Tuesday the 8th, Part II: Riverfront & Colonial

After the museum, a small group of us walked along the river to a nearby mall. It was drizzling, but we shared umbrellas and it was fine. Here are pictures of the riverfront, including the ritzy Fullerton Hotel, statues, Clarke Quay, and several buildings from the British colonial times.

STATUES

^^ Stamford Raffles, the "alleged" "official" "founder" of Singapore. Don't ask about the quotations - it's complicated.

^^ Cats...I don't quite get it, but I guess it gives it character?

This is a fat, ugly pigeon. I don't get this either.

COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

DOWN BY THE RIVER

Remember that $1 ice cream shop we went to on the scavenger hunt? Turns out they're everywhere and there was one by the river, so I bought a coconut-flavored one! Yum!

THE FULLERTON

We went in to use the bathrooms, and there were pianos all over the place inside with no one playing them. I was so tempted...

CLARKE QUAY

Now for the best part - the mall we went to was just across the river from Clarke Quay, a trendy hangout area for affluent folks (mostly tourists). And, whaddaya know, it has my name! Too great.

Tuesday the 8th, Part I: Viet Lang & Asian Civilizations

On Tuesday, immediately after class, we scuttled across the city to the riverfront for a fancy lunch with some UNC Alumni who have been living in Singapore as "expats" or expatriates. The restaurant was called Viet Lang and served a Vietnamese buffet. The food was lovely, as was the atmosphere, but the expats weren't as interesting as I had expected they might be. Still, it was paid for us because it was part of the program, and as I've said before, we all love free food!

After Viet Lang, we went to the Asian Civilizations Museum. Not a ton to say about it - it was a pretty straightforward museum. There was one display on Indian jewelry that was pretty spectacular.

***For future reference - you can click on a picture to make it bigger***

Monday the 7th: Little India

We had class Monday morning, as usual. I'm not sure if I've blogged much about our Singaporean history professor - sadly, her section of the class is now over - but we all really loved her. She is a short Chinese woman who is subversively dissatisfied with the government. She's feisty and frank and hilarious and she taught us so much in just a week and a half about this little island.

After class, I went to the library with several other people to do the reading for class. Then around 5 we all met in the dorm lobby and headed to Little India for dinner and sightseeing!

We ate at a vegetarian restaurant called "Komala Vilas."

The food was wonderful, but the brown and yellow ones were very spicy. The bready things (I wish I had more specific terms) and the raita (white stuff - yogurt with vegetables) are used to mellow out the spice. I asked for extra raita. It was delicious, but I had to work with the spice, because it did not work with me.

I also got some delicious "baddham" or "almond" milk. Yum.

It was dark out, so it was hard to capture pictures. But here is a huge super center we went to. It's called Mustafa's and it's very large, cheap, and famous for being open 24 hours and having pretty much everything you could ever want (a lot like Wal*Mart).

Here is a really interesting sign. Singapore's policies on race are very convoluted and complicated - while they promise equal treatment and racial mixing and such, their policies actually wind up creating quotas that housing developments and businesses have to fill. So, it is not illegal to advertise a job or an apartment based on race - if you don't have enough Malaysians or Chinese or Indians or whatever, you can't continue business. Funny, no?

Not really, I guess.

In any case, Little India was nice. I feel like I should have more to say about it, but I guess because it was dark and we weren't there long, I didn't have a very strong impression of it. I'm sure I'll go back at some point and have more to write about then!

Sunday: Relax

Saturday night after the temple, we went to one of the many malls in Singapore (have I mentioned yet that shopping and eating are Singapore's two "unofficial" pastimes?) so I could buy closed-toe shoes, which are imperative for clubs and "smart casual" occasions.

We ate in the food court and then headed back to the dorm. Later we decided to go out to a bar, but the only ones close by were not very big and not very exciting. So we didn't stay out long, and just took a cab back.

We met this girl named...Melissa? Who was having a birthday party and was very excited to meet us. She sang Chinese karaoke. Very badly. It was a bizarre experience :-P

On Sunday, most of the group went with our graduate student coordinator on a pretty intense hike in the National Park. I was way too tired from our busy day of exploration, so I stayed in and did homework. That night, though, our student guide had invited all of us to a student-written and produced play. Devika and I and two other people (Whitney and John) went along, and we had a really great time.

The play was in the upstairs of the National Library (remember that crazy building?) and was one of the such "smart casual" events for which my new shoes come in handy (I hadn't found an appropriate shirt yet, though).

The play was called "In Front of the Yellow Line," and it was quite shocking in Singapore, a country whose government still practices heavy censorship and whose people are generally stereotyped as complaisant. It was loud, boisterous, exciting, subversive, controversial, and frank. It was three "mini" plays that each dealt, more or less humorously, with realistic situations that both played up "Singaporean" humor as well as teased out political and social issues: Chinese family structure, religious superstition, race and class inequality, what it means to be "Singaporean," and, most surprisingly to us, homosexuality.

We all really enjoyed it a lot, and even though the rest of the group was full of wonderful stories about their hike, I was very thankful for a restful day!

Saturday the 5th, Part III: Buddha Tooth Temple

I think this post will mostly be pictures. The Buddha Tooth Temple was really awe-inspiring, and is still one of the most beautiful things I've seen since coming here. It is the biggest and most popular Buddhist temple in Singapore, which means it is very beautiful but also surprisingly touristy and modernized. It had A/C (or AirCon, as they call it here), two elevators, very "modern" looking bathrooms, and a few ladies out front selling souvenirs.

Anyway, time for pictures! I'll interject comments from time to time. Enjoy!

Haha this is so silly!

Here is a neat video I took of the service that was going on. We definitely felt weird being in there while everyone was praying, but I guess it's like visiting the churches in New York. No one really seemed to care.

Even the elevators had really beautiful fabric on the walls.

I found the AirCon, TV, and mall-like bathroom very odd. What an interesting picture of globalization.

Here is the rooftop garden.

1. Electric handicap rail. Very interesting.

2. One of the largest prayer wheels (you grab a bar and walk in a circle as you chant) in the world