Romka's Bits and Bites: Going South-East

Every time I need to write something I get a feeling as it were a novel with at least 500 pages. That is also a reason of a delay of this little note. To make it more interesting I will start from the end. This is how my adventure has ended (see the picture)

I got used to fly from Milan Malpensa airport, so I chose it also this time, but may be Munich was a better choice, because I had to change 2 trains to get to Milan. I was late to the plane. Thanks god, I had only hand luggage so they let me in without any problem. Sorry guys, no pictures from that part of the trip :)

Little Boeing-737 took me to Frankfurt. It was my first time in Frankfurt airport. I liked it a lot. From Frankfurt I took a direct flight to Singapore. Big airbus, 10 hours of flight, 2 movies per night. Drinks included.

People and Languages

There are about 4.5 millions of population in Singapore and it makes it the second most dense populated country.

English is spoken everywhere and by everyone. It is one of the official languages of the country. The other languages are Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, according to the biggest demographical groups in the country. So, the stops in the subway are announced in 4 languages.

Transport

A very thin channel between Singapore and Malaysia makes Singapore an island. However, it is usually viewed as a part of Asian continent. The largest part of the territory is a city, which is surrounded by a couple of villages and parks. The total territory is 699km². I suppose you can cross the whole island at any place in 2 hours with a car.

The city is very modern and transport there means a lot and is very well developed. Three lines of subway will take you fast to the most important places. In addition, there are buses and cabs. Cabs are a way cheaper then in Italy, so we were using them time after time. Of course, everything is airconditioned, sometimes more than enough.

Weather

Imagine yourself in a dry day coming to a closed swimmingpool. That was my feeling when I got out of a subway. You can sense the increased humidity in the air very well. The temperature was varying around 35C and it was normal for that season. It was raining time after time with a loud thunderstorm, but very shortly.

Fines Work Fine

Singapore is a country of order. And everything around you reminds you that you have conform to that. When I was entering the country in the migration form was stated with a tiny script "for import of drugs - death penalty"

There are many other rules. You are not allowed to spit on the streets or throw down a garbage. You are not allowed to sell or distribute chewing gums etc. The system seems too strict, however, it works - the streets are clean.

Conference

For a case you don't know, I went to Singapore for a conference DASFAA'06, where my first paper was published (have you heard about first pancakes?) The conference lasted from Wednesday, 12 April till Saturday and all these days I was busy getting out only in the late afternoon.

It was very well organized in a Hilton Hotel with big halls for 4 simultaneous sessions and with a Wireless access, which was very nice, since I didn't get an internet connection in my hotel. During the lunch breaks they offered delicious buffets which every day represented different cuisine: Chinese, Malay and Indonesian.

Conference dinner was organized on the beach near Shangri-La Hotel in Sentosa island.

I liked the food and the surroundings so much, that even when a thousands of insects came from the see i didn't leave my positions.

Since the conference was originated to support the development of South-East Asian database research community, most of 80-90 participants were from this region. When I arrived I had to wait for my conference package (I'm lucky for such things), because it was given to another person with a similar name (edit distance below 20). It was not a serious issue and they resolved it very quickly.

Eating

There are two main entertaiments in Singapore: eating and shopping. Both things are done sometimes in an extream way. Many Singaporeans are having a lunch or dinner in so called food courts - a huge covered area with tables in the middle and food shops around. Food courts are usually on the ground floor of some building it is open and not-well ventilated, so when you enter you got killed with a mixture of different aroma of different food being cooked simultaneously.

Besides the food courts there are a plenty of restaurants. Food is good and different. Many eastern Asian cuisines are represented. The local specialities are chicken rise and chili crab. Lots of sea food - almost a paradise for me, since I prefer not to eat meat.

I got a very good impression of Indian cuisine. Not all the Indian food is vegetarian. I heard it depends on the region. We went once to a vegetarian restaurant and we liked it so much that we went to some other Indian place one more. It was tasty and cheap.

Another regional speciality is a durian, or a jack fruit. According to the words of Gine, this is the most stinky fruit in the world. It is not allowed to take it into a subway, airport or hotels. The funniest description of a smell is ".. its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock". I tried it in an ice-shake and the smell was so strong that I didn't finish the drink. I was happy to find durians in a cane and to bring it to Italy. Unfortunately, cooked it has lost the smell and reminded something between ananas and peach.

Shopping

There's a common myth that if you're going to Singapore, you should by electronics, because it's cheap there. I was imagining huge shopping malls with nice glass stands for each brand and type of gadgets and a lot of consultants helping you to choose an appropriate for your taste and needs. The thing I found there is a areas with a little shops full of everything with no prices written.

It is impossible to buy there anything good and cheap, unless you exactly know what are you looking for and you can bargain with them.

Going Out

Every evening we tried to go out to some different places. Singapore is a big city, but it's a working city - the people here are work and study (there are three huge universities there) very hard. Probably that's the reason why some foreigners to characterise Singapore as boring and without any night life.

Nevertheless there are two huge areas with many pubs, cafes, disco's and restaurants - Bugis and Clarke Quay. We were surprised to find that some discos were full of foreigners only.

As a former salsa dancer I still have an interest for salsa clubs. It's not a surprise that there is salsa also in Singapore. We have found one club very accidentally in Bugis. There was a live music playing, everybody danced very-very professionally and dressed appropriately. Unfortunately, they didn't let us in, because we were in jeans and our dress code didn't match :)

Tourism

Singapore attracts tourists both from west and east parts of the world. The tourism is an amazing phenomenon. There's no special natural wonders in Singapore, that is why they created their own artificially. This shows also the way how Singaporeans deal with their problems.

No natural beaches? Let's bring some send, plant some palms and we get a wonderful beach just few kilometers away from the biggest sea terminal in the region. Just ignore some cargo ships in the background and you can imagine yourself on a tropical island resort. China town is not nice and dirty? Let's clean and rebuild it!

Even the Merlion (hybrid of a lion and a fish), the national symbol of Singapore, was created in 60x to be the national symbol.

But probably the most impressive thing they have ever created is a complex of nature parks consisting of a Singapore zoo, the unique nocturnal zoo (called Night Safari) and Jurong bird park. These are very amazing places. The organizers managed to limit the animals with natural barriers, so all the parks are looking like you are observing the animals in a wild. Unfortunately, I've been only to the Night Safari and there were not allowed to take pictures (taking care of animals' nerve systems)

Sentosa island is an official resort place. It is built up with all possible things to attract more tourists - beaches, fountains, theaters, restaurants, aquariums, dolphin shows etc.

Pulau Ubin

If you want to go outside Singapore, but don't have much time, you can go to Pulau Ubin. This island also belongs to a country of Singapore and there are boats going to Pulau Ubin and back every hour.

Pulau Ubin is probably the only area of Singapore not touched by urbanization. You can even find some heaps of garbage here. Anyway, if you are visiting Singapore you have to come to Pulau Ubin and there are plenty reasons for that.

I'm not a good tourist, because I don't like to walk around a lot, but when you can rent a bike - it is completely different thing. For a guy from Bozen and a girl from Danemark a bicycle is a part of daily life. For an Australian guy it was a thing to get used to.