Travels in the Land of Hunger

SINGAPORE

Sunday, April 4, 2004

During breakfast, at my motel in Seoul, I met two German musicians who had performed at a music festival in southern South Korea. We talked about jazz and I answered a few of their questions regarding the music scene in Tokyo before running back up to my room to finish packing.

I paid my bill at the motel and left to catch my bus to the airport. At the bus stop I met the German musicians again, they were also on their way to the airport. The bus arrived; we boarded it and shared stories of the curiosities that we had discovered in South Korea.

My flight departed Seoul at 1:05 p.m. About six hours into the flight I looked out the window and saw a glorious, deep blue ocean and bright white clouds that faded into the distant, dark grey of a brewing tropical storm. The plane then began to make its descent.

As we approached Singapore I became excited by the welcoming view of the lush tropical forests and palm trees of Malaysia! I felt that I had finally escaped the cityscapes of Tokyo, and its distant cousin Seoul, for paradise. My journey had now begun.

Singapore Changi Airport was modern and clean, which was to be expected considering that the airport is typically ranked as one of the best in the world. The ultra-modern feel immediately reminded me of Tokyo. On a sci-fi timeline, I would place Tokyo in the future, perhaps giving a glimpse of what life would be like in New York City in the year 2030 AD. Traveling from Japan to South Korea was like going from the future into the present year of 2004, and then flying to Singapore and arriving at their airport was like traveling forward in time again to 2020 AD.

I followed the airport signs to the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system. I bought my ticket, stepped into the nearly empty train, and sat down placing my backpack between my legs. The train was clean and devoid of advertisements. As I waited for the train to depart from the airport terminal I saw a sign that read:

No Smoking – Fine $1,000

No Eating or Drinking – Fine $1,500

No Flammable Liquids/Gas – Fine $5,000

I immediately understood that Singapore was strict. Prior reading informed me that any person caught distributing or in possession of any illegal drug or substance received a mandatory death sentence. In fact, Singapore had the second highest per-capita execution rate in the world from 1994 to 1999 after Turkmenistan.1

Gum, and obviously chewing it, is illegal here unless you can get a prescription from a doctor permitting consumption for therapeutic purposes. As you can expect of such draconian laws and penalties Singapore is an extremely safe country to live and travel in.

After reading the penalty warning I turned and saw a female middle school student eating a burger from Burger King and drinking a cold drink from Starbucks on the train. Odd, I thought. She must not know or care about being fined $1,500 for eating and drinking on the MRT.

After checking into The InnCrowd Hostel Singapore I took a stroll down Dunlop Street–and the surrounding areas–to quickly discover that my hostel was located in the heart of Little India. I saw Indian men by the hundreds talking, shopping, buying fresh produce in the open markets, and eating spicy meals from street vendors in all directions. But where were the women? Did these men not have female counterparts? I kept searching, but failed to see a single Indian woman. The scene reminded me very much of Morocco where the streets and cafés were the sole domain of men. I also saw Indian men holding hands or each other's arms, which again reminded me of Morocco where it was not uncommon to see men displaying their friendship by holding hands in public.

As I passed through the crowds I was relieved that no one tried to sell me some trinket or offer their unneeded services as a tour guide.

The experience of strolling through Little India at night was visually exotic, vibrant, and stunning. I am a U.S. citizen raised by South American parents whose ancestral roots trace back to Europe. I have friends from Israel and have experienced a bit of Islamic culture in Morocco. I have lived in Japan and know a bit about Asia, but India I do not know a thing about. My curiosity to learn more about India began to grow, but when I came across a Hindu temple my interest exploded. I had never seen a Hindu temple. I didn't understand the rituals I was seeing or what one was required to do within it.