Not tempted

We usually find something new and interesting on menus when we're in Singapore, and the last trip was no exception.

Chicken feet is a standard item in Chinese restaurants but this was a new one on me:



I've eaten crocodile meat back in Oz, but I draw a line at eating the feet.

I gave these a miss too:

And much like Dubai, No Parking doesn't apply to you if you drive something like a Lambo:

Now back in Dubai and there's an interesting story in today's papers. Given our reputation for enjoying a beer or two I had to smile at reports that an Aussie's been fined for consuming alcohol.

Our football team's former captain Craig Moore pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol and was fined Dh1,000.

A back issue

Well that was a different stay in Singapore from the ones we usually have.

Arrived late Friday evening, got ready to go out for coffee mid morning Saturday, bent over to pick something up...click...yell...on the floor in agony.

A joint in the back had decided to click out of place.

Ten minutes later I could move - just about and very, very carefully.

What I needed was a wellness solutions facility* .

But it was the weekend so they weren't open.

Spent most of the weekend lying flat, then I hobbled off to the first appointment I could get, which was 8am Monday. At 9am I walked out normally, if a bit stiffly.

The joint was back where it should be.

I went back a couple of times for work on the soft tissue which had been damaged, because another eight hours sitting in a cramped aircraft seat was coming up and I wanted to get it as right as I could. It worked.

I tell you all this not for sympathy but because some of you will, I'm sure, visit Singapore some time and you might also need a wellness solutions practitioner*

Away from our usual habitat the biggest problem is always who to call, who to see, who to trust.

Make a note of the name Jackson Yong. Far East Shopping Centre, next to the Hilton on Orchard Road. I hope you never need him but if you do you can call him on 683 65896.

Singaporean, trained in Australia and he's good. Very good.



* Physiotherapist

Singapore pics

Not having seen them before, I posted a pic of 'Wife Biscuits' the last time we came back from Singapore. This time the baker had them side-by-side with 'Husband Biscuits'.

I'm told that the wife biscuits are sweet and the husband biscuits are salty.

Talking of food, it looks as though it's tiring work chasing the frogs around...

No, I wasn't tempted to try it.

We also came across an interesting awards scheme, not one I've seen anywhere else:

Its deja vu all over again

My morning ritual wherever I am is to sit in a coffee shop having my caffeine hit and reading the paper. Being in Singapore all last week the only difference was that the paper was the Straits Times.

Even the stories I was reading were familiar. It's fascinating how many of the stories were similar to those I usually read in Dubai, or in the international press about Dubai.

Some of the headlines I came across in last week's papers:

Price fall for S'pore prime homes 5th largest globally.

Rents in prime areas head south.

2,600 workers housed poorly.

Got the pink slip? Tips to stay afloat.

Mother-daughter pair now admit abusing maid.

First woman minister appointed.


It all sounds familiar doesn't it.


I've noted before that there are a many similarities between Dubai and Singapore and last week's Straits Times included stories on a number of them.

Singapore is being hit badly by the global recession and there had been a feature in the paper about job losses in the present climate, picking up on the general 'foreigners taking our jobs' chatter. Eighty percent of people responding to the feature said that jobs should be reserved for locals.

There are now over a million foreign workers in Singapore, making up 36% of the workforce. Putting the figures in context (how I wish the media here would do that, as I've said so often in previous postings) the article says: Both 2007 and 2008 were boom years, with more jobs being created than there were locals to fill them. (The figures) also do not tell you that many of the jobs filled by foreigners last year were in the construction and service industries - jobs which Singaporeans usually shun.

Related to that was the report that a restaurant owner was jailed for falsely declaring the number of local workers he employed so that he could hire foreign workers. Employers are only allowed to hire foreign workers after meeting a certain quota of Singaporean employees.

A quota of local employees has a familiar ring to it.

Expats' employment passes, as in Dubai, are tied to the employer/sponsor so expats losing their jobs have to leave the country. There is now though a Personalised Employment Pass which they can apply for and which allows them to stay for up to six months between jobs to look for a new employer. The government here is looking at a similar visa.

Singapore has a reputation as being an ultra-modern, state-of-the-art, highly sophisticated clean & green city.

The paper reported last week on worker accommodation:



Government inspectors have been checking on workers' accommodation and have found thousands of them housed in overcrowded, unhygienic conditions. They were found living in unapproved converted factories and in residential properties.

That's also sounding familiar.

Not seen here for years though is the way workers are transported to and from their workplace in Singapore:



That's perfectly normal in Singapore, hardly any companies have covered buses for their workers.

And it may be a surprise to many people that Singapore has never had a female minister, until today that is. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua started in her new position this morning as Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. She is also Second Minister in the Finance and Transport ministries.


Something else that's probably not associated with Singapore is maids being abused by their employers.




In a similar situation to that story, I was appalled one morning to see a maid up on the wet roof of a bungalow sweeping leaves from it.

And there are all-too-often reports of physical abuse of maids - this is not me spreading unfounded rumours, I've put some links to stories below.

Both Dubai and Singapore have a lot going for them and I like both places very much. But I don't pretend that everything's rosy in both city-states, that there are no problems and issues to be addressed. Nor do I believe that those issues, many of which are the same or similar, should be swept under the carpet. To be resolved they need to be openly discussed, so even though it may shatter some illusions about Singapore I make no apology for talking about them.

If you're interested in more, here are some links to Straits Times stories:


Worker accommodation.

House price drops.

First woman minister.

Phantom workers.

Maid abuse here, here, and here.

Fun stuff from Singapore

Every time we visit Singapore I come across more that is odd, strange, bizarre, eccentric.

My little pocket-size digital camera makes it easy to record and share them, so here are a few from last weeks trip.

We have some bizarre buildings in Dubai, but we're not alone in that. How about these examples of architectural art at Bugis Street:




The description of food always fascinates me. Unlike westerners who come up with fancy names for animal body parts used in cooking, the Chinese tell it like it is for the ingredients:



Pig's Stomach Soup or Spine Meat Soup. Boy, they make it sound appetising.

One thing that mystifies me - they list liver, stomach, kidney, spine meat etc, so I wonder what goes into Pig's Organ Soup?

And on the subject of food - Wife Biscuits?





I came across this poster extolling the virtues of a career in real estate (!!) in the local area of Toa Payoh. I loved this section of the message in particular:

Here's the full poster:




And something that I often complain about on Life in Dubai - inevitably the use of 'solutions' has hit Singapore too:



The Final Solution ^TM (how can they trademark that?) for those who must write something despite having nothing to say.

A classic in the world of solutions.

A wet welcome

In Dubai Media City at nine this morning.

A week in Singapore - the heart of the wet tropics - and only one rain shower, which we missed because we were indoors.

Back to Dubai - the heart of the arid desert - and we have thunder that keeps us awake though the night and non-stop rain today.

Good to be back though. As usual, plenty of photographs to go through and of course if I find any which I think are particularly interesting I'll post them over the next few days.

Here's one to get me started - I have no idea what the product is or why they should call it a blog, but I thought I might use the photo as a new header to Life in Dubai..

And so to Singapore...

We're off to the airport shortly, headed for Singapore. We'll be there a week and I'm not sure whether I'll get much computer time so there probably won't be much in the way of new postings here until we get back.

See y'all in a week.

Colours of Singapore

Going through my photos from our last visit to Singapore for my earlier posts there were these which I thought I'd post because they show the vibrant, happy colours you'll find across most of the city.

It's well known as a green city of course. Being in the wet tropics, and just about on the equator, the plants grow almost uncontrollably.

So many cities have uprooted and replaced them with concrete, but not Singapore - these are in the main tourist area of Orchard Road...





There are also the colours that are very much part of the culture. We were there just after National Day and during one of the many festivals, so there was plenty of vibrant colour decoration, in shops, streets and on many of the buildings...

Even without decoration, the shops are colourful because of the items they display and sell...

The temples are ornate and beautifully decorated

And even without decoration, the streets can be colourful with traders' umbrellas...

Colour is very much a part of the city.

Singapore Dubai similarities

I've been meaning to post some photos from our last trip to Singapore for the past couple of months, but as usual time slipped away somehow.

At last here they are, but I have a point to make with them.

There are often comparisons made between Dubai and Singapore, with some justification because there are similarities.

Both are in ideal central locations to bridge parts of the world together, both are commercial centres, the commercial base is changed to meet changing situations and demands, both are authoritarian, they're amongst the safest cities in the world.

They're also similar in that they have 'iconic' (how I hate that word) buildings.

As in Dubai, there are plenty of shopping malls in Singapore too, a whole row of them side-by-side on Orchard Road for example.

But there's one big, big difference that the death of Dubai's old Satwa suburb has highlighted.

I know I keep on about preserving what little there is of historic, or even old, Dubai, but it's the heart and soul of a place.

On my earlier posts regretting that old Dubai wasn't being preserved several comments were posted which argued that they needed to be demolished.

For example: I think we have to demolish all the old villas as it is not save for living; sanitary system of Satwa is worst compare to any other city in dubai. By demolishing, new building structure is taking place, which is more hygienic, fire protective, accommodate more number of people etc.

I've never agreed with insanitary conditions, unsafe buildings, inadequate infrastructure. It should all go.

My point is that things can be renovated. Power and water can be piped in, buildings repaired and renovated. Bastakiya in the city is a good example of what can be done.

Some years back Singapore was going in the same direction. Everything was being torn down and replaced with modern high-rise and malls. The PM talked about the shame of tourists coming to see people living in run-down houses.

Then they woke up to the fact that they were destroying their history, their heritage, their heart and soul. So the policy changed and whole areas were renovated instead of being demolished.

The famous Bugis Street had to make way for a Metro station but they rebuilt it a few metres away. Shophouses on the river in the centre of the city have been renovated and it's now a thriving dining and entertainment district.

So here are a few photographs of some of the buildings which were saved, renovated and given a new lease of life. Which add immeasurably to the city's look, feel and culture.

From the roaring twenties some Art Deco buildings have been preserved, with their memories of tea dances and early cinema

And in areas such as Chinatown and Little India, traditional buildings take on a new life:

Many of the larger renovated buildings are excellent restaurants:

Running right in to Orchard Road, the main modern tourist street, beautiful old shophouses probably look better than they ever did.

That's the big difference between the two cities. I think it's sad that Dubai hasn't followed Singapore's lead.

A relaxing change...

I've managed to upload the hundreds of Singapore photos, I've started to go through them and I'll post a few in the coming days.

To start, here are a few from my nightmare.

I was really looking forward to getting away from the relentless construction in Dubai, the endless red & white barriers and flapping red plastic.

The taxi from Changi Airport pulled up at our hotel...


Red & white barriers!


Red plastic!


Iconic developments, complete with artist's render of the finished thing!

The length of Orchard Road is being developed, the footpaths, the landscaping, buildings being replaced or renovated.

There's less dust than here but jackhammers clatter non-stop, which we don't have to put up with here.

So much for getting away from the construction.

Something else similar to Dubai - you come across some interesting signs about the place.

A Chinese shop selling very Chinese clothing...

And this one had me doing a double take...



Ye Olde Englysche Bar.

Englysche?

Chinese New Year in Singapore

I've organised a few more of the 500 or so photos we took on the tiny, basic but very convenient digital camera. Being a fan of SLR cameras and 35mm slides and sceptical about the digital I'm amazed at how well they've come out.

So here are a few of the Singapore part of the holiday, which coincided with the first few days of the Year of the Golden Pig. Rather than being too 'arty' I try to get some of the atmosphere of the places in my photos, so they end up as just street scenes or close-ups of bits I like such as windows or roofs. I get nagged about it all the time - according to my wife/self-appointed art director I should take shots of people. Well I do sometimes, but not a lot.

The temples were decorated for the festivities and were busy all day long.











Changi is a great airport, deservedly winning endless awards. Clean, efficient, well-designed. There are now two main terminals plus a budget airline terminal. In the departure lounge of Terminal2 there's a beautiful restful area with palm trees and hundreds of orchids around a koi carp pool. Inevitably you have to sit around an airport, waiting, and this is as good a place to relax for a while as any.





Plenty of fruit stalls around the local areas of course with a good selection of quality fruit available.



Durian, The King of Fruit - an obsession with Singaporeans - which you can smell from kilometres away. It's banned from hotels and on public transport including taxis because of the smell.


It's a very modern city of course, but it's good to see older places still exist, many of them now renovated and preserved.








Herbal tea - they swear it's good for you but I'm not game to try it, it smells like medicine.


As is traditional for New Year there were lion dancers all over the city perfoming in the streets, the housing estates, the shopping malls.


The 'music' is just clashing cymbals and thudding drums. There's a distinct rhythm to it and obviously a 'tune' of sorts because you hear the same thing from different troupes. In the closed space of shopping malls with the noise bouncing off the hard surfaces it can be just a little uncomfortable!


So that's it for Singapore, now on to sort out the photos from the Aussie part of the holiday and I'll post some later.