Around Singapore

Because I have spent the last year being so involved in Rotary, I started looking for local clubs as soon as I got to Singapore.  I found contact information through the Rotary International website, and a member of the Rotary Club of Singapore emailed me back.  When I was in New Zealand, the advice of Rotarians about what to do, where to go, and how to get there was invaluable, and I was looking for the same sort of advice for Singapore.  What I got was even better, Chiang Shih Fang, the Rotarian who returned my email, invited me to come to his club to meet his fellow Rotarians and find out a little bit more about Singapore.  I jumped at the chance to go and got permission to miss a little bit of class that particular day.  I took MRT (the public transportation system) across town to get there, and after some frantic looking for the hotel, made it to the meeting just about on time.  One thing I have found on my travels is that no two Rotary clubs are exactly the same.  The ones I visited in New Zealand were mainly dinner clubs and very laid back, and this one in Singapore was much more formal.  We met in a nice hotel, and it was one of those lunches where waiters pull out your chair for you and lay your napkin across your lap.  I got a meet a lot of very friendly and helpful Rotarians, including an American ex-pat from San Diego.  Everyone was happy to give me advice about what to do around Singapore, and I really enjoyed being back at a Rotary meeting.

One other thing about being back at a Rotary meeting is that I got to eat a really good meal.  I have been eating at student canteens, and while the food is decent and very cheap, it was nothing like the amazing food they served at the Rotary meeting.  I think my host ate at least six chocolate desserts!  One thing I really am enjoying about Singapore food is how much fresh fruit there is.  Singapore is in the tropics, so a lot of fruit grows very well here, and it is very cheap.  A big slice of watermelon is typically only about S$0.30.  Besides having fresh fruit slices, pretty much everything is made with fresh fruit.  If you get orange juice, it’s most likely fresh squeezed.  If you get a milkshake or iced drink, it was probably made with fresh fruit.  They even use fresh fruit in their daiquiris and flavored margaritas!  Aside from the fruit, something else I have noticed is the prevalence of ‘American’ fast food here.  When we stepped out of customs in Beijing, the first thing we saw was a Starbuck’s.  They’re all over Singapore, and they were even near our hostel in Bangkok.  We’ve also seen a lot of McDonald’s, Subway, and Burger King.  Also, Coca-Cola is everywhere!  It’s not just the coke products, either.  I bought a bottle of water in Thailand, and there across the bottom of the label is ‘a quality product of the Coca-Cola Company.’  Regular coke products are everywhere, too, although they taste differently.  We think they’re made with regular sugar or something like that.  Coke, Coke Lite, Sprite, everything.  I even get Minute Maid Lemonade sometimes in the morning!

Last night a lot of people went to the Night Safari, but Marianna, Kristen, and I had our own plans.  We got all dressed up in black dresses and heels and went to the fancy Raffles Hotel to have Singapore Slings.  Raffles Hotel is one of the nicest hotels in Singapore, and it’s supposedly where a Singapore Sling was invented.  The drink is made from gin, Cherry Heering brandy, Cointreau, Benedictine, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine, and a bit of bitters.  We felt very chic all dressed up at the hotel with our drinks.  The hotel is absolutely gorgeous.  We sat outside in the courtyard, and it was all decorated for a wedding reception with lights and everything.  There was a band with a really good singer, and we felt like we had been transported back to sometime in the 1920s or something.  It was awesome.  We sat there for a long time, just talking, and then we wandered around to look in all the shop windows.  Swarovski, Tumi, Samsonite, Tiffany’s, and Louie Vuitton are just some examples of the retailers that have stores in the hotel.  It was amazing.

One other quick thing about Singapore: it is incredibly clean.  Everything about it is clean.  There are fines for practically everything, including littering.  They don’t even let leaves litter the roads.  Every morning as we take the bus to class, we see the workers sweeping all of the leaves and dirt out of the streets around campus.  It’s the same way downtown.  This is one of the cleanest cities I have ever been in, especially for Asia.  I am sure we will miss it when we get to Beijing!

Now, it’s time for me to get ready to go to Kuala Lumpur.  That’s our weekend trip this weekend, but we’re only taking a short trip (1.5 days).  I’ll have more about that later.