I am in my hotel room with long leggings and a big turtle neck sweater, chilled. I am in Sri Lanka, off the south east tip of India and it is 16'C!
Reality Check.
And yet this whole trip needs reality checks. We are in very definitely a third world country and yet the last two days have been a time warp back to Edwardian/Victorian England.
Let me explain.
We flew to Colombo, a 3 1/2 hour flight east, and a bit south of Singapore. Colombo is a city of under a million, very spread out. We were met by a driver (the ONLY way to go). The drive in, 45 minutes, passed poverty I have never seen before. People sleeping on the sidewalk, no blanket, no possessions. Tin shacks. Shanty alleyways.
Then to the beach, and in a circular driveway to our hotel, which might as well have been on another planet. A gorgeous hotel, like what I imagine colonial India was. Uniformed doormen, sari dressed women, huge floral arrangements in the lobby. Our room was lovely, the hotel played classical music in the elevators, huge brownie points from me, and security at each elevator on each floor!
We booked a tour with a driver /guide to see Colomba, the museum, much of Buddhism (about which I had just attended a lecture a few days ago in Singapore- talk about reinforcing the lecture), To a beautiful Buddhist temple, where I fed an elephant. No not very temple has a resident elephant. We went to the Dutch museum, very small, but it did show us of the Dutch colonialism, before the British. We went to the National museum, and learned a great deal about this country of which we knew so little. Like why is it not more Hindu given it's proximity to India? Buddhism was in India before Hinduism, and was here before Hindus. The country is 65% Buddhist, 15% or so Protestant, Catholic, and Hindu.
We met a pilot friend for the evening, and he took us to this wonderful 200 year OLD hotel, Mount Lavinia, on the beach around the bay, looking across at the downtown skyline of Colombo. We had seafood on the beach of the Indian Ocean (when I was in Perth I had a meal on the other side of the Indian Ocean)
We then the next day, had a driver to drive us up in to the tea plantations. We are staying in two different old mansions from the colonial days of the Brits and the tea trade.
The drive here was beyond description. But I'll try. Sri Lankans either straddle the centre line, or pass where there is no passing lane. Our driver was going 70 k's through the crowded main streets of towns, no curbs, filled with pedestrians and kids, and motorbikes, and big trucks, and way too many of anything and everything. He was very good about not passing when a solid line, but only because the police sit at the end of solid lines, picking off all those who show no whit of attention to any road rules. Many times we would be passing, in the oncoming lane, with a truck passing another truck coming at us. Somehow it works, most of the time. But we have taken to noting the number of auto body shops, and the scraped fenders, front and back, of pretty well all trucks, busses and cars.
We stopped at a roadside stand to buy a pineapple. So fresh, and he cut it up, and gave us salt and chili powder to put on. We chose unadulterated but our driver relished the salt and chili.
We saw what are called pillow trees, they grow white puffs, and the puffs are used for stuffing pillows. When they are slept on, the next morning they puff up to their original .... Puff.
We stopped at an elephant preserve. Elephants really are cute. One ton of cute. Hairy, bristling, huge eyelashes, and brown eyes cute. Very trainable, but I did notice the honker chains around the ankle of each elephant.
We saw many country houses/shacks, with barbed wire fencing. To keep out the wild boars who make havoc.
We drove to Nuwara Eliya. At 5000' feet, where they grow tea. Huge plantations. Did a tour. How they grade the leaves, sort them, dry them (1hour) then that is white and green tea. Fermenting the leaves makes black tea, which has caffeine because of the fermenting!
We stayed one night at The Hill Club, a hotel that was a private English hunting and fishing club. Still very British. When we went to bed, they had turned down the sheets and put in a hot water bottle! That stayed warm until the morning! All sorts of photos of leopards. Why? Because the jungle we saw STILL has wild leopards.
We moved to another baronial home turned hotel. Very English, very charming, a little tired, but charming. Tim had afternoon tea. I had an Elephant Kiss, some boosey cocktail. We now loll in the room hoping we will feel some hunger before it is bed time.
It is cold here. Like fall at home or very English. Wet, some rain, much fog clinging to the tops of the hills. It is gorgeous. The camera can not capture the wonderful mood here. We stopped in Colombo to visit a store to go to their Winter Department, to buy some polar fleece for these hills. With all our clothes stored in Canada, no warm clothes in Singapore, so we had to get something for this damp foggy weather.
Tomorrow we have a 6 hour drive to the south west coast of Sri Lanka to what is said to be one of the ten best beaches in the WORLD!!! I'll let you know!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
catch up
I have to do a bit of catch up. So many things I've done recently, but am off tonight on another adventure, so I want to make sure I get this posted before I head out.
There was a parade last weekend. Chingay Parade. It is a celebration of the multiculturalism of Singapore. Which I have to say seems to really work. In 1972 they outlawed fireworks. A big deal for the Chinese community, for they are big on fireworks. For safety reasons they outlawed them, and the tradeoff was a parade that culminated in controlled fireworks.
It started pretty small but has grown in to a huge production. They had thousands of volunteers and thousands of participants. I was surprised there were any Singaporeans left to sit in the stands.
It really was hilarious. A human fence of teenagers in red t-shirts from the mrt stop to the stands showed us the way. A very good thing, because Singaporeans do not sign well. We were in temporary stands that sat probably 5,000. There had to be 10-15,000 volunteers in the parade. I exaggerate not. The parade was on 2 nights, in this location, and then the next 2 weekends was in other street locations. They expected 15,000 to see it.
Nobody can do spectacular the way the Chinese can. 2 Hours of non stop floats, walkers, music. Each community was represented. A Malaysian float, a Chinese float, a Japanese float, a Tamil float, floats of a community cooking school ( they were on little golf carts, and stopped to stir fry garlic, ginger and onions, on a real burner!). Zumba dancers were represented, hundreds dancing by in matching neon coloured Zumba Club outfits.
There were pop singers on floats, there were school children playing ukeleles, there was Chinese Opera, there was Tamil drama, there were stilt walkers, of all ages, everything you have ever seen at a parade was here. In neon colours, with more lights than you can imagine.
We were given loot bags that had pompom shakers and whistles. We were encouraged to shake the pompoms and blow the whistles. AND we were taught this really catchy cheer.
Check this out.
Chingay chingay we are one
Parade parade we are one
People people we are one
Singaporeans singaporeans we are one.
Now try that about 50 times, at full voice, with thousands of others, with whistles blowing, pompoms shaking, and microphone blaring. It is just soooo catchy, don't you think?
I will have a tough time limiting the number of pics I attach.
I went to a yoga work shop and it was terrific. 1 1/2 hours of tough yoga, then a talk by a nutritionist about switching to vegetarianism. I learned a few things I will pass on, that I didn't know before. Most I had read about, heard about, but.... eat fruits on an empty stomach. They are full of good things that get bypassed if being digested with other food. So after a meal is not as good as 1 hour before. Also if using almonds in a smoothie, soak them overnight and then when you blend them in they become very creamy not chunky.
The woman, Shalu, has a cooking school walking distance from me, so I have signed up for some cooking classes, and have bought a blender. We have had 2 fruit smoothies, yum, and are going to try a veggie smoothy for supper.
For me I am not going to eat anything else, and it will be a detox day. Tim doesn't believe in those things, so he just had some eggs and toast.
Tonight we are off to Sri Lanka. Hope to go into the hills to the tea plantations, and to apparently some of the best beaches in the world. Oh, just eat you heart out. I have bought a camera so I hope my pics will be better.
The parade theme was fire and ice. Two challenges that Singaporeans face with strength and purpose They had snow at the end. My parade photos will not truly capture that wonderful Chingay chingay we are one spirit, but here goes.
There was a parade last weekend. Chingay Parade. It is a celebration of the multiculturalism of Singapore. Which I have to say seems to really work. In 1972 they outlawed fireworks. A big deal for the Chinese community, for they are big on fireworks. For safety reasons they outlawed them, and the tradeoff was a parade that culminated in controlled fireworks.
It started pretty small but has grown in to a huge production. They had thousands of volunteers and thousands of participants. I was surprised there were any Singaporeans left to sit in the stands.
It really was hilarious. A human fence of teenagers in red t-shirts from the mrt stop to the stands showed us the way. A very good thing, because Singaporeans do not sign well. We were in temporary stands that sat probably 5,000. There had to be 10-15,000 volunteers in the parade. I exaggerate not. The parade was on 2 nights, in this location, and then the next 2 weekends was in other street locations. They expected 15,000 to see it.
Nobody can do spectacular the way the Chinese can. 2 Hours of non stop floats, walkers, music. Each community was represented. A Malaysian float, a Chinese float, a Japanese float, a Tamil float, floats of a community cooking school ( they were on little golf carts, and stopped to stir fry garlic, ginger and onions, on a real burner!). Zumba dancers were represented, hundreds dancing by in matching neon coloured Zumba Club outfits.
There were pop singers on floats, there were school children playing ukeleles, there was Chinese Opera, there was Tamil drama, there were stilt walkers, of all ages, everything you have ever seen at a parade was here. In neon colours, with more lights than you can imagine.
We were given loot bags that had pompom shakers and whistles. We were encouraged to shake the pompoms and blow the whistles. AND we were taught this really catchy cheer.
Check this out.
Chingay chingay we are one
Parade parade we are one
People people we are one
Singaporeans singaporeans we are one.
Now try that about 50 times, at full voice, with thousands of others, with whistles blowing, pompoms shaking, and microphone blaring. It is just soooo catchy, don't you think?
I will have a tough time limiting the number of pics I attach.
I went to a yoga work shop and it was terrific. 1 1/2 hours of tough yoga, then a talk by a nutritionist about switching to vegetarianism. I learned a few things I will pass on, that I didn't know before. Most I had read about, heard about, but.... eat fruits on an empty stomach. They are full of good things that get bypassed if being digested with other food. So after a meal is not as good as 1 hour before. Also if using almonds in a smoothie, soak them overnight and then when you blend them in they become very creamy not chunky.
The woman, Shalu, has a cooking school walking distance from me, so I have signed up for some cooking classes, and have bought a blender. We have had 2 fruit smoothies, yum, and are going to try a veggie smoothy for supper.
For me I am not going to eat anything else, and it will be a detox day. Tim doesn't believe in those things, so he just had some eggs and toast.
Tonight we are off to Sri Lanka. Hope to go into the hills to the tea plantations, and to apparently some of the best beaches in the world. Oh, just eat you heart out. I have bought a camera so I hope my pics will be better.
The parade theme was fire and ice. Two challenges that Singaporeans face with strength and purpose They had snow at the end. My parade photos will not truly capture that wonderful Chingay chingay we are one spirit, but here goes.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Gudai Myte
I loved Australia.
It was great fun. An easy country, oops CONTINENT, to do on my own. They speak English, sort of, and signs are in English, food is recognizable, currency $, and much is familiar.
Emmet and Mary picked me up at the Gold Coast airport. After an 8 hour flight to Sydney and a 1 1/2 hour flight to Gold Coast. It seems close, because it is on the same page of the atlas, but it was a long travel day.
We had a great time.
They are in a condo, right on the ocean. There is a path along the seaside, and the beach, fine white powder sand, is not 100 meters from their building. On the beach are the iconic life guard towers, with a wonderful looking team of volunteer life guards. Yes, in their yellow and red beanies.
One morning we went down to swim, actually just be bumped around in the glorious waves, and a team of about 20 boarders came running full tilt on to the beach, carrying their boards under their arm. They dashed in to the ocean, paddled out at full tilt, came surfing in, and repeated that about 4 times, fast. Then they did a workout together on the beach. These wonderful Aussie bodies, in bathing suits, in ripping good shape, and giving it all they could. It was very impressive.
We went on a day drive, out in the country, rolling hills that reminded me of England, to this wonderful Art Gallery, sort of in the middle of nowhere. They had a wonderful exhibit of Ken Done. I knew that name because in the seventies, when you bought "wearable art" there were t-shirts of his. Very colourful, happy colours. They also had a showing of a very popular Aussie artist, Olley, who was homebound in her last decade, and she painted still lives, and the interior of her home. They were lovely, and it gave me an idea of her life.
We went in to Brisbane for a day, and visited a friend of Emmet and Mary's. We had lunch at a "balls club", that would be lawn bowling, and did a river tour. Brisbane is a charming city.
On to Sydney. A big, old city. I felt I was in Manhattan. Old brick cobblestones, street people, buskers, beggars, and a wonderful energy. It was an easy city to get around.
I did a tour of the Opera House. I was not disappointed. It is really beautiful. The architect, Utson, a Dane, thought it could be built in 3 years for $16 million. It took 16 years and took $50 million. But, you know, Sydney has this amazing iconic draw to the city. There are 5 theatres that seat 5,000 people, and they had 100,000 visitors last month! Utson designed stairs up to the theatre, you are rising in to cultural heaven. But it makes for challenges for audience, loading and unloading, and would not be done today (wheelchair accessibility a major design issue).
Sydney has some old buildings. Workmen's cottages that date to 1700's. With beautiful ornate filigree iron work railings. But the Opera House trumps anything.
On to Perth. I decided to go to where my good friend Val lived. She talked it up as so beautiful. But it was bloody expensive, Myte. Had I known. But I am glad I went. It is a fresh new city. Booming, much construction, and crisp blue sky, and sparkling waterfront.
I went to Fremantle, a small town out on the coast, Perth being up the river a bit. Went to a Marine Museum, and a researcher invited me in to his lab, to show me what he did. He was an anthropologist as well as an archeologist, so he was looking at these specimens from the perspective of life style back then. It really was fascinating. Showed me two cannonballs. One had been protected from the ocean elements and weighed a bloody ton. Another which had had the effects of the salt water for 300 years, was as light as a feather. Only carbon left.
The museum had an old shipwreck put together in the museum. The size of the lumber used for the ship. HUGE. They fixed leaks with animal hair and wax. They used English bricks as ballast, and then sold them when they got to Australia.
I went on a bus trip that took me to see kangaroos, wombats, and koala bears. Of course.
To a lobster factory, to see how they grade and pack and ship those "live" lobsters far afield. (They stun them in cold water and then they are good for 36 hours to get to destination) Japanese love 1 lb lobsters, Middle East they love 5 lb lobsters.
We went to the pinnacles, an amazing formation of limestone pillars in the sand dunes.
THEN we went sand boarding. The bus we had was like a tractor trailer. The driver was in a cab, and we were seated in the "trailer". I wondered why, but the bus went in the sand dunes. Up and down these quite steep dunes, doing wheelies where the trailer skidded around on the turn. It was really fun. Some people went sand boarding. Like a toboggan ride in the sand. I couldn't do it, because my stupid knees don't bend the way they should. But it sure looked like fun.
Kids wear school uniforms, and the girls wear a midi dress, and a straw bonnet. Very nautical.
Construction workers take the brim from a sun hat and put it on their hard hat.
Small airplane , and float planes. Not seen in Asia.
Sorry this is way too long. Bear with me.
It was great fun. An easy country, oops CONTINENT, to do on my own. They speak English, sort of, and signs are in English, food is recognizable, currency $, and much is familiar.
Emmet and Mary picked me up at the Gold Coast airport. After an 8 hour flight to Sydney and a 1 1/2 hour flight to Gold Coast. It seems close, because it is on the same page of the atlas, but it was a long travel day.
We had a great time.
They are in a condo, right on the ocean. There is a path along the seaside, and the beach, fine white powder sand, is not 100 meters from their building. On the beach are the iconic life guard towers, with a wonderful looking team of volunteer life guards. Yes, in their yellow and red beanies.
One morning we went down to swim, actually just be bumped around in the glorious waves, and a team of about 20 boarders came running full tilt on to the beach, carrying their boards under their arm. They dashed in to the ocean, paddled out at full tilt, came surfing in, and repeated that about 4 times, fast. Then they did a workout together on the beach. These wonderful Aussie bodies, in bathing suits, in ripping good shape, and giving it all they could. It was very impressive.
We went on a day drive, out in the country, rolling hills that reminded me of England, to this wonderful Art Gallery, sort of in the middle of nowhere. They had a wonderful exhibit of Ken Done. I knew that name because in the seventies, when you bought "wearable art" there were t-shirts of his. Very colourful, happy colours. They also had a showing of a very popular Aussie artist, Olley, who was homebound in her last decade, and she painted still lives, and the interior of her home. They were lovely, and it gave me an idea of her life.
We went in to Brisbane for a day, and visited a friend of Emmet and Mary's. We had lunch at a "balls club", that would be lawn bowling, and did a river tour. Brisbane is a charming city.
On to Sydney. A big, old city. I felt I was in Manhattan. Old brick cobblestones, street people, buskers, beggars, and a wonderful energy. It was an easy city to get around.
I did a tour of the Opera House. I was not disappointed. It is really beautiful. The architect, Utson, a Dane, thought it could be built in 3 years for $16 million. It took 16 years and took $50 million. But, you know, Sydney has this amazing iconic draw to the city. There are 5 theatres that seat 5,000 people, and they had 100,000 visitors last month! Utson designed stairs up to the theatre, you are rising in to cultural heaven. But it makes for challenges for audience, loading and unloading, and would not be done today (wheelchair accessibility a major design issue).
Sydney has some old buildings. Workmen's cottages that date to 1700's. With beautiful ornate filigree iron work railings. But the Opera House trumps anything.
On to Perth. I decided to go to where my good friend Val lived. She talked it up as so beautiful. But it was bloody expensive, Myte. Had I known. But I am glad I went. It is a fresh new city. Booming, much construction, and crisp blue sky, and sparkling waterfront.
I went to Fremantle, a small town out on the coast, Perth being up the river a bit. Went to a Marine Museum, and a researcher invited me in to his lab, to show me what he did. He was an anthropologist as well as an archeologist, so he was looking at these specimens from the perspective of life style back then. It really was fascinating. Showed me two cannonballs. One had been protected from the ocean elements and weighed a bloody ton. Another which had had the effects of the salt water for 300 years, was as light as a feather. Only carbon left.
The museum had an old shipwreck put together in the museum. The size of the lumber used for the ship. HUGE. They fixed leaks with animal hair and wax. They used English bricks as ballast, and then sold them when they got to Australia.
I went on a bus trip that took me to see kangaroos, wombats, and koala bears. Of course.
To a lobster factory, to see how they grade and pack and ship those "live" lobsters far afield. (They stun them in cold water and then they are good for 36 hours to get to destination) Japanese love 1 lb lobsters, Middle East they love 5 lb lobsters.
We went to the pinnacles, an amazing formation of limestone pillars in the sand dunes.
THEN we went sand boarding. The bus we had was like a tractor trailer. The driver was in a cab, and we were seated in the "trailer". I wondered why, but the bus went in the sand dunes. Up and down these quite steep dunes, doing wheelies where the trailer skidded around on the turn. It was really fun. Some people went sand boarding. Like a toboggan ride in the sand. I couldn't do it, because my stupid knees don't bend the way they should. But it sure looked like fun.
Kids wear school uniforms, and the girls wear a midi dress, and a straw bonnet. Very nautical.
Construction workers take the brim from a sun hat and put it on their hard hat.
Small airplane , and float planes. Not seen in Asia.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Well it is about a year since my last trip alone
Hey, ski buddies. I am going to visit Mary and Emmett on the Gold Coast!
I will fly tonight, actually 2 a.m.!!!! Singapore Sydney, then 6 hours in the airport, urgh, and a connecting flight (pretty loose connection, I think -6 hours) to Gold Coast. Mary and Emmett will pick me up and I will stay with them for 4 days. They are in a condo on the beach (that was battered and bruised in the typhoon a few weeks ago).
I will then fly back to Sydney for 4 days, on my own. OMG is Oz ever expensive. Singapore is pretty pricey, but most of the places I have been travelling to are much less expensive than here. But not Australia. Ouch, hotels are expensive. I hope to see an opera performance while I am there.
The next stop is Perth. Had I know how expensive Perth is, I probably would not have gone. But I am committed now. My good friend Val, lived in Perth for years and loved it. So I am flying across the continent to see where she lived 20 years ago. hmmm it seemed to make sense at the time. Well, she has put me in touch with two friends there and I have enough info to last a month easy. So 3 days in Perth,(At one of the cheaper hotels- $400. OUCH) then an all-nighter home, leaves at 9:15p.m. and gets in at 3 a.m. to Singapore. These are the flights Tim flies.
I am starting to look at my next trip home. We have a wedding September 28 in Collingwood. At least I think we do. We don't have an invite yet, but we sure would come, if invited. AHEM, AHEM.
So I will look at coming home mid August, stay for the wedding and after in to October. Tim would take 10 days and just do the wedding. I want to get two weekends with the kids, and do Stratford one weekend, and Niagara on the Lake another weekend. Have to start working on that trip.
Hey, folks. I guess that you are keeping up with us, and what we are up to. But this is a one way conversation. I would love to hear from you and what you are up to. Just a short email every now and then would be great. It would help me feel connected.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Singapore
I have been in Singapore over a year now. That amazes me. A year.
I must admit the first few months were pretty much a blur of survival, but I realized I really knew very little about the city/state. So I have done a little reading, and am going to share it with you.
First, the location. If you look at a map, it really is this tiny island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is teeny, tiny. 250 square miles. But ideally located in the past as a trade route (spices, silk, opium, tea, ebony, ivory). Now it serves as the economic hub of Asia.
It appears western, and is on the surface, but the Confusion philosophy runs deep. Freedom, respect of elders. Hence the strict laws; fines for littering, caning for vandalism. But the result is a very organized, efficient, safe, clean city.
The population is made up of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian, and Caucasian. The national language is Malay, in deference to the founding father, but the lingua franca is English, which is referred to as Singlish (very heavily accented English).
Singapore was a British colony and was heavily populated with Chinese indentured labourers. The isolation of the Chinese here gave rise to secret societies, which played a role in the make-up of the society.
As ideal as it was as a trading centre, Singapore was very vulnerable to attack. (My history is embarrassing lacking, and mostly of Europe since the 19th Century.) Early 20th Century, Japan had conquered much of Asia, and pre WWII invaded Singapore- having invaded Korea, China, Malaysia. The occupation of Singapore by the Japanese is very talked about here. It was a reign of terror. But upon the surrender of the Japanese after Pearl Harbour, Singapore regained autonomy, and with the British Rule of Law, but a People's Action Party, (somewhat communist), modern Singapore was founded.
They had no natural resources. What they had was political stability and cheap labour, and to encourage economic growth, very little restrictions on currency movement. What they have done in 50 years is amazing. They have a compulsory savings program and that makes home ownership (apartments in HDB- Housing Development Buildings, government controlled housing) possible, and home ownership is 90%!
To cope with their vulnerable location, they have compulsory military service (2 years for males 18 years old, and two weeks every year after). They have a standby runway. When you drive in to the city from the airport, there is a stretch of the expressway that is very straight, and the centre boulevard is not planted, but it is all planters. They can be removed in an emergency, and the expressway is a runway!
Having read about Singapore, it has helped me to understand the nature of this place. Such a wonderful contrast of the respect for the forefathers, and the cutting edge economic stand they have today. It does make for a clean, safe, efficient, savvy, energetic city, with draconian laws, and enough rules to boggle the mind. But it works.
I must admit the first few months were pretty much a blur of survival, but I realized I really knew very little about the city/state. So I have done a little reading, and am going to share it with you.
First, the location. If you look at a map, it really is this tiny island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is teeny, tiny. 250 square miles. But ideally located in the past as a trade route (spices, silk, opium, tea, ebony, ivory). Now it serves as the economic hub of Asia.
It appears western, and is on the surface, but the Confusion philosophy runs deep. Freedom, respect of elders. Hence the strict laws; fines for littering, caning for vandalism. But the result is a very organized, efficient, safe, clean city.
The population is made up of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian, and Caucasian. The national language is Malay, in deference to the founding father, but the lingua franca is English, which is referred to as Singlish (very heavily accented English).
Singapore was a British colony and was heavily populated with Chinese indentured labourers. The isolation of the Chinese here gave rise to secret societies, which played a role in the make-up of the society.
As ideal as it was as a trading centre, Singapore was very vulnerable to attack. (My history is embarrassing lacking, and mostly of Europe since the 19th Century.) Early 20th Century, Japan had conquered much of Asia, and pre WWII invaded Singapore- having invaded Korea, China, Malaysia. The occupation of Singapore by the Japanese is very talked about here. It was a reign of terror. But upon the surrender of the Japanese after Pearl Harbour, Singapore regained autonomy, and with the British Rule of Law, but a People's Action Party, (somewhat communist), modern Singapore was founded.
They had no natural resources. What they had was political stability and cheap labour, and to encourage economic growth, very little restrictions on currency movement. What they have done in 50 years is amazing. They have a compulsory savings program and that makes home ownership (apartments in HDB- Housing Development Buildings, government controlled housing) possible, and home ownership is 90%!
To cope with their vulnerable location, they have compulsory military service (2 years for males 18 years old, and two weeks every year after). They have a standby runway. When you drive in to the city from the airport, there is a stretch of the expressway that is very straight, and the centre boulevard is not planted, but it is all planters. They can be removed in an emergency, and the expressway is a runway!
Having read about Singapore, it has helped me to understand the nature of this place. Such a wonderful contrast of the respect for the forefathers, and the cutting edge economic stand they have today. It does make for a clean, safe, efficient, savvy, energetic city, with draconian laws, and enough rules to boggle the mind. But it works.
a quickie
[There is only one person out there that will understand this. Don't worry if this makes no sense to the rest of you. You are not the "one".] I want to send a quickie, then I will sit down and do a "proper" [ahem, ahem] post about Singapore.
I am still connected to my book club back home. I try to do a Skype my Friday morning of their Thursday night meeting. I have been successful more times than not.
Our selection of books is, as with book clubs, chosen by members, and is a wonderfully eclectic mix. But eclectic as it is, it has been difficult for me to find some of the books here. That is until today.
Most book stores here are a combination of Chinese and English books, and the choice in English is limited. But there is a book store here that I found, and spent some time in today (and spent some $$ as well). It is the most amazing book store I have been in. It is as big as many community libraries in TO. But it is not a lending library. It is a store! That's like going to an City Art Gallery and having the art for sale! I found all the books for next months, except for one. (The Giller prize winner "419".)
It probably sounds silly to you, but that wonderful store has made me feel less disconnected to all back home. To have a good healthy pile of "books to be read" at my bed table gives me warm fuzzies. (Maybe I should not be admitting this! It does sound weird when I write this.) But I am well stocked with books to read that will connect me to my book club friends.
One is the Salmon Rushdie, "Joseph Anton, A memoir". It is as big as the ruddy Bible. Or a dictionary. And my club dared to razz me about my suggesting "Anna Karenina"- TOO LONG. I go away and they pick this Rushdie tome. But I have it, and it will keep me off the streets for a while.
I am still connected to my book club back home. I try to do a Skype my Friday morning of their Thursday night meeting. I have been successful more times than not.
Our selection of books is, as with book clubs, chosen by members, and is a wonderfully eclectic mix. But eclectic as it is, it has been difficult for me to find some of the books here. That is until today.
Most book stores here are a combination of Chinese and English books, and the choice in English is limited. But there is a book store here that I found, and spent some time in today (and spent some $$ as well). It is the most amazing book store I have been in. It is as big as many community libraries in TO. But it is not a lending library. It is a store! That's like going to an City Art Gallery and having the art for sale! I found all the books for next months, except for one. (The Giller prize winner "419".)
It probably sounds silly to you, but that wonderful store has made me feel less disconnected to all back home. To have a good healthy pile of "books to be read" at my bed table gives me warm fuzzies. (Maybe I should not be admitting this! It does sound weird when I write this.) But I am well stocked with books to read that will connect me to my book club friends.
One is the Salmon Rushdie, "Joseph Anton, A memoir". It is as big as the ruddy Bible. Or a dictionary. And my club dared to razz me about my suggesting "Anna Karenina"- TOO LONG. I go away and they pick this Rushdie tome. But I have it, and it will keep me off the streets for a while.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
the calm after the storm
The house is very empty. It is very quiet. I knew this would be, but, oh my, it sure is. Compounding this is that I am in bed. Not sure if it is a major allergy hit or a flu bug. But day three of cough, such sleepiness, and nose blowing. I have pulled a muscle coughing. Yuck.
As soon as the kids left, I signed myself up for a lecture, a tour, and yoga classes to keep busy. The only thing I made was a tour. Out into "rural Singapore" with lit highways, and building everywhere. Much land is being expropriated for development, so I am particularly glad I get to see these places. But "rural"?
A dragon pottery kiln. Dragon, because it is built in little adjoining kilns up a hill, looking a little like a dragon. They fire once a week, to show the ancient custom. Singapore wants it's traditions and customs honoured. And provides an opportunity for the young Singaporeans to see. So many school trips to these places.
Next stop was "Bollywood Veggies". A garden, where there were many school trips touring. They are so cute, in their big sun hats, water bottle around their neck. We saw many fruits and veggies growing. Mango, papaya, curry leaves, kaffir lime,. Then a delicious veggie lunch there.
But then I succumbed to whatever this is, and have been lying low for 4 days. It does make the house emptier, when I hang around all day feeling lousy.
Here are some photos of Siem Reap. Angkor Wat. Camdodia. (wat means temple) We took a tour in Siem Reap which included a river tour.
Life on the river
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