the world for more than it simply is

Back in Ha Noi; everything is cheap again, I can spit freely on the ground, and there is more litter on the streets (all unlike Singapore). Waking up this morning, I incorrectly read the time to be three minutes until eleven and thought we had to check out of our hostel. However it was actually only ten, as my drunken haze of the previous night caused me a bit of time confusion when viewing my non-digital fake Swiss watch I bought the previous day.

After the early checkout, I made myself some hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and watched a movie in the lounge area until it was time to depart for the flight out. On the ride to the airport, our taxi driver, Dan, discussed the downsides of the Singapore market economy. Included in this talk were the high cost of living, the expensive annual road tax, and other financial situations of the city. According to Dan, the ordinary citizens of the city go to Orchard Road on the weekends to sit around. They do not actually buy things like the tourists as everything is expensive there. Likewise, a large proportion of Singaporians buy homes in nearby Malaysia and commute to work everyday in Singapore. It was an interesting perspective to hear as I assumed the majority of Singaporians were wealthy shopaholics. At the end of the drive, I was once again outside Singapore’s six month old Budget Terminal–an inkling that one is too cheap to fly in the standard airport.

The previous day I had dim-sum in Chinatown for lunch. It took awhile to find the restaurant, but it was well beyond our expectations. For the low price of $22SGD, we ate like kings (if kings might not find commoner food disagreeable for their palates). After the delicious meal, we waited for the CityBuzz bus to take us around since we had mistakenly bought a daypass confusing it to be used for the subway. Our mistake proved beneficial as we were able to see many locations above ground which we would not had even known about travelling under.

The main stop for the day were the shopping malls and plazas of Orchard Road where everything is seemingly overpriced for the well-off tourist. With a lot of calorie burning and food court meals, it pretty much leveled out. In total, I spent around $40USD throughout the day purchasing things which caught my eye, yet I did not actually need. I would have to say that my best purchase were two shirts from Baleno–a clothing store with pictures of Andy Lau and Faye Wong modeling the company’s clothes.

After several hours on Orchard, we took the MRT from Dhoby Ghaut station to City Hall to catch a nighttime glimpse of the War Memorial Monument, Raffles City, Suntec City, its koi pond, and the Fountain of Wealth. The monument was splendid, the malls closing, and the fountain lights exstinguished ten minutes before our arrival. One would think an unlit fountain a lost, but I turned it into a win situation by snapping a parnoramic picture of it.

So yeah, tomorrow is the arrival day for the rest of the CIEE participants.