| Submitted by: Evelyn C. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 09 February 2005 |
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) So instead we rode the monorail around (free) to
see some of the rest of the island. This makes nineteen different
modes of transportation we have used on this trip: plane, regular
bus, double-decker bus, taxi, truck, mini-van, metro, tram/light
railway, train, ferry, river boat, long-tailed boat, raft,
funicular, cable car, monorail, tuk-tuk, trishaw, and elephant.
Sentosa is touristy! That's all one can say. I mean, they
have a 'Lost Civilization' section with fake stone monuments and
all. And a Fort Sentosa section with fake soldiers in fake
entrenchments. Blecchh!
So we returned to the mainland, going to the other end of the
cable car run (Mt. Faber) to get the view of Singapore from there.
At this point Steve decided he hadn't tried any portrait shots yet
so had Barbara and I pose against the background there. First he
said to smile and look happy. Then he said he wanted to try a
different expression. 'Look sensual.' Even at my best I have
difficulty looking sensual (I'm no Kathleen Turner), and I was hot,
dirty, and tired. I said that I didn't do sensual well, so he
settled for serious. Serious I can do.
We rode the bus back and had dinner at the Emerald Mall
Sidewalk Cafe-Restaurant on Orchard Street: baked prawns in salt and
pepper for me, and chili crabs for Mark. These both arrived in the
shell and were extremely messy to eat. I can say, however, that
Elvis is alive and well and living in Singapore--at least that's the
impression you would get listening to the singer here. We sat
around and had one of those terribly meaningful conversations about
relationships like one sees in the movies, with just about as little
agreement or effect on changing each other's minds.
At 8 PM we went to see the Lion City Revue, a song-and-dance
show that is supposed to represent the variety of ethnic influences
on Singapore's culture. This used to be at the Raffles Hotel, but
since that is undergoing renovation, it has moved to another
location temporarily. Though it was favorably reviewed in a couple
of places, Mark and I found most of it just average or below
average, the low point being when the performers had a couple of the
audience members (including a very drunk Japanese tourist) come on
stage to join them in the dances. This is precisely the sort of
thing that James Michener railed against in IBERIA vis-a-vis
flamenco dancing, and while it was slightly less obnoxious here, the
dances being of a less serious nature in general than flamenco, it
didn't really add to the show. The best part were the Chinese
dances, done by two women who seemed to take some pride in their
work, while the other seemed content to just get by. It helped pass
the time, but was hardly the educational cultural experience Mark
and I had hoped for. Barbara thinks we intellectualize too much,
but I did think that compared to some cultural shows we had seen
(notably in Cuzco and some in China) this was very disappointing,
just as the Hong Kong city tour was disappointing where compared to
good city tours.
After the show we took a taxi to Changi Airport where we asked
if there were any day rooms available. I had earlier called and
verified that they had day rooms. What I hadn't asked was whether
we could get to them. We couldn't. They were in the boarding
lounge. We couldn't get into the boarding lounge without boarding
passes. They wouldn't be issuing boarding passes for our flight
until two and a half hours before the flight: 4:30 AM. It was not
10 PM. This was not good. Was there an airport hotel? No, but
there was one not too far from the airport. It was full. Taking a
taxi back into the city (a half-hour ride) seemed not worth it,
especially since we would have to find a hotel (which we had had
problems doing yesterday) and still would get only a few hours
sleep. We decided to tough it out at the airport, and maybe end up
sleeping on the floor (so I pulled out the beach mats, just in
case).
October 27, 1990: Well, it wasn't as bad as all that. The
cafeteria was open 24 hours a day, so we checked our suitcases
(making sure to use the baggage check that was open from 5 AM until
4 AM, rather than the one open only from 7 AM to 11 PM), and settled
into the cafeteria. We snacked a bit, and talked a bit, and
eventually when the crowds thinned out about 1 AM, I stretched out
on one of the cushioned benches and took a two-hour nap. I think
everyone napped a bit, though in shifts so people had other people
to talk to.
One reason the cafeteria stays open seems to be that students
come to the airport to study. Barbara asked one of them why, and he
said it was because it was too quiet at home. Whether he meant that
he had to be too quiet if he stayed up all night, or whether the
quiet made him fall asleep wasn't clear, but there were a fair
number of students there on a Friday night and there even seemed to
be a section of the cafeteria set aside for them.
At 5 AM we got our bags and checked in for our 6:55 AM flight.
Binayak took longer and they almost forgot to return his green card.
(He says it always takes longer to check in and they always give him
a harder time than United States citizens. We made sure they
realized he was with us, so that he didn't appear to be traveling
alone, which would have made him even more a target of suspicion.)
The flight back was nothing exciting. For lunch on the way to
Narita we had a bento box (mataguchi) containing some cold pork, a
chicken roll, a couple of pieces of egg omelet (the sort you get
with sushi), three rice balls, oshinko (pickled vegetables), green
noodles, and a shrimp ball. It was the best plane meal we had this
trip. The flight attendant was very surprised when five non-
Japanese all in the same row ordered the bento box--I suspect it
isn't very popular with Westerners. (We didn't even know it was a
bento box--we just knew that anything named 'mataguchi' had to be
better than the airline food we did know.)
We landed early in Narita, so had even more time to kill in the
transit lounge. I've been to this airport four times and I still
haven't seen anything of Japan except an airport hotel. We bought
some snacks and ended up with yet more PMUs--some of our change was
in yen.
The flight to New York was long and the air was very dry and we
were all pretty miserable. However, toward the end we got a little
more excitement. As we were circling Kennedy, a man in a uniform
came along and asked Binayak to get his carry-on stuff and accompany
him. We landed and Binayak was not back. I asked one flight
attendant what this was all about; he denied any knowledge of it and
said that the people in front didn't recognize Binayak's name. I
asked another, making sure that she knew we were all traveling
together. She said she didn't know anything about it either. I
decided it was time to do what I do best--get cranky. 'You mean you
just let people in uniform wander through the plane and take
passengers off without knowing who they are?' This got results.
Binayak had indeed been on the list of people called up, but they
were all off the plane and we should meet him in the terminal. We
got in and there was a huge line for non-United-States citizens,
while we got waved through. It turned out Binayak wasn't in that
either, since when they people called forward (mostly aliens without
visas) had gotten off the plane they lost track of him and he just
walked through the resident alien line, which was very short.
Our luggage was a while coming off. Ours seemed to be at the
end and mine was the last of all, making think that this was Chiang
Mai all over again and my suitcase (which I had checked) was in
Phuket. It wasn't, though, and eventually showed up. We piled all
the luggage on the cart that Barbara had gotten and headed for
Customs. We handed all four forms to the Customs official (Mark and
I get to share one). He waved us through. Then he looked at
Binayak. 'Where's your luggage?' We all gestured towards the big
pile on the cart and said, 'In there.' He looked at the cart,
looked at us, and decided either that if Binayak were traveling with
us he was okay or that he didn't want to have five people all moving
luggage and hanging around him so he could check one person's
luggage. So he waved us all through. (Someone at work claims the
reason Customs gives Indians a hard time is not that they think
they're smuggling drugs or anything like that, but that they think
they're bringing in fruits and vegetables. Still, it can't help but
look racist.)
Our limo (van) was there and we returned to Chez Leeper. When
I got in I told the driver that if we all fell asleep he should wake
someone up at the Raritan toll plaza for directions and sure enough,
we all did fall asleep, though we woke up in time to give him
directions after all. When we got back, Steve changed into his
costume and headed out for his party. Barbara discovered she had
forgotten her camera in the limo, and called the company to have
them page the driver. He came back about a half-hour later with it.
(Well, if she had to forget it, New Jersey was probably the best
place!)
And now I suppose I should make some final comments. I think
we probably didn't get as much out of Malaysia and Singapore as we
might have because by the time we got there we were getting a bit
tired. We also found ourselves with less time there than we had
originally planned because it took longer to get from place to
place. In Hong Kong, the New Territories were more interesting than
Hong Kong and Kowloon, which makes me think that getting out of the
big cities in Malaysia would have been nice. The friendliest
country was probably Thailand--maybe because it has no history of
colonialism which might generate resentment of Westerners. Not that
people were hostile anywhere, but in the other places they seemed
more involved in internal issues. This is understandable: Hong Kong
is looking at 1997, Malaysia was in the midst of national elections,
and Singapore is busy turning itself into the city of the future.
These are all laudable, of course--I'm merely saying from a selfish
perspective that we found Thailand the most receptive. I would
certainly recommend any of these countries to people traveling. I
would also recommend spending more time in any of them than we did.
As one travel guide sums up travel in this part of the world: 'More
time, less luggage.' I would have liked to get to Macau. I would
have liked to have seen the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. I
would have like to have seen Eastern Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah).
I would have liked to have gotten to Sukothai in Thailand, and maybe
gone over into Laos. Oh, well, maybe next time....
Well, at the beginning I said we wanted to do this for under
US$2500 each. For Mark and me the cost came out to be:
Plane - 2610
Other Transportation - 276
Tours - 233
Lodging - 496
Film and Developing - 273
Food - 321
Souvenirs - 117
Miscellaneous - 325
TOTAL - 4651
or US$2325 each. Of course, we didn't buy much, but our film costs
help make up for it.
Oh, and the answer to the math quizzes were 13, 41, and I don't
know the last one. |
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