Back to England!

I'm sitting at the airport gate in Singapore, waiting to board our A380 for home. It's a massive plane with two levels, according to Dave. He's been excited about it for weeks. I kind of hope there's a grand piano and a martini bar, like in "Airport '77," with Lee Grant cracking wise in furs and jewels. (But with a happier outcome overall.)

The flight home is 14 hours or thereabouts -- longer than the flight here. Headwinds, I suppose. Thank goodness I have a long novel and one more New Yorker to read!

Last night's concert was tremendous -- the best high school honor band concert I've seen. The students played Shostakovich, Grainger, Holst and others. I was very impressed. I was also slightly late getting there, because I took the subway and the school was located on the other side of the island -- fifteen stops from our hotel. I just didn't budget enough time. But I only missed the first ten minutes or so.

In the Singapore subway there are advertisements for proper behavior. (Don't bring your durians aboard, for one thing.) One of the ads cautions men against accosting women -- if they do they stand to be arrested for "outrage of modesty," which I think is a great term. It would be a good band name, wouldn't it?

They're calling our flight. Off to the friendly skies!

(Photo: A lotus flower in Gardens by the Bay, yesterday.)

A Surreal Landscape

This morning I went to Gardens by the Bay, a huge public garden near Singapore's downtown business district. It's what you might call a futuristic natural landscape,  with vast steel "supertrees" rising far above the actual tree canopy, and backed by the bizarre, nautical architecture of the gigantic Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino.

I took the subway to get there! My first adventure with public transport in Singapore! It was very easy (unlike China, the signs are in English) and very cheap. Interesting colorful murals in the station, too!

When I first got to the gardens -- where admission is free -- I walked the public paths and noticed some colorful birds. Eventually I found myself in the same area with several photographers toting massive lenses and pointing up at trees. A good sign that more impressive birds are about!

This spectacular bird is a blue-throated bee eater, or so I was told by another photographer who waylaid me and asked what I had seen. He was a pushy Australian (and I don't mean that as any kind of generalization about Australians -- just this particular Australian) who wound up giving me a long lecture not only about birds but also my camera settings and what I was doing wrong. I suppose he was trying to be helpful and, to his credit, he did show me some things about my own camera that I didn't know. But I was still annoyed, especially when he handed it back with all the settings changed, and it took me a while to put it right again.

This is not a great photo, but that's a collared kingfisher holding his breakfast, an unlucky lizard. That bird was brilliant blue, but I just couldn't get a shot that did his feathers justice.

Anyway, after wandering the gardens and enduring the heat, I paid to go into two vast greenhouse domes, one dedicated mainly to flowers and plants from cooler climates, and another containing a "cloud forest" and "the world's tallest indoor waterfall." Surprisingly the domes were air-conditioned, which seems like it wouldn't do the plants any favors, but it sure felt great to me!

The cynical side of me wondered if this is our future. After we turn our planet into an essentially human monoculture -- us and the species that immediately serve our needs -- will we hold our remaining wildlife inside glass domes?

Really, though -- cynicism aside -- they were interesting and contained lots of surprises. (African baobabs!)

I also paid to walk an aerial walkway through the "supertrees" and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant below. It was not a picturesque lunch.

Finally, I walked over to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and went up 56 floors to the observation deck, which offers an amazing view over downtown Singapore. The weather has been a bit hazy with all the heat and humidity, but it was still an interesting perspective. (A tip, though, in case you come here -- if you go to one of the restaurants on the roof, you don't need to pay for the observation deck. I wish I'd known!)

There's even a swimming pool up there -- but alas, not accessible to we peons on the observation deck.

Now I'm back at our own hotel, cooling off and preparing to go to the student honor band and orchestra concert that brought us all here in the first place. Tomorrow morning we fly back to London!

Further Adventures in Singapore

I am coming to you from the world-famous Raffles Hotel, a relic of the old British empire. It is virtually required of all Singapore visitors that they come to Raffles for a Singapore Sling, the cocktail allegedly created here. I have ordered mine but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm soaking in the ambience while I wait: the dark wood, slow ceiling fans, peanut shells on the floor and hordes of tourists.

On the advice of my library-procured guidebook ("dress standards apply, so no shorts and sandals please!") I wore long pants and a nice collared shirt. There are people in here in shorts and tank tops. Just sayin'.

Today has been another long day of walking. The goal was Little India (top), another fascinating neighborhood! But first I walked along Orchard Road, Singapore's equivalent of Rodeo Drive, to check out the scene:

Needless to say, I didn't buy anything.

Little India was incredibly colorful and reminded me so much, unsurprisingly, of India. The bright colors, the smells, the temples and sari-clad pedestrians.

The older architecture was beautiful.

I bought a bracelet of brown glass prayer beads from a toothless old man selling miscellaneous stuff on the sidewalk. He tried to charge me 25 Singapore dollars, and I paid 15 ($11), which is still insane -- but he looked like he could use the money. He launched into a rambling story about learning the guitar, and how we never stop learning no matter how old we get. I agreed!

From there I walked back into the center of town via a huge housing complex called Rochor Centre. My challenge here was to photograph all four of the massive towers, each painted a different color, in the same frame. Without a wide-angle lens it was darn near impossible, but I managed!

This was another heavily Chinese part of town. I really felt like I was back in China. I wandered through a huge open-air market where I had lunch:

This is "Taiwan Eight Treasure Grass Jelly Beancurd," according to the menu. Again, I am a bit unsure what it entailed. The "jelly" was two kinds of tea-flavored (I think?) gelatin, and there were two kinds of beans, pumpkin and peanuts on top. The beancurd was sweet and, again, jelly-like. I was skeptical but it was really good, and since it's served cold, it was very refreshing on a hot day.

Afterward I enjoyed the craziness of the crowded market. Is there a Chinese religious holiday of some sort right now? The doorway of the temple was packed with people holding incense and flowers and looking skyward as they chanted, or recited, or prayed. I didn't take pictures (there was a "no photography" sign) but I did photograph the old women selling flowers and incense nearby.

After that, back to the hotel for a much-needed shower and rehydration. It is very warm here, though not blistering hot. I'd say maybe in the high 80s? Even though I've been drinking the tap water (which seems fine), and thus am not dependent on the availability of bottled, it's been hard to stay hydrated with all my walking.

My Singapore Sling has arrived! It's a pink gin-and-fruit concoction with a wedge of pineapple and a maraschino cherry perched on the rim. I was prepared to hate it, frankly -- not being a huge fan of sweet drinks -- but it's not half bad! Raffles, alas, does not offer WiFi to non-guests of the hotel. So I will have to wait until I get back to my own roost to post this.

Addendum: I wound up having two Singapore Slings, for the astonishing price of 66 Singapore dollars, or $48 U.S.! That's OK. I was prepared for it to be expensive. And the entire time I was there, that cash register never stopped churning out receipts. Whoever owns Raffles is raking it in!

Singapore: A Day in Pictures

Today was my first day to really get out and explore in Singapore. Dave and his students went to rehearsals bright and early -- about 7 a.m. -- and I lingered in the hotel another hour or so before setting out myself. I decided to go to Chinatown first, mainly because it's close to our hotel.

Apparently a large number of Singapore residents are of Chinese extraction.

Chinatown is a vibrant area, but I was there so early things were only just beginning to open!

I did come across a colorful Hindu temple with some gentle-looking cows perched on the corners. Indians also make up a substantial community in Singapore.

It is a very colorful town!

After wandering in Chinatown I walked into the business district across the river and caught the hop-on, hop-off tourist bus. I thought it would be a good way to get to know the city and see the main neighborhoods.

I mostly stayed on the bus, but when it came to the Botanical Gardens, I decided to get off for a wander. I'm so glad I did. In addition to amazing tropical plants -- palms, orchids, ginger -- and a preserved area of rainforest, I came across this bright fuchsia dragonfly!

I got back on the bus and went back into the center of the city for a walk along the waterfront. By this time, it was about 2 p.m. and I hadn't had lunch. Last night, Dave, his coworker Lorraine and I wound up having Mexican food for dinner, which just seemed completely bizarre in Singapore -- so this time I wanted something local.

I found a little waterfront cafe and ordered a dish off the menu by looking at a picture. I'm still not 100 percent sure what was in it:

But it was really good. Spicy and noodly, with a boiled egg and croutons and hot peppers and a little edible green kumquat-like fruit -- fascinating!

I walked back along the Singapore River to the hotel. Across the street from our hotel is this Chinese temple. I like how authentic it looks, with its traffic cones and wayward desk chair sitting outside. It is not a tourist temple!

Last night, we found our Mexican food at a riverfront mall that, frankly, reminded me of Orlando. It seemed new and kind of spiritless, and I worried that all of Singapore would be that way. Today showed me that it is not. There's lots of concrete and glass, but there are also lots of interesting sights. More to come tomorrow!

That was a LONG Flight

I have arrived in Singapore! I have no idea what time it is back home, but here it's 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. We left London at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night. Somehow an entire day vanished in the space of 12 hours. I know clocks involve arbitrary counting on the part of humanity and that I haven't actually lost any time off my life, but it's still strange and unsettling!

The flight was uneventful but, yes, very long. I read three New Yorkers, worked on "The Moonstone" -- a massive Victorian novel by Wilkie Collins that I brought mainly because it's huge and I figured it would help me kill time -- and watched "Birdman." I was not overwhelmed by "Birdman." Granted, I had crappy airline headphones and could only hear about every fourth word, but still -- it seemed awfully self-indulgent. Maybe I need to see it again, but I am still firmly in the "Boyhood" camp for best picture. For what it's worth at this point.

I also checked on the flight map from time to time, tracing our progress over Bucharest, Baku, the Caspian Sea, peninsular India, the Andaman Islands and Kulala Lumpur (which I tried in vain to see from the airplane windows, it being daylight by then).

This brief message was printed on our immigration landing cards, and the cabin crew announced it several times over the PA prior to landing. They do not mess around in Singapore. Not a problem for me, obviously, but it made me wonder what one is supposed to do if one is, in fact, smuggling and is already on the plane about to land. It's not like they can turn around!

We had an extremely groovy bus from the airport to our hotel. Doesn't it look kind of like a '70s conversion van, one of those things with shag-carpeted ceilings?

Singapore seems beautiful so far. We drove a superhighway lined with bougainvillea and mimosa trees, and saw plenty of otherworldly modern architecture downtown. There is not a speck of litter, and in fact littering apparently carries heavy penalties. (Not as heavy as drug smuggling!) Almost immediately after checking in, night fell and so I do not yet have any photos. That will have to wait until tomorrow!

Another Departure

"Wait a minute," you may be saying to yourself. "Didn't he say something a few weeks ago about going to Singapore?"

Yes, I did. And today is the day. We leave this afternoon immediately after work, spend 14 hours in the air and then turn around and come home on Sunday. It's going to be quite a whirlwind. Dave and another teacher are going with some of their music students, attending an international honor band and orchestra event. I, on the other hand, have paid my own way and am merely tagging along as a tourist. While Dave is in rehearsals I will be wandering.

I don't have the slightest idea what to expect. I have no mental image of Singapore in my mind at all. I did check out a guidebook from the library, so I'll be reading up a bit on the plane.

Olga, meanwhile, will stay in the company of one of our friends who is going to house-sit. We had arranged for dog boarding, but when the opportunity arose for someone to stay over, we grabbed it. It's so great to be able to leave her in a familiar environment. It will lessen her stress considerably.

On Sunday morning, finally, after weeks of waiting with buds tightly knotted, our camellia decided to bloom. As you can see it's a simple white blossom, but I think the bush will be pretty spectacular once all the buds open. There are about a million of them.

Oh, and some of you asked about my cold. It is entirely gone, fortunately! It vanished late last week.

Last night, Dave and I watched Neil Simon's "California Suite," one of my longtime favorite movies. I first saw it with my church youth group in 1977, when I was 10, and I'm sure the group leaders must have panicked at some of the humor -- the hooker (unconscious after drinking a bottle of tequila) in the married man's bed, the actress married to the closeted gay antiques dealer, the quarreling divorcees, the somewhat racist slapstick comedy of the black characters. It is definitely a flawed movie. But I love it anyway, and as a child it fueled many a dream of someday moving to California, which I once badly wanted to do. I've probably seen it 50 times, and we had a great time watching it again last night. Maggie Smith: "Oh! Sidney! I saw your privates!"

(Top photo: Queensbury Road, in Kingsbury, North London, on Saturday. Coincidentally, my grandparents lived on a street with the same name in Maryland.)

Strange Structures in the Woods

I took Olga to Hampstead Heath yesterday for our weekly outing. As usual, she had a great time. On the way, she gets so excited that she's practically a sled dog, dragging me along and panting heavily with the exertion. (Of course, I have no sled.) I can only imagine how great it must feel when I finally take the leash off and she can run free.

Anyway, we've been seeing these odd constructions in the woods for at least the past few weeks. I can't remember when we first saw them.

They're like houses or shanties, except that they're so tiny and open they could never really serve as a shelter. Maybe they're simply someone's sculptures.

Old ones fall apart, new ones appear...

They're a bit like dinosaur skeletons, a big spine with lots of ribs.

Olga decided to check one out but she didn't understand it either. (These photos depict three different structures.)

Maybe they're racks of walking sticks, and we're supposed to take one that fits us?