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Visitors 26
29 photos
Overall, the city of Singapore is pretty underwhelming. The China Town is refined and upscale with pretty colonial buildings and freshly-painted shatters. For the Chinese New Year the streets are decorated with colorful Chinese Gates, built for the occasion from ply wood and fabric. Imagine, a China Town with no real gates!!! Little India is a clean version of India with stores full of Chinese common goods. Indian hip-hop is blasting from the shops and there's a hint of Indian spice here and there. The rest of the city is filled with authentic SHOPPING MALLS. The national uniform is some combination of LV, ESL, and/or Coach accessories thrown over an ordinary polo shirt, jeans and an occasional headscarf.

But the city is not THAT clean. Yes, there are trash cans everywhere, but try to convince the 30% of non-Chinese population here to use them :) It's true, I didn't not see any gum, but I wonder if I go to the right part of town, if I could buy it from under the counter ;)

There are a lot of food courts and food stalls, all of which prominently display a license and a letter grade for hygiene, some even list the ingredients; so far, no nutritional information charts have been spotted. I sampled one memorable item under the supervision of my coworkers - fresh durian. I've had it frozen, in a smoothie, but never fresh, and wow! I think I'm in love. My best description of the flavor is an aromatic (hm-hm) bouquet of stinky cheese, nuts, and pear. This was a ripe fella, so inside the membrane the texture was like a thick pudding. They say it's an aphrodisiac - oh, boy!

The next day went out with my other coworkers for some crabs - hm-hm, fingerlicking joy! We tucked in three crabs between four people, plus scallops, prawns and even some veggies, all washed down with some chilled Tiger beer. After a meal like this the jet lag set in... until I got back to the hostel and ran into a bunch of people who were going to an Indian night club, well I couldn't speak to myself if I didn't go.

When we got there, everyone was sitting along the wall and solemnly sipped their drinks. In the middle of the room, two beautifully dressed women danced to traditional indian music, every few songs the girls would rotate and a different pair would take the floor. Most of the girls weren't actually indian, but nepalese or malay, but there was one indian dancer who didn't just dance with her body, but her face did the dance as well. She was captivating to watch. Someone said that she's a Bollywood choreographer. May be.

Gradually music switched from traditional to modern Indian film scores. That got everyone going! People were dancing in their seats and waving hands in the air to the beat. The Bollywood girl acted out every song with such passion, she was oglicious. Tips started pouring in, but one would never-ever tuck a bill into a dancer's dress. The proper way is to hand it to her, but only after making a circle with the bill around someone's head.

Dancing in your seat is good and all, but... If there's a dancing god in Indian mythology, she heard me and with the first beats of hip-hop (indian, of course) people catapulted from their seats. Well, you didn't have to ask me twice :) Looking around I think I got the basic idea - you lower body dances hip-hop to the beat, while the arms and shoulders follow the indian melody. I had a blast! The music wouldn't let up, the drinks wouldn't stop coming... I finally said my good-byes at four in the morning and allowed the jet-lag to catch up to me.

Not bad for a little town that didn't impress me much ;)

Categories & Keywords
Category:Travel and Places
Subcategory:Asia
Subcategory Detail:Singapore
Keywords:

View of downtown and the Court house

View of downtown and the Court house

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Hindu temple in China Town

Hindu temple in China Town

Market wares

Market wares

Market wares

Market wares

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Historic China Town

Little India

Little India

Little India

Little India

Little India

Little India

A piece of urban jungle

A piece of urban jungle

Masjid Hajjah Fatimah

Masjid Hajjah Fatimah

Entrance to a beauty salon

Entrance to a beauty salon

St Andrews Cathedral

St Andrews Cathedral

Koi

Koi