Singapore Swing Part V

There was a strange little shopping mall near my hotel. By "strange" I mean it was not at all like the shopping malls to which I am accustomed in the United States. Here we are used to wide open spaces, fountains, marble floors, and brass sculptures. This mall was dark with tiny shops with goods stacked floor to ceiling.

The shopkeepers are an invariably friendly lot, and not pushy. If you describe what you are looking for, a shopkeeper will instantly produce several options that will meet your needs—as if by sleight of hand. They are proud of what they have and want to sell it to you. And given the positive exchange rate to the US dollar, I was more than happy to pay their prices.

I purchased a Phillips portable CD player (not the boom box type) for the equivalent of $150.00 US dollars. That was in January 1997, before the prices for such things tumbled here in the US. Of course, iPod players did not yet exist. So if you wanted to listen to your CDs on the go, you either lugged a boom box or bought such a portable CD player .

The CD player came with a home power adapter, car power adapter, earbud headphones, and two battery powered bookshelf speakers. I could not touch that in the US at that time for less than $230.00. The only disadvantage was that the home power adapter had Singapore-style round prongs on it. However, I have an international power conversion kit, so I can still use the power adapter here in the US.

Click Here and scroll down about one-third of the way down to see a picture that looks identical to the supplied adapter.

But the photo is not about buying consumer products. While walking to the mall entrance underneath the overhang, I happened upon a group of four boys that appeared to be in a rock band. I paused before them and asked to take their picture. With a shrug and a quick glance at each other, they assumed a pose.

But there are two dramas being played out here.

The two boys on the right are the bass player (I think that black case held a bass) and the acoustic guitar player. The John Lennon shirt, the cross, and the long hair on the bass player said to me he was dedicated to his music. The acoustic guitar player with the beret cap and striped shirt was also into the whole thing. The rock star “attitude” those two boys assumed amuses me to no end.

Yet look at the other two boys. Something else entirely is happening there. The boy in the blue shirt flung his left hand up in front of his face at the very last split second before I took the photo. The boy in the white shirt laughed at him, and the photo catches him at that slice of time just before.

So why this dichotomy? Why did the blue-shirted boy cover his face? I can only speculate, but I have a pretty good idea. For his protection I will keep it to myself.

Of course, the blue-shirt boy did not have to be in the photo, and I would not have put up any argument if he declined to be in it. He posed at first, then changed his mind and suddenly covered his face.

Two boys acting cool, one acting paranoid, and one amused. It's a nice little drama, even if it is only a snap of four boys walking down a mall sidewalk.

Next in the Series: Part VI

Photos Copyright 2005 by Impacted Wisdom Truth

Singapore Swing Part IV

Pictures of buildings and scenary are an interesting part of any place, but what is truly unique is a nation's people. I found Singaporeans to be a friendly lot, and they were not shy about letting this stranger photograph them.

The next several photos I will post are the people of Singapore. All I had to do was walk about and ask if I could take their picture--and I was never once refused.

I awakened one morning and thought I would go for a walk and get a pastry at a small French-style shop near my hotel. You see that pastry shop in the background of this photo, named Delifrance. They had tarts, sandwiches, and all manner of other delightful treats. I especially took a liking to their blueberry tarts--thin flaky crust with a blueberry filling, and nothing like I have yet found here in the U.S.

As I exited the deli, I was greeted by the sight of four girls walking down the street together. They obviously had been friends for a long time, and were chatting and laughing together on their way somewhere, probably shopping. I asked if I could take a picture with them, and they agreed without question. I held out my camera to one of the girls. She seemed disappointed to not be in the picture but agreed to take it anyway. That made me feel both happy and a little sad at the same time.

Singapore is a diverse place, as you can see from the photo. The girl on my right is Indian, the girl to my left is Muslim, and the girl to my far left is Chinese. I thought about cropping this wide-angle photo, but decided not to because it sets the scene in context. Though there was a French style pastry shop there, you can see that there is also an American fast food place, Long John Silvers (of all things) right next door. Looking back on it, I am surprised to recall that the Muslim girl, though wearing the modest head covering, was also wearing bright red lipstick and blue eye shadow.

Next in the Series: Part V

Photo Copyright 2005 by Impacted Wisdom Truth

Singapore Swing Part III

The lofty perch of my 38th floor balcony is the vantage point for the picture at the bottom of this post. The church is St. Andrews, which is affiliated with the Church of England. Singapore is a former British colony and Christianity is certainly not absent, though not dominant. Click here to see additional pictures of St. Andrews (not taken by me). Click the "Next Section" box at the bottom of the linked page to see additional photos.

The picture below (the one I did take) shows the landscaping that makes the church grounds an island of green in a sea of concrete. The church is 19th Century and stands in stark contrast to the modern buildings in the immediate vicinity. It is difficult to see from such a faraway shot, but a black wrought-iron fence surrounds the entire property. Note how gleamingly white the church is compared to the buildings in the background--and the photo does not do it justice. In person the white is even more spectacular. I was told that the paint on the church is made with crushed eggshells--an actual eggshell white. It reflected the morning sun brilliantly.

So here is the picture that I took from my balcony. Click the picture for a larger one.


Next in the Series: Part IV

Photo (except from postcolonialweb.org) are Copyright 2005 by Impacted Wisdom Truth

Singapore Swing Part II

This photo is a view from the top of the former Westin Stamford, now called Swissotel The Stamford. Westin sold the hotel a few years ago to Swissotel. At the time I stayed there it was the tallest hotel in the world (perhaps it still it, I do not know). I highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling to Singapore.

On the seventieth (70th) floor was a restaurant called the Compass Rose. It has since been remodeled and renamed Jaan. The one thing that has not changed is the view. This photo has been slightly enhanced to add contrast. It was taken on a foggy day and the original photo is much less clear than this enhanced version.

As a hotel guest I was allowed to go to the head of the long line to the elevators for the seafood buffet lunch. Everything in Singapore (at least for travelers) is quite expensive. The lunch buffet cost $45.00 (Sing $), and drinks are extra. A glass of 7-Up was $5.00 each. However, what a lunch it was! The buffet had sushi, grilled fish, shrimp, prawns, scallops, lobster, and crab, but to name a few things. The dessert table alone would have shamed any buffet in Las Vegas.

Next in the Series: Part III

Photo Copyright 2005 by Impacted Wisdom Truth

Singapore Swing

Back in January of 1997 I made a business trip to Singapore for a former employer. My task was to install a SAM unit at a Seagate facility, and train the employees on its use. Seagate is a computer hard drive manufacturer. A SAM unit is a Static Attitude Measurement system that is used in quality control. It measures the static attitude of a head gimbal assembly, the part of a hard drive that reads and writes to the hard disc.

I spent Sunday to Thursday in Singapore, and it was one of the most enjoyable treks of my life. Here I begin by posting installment one in a series of photos taken, in roughly chronological order. I took my camera of course, not knowing if I would ever return to Singapore again. As of this posting I have not returned but it is on my list of trips to complete.

Some of the photos I took (or had taken by a friendly passerby) make me laugh today. Not because the photos themselves are funny, but for the fact that I took them at all. My intent was to document the whole trip, start to finish. If I am accused of being a typical googly-eyed tourist, I plead guilty as charged.

The first photo in Singapore was taken just as I got off the plane. I asked my stewardess to be in the photo with me, and this adorable girl kindly agreed. She is wearing that trademark uniform of a Singapore Airlines stewardess.


Next in the Series: Part II

Photo Copyright 2005 by Impacted Wisdom Truth