30 Hours in Singapore... Raffles Place included.

Fireworks

The Smallest Bar in the world

English Pub ?

Singapore River Cruise

The Bird Statue @ Boatquay, Raffles Place

The leisurely train journey from Kuala Lumpur - Singapore took 7 hours. That itself is part of travel where my daughter and I enjoyed immensely; partly because we slept all  the way to Singapore and arriving fresh on a bright Saturday morning. It was only around 4pm that my better half ( who arrived a day earlier ) and I started off from our son's apartment bound for Bras Basah via the new Circle Line to look at some used book stores at the Bras Basah Complex. There are numerous bookshops within the complex selling stationaries and used books. Most of those shops are not well stocked with the exception of one where we bought five books between us. The shops do carry out- of- print books too, though overall the books are not to our liking. One can find school books, old magazines, all sort of stationaries and books of all kinds, predominantly fiction. Prices are considerably cheaper because the books are mainly used ones but we can find even new ones being sold slightly cheaper compared to the up-market book stores in the city centre. Bras Basah Road generally has retained its character since the mid-sixties with the exception of a number of  high-rise office buildings on one side of the road and at the moment one of such building is under going a face lift. There are also a number of budget hotels along Bras Basah.
By half past five, we were already on the North-South Line bound for Raffles Place to meet-up with our grand-daughter and her parents. Disembarking from the Raffles Place station and five minutes away, we were already by the Singapore River, and the place is known as Boatquay. Out on the river we observed several boats loaded with tourists on a river cruise. Along the bank of the river, besides the high rise office blocks, there is a long row of old shophouses beautifully done up housing numerous pubs, restaurants of all kinds from arabic menus to thai seafood. We settled for the Northern Indian food of briani rice, naan roti and delicious chicken tandoori, dhal, bendi and various masalaas....the street as a matter of fact  was being swamped with a multitude of odours coming from all the kitchens within the area. Choosing a restaurant for dinner could be a very difficult and problematic matter for any family, I bet ! By sheer coincidence or planned coincidence we were there at the right time and place to witness the fulldress rehearsal celebrating Singapore National Day. From the blue clear sky we saw paragliders slowly gliding their "sails' in perfect circular motion aiming perhaps to a designated mark somewhere on the esplanade nearby hidden from us by the colonial building across the river. Then like rolling thunder, the jets from the air force in perfect formation zoomed by, deafening everyone and mothers desperately clasping their hands over the ears of their children. The helicopters too made their entrance with the Singapore flags under their belly made their way at a much more sedate pace to the delight of the early diners at the restaurants. The highlight of the evening was the fireworks display which we were lucky enough to feast our eyes upon from our son's office some 80 meters high. It was a grand display of bursting colours and from this vantage point, we had a panoramic view of the multi-coloured showers all around us. It was a good and satisfying Saturday outing for the family......

Images of Geylang Serai or what's left of it now

Geylang Serai

About a city block in size we have the Malay Village area with former houses and buildings still

intact but now housing small malay businesses and stores

The front of the new Geylang Serai Market, the food stalls are on the upper level

The Surau - a small prayer hall

The New Market at Geylang Serai

Geylang Serai Singapore, has transformed and as a matter of fact Singapore has transformed  ever since I first set foot there in the mid-sixties. It is for the better, one cannot fight modernisation and its a matter of economics too. But we do see some remnants of Geylang Serai of the past too and its kind of nostalgic to be seeing some of the traditional setting still in place and converted into the Malay World where tourists and locals can enjoy the atmosphere there. Enjoy the images....taken from my camera phone.

Night Train to Singapore

                       ( Johor Bharu Station - my late father used to work here as Station Master )

KL Sentral Station - Waiting Lounge

               

                    Coaches at Tanjung Pagar Railway Station, Singapore                  

I love trains. My late father was with  the Malayan Railways or Keretapi Tanah Melayu and he saw service for more than 35 years. My siblings and I grew up in small and big towns from Pasir Mas to Singapore. We used to stay in Johor Bharu, Tampin, Rantau Panjang and at least 2 other towns which I could not recall ( memory is failing me again ). During our school holidays, our father would without fail took leave and journey home to our kampong in Melaka via the train. We would travel from Rantau Panjang to Gemas along the east coast line  and change lines      
northwards along the west coast line to Tampin where we would disembarked and proceeded by taxi to our grandfather's house in Semabok ( a village, just outside Melaka Town ). That was our idea of a vacation then. Although I have been on the TGV but nothing beats the slow ride from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore which my better half and I took recently on our way to visit our grand daughter in Singapore. We went via the Senanadung Malam departing Kuala Lumpur around 10pm I think, and arriving Singapore ( Tanjung Pagar Station ) at around 8.20 am the following morning. The slow narrow gauge express lullaby us to sleep on our second class berth coach before even reaching Seremban station, about an hour and a half away south of Kuala Lumpur. What was more appealing was the special fare we got for being senior citizens with 50 percent discount for tickets. The rest did not matter !
My father was stationed in Singapore for 4 years as an ASM ie Assistant Station Master and during those years our trips were from Tampin to Singapore via the Express Rakyat, the day express train. It was considered super-fast then.
Although people have been complaining of our trains being slow, frequent delays and poor service, I cannot complain. How fast can a train travel on a narrow gauge ? If speed is the issue, then take the plane or the many express buses that are available now. For a senior citizen like me, travelling by train is ideal. One can stretch one's legs and move around freely in the compartment with minimum stress. It's the way to travel if you have time in your hands and a grandchild to visit.

PS : The senior citizen card entitles the bearer a 50 percent discount on train fares ! )

Weekend in Singapore

The Mustafa Complex....yes 24 X 7

The Smile says it all !

We caught the morning coach on Friday from Kuala Lumpur and arrived Singapore slightly more than 5 hours later; it was a hot day, and we were sweating by the time we reached Rizal's house. But looking at Sophia's beaming smile when we opened the apartment door was the highlight of the short visit. My cucu recognised me after all ! and of course as usual we did our usual sightseeing on Saturday. We walked past the old Cathay Cinema and noticed its new facade, went for lunch at Rendevous Restaurant for nasi padang, along Bras Basah Road. This part of the city changed quite abit since I last walked past the same street 35 years ago. And we made it to the Singapore National Museum too......very professionally run and very interactive. You need more time here, a full day perhaps. Educational and enjoyable. Muzium Negara, Kuala Lumpur ? Must make an effort to visit again after 8 years ! This will be another personal project.

Rice

I have been a student of geography in my undergraduate days. And I know about paddy/padi and rice. Lowland padi, highland padi, irrigation methods, long grain, short grain, its many varieties; how padi is cultivated, mechanised and traditional, places where padi is grown like South East Asia, South Asia and parts of Africa and even cultivated in the United States. Infact rice is grown in 114 countries in the world. In 2007 it was estimated that 645 million tonnes were harvested...and thats alot of rice to go around. The Asian countries produced almost half of that, where China and India is accountable for 50% of the Asian production. The subject of padi and rice was and is still interesting to me where most people take for granted. Recent events and the sudden escalation of food prices including rice which is the staple food of most Malaysians and its neighbours have made us more aware of food production and rice in particular. A ten kilo bag of rice which I used to buy at RM 28 now cost close to RM40. No wonder, the rising cost of rice even caused some riots in some parts of the world. It is sad but true. I remember when I was a kid staying with my grandparents in a village called Semabok ( about 2 miles from town ) , in Malacca, we used to have 2 water buffaloes which my grandfather kept for work in the padi fields that almost encircled our then atap house. He will take up jobs in ploughing the fields and also leased out the buffaloes to others to till the fields. In the evening he used to bathe the buffaloes at a nearby well, cut and stock-up grass for the animals. Its hard work no doubt, just to earn a few ringgit and rice. But modernisation and urbanisation swept us by, with the town slowly swallowing up most of the fields. Now, I cannot see any remnants of those fields anymore..they are gone forever. Similarly, during my final year in College, on a field visit to Kedah ( known as Malaysia's ricebowl ) sometime in 1976, we observed that rice fields were slowly being turned into residential areas and factories in the name of progress - and at that time, there was a programme by the Agriculture Department to make us self-sufficient in rice ! Dunno what happened to the policy, perhaps it just was left forgotten since it is cheaper to import rice rather than grow. Must be a dilemma for economists.
Rice is our staple food and almost half of the world's population eat rice in one form or other. In Malaysia, with rice, one can do wonders with it. From rice one can generate hundreds of dishes or menus...and to justify this point on a recent visit to Singapore, I did a small survey at the Geylang Market. Its a kind of mixed market actually where they sell vegetables, meats, and all stuff that you need in the kitchen. In the market there are at least fifty or more stalls selling food...so much food, so many varieties and smell. This happens to be my favourite place besides being with my grand daughter of course. Just to give an idea of the influence of rice, we have the following rice menu ( all within 100 feet radius of the stalls ) : nasi means rice - nasi lemak, nasi goreng kampong, nasi goreng cina, nasi bawean, nasi kerabu, nasi berlauk, nasi ayam, nasi uduk, nasi tumpeng, nasi himpit, nasi kuning, nasi dagang, nasi bojari, nasi bokhari, nasi katok, nasi daunpisang, and if you wrap the rice its called nasi bungkus ! And that does not include all the varieties of rice cakes ( hundreds of varieties of cakes and pastries made from rice flour ! ) I got to stop now, need to eat my rice pudding !

Retirement and Travel

What would one do upon retirement ? I thought about this 5 years ago when I turned 55, the age when goverment servants are supposed to put down their tools and forget about coming in to the office. There would be some changes nonetheless, either for worst or for the better depending upon one's preparedness to face this new challenge. Fortunately, I had this option then, either to continue working or just fade away. After a week of soul searching, I decided to plod on, perhaps God willing to the age of sixty where it is the mandatory age for retiring at the company I am currently employed. And since then, I have been preparing for retirement and of course have been "practicing retirement" from time to time. With so much free time in the future ( seven months down the road ), what would I do ? Assuming that financially I am okay, upon retirement I will do what most retirees hope to do - taking it easy, do what I have been unable to do before, like reading and catching up with old friends and of course moving permanently to my own house which I bought some 25 years ago in Malacca ( now, a heritage city ! ). With good friends and neighbours in this once sleepy hollow state, I anticipate a good life ahead with zero pressure to top it up. And occassionally would love to travel the country to the small towns and secondary cities in Malaysia which had been overlooked by most people. But of course, the travel mode I would choose would be via coach or the express buses which has mushroomed to take advantage of the increase number of travellers and the excellent road system in the country. Being pampered and driven to work for the past few years, and on most occasions people are doing your chores for you, I must be prepared to do all those daily tasks on my own later. This is where life during retirement will be different. A friend who recently retired after years of being pampered suddenly found out the truth - before he has it all, today he has none. Literally he is learning to drive again, lost his way many times in the process and he even need to ask where the nearest post office is ! Quite pathetic actually. Well, I am not going to fall into that trap, never. So , I had a number of practice sessions over the years.....I rode the bus, I took the train and even took short walks to do the chores. Once I even went to a government clinic to get treatment for a cold, just to feel what it is like to stand in line for your number and waited for your turn to be called by the doctor in attendance. There is one virture after all these and it is called patience. In other words, I got to act as real people do, so to speak.

Quite recently, instead of taking to the air for Singapore, my better half and I decided to take the 5 hour journey by bus to visit our dear grand daughter whom I had not seen for some time. Besides, between us we saved quite abit by taking the bus even if we compare the cost of travel by the budget airline. Talking about Singapore, there are many bus companies that service the Singapore sector from Kuala Lumpur. A single journey may cost between RM50 to RM135 depending upon the level of "comfort" that you require. There are ordinary buses and double decker buses -with all the creature comforts of your choice, from on demand videos, WiFi- installed buses with plush comfy seats with an onboard crew to feed you the lunches and dinners depending on the time of travel.. Some even have huge seats to accomodate only 15 passengers compared to the normal 20 something seats. Take your pick ! And the level of service quality also differs, from the not so friendly to the extra friendly type. The companies go by various names and some even have out of this world names too. Names like Transtar, First Coach, Nice, Transnational, Durian Burung, KL-Singapore Express, Aerolines, Airebus, Grassland ( pretty name, perhaps inspired from a geography book ! ), and Odyssey which is my favourite for comfort and service and even a name like Starship Quest Express ! and I am not kidding for one bus bearing this name came zipping by and overtook us somewhere before Pagoh enroute to Kuala Lumpur. Truly a spaceship of sorts ! A lesson here, for as a retiree, one must be mindful of ones expenses and accept a little change in our lifestyle unless you have a bottomless bank account ! Hey, as a retiree, why the rush ?

The Odyssey

Nope..it's not about the Greek hero Odysseus's ( circa 700BC ) exploits after the Battle of Troy which later took him 10 years to reach his Ithaca home; nor about Nasa's Mars probe to poke at the origin of the universe or about a certain cruise ship or a BMX bicycle brand name. This is about a luxury liner, a coach trip that my better half and I took recently from Kuala Lumpur - Singapore vice versa. The trip from KL-Singapore took us 5 hours ( pretty good compared to Odysseus journey of 10 years ! ). Certainly the travel was one of 4 major highlights that we accomplished but definitely it did not include shopping ! Firstly, the journey via Odyssey was extremely delightful.....smooth and comfortable. It was so comfortable that time passes by quickly from the moment I plonged my butt to the seat and kind of distracted with the personal entertainment screen which can project movies and games of your choice. Its like travelling by air, complete with the captain and an onboard crew. Lunch was served and coffee too. What more can you ask ? I must have dozed off abit later before I was awaken by a guggling atomic mode snore, from someone in the coach. Highlight number 2 was the smooth flow through the immigration complexes of both the Malaysian and their Singaporean counterpart. It was a breeze with no Qs to speak off. Highlight number 3 whilst in Singapore, I managed to catch up with friends ( since our primary school days in Melaka ). Yes, we had a great time. Thanks to Quee Leong and Yoke Meng. Both of you made my stay in Singapore a wonderful one especially getting updates on wassup in the city state. The Sentosa island revisit ( formally known as Pulau Belakang Mati....kind of a dead island ) , now it's booming but crafted and chisseled blanding development and nature resulting the island becoming one of the top tourist attraction for Singapore, discounting shopping of course. It was reported on the day of my visit that Singapore had already welcomed its 10th million visitor and the lucky fella from India brought home $50,000 worth of prizes.Number 4 highlight was the opportunity to hold my granddaughter and teasing her for 3 solid days. No matter what, I promised her that Datuk will come again....via Odyssey.