Sleepless in Singpaore: On the road to Malaysia

I am leaving for Kuala Lumpur in 30 minutes and I will be away for 1 week. I will be going to Bangkok as well and it should be an interesting experience. The whole planning process has been pretty tedious because our initial plan was to go to Cambodia and Vietnam. However, due to lack of interest and time, we scrapped the idea and went with this one instead. It is, however, fun to plan out all the different things that one could do in a new country. At the same time, it can be frustrating if we repeatedly change it.

So, our plan is to got to Kuala Lumpur, then Batu Caves and some famous mosque, then go to Cameron Highlands, which is apparently a beautiful place with strawberry and tea plantations. Then we will go to Teman Negara, which is a very big and beautiful tropical rainforest. It will be pretty adventurous and we plan to stay there for 3 days and 2 nights! I hear there are treehouses there and you can stay up there for the night! Sometimes, you can see tigers walking by and such! However, I dont know if they do that anymore and if WE are doing it. But the jungle trip should be a good experience.

Then we come back to KL and fly to Bangkok,where we will stay for 3 days. After that, we come back to Johor Bahru, Malaysia and take a bus to Singapore. It should be a good trip and we seem to have enough time to see the places properly. There is a bit of excitement and a bit of nervousness.. Excitement, for obvious reasons, and nervousness mainly because this is the first time I have planned a trip to ANOTHER COUNTRY on my own and am traveling alone. So, it should be a good experience and it will give me a lot to write about.

I am soo behind on my blog though.. There is still soo much to write about Singapore. I was working on writing about the Chinese New Year, but I got interrupted and never got back to it. I also intend to write about Singaporeans and Kiasu.. So many more things to come.. so stay tuned!

Anyway, I will get going now.. Cheerag up, up and away!!!

Sleepless in Singapore: Chinese New Year

On February 7th and 8th, there was the Chinese New Year which is a very big deal in Singapore. It is perhaps the equivalent of Christmas and Thanksgiving combined. The celebrations start 15 days prior to the new year and go on for 15 days after. It comes every year around February and it is derived from the Chinese calendar, which is based on the moon. This is the year of the Rat, which is known for its patience and adaptability. I suppose it symbolizes what this year is going to be like for most of us. At least for me, the prediction has been fairly accurate because I have been adapting to this new atmosphere, people, culture and traditions. It has been great so far, but I think my initial euphoric state has plateaued off nicely.

We were planning to go to Bintan, which is an island in Indonesia very close to Singapore. However, due to the CNY, everything was booked and we couldn't go anywhere. Perhaps it was for the best because we got to experience the New Year in Singapore. We went to Chinatown and it was probably just like China! There were people everywhere and the shopkeepers were screaming one thing or another to attract potential customers. It was good because it was my first experience here in Singapore (I've seen plenty of these 'markets' in India), but after a while, it got exhausting because things were very chaotic in general. However, at the same time, people were pretty understanding and walked around in an orderly manner; Just the sheer number of people made it extremely bustling.

We couldn't get the tickets so we went to a beach called East Coast park. All the sand was apparently imported from Indonesia and it was completely man made. It was filled with Malays and other coloured/non-chinese asians and it was good.. I've never really been to a beach before (except Chennai once when I was very young), and this was my first experience with salt water. It was a weird experience because I could walk for about 100 meters into the water and the water was still shallow; there were no currents as such or waves. But overall, it was a different experience.

We were going to go to Sentosa Island in Singapore, but that was extremely crowded. The line stretched about 200 meteres for everything (buying the ticket, then getting on the cable car/bus/ferry), so we decided not to go and went to Mt. Faber instead. It was ok; just a hill with trees all around. Granted that kind of thing is hard to come across where I live, but it was just another nature hike and we were in no mood to spend all that energy walking.. so we walked for a bit and then just rested..

Back to Chinese New Year: On the new year's eve, a whole troupe of exchange students went to Chinatown and we ate dinner. I had something called a carrot cake. I presumed it was going to be sweet but it was like radish, gelatin and egg all mixed together. It was really good- probably one of the best things I've had here in Singapore. Then we went to see the CNY parade. It was crowded with a HUGE mass of tourists and the like. We couldn't see much of the parade/show, so decided to go eat some more! We got some snacks and then a couple of us headed to 'The Esplanade', which is the arts and culture centre of Singapore, for CNY fireworks. It was a mission getting there with all the confusion and the splitting and rejoining of various groups. We were 7 at one point, then 4, then 11, then 5.. But eventually we all ended up at the same point and we saw the Chinese New Year Fireworks at midnight. It was over the water and we could see the Singapore Skyline in the background. It was awesome.

Since Chinese New Year celebrations go on for 15 days after the day, I also did many other CNY related things. I have this host family, which is a family that has volunteered to show a couple exchange students around Singapore and let them experience what it is like the be a local Singaporean. My host family decided to take us to a street market which was going on for the Chinese New Year. The family, like most Asian families, was extremely nice and accommodating. It was the husband and wife, and two sons. The husband works in the NUS mechanical engineering department and he has been involved with this program for over 10 years. He says he would be involved in it until his kids reach our age. The family was like any Asian family: very together, caring and supportive of one another. When one goes to these exhibition, it is always the case (atleast in an Indian family), that the kids get attracted to soo many things around and they want to get it. The father, usually being very sensible with his money refuses. This was precisely what happened in this family, and it was great to see it in another culture. That's when I realized that Singapore is not a Utopia. The middle class families are dissatisfied with their financial situation and are unable to buy all the things that they want. This is also when I realized the great difference between Asia and North America. The parents are in general much more restrictive with their kids and usually keep them in control. The kids are also very understanding and they know the reasons why they were refused the clay action figure that they wanted to get. In North America, with the whole 'independence and free' movement and such, kids are allowed to do anything they want and they learn through the consequences of their own actions. In a general sense, there is very less 'inherited knowledge' or 'passed down wisdom' among generations. Every generation is on its own and the people learn from their own experience. Asia is different in that sense.

The family showed us around and told us about Chinese New Year and the different traditions. Since I was born in the year of the dragon, they were telling me all the great things about me! Apparently the Dragon is the best animal to be especially if you are a guy. Therefore, during the year of the dragon, the birth rate in Asia increases by a lot! Anyway, they had things written for what this year is going to be like for me and it was not very optimistic. Financial burden, etc etc. But this was also a liberal family in many respects in that they did not believe in all these traditions. They believed in hard work as most Singaporeans do. Another thing I found surprising about them was that they were pure vegetarians! There is a popular expressions that the Chinese eat everything, but this family did not believe in killing and therefore chose to be vegetarian. I, for one, would love to eat Chinese vegetarian meals. I tried it at a Buddhist temple tour and it was indeed delicious. The meat was substituted with tofu. The family gave me a cup, which was indeed very nice of them and the visit gave us a very warm feeling.

There is this one CNY tradition that is very interesting. Before dinner, there is this dish that is made of raw vegetables, fish, sauces, etc (as you can see in the picture). Everyone gets chopsticks and all together, they start grabbing it and holding it very high. All along, they are all screaming their heads off as to what they aspire for the coming year. It is a very fun tradtion and I loved doing it. Infact, I think I did it about 3 or 4 times. First time was in a CNY dinner organized in NUS for students. Second was in my hall, where the supper was organized. So hopefully, I should get a couple of my wishes satisfied! I heard things like "I want to be in honours", or "I want to get a 90", etc. which indicates how ambitious and focused the people here are..

I was also invited to a house for Chinese new year dinner and this was on my birthday. I will write about it in my next post, which will be on my Birthday! Overall, Chinese New Year is a time of family, togetherness and tradition. They do not have a new years countdown, but it is a week long celebration of what they have and what they aspire to have in the coming year.

Sleepless in Singapore: Singlish

When I came to Singapore, I thought everyone would talk in the typical North American-Asian accent that Russel Peters always parodies. Since most people are chinese, I thought their way of speaking english is universal in all countries. This is not true at all.. Singaporeans speak in this really cool accent that it great to hear. I would describe it as English with a combination Chinese-Malay-Indian dialects. The accent at first sounded Jamaican, but now it seems like the Singaporeans have their own unique way of speaking. It is called Singlish and it is very interesting.

There is this particular tone in which the people speak, which is hard to describe but its very lyrical. Singaporean government, among other things, wants to get rid of this accent so the media is completely censored with typical American English. However, if you hear the locals talk, it is nothing like it. The vocabulary is also really good. The choice of words is very sophisticated and diverse. I think they use better words than the Americans, but there are several grammatical errors. It seems like they stick to the crux of the argument and don't really care about the grammatical correctness. Things like "Me, not going", "You, not there?" etc.. just enough words to get the point across. They speak very fast, so it is hard to understand if you are a tourist. It has been a month now, and I still have trouble understanding their accent. There are also several Malay, Chinese, Hokkien, etc.. mixed into their speech.

The most common you would hear is "lah". It is a superfluous word that they insert at the end of sentences like "It's ok, lah" or "No lah". It is equivalent to the Canadian "Eh" in some respects, but used in many more contexts. It may also mean like "Dude", but only inserted at the end of the sentence. It can also replace the word "right" sometimes, as in "There are no taxis anymore lah?" etc. This is probably the first word you would notice because it is used so often. It sounds good when someone says that to you though, like "Don't worry lah". It gives you a sense of closeness or shows that the other person has empathy.

They use the phrase "is it?" a lot. When I ask for direction, they would say something like "You wanna go to Sentosa is it?", its not that different from North America, but the way they say it is different and you get a different feeling.

Another word that my professor uses all the time, which I still don't understand is "Corena". When he is explaining something, after the end of it, he says it. For example "When you do the Fourier transform you get this.. (pauses) Corena". I think it means "correct or not?", but I am still not sure. It is a funny word though.

A word I heard once was the word cheem.. like "Ahhh lah, thats so cheem".. It means, its heard to understand or complicated. I think it comes from Malay or Hokkien.

Finally, a word that describes the Singaporeans is Kiasu, which means "Afraid to lose" in Hokkien. The Singaporeans, like most Asians are extremely competitive, hard-working and ambitious. They are deathly afraid of failure, so they give it their all to succeed. A guy next to my room is taking 8 courses (usually people take 4 or 5 and that is deemed to be the max). But this guy is taking courses from outside of the university and I see him studying all the time. I know I simply cannot do that. I think Kiasu deserves a separate blog entry of its own.

Also, some similarities to Indian are words like "Eii" (when they yell, or call somebody), and "Ahh?" when they want you to repeat what you said, and I've even heard the patented Tamilian "Aiyoo" exclaimed by local Singaporeans. Another exclamation is "Aiyah", but I've heard that before while playing badminton with the Chinese in Canada.

A word that my hall badminton taught me was "Huat", which is Hokkien thatmeans "Win!". Ever since, I said that word before I played badminton, haha..

Singlish is a great dialect that describes the population, the ethnicities and the nature of Singaporeans. The way they talk makes it seem like they are in a hurry to finish getting their point across because they have better things to do. The various mixture of words from different languages shows how the population is an intertwined mix of cultures that are living harmoniously in this Capitalist country.

Sleepless in Singapore: Peeping Tom

In our hall, we have five blocks with four floors each. In each of the blocks, the guys stay in the first floor. The reason for this is something they call "peeping toms", who are people that sneak around windows to catch a peek of the girls! To avoid this from happening, they have all the girls staying on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Apparently it is a big problem here so they are always telling people to be careful. I am on the 4th floor so I have nothing to worry about (apparently there are girl peeping toms too!). I find this phenomenon extremely weird. How desperate do you have to be to risk soo much just to catch a glimpse?! I mean there's the internet where you can catch as much "glimpses" as you want and there is no stopping you.

I've noticed this sense of desperation in all asians in general. Even the Indian students that are here are the same way, and as I recall, the Indian students in Toronto are also the same. They are always on the internet checking out what it has to "offer" and downloading all kinds of videos. I have a friend who has about 40 GB of videos. It is truly mindboggling how people can be that desperate. As far as I know, North Americans are not like this (I may be wrong..). Perhaps since I've spent my teen years there, I find this pretty surprising.

Whats the reason for this? I think it is one of the disadvantages of having "rules" and a sense of "culture" in general. With all these restrictions and obligations, people become suffocated in a sense and try to exit through these means. In Toronto, I thought this was only the Indian students that were there and they only do it because they are so far away from home and they are lonely or something. But this seems to be much bigger. I didnt know the south-east asians were this desperate. I would definately conclude that this is simply because of the restrictions placed on the people by their culture.

In North America, everyone is free to do what they want and there are no 'judges'. Perhaps this is why it loses its appeal. It becomes something like eating junk food or something. You like to do it once in a while (for biological reasons), but not all the time... Anyway, I feel awkward even writing about this so I will stop now.

Sleepless in Singapore: Steamboat Party

Jan 23, 2008

The other day, I got an SMS about and it read as follows: "Are you free tmr? Wanna come steamboat party?". I was pretty confused by this message, so I chose to ignore it. I assumed this has to do with some sort of clubbing party or a drinking party. Apparently the life of an exchange students involved partying it up and getting drunk atleast once a week. They have these "ladies nights" on wednesdays where the ladies get in for free and get complimentary drinks. So, wednesday night is the night to go out here in Exchange land. This "steamboat" party was also on wednesday night, so I assumed it was something similar.

The next day, Yosuke calls and asks me if I'm coming.. Still confused, I said I would come next time.. He seemed fairly offended and Yosuke is not the party type. So after a few minutes, I called back and told him I would come. I met up and it was about 10 exchange students there. Apparently steamboat parties are an Asian tradition where you have a huge pot or "steamboat" and you would constantly add things to it such as noodles, various types of meat, vegetables, spices, etc. We went to a local Singaporean's house and she was very nice. She invited all of us strangers and foreigners to her home and cooked us a grand feast. She had everything ready. When we went there, the girls started preparing or whatever and the guys (there were only 3 of us at this point) went to receive some more people who were waiting somewhere. When we came back, the table looked really grand. There were foods I had never seen in my life.. This was a korean themed party so they had Kemchi, which is a common korean dish and one of the people had brought korean alcohol.. there was only like half a bottle.. and it kind of tasted like ethanol or rubbing alcohol.

The food was amazing.. I think this was my first experience with chopsticks and really took to it. We each had rice in a bowl and we constantly add stuff to the steamboat and take stuff from it. Each time you reach into the steamboat, you get something different, something exotic, something I've never had before! It was an amazing social activity because essentially we are all eating from the same pot. There was this sense of personal bonding because it was like we were cooking together, sitting in a circle, and eating together. There was no separate ladle or a spoon to take the food. We simply take it with our chopsticks. The food was delicious and quite spicy. Most of the people were asian so they knew what this was all about. There was one other french guy who also seemed to know what was going on, since he is used to fondues and he's been here for a semester already. I was completely clueless, and this was something I chose to do extremely randomly. I got a call from Yosuke and I blindly accepted it looking for an adventure. I am glad I did because this was an unforgettable experience.

The house was also really good. Most of the people in Singapore live in government housing called HDB (Housing and Development Board) and they are mostly apartments. She is a Chinese Singaporean and her house was quite traditional. They had some Buddhist articles on top of a fridge to which they pray. It reminded me of my apartment in Toronto, where I used to live during the first couple of years after moving there. It was at this point that I realized the similarities within the Asian culture. There is a certain culture and some restrictions/obligations that Asians are faced with. I personally think it is a good thing because it gives you a sense of belonging. Also, certain things in the culture are there for a reason, such as having respect for elders, the expectation for a child to study and do their best in studies, etc. They have evolved over time and they have stuck around for a reason. The lack of culture in North America may be a good thing if you look at it in an individual perspective, but for the society, I think it is harmful. Anyway, I may be biased because I too am Asian and I have been brought up with the Asian culture. I had not realized these similarities in Toronto even though there are many Asian people there and I interact with them on a day to day basis. Anyway, one thing is for sure, Indians really need to pick up the culture of Steamboat parties! They are phenomenal!

Sleepless in Singapore: Temasek Hall and "Fooled"

Sorry folks (whoever is reading), I'm a little behind on the blogging.. So, now, I'm playing catchup. Last week, I went to a theatre production by my hall called "Fooled". Theatre is one of the many things that Singaporeans do around here.. Infact, they have to. For each extracurricular activity that they do, they accumulate points. If they have enough points, they can opt for a better room. On the other side, if they don't have enough, they get kicked out of the hall and they cannot come back for the next year! So it is a "Do something, or lose everything" attitude that gets everyone in the hall involved and super spirited.

My hall is a sporty hall. We have won the Inter-Hall Games like 15 times in the last 18 years or something like that and everyone is really into sports and supporting their athletes. All the halls go to support their teams and they each have their own cheers. They are really loud and cheery. Infact, they are cheery about everything they do. Always laughing at the simplest of jokes and always just looking happy. It is an amazing culture because they know what they like and they are not afraid to show it/express it. In some ways, they are completely the opposite (Will talk about it more in "Kiasu"), but in terms of hall spirit, cheering on their friends and simply joking around, they are very enthusiastic. I played in the hall badminton team and it was an amazing experience. Everyone was cheering and encouraging for every point and it was great playing for an audience. In Canada, you barely have anyone watching you play. Even in tournaments, it is only the finals and sometimes semi-final matches that are watched with some interest. Even then, all you can hope for are a few claps and some "whoo"s. But playing badminton in Singapore was a whole different experience. I loved it. The people have like bottles, which they bang together to make the sound. This one hall brought drums and they had a super cool cheer that is still playing in my head! It went like "K.. K.. K.. K.. Arrrr" (For Kent Ridge Hall).



So, I went to the theatre production and it was really formal. Everyone were dressed in nice dress pants and shirt, and this was probably the first time that I saw students dressed in anything other than short shorts and a t-shirt. I was unaware of the dress-code and showed up in jeans shorts and a shirt I've been wearing the whole day and sandals. I arrived there and was too embarrassed to cross the street. Finally, I collected some courage to go over and all my hall mates were like "its OK". I quietly went it. The only reconciliation I had was that my other exchange friends were also dressed similarly, so I was not the only one!

I found my seat and got ready to see something I had never seen before. I didn't know what to expect because I still don't know what kind of humour these people have, or what kind of music they listen to, or what kind of plays they would like. The play started with a speech from our Hall Master. The play started with a hilarious scene of a bunch of coolies (workers in a port.. I was aware of the word coolie because it is the same in India). I knew some people and it was pretty hilarious. Most of the jokes were local, but I was able to understand some of them. The rest, I was able to figure out from listening to when the people would laugh (like "ohh.. that is supposed to be funny" or "maybe he meant this"..) The story was pretty unique and didnt follow any cookie cutter theatre format. It was like a play within a play where we constantly go back and forth from the actual play to scenes where the actors are talking about the play and their acting in it. So, there were two simultaneous plots where there are love stories in the lives of the real actors and at the same time, in the play within it!

The story revolved around Hua/Huat, who comes to Singapore and doesn't know much about it. As her brother gets arrested, she is forced to find her way in this dog-eat-dog world. So, she dresses up like her brother and takes up a job as a servant in some rich person's house. Now this rich person, Han, is courting a girl, Lady Sylvie, and takes help from his servants to pass on the letters and so forth. He takes the help from Huat and takes suggestions from her/him regarding his love affairs. Huat is the one being sent to deliver the letters to Lady Sylvie and after a few encounters, Lady Sylvie starts getting infatuated with Huat. In "real" life, the actress playing Huat/Hua has a crush on the actor playing Han. And Han and Lady Sylvie are in a commited relationship in real life.. If you are still following the story, I am confused because it is indeed pretty confusing. The ending is also pretty unconventional, because the play was resolved, but the "real life" plot ended ubruptly with the actress (Hua) being heartbroken.

In the midst of all this, there were scenes of the coolies talking in the "play" and "real life" and were very funny. Overall, it was a very good play. Apparently the people have been working on this for a few months and everything (from script to the sets to the music) was original. It was very impressive.

Overall, the Singaporeans are very hardworking and I suppose they have to be to survive in this country. It is extremely competitive and they have to stay at the top of their game if they want to be successful. Temasek Hall is a great place where they are learning about/being shaped into the ideal men and women for the country..