Day 167. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.

Our second day in Singapore is in Big Sauce’s able hands once again.  How many 17-year old kids would embrace their parents’ crazy idea to travel the world so readily as to become our world tour guide?  Our inquisitive son amazes us daily. 

John calls to meet him in the lobby by 9:15. We use our tourist metro passes to take the subway to Chinatown.  It is the cleanest, most immaculate subway we’ve ever seen.  Of course, the signs posted everywhere threatening $500 fines for eating, drinking or littering in the subway help to maintain the cleanliness as Kyle has no doubt they will enforce the fines.  In fact, we see a group of five police officers roaming through the subway platform no doubt looking for offenders. 

Leanne is in need of caffeine and much to John’s chagrin (we have a schedule to keep) stops off at a hip little cafe shop called Free the Robot.  The only problem was the robot-freeing-baristas were a bit slow on two mochas and John’s original plan to beat the tourist buses was at risk.  

At the first Taoist temple we visit, two huge buses roll up in front as we arrive and we barely beat them in!  We explore the Thian Hock Keng which was built in 1839 using bricks and wooden posts with no nails used in the main structure of the temple. We also stop by the Al-Abrar Mosque. 

As we are walking, we take what we think is a short-cut to our next stop.  On our left is a government looking building with a super-tall fence stretching up to the sky.  Nothing out of the ordinary until we see big red signs on the fence.  The sign reads “Protected Place.  No Admittance to Unauthorized Persons.” Ok, makes sense.  So it must be the picture of an armed guard with a rifle shooting a civilian who has his hands raised in a surrender pose that is making us a little nervous. Seems like we’ve stumbled upon the Singaporean equivalent of Fort Knox.  We high-tail it out of there before a guard materializes and starts shooting at us because he doesn’t like us pointing at his sign in disbelief.

Next up we walk around Chinatown which has restored shophouses that somewhat resemble buildings in San Francisco’s Marina District painted in pastels. Yes, yes, Victorian architecture.  We head down the streets of Chinatown and pick up some final souvenirs for this first half of the trip.  

We get to the Street of the Dead.  The street was once lined with Death Houses which were literally where the poor Chinese immigrants came to die when close quarters and lack of healthcare would have meant having a dying infectious person in your shophouse could have inflicted harm on many others. So this street was set up to let people die in some form of dignity in a sense.  The Death Houses had funeral parlors attached to them so the dead could be ensured a proper burial.  Death Houses were outlawed in 1961.

We then arrive to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. What a sight! We arrive during a ceremony where approximately 100 Buddhist monks and worshippers are reciting and chanting scripture.  Another beautiful act of faith we have witnessed.  We visit the gold plated room with the tooth relic on prominent display; a dozen or so folks mediating nearby.  We quietly enjoy this beautiful temple that reflects the wealth of Singapore with its absolutely beautiful ornate decorations. On the roof is the largest prayer wheel we have seen encountered flanked by a stunning orchard roof garden. 

After the tooth temple, John leads us to the Chinatown Heritage Museum which is just a decade or so old but clearly well curated. Over 300 locals contributed stories and artifacts to create this special museum depicting the life of Chinese immigrants to Singapore in the 1950s.  The museum is a recreation of a typical shop in Chinatown.  In this case, it is the shop of a Tailor.  The ground floor tells how the tailor who owned the shop and his family worked long hours and employed tailors who made $120 per month and also apprentices who took on a two year apprenticeship and earned a total of $120 for two years of work. They all lived in the shop and cramped quarters.  “Tough life,” Kyle remarks to the kids.  

However; that turned out to be paradise compared to the second floor which was used as a boarding house.  Approximately 40 people lived in about 5 rooms on the floor that were about 2 meters x 3 meters.  In one cubicle size room a family of eight lived sharing the space for both the business and sleeping quarters. Everyone had to share a kitchen with two stoves / cookers.  Residents had to either get up at 4am to cook or risk waiting in a long line. Often times, fights and skirmishes broke out over use of the kitchen.  Even more challenging, all 40 people shares one bathroom and one shower.  Actually, the toilet was really just a bench with a hole in it and the shower was a bucket of water in a 1 meter x 1 meter area.    

The people on the second floor held a variety of jobs.  The coolies performed manual labor and often worked 12 – 14 hour days just to pay the rent.  The carpenter enjoyed the benefits of the housing and building boom but still needed to live here with his family to save enough to move to a better place.  The hawker would prepare food at 4am which she carried around town in two huge baskets on a stick across her neck until all the food was sold which would often take 15 hours.  The Samsui women worked on construction sites or factories cleaning and moving or disposing of heavy items.  Despite the long days of hard, manual labor the Samsui women could only afford to eat one meal a day leaving them constantly exhausted.  

It was difficult to comprehend this life but the visuals combined with the audio guide was superb at giving us a true feel of the life any immigrant accepts in a new country for a better life for his/her future generations.  Perspectives like this for our kids is invaluable.  

Next up is lunch as John found a true foodie choice.  We head to Hawker Chan who in 2016 was unexpectedly awarded a Michelin star for his Soya Sauce Chicken dish for under USD$2 sold in a hawker stall.  Clearly fame has its advantages — he now charges $4 for his signature dish in his own storefront.  It’s delicious and certainly a deal in expensive Singapore. 

After lunch, John, Ashley and Leanne head to one of the largest anime conventions in the world at the Convention Center.  Corey and Justin head off find the Singapore scouting building while Kyle headed back to the hotel to hang out by the pool. Ashlynn stayed in for the day and studied which is ok when you travel for a year. 

Late afternoon found us all by the pool.  This infinity pool is an experience on its own. It’s only for hotel guests and often pretty busy.   Kyle and Leanne take a sunset dip and find a whole new type of hawker. The “in the pool” Photographer Hawker.  

He approaches Kyle first offering to take a photo with his fancy looking waterproof camera. Kyle politely declines but the hawker says “no, no, it’s free” and “it’s with the hotel”.  Kyle interprets this as it’s a free service provided by the hotel and gives in. Kyle, Leanne and Justin launch into full-on “work it baby” supermodel photo shoot mode. We pose, freeze, we move our heads and arms as asked as we are mere putty in the Photographer Hawker’s hands. 

Afterwards he tells us to come over to the stall over by the gym to check out the pictures.  We stop by and learn that that “Free” meant he would take the pictures for free but he wasn’t about to let us have them for free.  The printed package of four pictures started at $50. When margaritas are US$18 each, I guess it’s a deal?  We do opt to get digital versions of 99 photos for US$60 on a USB Stick.  Free not really free. “I should have known better by now,” Kyle berates himself.

After way too much time spent pool side including dinner of burgers and grilled cheeses, Kyle, Leanne, John and Justin head out to see the musical production of Sweeney Todd at a nearby theatre. It’s the first time it’s being produced in Singapore.  Kyle is exhausted and falls asleep by the second song.  It is a long production as the intermission occurred two hours in. Kyle and Justin gracefully bow out at the intermission and head back.

We end a wonderful day in Singapore excited to see and experience more, already loving this place!