On the Road to Singapore

(Part three)

Monday, June 28, 1999

6:45pm (Singapore time)

I am sitting in The Truck Shop eating dinner. This is a 'food court', one of several within walking distance. Food courts are similar to the one in New Park Mall in size and number of vendors, the difference is in how you order. You walk from booth to booth picking out what you want, a booth worker stands next to you writing down your order. You point out your table and move on to the next booth, perhaps to buy a drink. They bring your food to your table and you pay as each arrives. Every kind of Asian food you can imagine along with Indian and other Arabic foods and even some American and English foods. For my dinner I went to the American style booth and asked for lasagna, having seen it earlier on the menu. They were out. I asked what they had and the booth worker pointed to some spaghetti dishes on the menu he carried. I picked spaghetti and chicken. It was good, not quite what I had expected, think of Korean noodles and chunks of chicken. I have got to learn to carry tissues with me, napkins are just not available. The Doobie Brothers are playing on loudspeakers. The food court is open to the outside but cool air is being pushed through from somewhere. Even so it is about ten degrees warmer than was the office. Because of the way residential and commercial buildings are mixed together, the people eating here are a mixture of business men and women, families, couples on dates, and everyone else you may imagine.

Last night was frightful as far as sleep is concerned. I don't like sleeping with air conditioning so I turned it off and opened the window. Big mistake. All night I sweated, no breeze, loud street sounds from eight stories below; motorcycles revving, busses, trucks, car horns blaring, people talking, a city very much alive and awake. It got quiet around 4:00am. (http://www.macrae.net/images/singapore/sing11.jpg - The view from the apartment at dusk.)

The sun rose quickly at 7:00am, no gradual lightening of the sky, just one minute it's dark, the next it's dawn, then it's morning. And hot, hot, hot and humid all the time. I got up just past seven, showered and dressed and waited for Suppakorn and our walk to the office. It was only three blocks and we arrived at 8:30am, my shirt soaked with sweat by the time we arrived. All along the sidewalks as we walked were people on their way to work and children on their way to school.

The office is in a modern building (that is redundant, all buildings here seem to have been built in the last ten years). "The Sounds of Silence" plays on the elevator loudspeaker as we go to the sixth floor. I am shown to an empty office where I place my broken laptop and then go find some coffee. The morning is spent meeting people, discussing my project, and watching a technician fix my laptop (thank goodness!). (http://www.macrae.net/images/singapore/sing13.jpg - The view from the office.)

(http://www.macrae.net/images/singapore/sing14.jpg - More of same.)

Lunchtime comes and I am starving, almost twenty four hours since that sandwich. Gregory, his assistant Janice, Benjamin Har, director of engineering (and who will be supervising the people building my web site) and I go downstairs for lunch. We visit the food court I described, it is on the ground floor of our building. I salivate at the sign offering American Breakfasts. Gregory says "Come on, today you have a real treat." We leave the food court and walk a few blocks. I wilt from the heat and humidity. Janice and Benjamin comment on how much cooler it is compared to last week.

We arrive at another food court. This is smaller and less modern. No American or English booths here, nothing but authentic Singapore food, which actually means every kind of Asian food and then some. Gregory takes me around ordering a sample from just about every booth. We take a table near the street and the food arrives in waves. I can't report on the names, but there were fish balls and lamb balls and other balls, rice cooked in chicken broth, chicken thinly sliced (I tried not to stare at the head), shrimp dishes, dishes of vegetables I didn't recognize. Little dishes of sauces of varied color, spiciness, and taste were everywhere. We had cans of soda pop to drink and glasses of ice with which to cool it, as the cans were hot to the touch. (http://www.macrae.net/images/singapore/sing12.jpg - Janice and me (Gregory is to the right of

Janice, out of frame, and Benjamin is taking the picture.)

The afternoon was a repeat of the morning. I stayed past six, then fatigue set in and headed downstairs to The Truck Shop where I am as I write this. When finished I will walk home, maybe swim, maybe not - am awfully tired - and type up yesterday's account.

Tuesday, June 29, 1999

2:10pm (Singapore time)

I slept better last night, had the air conditioner on, noisy but it cooled the room a bit and with the window shut the street noises did not keep me awake as they had the night before. I went to bed early, still not adjusted to the time change, around nine o'clock. I didn't have the energy to go swimming, just sat in my bathing suit typing up notes from the day.

I awoke around six thirty, showered and got dressed and left for the office on my own, planning to stop at the food court in the office building and have their advertised American Breakfast. No good, that was the one booth not open yet when I arrived. It feels just a touch cooler today, from email I have received from back home, it sounds as though Fremont and Singapore are the same temperature the past couple of days.

(http://www.macrae.net/images/singapore/sing15.jpg - the view this morning at 7:30 from the apartment)

(http://www.macrae.net/images/singapore/sing16.jpg - bird's eye view of the swimming pool)

I was the first in the office, got myself settled and into my work. A sudden thunderstorm moved in late in the morning, great booms of thunder and bursts of torrential rain. I went downstairs for lunch at the food court, bought braised pork chops, chips, and rice at the American food booth, then walked over to the drink booth where I got a warm can of Pepsi and a cup of ice. I joined several fellow employees at their table, the rain had caused most people to stay in the building to eat so it was quite crowded. I felt quite proud that I had remembered to bring some tissues to use as a napkin.

All the people here, in the office and elsewhere, are very friendly and eager to make you feel welcome. The other evening, after my swim as I rode up in the elevator a man with two young children got on. He asked where I was from and other pleasantries. His two children hid behind his legs staring at me with shy smiles. Side note: the elevators here are all very small. The elevator for the apartment house can't be more than four feet square, yet the maximum load says twelve people. The elevator in the office building, modern in every aspect, is almost as small.

Tonight will be another quiet evening, I expect. I hope to get a bit of work done on my writing, now that my trip notes are pretty much caught up and life has settled into a routine. Tomorrow I plan to leave early in the afternoon and do some window-shopping and maybe a bit of site seeing.