Days 1 & 2 - Johor Bahru and Singapore

Uncharacteristically, I will try to be succinct, mostly because I should be applying to grad school right now. Since I am nothing but irresponsible, I’ll try to include a paragraph about each of the places.

As I’d sort of gathered from other tournament reports, the Zon venue doesn’t really encourage you to wander outside. Nonetheless, dad and I had the chance to take a brief look around since we foolishly chose to take the train back to Singapore (bus is the way to go). With a couple of hours in hand, the first step was to find somewhere to grab a bite, not too huge of a challenge since the Malay word for Restaurant is evidently “Ristoran.” However, they were all packed, hole-in-the-wall kinds of places not all that suited for all the luggage we had (although I would’ve been down, but with dad in tow, maybe not). The thing that I really noticed about the town was the coexistence of completely different ethnic groups in one place. We passed by what I think was a Hindi temple of some sort, the first I’d ever seen, largely in yellow and primary colors, covered in lots of carvings of people and elephants. A lot of woman had the bindi. But there were also folks who looked ethnically South-East Asian or Chinese, and then the obvious predominance of Muslim culture (the hotel room had a qibla/an arrow pointing to mecca). It seemed that we walked through three or four different neighborhoods in a matter of blocks, one more Indian, one with every sign replicated in Chinese characters, a fully-modern downtown shopping mall…it also lacked a lot of the slickness of Singapore, with more trash strewn around, and a cute old train station that looked like it could’ve been there for a few decades.

So, what about Singapore? The first, overwhelming immediate detail has to be the lushness. I suppose it‘s especially striking coming from China, where any verdure is limited to a few parks. But every avenue is lined with trees, there are wide open spaces everywhere, and really, for somewhere the size of Manhattan with a population of 4 million, the city doesn‘t feel crowded at all. Beyond that, I have no idea how you could come here and not be super-impressed. I thought about coming here a couple of summers ago when I went to Hong Kong instead. However, at the time I had information from a few people that it maybe wasn‘t as interesting as HK, that it was a city of malls and not that much more. Well, I have to say that I would’ve had a much harder choice on my hands if I had been to both of them previously. I am astonished by Singapore’s juxtaposition of different styles. The most futuristic skyscrapers you can imagine stand next to a cricket pitch. Our hotel is in Chinatown, reconstructed in traditional style to be only two or three stories high as the houses used to be, even though most of it is has now predictably gentrified. The supreme court building looks like a flying saucer. Swaths of the island are covered in dense forest. For all the fact that Singapore’s population mostly lives in high-rises, there’s not quite the same overwhelming verticality that one experiences in Hong Kong. In fact, it feels somewhat more livable. And the food - oh, man. I haven’t had a bad meal once since getting here. Pretty much everything is available, but with an obvious focus on Chinese, Malay, Thai, and then Singaporean cuisine itself…today we had a great lunch at the invitation of Michael Tang, organizer of the Causeway Scrabble explotravaganza with the most typical Singaporean dishes: Chicken rice and fish-head stew, and then a dessert whose name escapes me with shaved ice, corn and red bean. I love the Asian style of cooking fish. Nothing in the states has ever excited me that much, salmon seems sort of predictable, fish and chips is pretty tasty, but Southern China and Singapore really know where it’s at. Also, fellow Western folk, I beg you: Eat the fish head. It is easily the best part. Being squeamish is silly because it’s all relative anyway. Except for stinky tofu, which just smells awful and you are allowed to avoid.

Oh, and there are birds outside all the time! and they chirp!

Shoot, if I could just write like this I would have already written my statement of purpose…sigh. Back to work I guess.