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.

The streets are astonishingly cleaner here in Singapore–arrived here by plane last night from Bangkok via the Budget Terminal which is probably remarkably different than the non-budget one (the carts state there: ‘enjoy the difference’). After the arrival, we took a van to what we thought was our hostel, but was in fact another one. However, that didn’t matter as both of them are owned by the same people and are only located a block away. After getting everything in order, it was off to sleep since our taxi ride back arrived at 11:50pm.

 
This morning I awoke to find that my wristwatch had finally run out of batteries. Amid the sense of not really knowing what time it was, it was actually more enjoyable as I was not stressed to constantly look at my watch. It is one of my habits to check the time–isn’t it everyone’s? However without a working time device, the day actually seemed longer than usual. The morning started with a self-made breakfast downstairs in the hostel’s kitchen. What resulted from too much soy sauce combined with other ingredients was brown eggs and slightly burnt toast.

After my unsavory meal, we walked outside into the heart of Singapore’s Little India. With the scent of curry and other spices in the air, I felt I was both in Singapore and not in Singapore at the same time. After going through a few shopping districts and purchasing some snacks, we found lunch at a packed restaurant called The Banana Leaf Apollo. Lunch (pankor vegetables, curry, and a wheat type flatbread) was served Indian-style right on top of the banana leaf. It was pretty good actually and filling, although it was probably my most expensive meal in Asia thus far at around $30SGD (~10USD per person).

 
Afterwards, we walked around little India for awhile longer before taking the MRT to Chinatown. For a second-world country, the subway system here is ten times better than the ones in the states in that the station was air-conditioned and the tracks blocked off for the jumpers by glass doors. Also there is no trash lining the ground, nor strange smells (Bangkok’s was about the same). In Chinatown, we did the only thing there was really to do–shop.

After a few hours, we were stopped by a man by the name of Sam who was advertising Pharmanex’s anti-oxidant testing machine that was worth $70 million. After agreeing to take the anti-oxidant test on a gamble that I would only pay the $5SGD test fee if my anti-oxidant levels were low, otherwise he would pay me $5SGD if they weren’t. Unfortunately, it seems that my anti-oxidant levels were very poor. Afterwards, Sam introduced us to some of Pharmanex’s products which would raise anti-oxidant levels over time. However being the poor student, I did not succumb to these marketing strategies of his. At this point, Sam called upon his business partner Joe into the room at which point they discussed the products some more. Upon realizing that we would not be purchasing the products of Pharmanex, the conversation toned down to one of aspirations. In fact, I learned that Joe was the Executive of an international trading organization which provided Pharmanex products to Singapore. When I told him I had not entirely set my mind to any one occupation, Joe suggested the field of business in that I should come work for his organization or help him spread his operations over to other countries I would be in. By now, it was actually a meeting of sorts which ended with me getting Joe’s business card for future reference.

 
After the encounter with the entrepreneurs, we stopped by a local desert restaurant where I had some almond paste. After that was a brief visit to a Tibetan Museum under renovations and a hello at Mr. Saigon’s shop. We ended up shopping some more before finding ourselves at a local acrobatic street performance. We arrived just at the moment when one of the girls was balancing and spinning cushions on her limbs and left when two of the performers were throwing fruits sky-high and catching them in metal spoons. We would shop for a few more hours before going to the Pearl Centre for a dinner of sesame honey pork ribs with rice. The sour plum juice which I bought to accompany it was overloaded with sugar.

Today was not really a thinking sort of day; it was more of a soak in the environment and buy stuff day. I’m not sure what time it is right now, but does that really matter? I could look at the clock; nah. There was one more thing I wanted to write, but it seems my train of thought has departed for the night.