beggars at all.  And unlike in most other big cities, there’s no visible police presence.  In our five days there, we only saw police cars twice, and they were both in the exclusive neighborhood around the Vietnam Embassy.  In New York or Paris, you are serenaded to sleep by sirens, but we didn’t hear a single one in Singapore. 

A siren went off in my head when I returned to our hotel room after running an errand the day after we arrived.  Annie and the kids wanted to know if I knew where the IPad was.  When we travel on airplanes, I keep the IPad in a pocket designed specifically for such a device in a travel vest I brought along on the trip.  It’s a Scottevest and it has around 27 pockets in it, for ID cards, your phone, sunglasses, maps, pretty much anything you don’t want to be carrying in your hands when you travel.  A co-worker of mine at the radio station who travels a lot lent it to me and it’s been great.  You load it up and feel a bit like a burro as you walk through the airport, but when you get to security, you take it off, put it in a bin and stroll confidently through the checkpoint, hands free.  And the IPad was in the Scottevest when we got on the plane in Brisbane, but I got it out for Ben to use as we headed for Singapore.

Normally, the IPad is one of the main distractions on a flight, with all the apps and books we have loaded on there.  But Etihad Airlines has a fantastic in-flight entertainment system called the Ebox, which offers a wide selection of TV shows, movies and games to enjoy for free during the flight.  I slipped the IPad into the seat back pocket in front of Ben when we were getting ready to take off, and left it there when we de-planed in Singapore. 

I felt horrible about leaving the IPad behind.  I’m always on the kids about remembering things, and here good old Dad had failed big time.  Part of the pain, of course, was the cost.  We spent the money on the IPad figuring it was a good investment for the trip.  We loaded it up with books to read, plus it had a lot of apps and was Ben’s major entertainment device.  He played Madden Football on it, along with several racing games and some military games, as well as catching up with friends from back home via Facetime, including once when we were in Auckland.  

I also found an app that Marley loved to play, where you run a restaurant and have to perform at a certain level to advance to nicer restaurants.  We had several travel guides on it as well, which were very helpful as we planned our next step along the way from our current stop. 

All that is running through my head as I’m trying to figure out if there’s any chance we could get it back.  Annie, a veteran of the airline industry back in her days as a multi-tasker for People Express and an avid business traveler, thought it was a goner.  I felt differently because of the experience we had during the flight from Brisbane to Singapore.  Etihad provided first-class service and I was optimistic that the crew that goes through the cabin between flights would find it and deal with it properly.  I knew I wasn’t the first passenger to leave a pricey electronic device behind, so I was hopeful as I called the Lost and Found department of Etihad at the Singapore Airport and left a voice mail message explaining my plight.  That message was not returned for the rest of that day, and with no answer to a few more phone calls I made to the office, my optimism was fading.

I was still feeling pretty low as we went out for lunch the next day at the Marina Sands complex downtown.  We took the very efficient and clean MRT Subway system from our hotel to the waterfront complex, looking for something to eat and then something to do.  The Marina Sands features a massive high-end shopping complex, with several floors of pricey brands including Gucci, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Armani, etc, etc.  It also included an “authorized Apple retailer” where I painfully noticed IPads for sale in the $800 range.  That didn’t help my mood much as we hit the food court and found some pretty good choices for lunch, after which we planned to check out the Titanic Exhibit at the adjacent Art and Science museum.  My mood improved when my mobile phone rang as I was digging into my Chicken and Rice.  The caller was a woman from Etihad, asking for me.  Why, yes, they had our prodigal IPad and I just needed to call the main office at the airport and make arrangements to pick it up.  It was one of the better moments of the trip so far for me, and made the rest of the day very enjoyable.

It was just after the good news from the airline that Ben and I decided to get a couple of banana smoothies at a nearby stand in the mall food court.  As the smoothies were being made, I glanced to the left and saw a guy in his 20s who looked to be wearing a Reds hat.  My mood was brightened by the good news of the discovery of the IPad, I decided to go over and say hi.  He didn’t appear to speak any English, but another person at the table spoke enough to understand me explanation that I was from the city represented by the white wishbone C on the red and black hat.  He posed for a quick picture, and then Ben and I headed back to our table to finish our smoothies.

One of the main reasons we had chosen Singapore as a stop along the way was because Annie had a former co-worker who had moved there a little over a month before we were scheduled to be there.  We were looking forward to seeing him, but he had a busy work schedule it turned out, and was only available one of the five nights we were going to be in Singapore, so we made plans to see him then.

We also had a friend from our neighborhood in Madeira who had just started a two-year assignment in Singapore with the San Francisco-based company he had worked for in Cincinnati.  He had a busy work week as well, but managed to free up some time early one evening to meet us for dinner.  Since he had done some previous shorter stints in Singapore, he suggested we meet at a local landmark, a mixture of a lion and fish fountain, which sprayed water out of it’s mouth into the bay.  We picked a spot that had some outdoor seating and took in the view over some appetizers and drinks.  The sun was setting and our companion informed us that pretty soon we would be treated to a light show that they put on every night from the top of the Marina Bay Sands across the water.  The display was loosely timed to some electronic music that played over a series of speakers pointed toward the water.  It went on for about ten to fifteen minutes, and was a great backdrop for catching up with a friend from back home.

We caught up with Annie’s former co-worker the next night at a food center a short walk from our hotel.  The food center, or hawker stands as they are called, was one of a series of such places that Singapore is well-known for.  We first saw one on Anthony Bourdain’s Layover show on the Travel Show a few weeks before we launched on the trip.  They feature about three dozen food stands, selling mostly Asian food, with many tables and seating in the center of the complex.  

The moment you walk into the open-air food center, you are approached by guys holding menus trying to get you to take a seat and then order food from their stands.  We each found something that sounded tasty and all the dishes we chose were very flavorful and very affordable, most for under $10.  The third and final night we ate at the hawker stand, we met up not only with Annie’s former co-worker but also a former Comair pilot that Annie and I had be-friended when we were out one night in Northern Kentucky about six or seven years ago.  We hadn’t heard from him in quite some time, but he chimed in on Facebook when Annie posted something about being in Singapore.  It was great to see him as well as we caught up on old times.  

On our final full day in Singapore, I played a round of golf with our friend from back home who is on a two-year work assignment.  We played the Marina Bay Golf Club, which is the only 18-hole public golf course in Singapore.  

The main attraction of the golf course is the location, just across the bay from the Central Business District, giving players fantastic views of the Singapore skyline.  The other dominating feature unfortunately is the construction visible all around the entire course.  At one point, I paused and counted 29 cranes within view of a single hole.

The course also had several light poles used for the night golf sessions it offered a few nights a week.  Those also took away from the peaceful feeling I usually enjoy on the golf course.  But I tried to ignore that and focus on the golf and the good time I was having with my friend from back home and the other player we were paired with.  His name was Anson and he told us on the second tee that it was his first time playing with "strangers" as he put it and he was a bit nervous about it.  I pointed to my partner in crime from the states and told Anson that they didn't come much stranger that us, and that put him at ease some.   

Anson seemed to relax some as the round went along and we cheered on his many good shots, including a birdie chip-in on the back side.  Heavy rains forced the clearing of the course, so we waited out the delay at the restaurant on the golf course.  We had a nice chat with Anson, as he talked more about the thought process he had when he got up that morning:  call some friends and play with them, or forge into the unknown and play with strangers.  After we exchanged business cards, I told him I'd like to think that the strangers he played with were now his friends. 

Planes, trains and automobiles

Annie loves airports, I love subway systems, Ben loves exotic cars and Marley loves Facebook.  We've gotten plenty of airport action so far on this trip, just a bit of mass transit, exotic cars in Los Angeles, Sydney, Brisbane and Singapore, and Facebook when we’ve had internet, which has been sporadic.

The very first airport we flew through on this trip was one of our favorites.  Detroit has some futuristic architecture and a ceiling over their people movers that changes colors.  The airport at Savusavu in Fiji was the most primitive one we’ve ever seen:  just a landing strip and a small cinder-block building.  

The one in Lambasa in Fiji was just a little bit bigger, with a seating area and a place that sold snacks and soft drinks. 

The Auckland Airport was very efficient, as getting through customs was a breeze.  That process in Melbourne was more like mid-summer in Central Florida when there is no breeze and the humidity makes your sweat sweat.  For whatever reason it took more than an hour to get through customs there, maybe because the Australian Open was going on.

The best part of the Brisbane Airport was the airline we were flying on to Singapore: Etihad. Our love for Australia made parting truly sweet sorrow as we boarded our flight for the nearly eight-hour long journey to Singapore.

Once on board, our sorrow started to subside as we enjoyed first-class service back in economy class.  The flight attendants were very kind and friendly, and, we were informed by a PA announcement, fluent in just about every language you would want to be fluent in.

 Australia became even more of a distant memory once we got into the free on-flight entertainment system, called the Ebox.  It features all kinds of things to do to pass the time on a long flight, including games, TV shows, and movies.  It also provided some entertainment during the pre-flight instructions on how to use an oxygen mask.

That individual is clearly not happy about the oxygen masks dropping down in flight.  Fortunately for us, that scenario never played out as we took off, and headed north and west some 3300 nautical miles from Brisbane to Singapore.  All four of us settled in, and flipped through the menu to choose our entertainment for the flight.

Annie and I both separately watched Ides of March, the George Clooney movie shot last year mostly in and around Cincinnati.  I was a bit worried that the scenes of the Queen City would make me homesick, but I actually enjoyed seeing shots of our hometown.  Plus, it helped make a long flight pass fairly quickly.  Unlike our experience in Melbourne, getting through customs in Singapore took about ten minutes.  We had heard great things about the MRT subway system, but were unsure of the logistics of getting where we needed to go on it, so we grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, leaving the subway for later in our five-night stay in Singapore.

Finding a hotel in Singapore that could accommodate a family of a four in a location that was friendly to the MRT at a decent price was a bit of a challenge.  I settled on the Hotel Royal, which boasted of a “family room” big enough for four people.  When we checked in, we found a decent-sized room, equipped with a queen-sized bed and a single.  And a lot of floor space.  So, I went back down to the front desk and talked to the woman who checked us in.  I asked if there was some other sleeping arrangement they had that would truly accommodate four people.  She looked at me with a big smile and said quite cheerfully that, no, there was nothing she could do.  Sure, we could get a rollaway for $50 a night.  I quickly declined that option and headed back up to the room to report my findings to Annie and the kids.

Waking up the next morning, I carefully stepped over my son, still sleeping on the floor, to make some coffee for Annie and me.  Early on in our trip, Ben established his fondness for floor sleeping, even when not one, but two beds were an option.  When we were in Napier, New Zealand, I found a very affordable cottage, whose owner was willing at my request to give us a fourth night for free for booking three nights.  It had three bedrooms, giving Marley and Ben their own bedrooms, which has rarely happened on our excursion.  In that cottage, the room Ben had contained two single beds.  Apparently unable to decide which bed to sleep in, he piled up the comforters and pillows and slept on the floor for our four nights there.  

With that precedent established, he was the perfect candidate to spend the night on the floor in our “family room” at the Hotel Royal in Singapore.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of this trip as we go along is spending time at one stop, planning for the next.  That reality meant that on our first day in Singapore we had to get to the Vietnamese Embassy and apply for visas, since we had already booked a flight to Hanoi only five days away.  Before leaving Brisbane, I had researched the location of the Vietnamese Embassy, and it turned out to not be about 7 kilometers away from our hotel.  The easy thing to do would have been to grab a cab and hit the embassy.  But we had heard from a friend who works at times in Singapore that the subway system is extremely easy to use and very efficient.  The subway stop closest to our hotel was a ten-minute walk away, so we lathered up in sunscreen, and hit the streets of Singapore, braving the sun, just fifty miles or so north of the Equator.

Getting to the Vietnamese embassy meant catching a ride on the North/South or Red Line to the Circle Comething or Yellow line at the Bishan station, and take the Circle Line to the Holland Village station.  Once there, we navigated our way on foot on the twenty-minute or so walk to the Embassy.  When we got off the train, I noticed that it was about 11:45 am.  Having some familiarity with government workers going back to my time in the state capitol of West Virginia in Charleston, I was a bit concerned that we might be arriving at the embassy just in time for a lunch break. 

Our stroll toward the small slice of Vietnamese land within Singapore took us past some very impressive large homes, most likely belonging to some highly placed diplomats.  During our walk, I noticed a woman scurrying to and fro with some paper in her hand, clearly looking for an address with which she was unfamiliar, and she seemed to be facing some sort of deadline.  After a while, she was heading in the same direction as us, and we could see flags flying high above an official-looking building that had a gate blocking the entrance.  As Annie and I and the kids approached the complex, figuring it was our goal, the woman went into a full sprint, and when she got to the iron gate at the entrance, she slipped through an entrance and sprinted up the driveway.

When we got to the gate, I pulled out my Iphone to take a picture and noticed the time was 12:04.  I then glanced at the gold sign on the marble post to the left, and saw the sign that said: Office Hours: 9am-12 and 2-4.  (Typical government hours!)  I then saw the words:  Visa hours, 9am-12pm.  No!  That can’t be!!  Instead of taking a photo to document another fascinating aspect of our journey, I herded Annie and the kids inside to see if we still had a chance to get our visa processing process processed. 

Luckily, the workers inside the embassy didn’t seem in a hurry to get to lunch, and pointed us in the direction of the forms we needed to fill out to get our visas.  Annie and I furiously scribbled in the necessary information as quickly as we could and gave them to the workers, who said we would get them back on Thursday.  With that, we grabbed some lunch and took the MRT to Chinatown to check out that scene.

I’ve had the chance to experience subways and train systems in several cities, both in the states and in Europe and part of their charm is the grittiness on a variety of levels.  Dirt, grime and graffiti are typically just part of the experience.  The MRT in Singapore could double as a hospital operating room.  The cars are extremely clean, as are the stations themselves.   

Of the subways and train systems I’ve been on, only Zurich comes close the to cleanliness of the Singapore system.  Passengers move about in a very orderly fashion, and instead of using paper tickets like most subway systems, Singapore uses green cards that passengers recycle in order to get their deposit back.  It means no tickets strewn about the cars or station floors.  They seem to be on to something.

Singapore has given us, and especially Ben, the chance to see some exotic cars.  Our hotel room is facing a fairly busy road, Newton Road, and whenever Ben hears the throaty growl of a powerful engine, he’ll race to the window to see if he can catch a glimpse of the source of that beautiful noise.  He’s been rewarded with a few Ferrari sightings, which we’ve also seen on the streets of Singapore.  We’ve also seen a Lamborghini in Brisbane,

 A Maserati in Sydney,

A Ferrari in Sydney,

And an Audi R8 in Auckland.

 We saw several exotic cars on our very first stop on the trip, in Los Angeles back in December.  The specter of seeing Ferraris, and Lamborghinis and Bugattis was one of the main reasons we decided to stay in Southern California for a few days before heading to Fiji.  Ben was thrilled when we stopped in a few luxury car stores, where the level of patience with our window-shopping varied by location.

We hope to see a few more exotic cars in our last couple of days in Singapore, in part because we don’t expect to have that experience much over the next few weeks as we dive into Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.