Living Out the Five Cs

Cash. Car. Credit Card. Condominium. Country Club. These are the Five Cs, or the Five Things All Singaporeans Want (More or Less). Upon leaving Singapore, I can say that I certainly spent Cash, but that was as close to any of the Five Cs as I came until one of our final nights in the country when we enjoyed a farewell dinner at PeraMakan, a restaurant within a posh Country Club. To keep undeserving diners out, the country club was built away from bus lines so we had to walk from the closest bus stop to dinner, an inconvenience which only our Singaporean friend, Hui Qian, minded as she detests physical exertion of any sort unless it involves shopping (i.e. Cash, Credit Card, and an extraordinary pair of heels).

Enjoying dinner at PeraMakan with Ashley Dean, Ashley Rivenbark, and Nicole Welsh.

For dinner we enjoyed fish and vegetables doused with red sauce, prawns cooked in a thick sweet glaze, succulent duck soup, and countless other meats which I can hardly recount. For dessert we had a Singaporean delicacy called chendol, an icy mocha dish served with green worm-like gelatin and red beans. It was tasty until the beans. But a goodbye dinner is more about reflection than food, and so we reminisced about our favorite experiences in Singapore, even as we anticipated our upcoming trip to India which still seemed far too distant to be real. 

Chendol.

Everyone has different favorite moments, but one of my favorite memories is from our visit to Sentosa where I spent the day walking along the three beaches with my friend, Ananda. We walked to the southernmost point of continental Asia and looked out over the tossing waves, letting the wind blow sea salt into our hair. As dusk approached, we climbed onto some jagged rocks and watched the sun set behind dark rolling clouds. Then, we walked back, past blaring music, last-minute sunbathers, and little children jumping in the waves. The palm trees were lit with twinkle lights, and they almost looked magical in the sun’s dying rays.

Standing at the southernmost tip of continental Asia.

Sun setting over the beach.

Hiking through MacRitchie was another surreal experience because anytime you come across a dozen monkeys dancing in the treetops, you can definitely label the experience surreal. Okay, so maybe they weren’t dancing, but they were doing just about everything else: jumping, fighting, picking each other’s fleas. A few seemed prepared for more intimate gatherings. One jumped onto the boardwalk and pranced between our feet. When a runner jogged past, the monkey didn’t even blink. Still, we were careful as we walked past. hikers have been known to be attacked by the sweet-turned-hostile creatures.

Notice the monkey in the background!

The vistas of MacRitchie were phenomenal as well. We hiked uphill through dense forests with breathtaking paths which could have inspired Robert Frost’s poem if he’d ever had the foresight to travel to Singapore. (I guess he took a different road which was probably more traveled.) We climbed over rickety bridges and up to an observation deck where one girl met a dashing young Frenchman and disappeared for a long conversation while we clicked pictures of monkeys.

Looking out over MacRitchie.

To say, “Goodbye,” to Singapore, I spent my last week revisiting some of my favorite places. I spent Tuesday afternoon on Arab Street with Liz and Burt, lunching at Zam Zam’s which boasts the best murtabak and ginger tea in the country (in our humble opinions). I’m not a fan of ginger tea, but I really can’t imagine a more savory experience than ripping apart hot murtabak, bursting with mutton and cheese, and dipping it in a spicy red sauce. Then we went to a sweet-smelling perfume shop, admired the colored glass and crystal bottle collection, haggled prices, and left empty handed. Finally, we rested our eyes once more on the beautiful Sultan Mosque, listening to the adhāt before walking to a Wall’s ice cream stand for dessert.

Enjoying mutton murtabak with Burt and Liz at Zam Zam's.

I also returned to Chinatown several times to pick up my shirt from the tailor and to walk down the streets, enjoying the persistence of shopkeepers and the thrill of driving down a price. On one such occasion I found my way to a cheap restaurant serving chicken rice (perhaps the most typical Singaporean meal and very simple: chicken and rice cooked in chicken broth) for $S1.80. I walked down the streets once more before leaving, admiring the way the red lanterns danced in the breeze and listening to the quiet rumble of laughter coming from late diners sipping Tiger Beer across from another restaurant advertising the Best Chili Crab in Singapore.

This is why I love Chinatown.

Afterwards, I met some friends for the Dragon Boat Festival at Bedok Reservoir where we cheered the National University of Singapore (NUS) paddlers, both men and women, to victory. The Dragon boat races were one of the first things I’d heard about when I started researching activities to do in Singapore, and on our first Saturday in the country we overheard a rumor that the races were that weekend. We thought we’d missed the festival and were thoroughly disappointed until we discovered that we had not missed them at all and the races were actually to be held at the end of our visit. 

We took a thirty minute metro ride and then caught a bus for a fifteen-stop ride to the reservoir. As soon as we arrived, the sky darkened. People meandered through the park, watching the clouds tentatively, afraid of impending storms and subsequent cancellations. 

The dragon boat races begin!

But the festival continued (after a short delay), and soon we forgot about the rain and focused on the race. Each boat was decorated to look like a dragon, complete with purple and green scales and fierce white teeth. The crowd split into sections along the shore according to team allegiance. Our section was dressed in orange and white (NUS colors) and used blow-up clappers to make noise during NUS’s races. Before the championship round, several groups all dressed in pink loaded into dragon boats and helped race for a cure against breast cancer. Everyone cheered them on. Spending time with fellow NUS students was a perfect bookend to an excellent six weeks in Singapore.

I also returned to Marina Bay Sands, but that is another story and shall be told another time (i.e. please see my next blog post).