The changing normal

I nearly died from my lunch today.

I occasionally forget that starter portions here are fairly big, while mains can be downright enormous. So, I order what I think is a fair amount until the food comes and I end up bursting at the seams – without even finishing everything on my plate.

Granted, we had a late breakfast of pancakes at about 11am, but it was nearly 4pm when we ordered lunch and I couldn’t resist starters that cost just £2 – part of the Carlito’s meal deal where a main is £5.95 and two courses are only £7.95.

We got some chicken tempura – two pieces of tender chicken breast coated in crisp fish ‘n’ chips batter, served with Thai sweet chilli sauce – and gorgeous deep fried brie served with berry compote.

We were happy and satisfied by the very delicious food, until the mains came and we were horrified -they were giant portions! Here’s my Fussilli ala Carlito’s – pasta in white wine cream sauce with chicken, mushrooms and peppers:


I looked at it, wondered how I was going to finish everything, but plunged on anyway. The pasta was even better than it looks, and somehow the combination of cream, mushroom and chicken made for an extremely tasty sauce. I wanted so very badly to consume every last bit of it, tried my very best, but failed anyway – it’s been 3 hours since lunch but I’m still feeling the effects of overeating :S

I was very surprised that the food turned out to be so good, as Carlito’s is in the middle of Botanic Avenue – a very studenty place which is full of cheap eats. I thought it was gonna be pub grub – which is pretty good here anyway – but the interior looked nicer than I’d imagined and the food far surpassed my expectations.

But the above review of Carlito’s is a long introduction to thoughts that have repeatedly occurred to me since I came – that what was normal back home is far from what’s normal here. And I don’t mean the quirks of the country, but what things like ‘fast’ and ‘average’ means.

For example, I’m considered a big eater back home. Everyone I know can attest to the fact that I eat a lot for a girl, and my appetite is often joked about among my former colleagues. I used to be hungry all the time and out-ate everyone on my team – but it seems like I can’t eat much more than a main course here. And it’s not like the women here don’t eat much. Head out and you’ll see them order starters and mains and finish everything on their plate – and it’s not because they’re bigger than I am, as I’ve had the opportunity to see a girl smaller than me eat a lot more.

Also, I’m considered to be a fast walker (also frequently joked about), a fast eater, and the owner of a loud voice. Unfortunately, when I came over I realised that my walking speed is very slow in comparison, that I don’t eat particularly quickly but am actually on the slow side, and I struggle to be heard over club music when other girls don’t seem to face a similar problem. Again, I don’t think it’s to do with me being smaller in built than most others – there’re many people my size here as well.

I suppose it’s welcome to the ‘real’ world, as someone joked, but it’ll be interesting to see where other Singaporeans - whose appetite, walking speed, eating speed and voice volume are ‘normal’ or ‘below average’ - stand when they come over :)

Formula One Night Race 2012 in Singapore!

I was really lucky to have won tickets to the Formula One this year. Granted it’s just the practice session, but the cars are the same, the VROOOMs are the same, and to be honest I’m most curious about what it’s like to be there on the track itself – mainly because I don’t follow F1.

I was lucky as I won’t be participating in the ballot next year, and also because if I hadn’t fallen sick I’ll be in Guangxi, China at the moment with only Sunday’s tickets to ballot for (and a lesser quantity available than today as well). It’s also the reason why these pictures aren’t on Facebook – out of consideration for my colleague (and boss) who had to do my work instead cos I wasn’t well to travel :S

I went with my mum for the first practice session – ironically it’s not “night” yet:

The skyline of Singapore is beautiful from the Bay Grandstand, with a gorgeous view of Marina Bay. It had poured earlier in the afternoon and threatened to rain still:

The cars are all a blur from where we were. Actually our seats were for much higher up, but there were so many empty seats available so we just plonked ourselves down. We are also not allowed to stand near the railings to take photos, and the ushers have to constantly remind people to return to their seats:

Red Bull is easy to spot:

It’s obvious why people aren’t allowed at the railings when you’re trying to take pictures from your seat, but it’s really annoying when you want a good shot!

The view of the background got much better as the sky darkened:

I managed to get shots with cars in them too :)

I hated this red ribbon barrier, had no idea what it was for and tried but failed to take the section of that band off:

I managed to take a long video with quite a lot of the cars, to hear the VROOOOM. The engines were very loud (deafeningly so if you were next to the barriers), but the foam ear plugs we bought onsite were of some help. Ear plugs are a MUST.

I pity those crew right next to the track. I hope they have industrial strength ear protection, though it seems like not all of them do. Just walking down to the exit resulted in literally ringing ear drums as the cars went past:

I got restless and took short walk to the edge of the stand – so gorgeous from here, with a view of another very empty stand:

Compare the number of people there to mine, which got increasingly crowded as the evening wore on:

A look at one of the merchandise booths:

We ambled over to the walkabout section, where I took this shorter video:

We left shortly after, as we had enough of vroom vrooms and neither of us were that keen on the fringe entertainment events. Besides, I didn’t have much sleep last night and was rather tired by then.

And a parting shot:

My Formula One curiosity sated :)

Pinnacle @ Duxton – take 2

I went up to the Pinnacle@Duxton for the second time the other day, and the experience was somewhat different as the initial excitement of being there for the first time was absent.

In a nutshell, I wouldn’t recommend any tourist to visit the Pinnacle@Duxton without being accompanied by a local person – or anyone with a local mobile line.

The reason is because things just don’t work very well at the Pinnacle@Duxton. First, the ezlink payment machine takes forever – and more than one try – to read the card and deduct the $5 admission fee to go up to the Sky Garden. Also, the machine doesn’t accept NETS Flashpay cards, and the group of tourists we encountered had to trot over to the 7-Eleven to purchase compatible ezlink cards. Since we didn’t see them the entire time we were at the Sky Garden, I assume something went wrong and they left without heading up.

Also, the gates to the Sky Garden simply don’t work. There were two of us but out of the 4 attempts to gain access to and from the Sky Garden, only 1 attempt was successful. For the other 3, I had to call the numbers on the notice above the gates to ask them to let us in/out.

Imagine if both of us were typical tourists – we’d have had to spend an unnecessary amount making an overseas call to the hotline on our mobile, or would have had to forfeit the $5 we’d paid cos we simply couldn’t get into the Sky Garden, or worse – we’d have been stuck in the Sky Gardens cos we couldn’t get out. I don’t understand why there isn’t an intercom system or a button you can press to reach the helpdesk if hiccups occur. The first time I visited, I also couldn’t access the Sky Garden and had to call to gain entry.

The fact that we needed to spend a fair amount of time weaving in and out of the walls looking for the ezlink payment machine to make our payment – before realising that we were actually on the 3rd floor and not on the 1st floor where the machine is – put a dampener on the visit, especially when I subsequently recalled that I had similarly spent quite a while searching for the machine the first time I went.

It was nice once we were up though, but I’ll be sharing all these with anyone who expresses an interest to visit  just to make sure they go prepared.

The best place in the world to be creative

Why would an international best-selling writer on creativity live here? Because while New York may call itself 'the capital of the world', Singapore is the world

by Fredrik Haren

04:45 AM May 14, 2012

I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked: "As an author of creativity books, how on earth can you live in Singapore?"

And when I reply, "Because I think it is the best place in the world to live for a creative person", most people think I am kidding and everyone asks me to explain.

But no, I am not kidding. And yes, let me explain.

I moved to Beijing from my native Sweden in 2005 because I wanted to be in Asia when Asian countries truly started to embrace creativity.

The defining moment for me was when Hu Jintao gave a speech to the Chinese people in which he said that "China should be an innovative country 15 years from now".

Since I write books on business creativity, I just had to move to Asia and see this shift happen.

After two years in Beijing, I learnt two things: Firstly, I wanted to leave Beijing, which is a fascinating city, but has too much traffic, too much pollution and too little water for a Swede brought up in the Stockholm archipelago; and secondly, I wanted to remain in Asia.

So I went on a grand journey. While doing research for my book The Developing World, I constantly travelled over a period of more than 10 months.

I went to 20 developing countries and when I came to each new city that I thought had potential to become my new home, I made sure my schedule allowed me to stay a few extra days to get a feel of life there.

I spent two weeks each in Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Istanbul and Singapore.

Then I made a list of positives and negatives about each city. Obviously, Singapore won in the end.

SINGAPORE VIRTUES

Why? Well, for many reasons.

Such as quality of life - I now drink as much fresh mango juices in Singapore as I did beers in Beijing, weather (no, I do not mind the heat; I love it), security (I love countries where there is a good chance you will get your iPhone back if you left it behind in a restaurant) and convenience (like the fact that Changi Airport has extensive connections to the world, since my work involves a lot of travelling to different countries on a frequent basis).

Those are the usual reasons that attract most people to Singapore.

But the main reason I live in Singapore is because this city-state, to me, is the one place on earth where it is the easiest to have a globally-creative mindset.

Some people say Singapore is "Asia for beginners". I do not agree. I think Singapore is "globalisation for beginners", or rather, "globalisation for early adopters".

With a diverse mix of races, religions and nationalities, Singapore not only represents the cross-section of the world, it is also a time capsule of what the world will look like in the future.

And I love that.

New York may call itself 'the capital of the world' but Singapore is the world. Unlike New York, which is a global city in the United States, Singapore is a global city - a global city-state. Singapore is a city in the world, not a city in a country in the world.

And this makes it easier to have a global outlook here since nationalistic barriers do not block the view as much.

A BEAUTIFUL MIX

A positive side-effect of this is that Singapore is one of the least racist countries in the world.

Now, that does not mean that there is no racism in Singapore, but I have worked in more than 40 countries, and I have never experienced less racism than I do in Singapore.

That is important to me. Not only because we are a mixed-race family - I am from Sweden, my wife from the Philippines and my son a happy mix of Stockholm, Manila and Singapore.

As an European, I am ashamed and disappointed when European leaders recently proclaim that "the multi-cultural society does not work". I just wish they would come to Singapore.

To live in a place that is celebrating "Western New Year" and "Chinese New Year" is not only twice as fun, it also gives you the feeling that there is more than one way of doing things.

On a recent New Year's Eve party, we realised our group consisted of 10 people with 10 different passports.
A friend told me how they had had an after-work beer at his company and 14 people - from 14 different countries - showed up.

At our wedding, we had 40 guests from eight countries, comprising at least four religions and four races, and, at the time, no one was counting.

It all just felt as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The point, of course, is that it is not the most natural thing in the world. Unfortunately, in most places in the world, it would be rare, strange and exotic to have such a natural mix of backgrounds.

For people living in Singapore, it is so natural you do not grasp how unnaturally natural it is, and how valuable.

OF ROOTS AND BRANCHES

Now, do not get me wrong. I am not saying that knowledge of your own culture and background is not important. It is.

It is often said that a person without roots is fickle, doesn't know how to connect to who he is and can be easily manipulated, because there are no basic values keeping him grounded. Roots are important.

But if one is going to use a metaphor (in this case, of likening a human being to a tree), one has to use the whole metaphor. Because it is equally true that a tree without branches also perishes.

A tree that does not spread its branches out in all directions to gather as much sunlight and energy as possible might have deep and strong roots, but it will eventually still wither and die.

In other words, to be rootless is dangerous, but so is being branchless.

And if your own culture is the roots, the cultures of the rest of the world is the energy that your branches need to reach out to, so that you can get new ideas and ways of doing things by learning from others, be inspired to try new foods, acquire new habits and try new customs.

It will make you curious of other ways of doing things, be inspired by different ideas and energised by alternate points of views. And that is what creates creativity.

And nowhere in the world is it easier to let your branches spread out than in Singapore.

Want some exposure to American influence? Watch American Idol the day after it airs in the US.

What about a dose of Indian culture? Join in the Deepavali celebrations together with thousands of Indians in Little India.

Want to practice your Chinese language? Go and order frog in Geylang.

HEIMSKUR MEANS 'MORON'

The Icelandic Vikings, who lived a thousand years ago, had a word for people who never left their farms on Iceland and never ventured outside. The word was heimskur. It means moron.

As they saw it, a person who did not open up to the world to find new ideas from other cultures was a moron. I think the Vikings would have loved Singapore. I sure know that I do. It is the one place with the fewest heimskurs that I have found .

Too many people limit their potential, their creativity - and in the end - their lives, because they are not embracing the whole human spectrum of creativity.

They are not taking full advantage of the potential of the world, because they are not living in the world. They are stuck in their own corner, looking inwards, seeing whatever that is different as "foreign".

And I think that answers the question of why I am living in Singapore - because Singapore makes me more human by making me more a part of the world, a part of humanity. And by being part of the world, I have a bigger chance to be inspired and have new ideas.

Ideas that will benefit us all.

Fredrik Haren, an author and speaker on business creativity, has lived in Asia since 2005, and has been in Singapore since 2008. His work The Idea Book has been included in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. This article appears in the Singapore International Foundation's book aimed at bridging communities, Singapore Insights from the Inside.

Marina Bay Sands (MBS), Singapore

I had a complimentary stay at MBS thanks to my mum’s friend, but unfortunately I left concluding that MBS is a hotel that’s not worth paying for.

The room itself is nice enough – we added an extra bed as there were 3 of us – it’s very spacious as the space from the door to room is quite long. Unfortunately I’m not one to appreciate space in a room – as long as there’s enough space for everyone to move around and put the luggage, I’m ok with a cosy room. So many of the people staying at MBS are there for the casinos anyway and have little need for such a big room.

Bear in mind also that this room we have goes for about $400 per person per night – not cheap hor! There wasn’t even any view to speak of from our balcony – the Singapore Flyer was not visible from where we were, and the Singapore River was on side of the rooms across the corridor.

At least they give TWG tea I suppose?

The bathroom was nice enough, but I felt it was unnecessarily big and overly spacious, with slightly poor design – there was nowhere to hang the hand towels from.

The room’s design was really something I had to quibble with.

Take for example the shower stall. It was large enough to put a bathtub, yet there was no tub – who pays $400 a night (and no breakfast included) for a room without a tub?

Moreover, the glass panel seen above didn’t extend far enough to prevent water from splashing out when showering. The only way to mitigate that is to angle the showerhead towards the wall – but then you’ll be uncomfortably close to the wall and the ledge for toiletries.

There also was only one immovable showerhead – any hotel which doesn’t have a detachable showerhead gets an automatic strikeout from me, as I like being being able to hold it in my hand, plus it costs next to nothing for the hotel to have such a feature!

The poor design of the room also extends to the location of power outlets – I think the below exemplifies it well. How dangerous to have the wire stretching across the sole passage to the toilet, and how awkward that the wire was just barely long enough to reach the mirror! There were no power outlets for hairdryers in the bathroom, and the mirror you see in below was the ONLY mirror outside the bathroom – most 4 star hotels have at least one more at the alcove (seen to the right below) where the minibar and food are located.

As said, I wouldn’t recommend any tourists to stay at MBS unless it’s free, they really want to gamble or they’re ok with the price they’re paying despite the various inadequacies of the room.

Singapore - from a foreigner’s perspective

A friend whom I’d met on JET is in town, and it has been great having a familiar face visit. Since he arrived on Thursday afternoon, he has been telling me time and again how peaceful, civilised and quiet Singapore seems to be.

I’m pretty sure that’s because he has been in China for too long. Prior to this, he’d spent 6 weeks in Shanghai, and had come to Singapore straight from a few days in Hong Kong.

When walking around, he kept noting how Singapore is less dense than Hong Kong and that the buildings are built further apart. He finds Singapore quieter, as people don’t talk at the top of their voices and there’s the absence of horns blaring. He thought that Singapore’s drivers are civilised, as cars don’t cut lanes and scooters don’t try to drive past you on the pavements with just a hair’s breath between. He also feels that Singapore lacks the frenzied, fast-paced, stressful feel of Hong Kong and China, as it gets noticeably quieter at night, there aren’t people rushing around this way and that, and no one tries to cut between the two inches between us as we walk around. Oh – apparently Singapore isn’t as hot as Hong Kong either.

haha.

It’s crazy that he’s saying all these, as I’m sure he’ll be singing the opposite tune if he’d come straight from the US, for example. China and Hong Kong are quite hard to beat in terms of population and land density. I suppose, however, that Singapore does have really nice places like the Singapore River and the Marina Bay waterfront that are rather relaxing with their wide, open spaces.

We went to see the Merlion, and walking there had a glimpse of the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and the Art Science Museum:

As well as the Esplanade Theatres and the Singapore Flyer:

We then reached the Merlion – the boy had missed out on the Merlion as it coincided with the construction of the Merlion Hotel as part of the Singapore Biennale, so I took some pictures on my phone to send to him too.

I like the small Merlion better than its larger cousin, while my friend felt that the Merlion is a strange creature, although he doesn’t dislike it – I’m not surprised:

I think the Art Science Museum looks very striking next to MBS – I think like it or hate it, there’s no denying that they both rather iconic structures:

We went walking along the Marina Bay waterfront. It was my first time doing so since it was developed, and was surprised to discover that the Fullerton Bay Hotel exists – and is way more posh than the Fullerton Hotel. There were also other nice buildings, and people shooting a commercial for Double A paper:

Customs House, which was indeed as its name suggests:

There’s also the Marina Bay City Gallery – set up to showcase and explain to visitors the new developments in the area. It’s actually very informative and rather slick – my friend found the miniature model of the area’s buildings as well as the displays and videos rather cool.

It was very nice walking beneath the Sail and seeing the buildings at Raffles Place all lit up. I feel like I need to go back, take more photos and enjoy the view – hopefully with a better camera next time:

Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine & Caviar Bar

Location: 9 Duxton Hill, +65 62237008

Don’t let the name of this restaurant scare you off, as Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine & Caviar Bar offers casual dining as well, in a really nice setting on the third storey of a Duxton Hill shophouse:

I really liked the candelabra and pseudo stained glass windows.

While my phone camera does little justice to the place, believe me when I say that the place was pretty. The glasses for cold water attest to that too, and warm water is served in a little pot. Unlike Nandos which insisted on charging for hot water, our warm water was topped up throughout the evening, even though we had to request for water refill, warm and cold alike:

The menus here come in the form of iPads. I’m not sure if iPads in the long run are more cost-effective compared to hardcopy menus that have to be reprinted, but it was a new experience to have a touchscreen menu. A picture of each item pops up when you touch the icon next to the price:

First up was some complimentary bread accompanied by little mounds of butter. There were 2 types of bread served – one was a type of brown bread with a grainy taste, while the other was a fragrant white bread with herbs and reminiscent of focaccia.

Next came the Khachapuri, which was Georgian flat bread with hard goats cheese ($10). The flat bread reminded us of roti prata, and the cheese was thick and delicious. This was my favourite dish of the evening as it just tasted so amazingly good. It’s incredibly value for money too, as the cheese was filling – what you see below is mostly cheese as the bread was very thin. It’s best shared among 3 – 4 people:

We also ordered Mushroom Stew ($9). It’s an average portion best eaten with bread. While the sauce was a little salty, the mushrooms were extremely tasty – I loved the robust fragrance of herbs:

One of us is vegetarian and ordered the Pirozhki ($12) – Russian pastry stuffed with potato and cabbage. Each of these below had a different stuffing, but I didn’t try them. Buyan has a page of vegetarian mains, which makes it a suitable place for vege diners:

The other 3 of us shared a Shkmeruli, or Garlic Oven Roasted Chicken ($45). The chicken turned out to be even bigger than it appeared on the menu and can easily feed 4 people.  It certainly would be too much to be shared between two ladies, and that’s coming from a big eater! The combination of garlic and other herbs and spices gave the chicken a great flavour, while the meat was tender and juicy.

We had to wait a while for dessert, as we ordered a Baked Apple which required some preparation time. The service at Buyan is polished, although the staff got less attentive as the restaurant filled up a bit more later in the evening.

Dessert when it arrived was worth the wait. The Baked Apple ($8) was a whole apple, filled with a slightly sweet, thin, cream sauce and a hint of cinnamon. I’m not sure what they did to the skin of the apple, but it tasted good and got mopped up pretty quickly:

The Blinis dessert ($12) was a kind of soft, slightly sweet crepe accompanied by sour cream, condensed milk and preserved berries. The berries went extremely well with the condensed milk and was a light, delicious conclusion to our meal.

Our bill, when it came, was a surprise at only $26.40 per person. After eating so much till we were stuffed! It was a steal in our case, although the price of food items at Buyan vary quite greatly. While the fish and chicken on the menu below are affordable enough (all except the chicken are single serving I believe), the beef and lamb are a lot pricier. One of us had heard that the lamb-baked with mash potatoes is quite a small serving, so the final bill at Buyan can vary a lot depending on the items ordered!

The food is good though, and I’ll be happy to return there. If you do visit, don’t forget to visit the washroom on the second floor, which this interesting washbasin!

 

Afternote: I visited Buyan again in June 2012 and ordered the Pirozhki, Georgian flat bread and some Borsch soup. Unfortunately, something had changed and the pastries for the pirozhki and flat bread were drier, more buttery and a little flaky. I have to admit that I was rather disappointed by the change in texture, as the butter taste was a bit too powering and the food ended up quite dry – thank goodness for the soup.

Connectivity

Had a meeting in Beihai, in the south of Guangxi Province in southern China. Getting there wasn’t very enjoyable – it involved a 4 hour transit in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport for a total flight time of slightly more than 5 hours. It also meant flying on China Southern Airlines – which I don’t really like due to the many people who tried to shove their asses into my side as they squeeze (rudely) past each other on the aisle.

There isn’t much in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport either. The food options are somewhat limited and the shopping was mainly specialty shops (food, cigarettes, tea) and clothes (mainly what I think are local brands as few were familiar).

Interestingly, I was in seat 39C on 3 out of 4 flights – too bad I was placed in seat 42 on the last leg back.

Imagine my surprise when I learnt of the transit time involved when flying from other countries in the region. From Hanoi, there was a 7hr transit. From Manila, a 9hr transit on the way there, and on the way back I think a 12hr transit was required. 12 hours! – one can fly to London from Singapore direct in 13hrs!

And from Bandar Seri Bengawan, one would have to go via Singapore on the same route as I did, but with a 4hr transit in Singapore as well. Guess how much it would cost to get from Bandar Seri Bengawan to Beihai? A whopping 3000USD!! Holy moly. One can buy many many things with that amount of money. Royal Brunei does fly to China cities like Shanghai, but not every day. Makes me so glad that Singapore is well connected – imagine how much time I’d have to spend just travelling if that weren’t the case. And I already felt that the travel time was too long!