Intro to Singapore 101

At my alma mater, Mount Holyoke, students referred to all introductory classes as “Baby” Whatever:  so welcome to Baby Singapore!

Chinatown's "Food Street" is lined with little restaurants.

This intro class is necessary because, although many of my acquaintance have either visited or lived in Singapore, they are few and far between.  My very own sister thinks I live in Malaysia now!  And another, highly educated, well-traveled relative believes I’m in the Southern Hemisphere!  This leads me to conclude that a few facts about Singapore will serve to orient my readers.

Just some flowers you see everywhere in Singapore.

Singapore is located less than 100 miles north of the equator.  As a result, the weather is tropical (an average daily temperature of about 90 F, and humidity in the range of 85%), and the length of days and nights (about 12 hours each) does not change throughout the year.  “Winter” in Singapore is the rainy “monsoon” season, which I hope is soon ending.  On a good day in winter there’s at least an hour of rain, and sometimes 24 hours.  In Massachusetts, sunsets can be spectacular on a clear day, and winter skies are often the loveliest of the year.  Singapore’s sunsets end quickly and in winter are often obscured by clouds.

Bird sheltering from the downpour.

This is an island nation:  one large island, and over 60 small ones, at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula.  The land area is approximately 272 square miles but Singaporeans are using land “reclamation” to extend the land area and it has grown by 20% in in the past 50 years.  Despite the increase in land area, Singapore is still less than 1/5 the size of Rhode Island!

Shophouses!

Singapore was ruled by the British from the time of its founding in the 1820s by Sir Thomas Raffles until after the British were defeated during World War II by the Japanese Army.  Singapore gradually separated from Britain during the 1950s, and briefly joined with Malaysia from 1963 to 1965.  During that period, however, the Malaysian government began to put in place preferential treatment for citizens of Malay descent.  This was unacceptable to Singaporeans, who are 75% Chinese, about 9% Indian, about 3% Eurasian and “other”, and about 13% Malay. 

Opening ceremony for Chinese New Year celebration featured a snake made of lit red lanterns.

Singapore is one of the “Asian Tiger” economies, which have grown tremendously while other economies have stalled or shrunk.  Singapore is very business-friendly, and is rated as one of the least corrupt governments in the world (second, I believe, to New Zealand).  The rich people here are very, very rich.  Poor people here are pretty well assisted by the government.  The unemployment rate is about 2%.  Something for the USA to envy! And another thing: the gross domestic product per capita, nearly $60,000 in Singapore, places it in international rankings way ahead of the US where the GDP per capita is several thousand below $50,000.

The Mustafa Center is an enormous 24-7 store that has everything, likely to be packed on weekends and busy all the rest of the time.

Singapore has a reputation as the “no” country:  no chewing gum, no littering, no assaulting the bus driver, no spitting, no vandalism, no being nude in your own home with the curtains open:  and the list is long.  The challenge, in Singapore’s early years of independence, was to unite citizens of sharply differing backgrounds, and to pull the nation out of the ruins of the Japanese invasion.  Lots of rules, sternly enforced, got everyone on the straight and narrow.

A beautifully restored shophouse with modern skyscrapers all around.

Singapore is largely a nation-city.  Old Singapore, before World War II, had mostly two-story buildings for business in either the Chinese or the British style of architecture (and inevitably the two were often blended in one building).  After independence in 1965, the Singapore government concentrated housing development on high-rise apartments to ensure that even the poorest citizens had a decent roof over their heads.  As the nation prospered, the two-story “go-downs” (warehouses) and shop-houses of old Singapore were demolished in favor of shiny, air-conditioned multi-use tower blocks.  Thankfully, sometime in the 1990s, the government recognized the cultural loss of the old buildings and slowed their demolition.  Many old mansions have been remodeled into “clubhouses” for soaring condominiums built where gardens once surrounded the stately homes of the rich.

Nicknamed "The Garden City", Singapore's national flower is the orchid.

That doesn’t mean that Singapore is an urban wasteland.  Despite being the third most densely populated nation on earth (slightly more than 5 million people live here so there’s something more than 18,000 people per square mile), there are trees, flowers, and gardens everywhere.  With all the sunshine and near-daily rain, encouraging plant growth is not the problem.   The greater challenge is to encourage desirable growth instead of mold and mildew.  Singapore’s heat and humidity are made much more bearable by the presence of gardens.  The latest contribution the nation has made, also designed as a tourist attraction, is the indoor, self-sustaining and stunning Gardens by the Bay.

These futuristic, fantasy-world giant trees at the Gardens by the Bay are topped with photovoltaic cells.

So, now you have an idea of where I am now, in time and place.  I lived here for six months with my family 12 years ago, and came away with mixed feelings about Singapore.  There is much to enjoy, but although this is probably the most accessible of Asian countries for an American to encounter, it is still a very foreign place for me.  As a Causasian and a Christian, I am in a tiny minority.  I don’t have a workplace except my own desk, or belong to an expensive Expat club, or have kids in a school here, so my social interactions are quite limited.  I am determined that during this long stay, I will find my way into Singapore, and leave it with greater understanding and appreciation.  And meanwhile, I plan to enjoy every minute of the local cuisine!  

Fried kway teow with extra veg! 

Time for a Change

Three weeks.  Not a long time to make two transitions:  from our idyllic stay in Germany to our home in Acton for Christmas, and from Acton to Singapore for the next six months.  Shortly before Christmas, we packed in a hurry, had last minute visits with good friends, and shipped home a few boxes of recent acquisitions and gifts (not all of which have yet arrived in Acton).  Acton was lovely as ever, especially with a light snowfall, and our beloved family around us.  Best of all is our baby granddaughter, our first grandchild, experiencing Christmas for the first time, using all her senses. 

 I'm wearing my apron which says "Keep Calm and Carry On" while we hurriedly decorate the Christmas tree in Acton.

Acton was also lovely because of the people who live there.  One generous, warm-hearted family in our neighborhood invited all two dozen families who live there into their home two days before Christmas!  We all took a few minutes to stroll our little streets admiring one another’s holiday lighting (except ours, of course, since we didn’t have time to decorate outdoors).  My family is now (after almost 20 years in Acton) the longest-surviving homeowners in the neighborhood and there were quite a few neighbors whom we’d never met before.  We were delighted to meet several families who’ve lived in Germany or other parts of Europe and who share our desire to bring to Acton a little of what we learned to love in Europe. 

My Dear Husband and I laughed when we remembered the last all-neighborhood party we know about:  our own house-warming party in 1993!  We invited not just our quirky, individualistic friends from academia, but also neighbors we’d never met.  It was not followed up by any other all-neighborhood parties (at least, to which we were invited) with the exception of a home-sales party which I should not have attended since we’d spent all our money moving to Acton.  Until this year, almost 20 years later!  Such a good time was had by all that we vowed as a neighborhood to do this kind of thing more often.  And then, a week later, we moved to Singapore!

This move entailed digging out, and trying on, all my summer clothes.  We had to collect six months worth of our medications and our favorite health and beauty aids.  We were each allowed two large suitcases, and two carry-ons since my Dear Husband’s work assignment, which requires this six-month stay in Singapore, provided us with business-class seats on Singapore Airlines. 

The perk of a second suitcase was nice, since I was able to bring practically all my summer clothes, but the flight, all 18 hours of it, was a treat in itself.  The airline is planning to discontinue the non-stop flight to Singapore from Newark later this year, but not before we return to the US in six months.  Everything about the flight—the flight attendants who addressed me by name, the delicious food, the extremely comfortable seat/bed we each had, and the 800 choices of audio and video entertainment—was a pleasure.  I especially noticed and appreciated the way each family with children was brought aboard by an individually-assigned airline employee, who helped each child get settled before the rest of us came aboard.  There were a lot of children on the flight (who can afford a $10,000 ticket for a pre-schooler?) but we heard almost nothing from them during all 18 hours of the trip.

Thanks to those comfortable airline seats, we were almost rested when we arrived at Changi Airport.  We were able to stay awake for most of the first day, which is amazing when you consider that Singapore’s time zone is 13 hours ahead of Acton’s.  

We have settled into the furnished, serviced apartment that will be our home until July.  We have already grown to love the view of the Singapore River from our windows.  My Dear Husband has spent weekdays in what will be his office for the next six months, and I have begun to map out, and to put into action, my plan to come to know and understand this nation-city better than I did when we spent six months here in 2001.  And I’m really glad I excavated from my closet and brought along my most comfortable pair of sandals, because that plan entails a lot of walking.

Germany's Christmas Markets

We’ve had the opportunity to visit no less than seven Weihnachtsmarkts in different cities and towns in south Germany this year.  When we lived in Stuttgart 14 years ago, we loved its Christkindlmarkt, one of Germany’s largest, and also visited one other city.  This time around, we were determined to sample a wider variety of these outdoor winter festivals, and we were lucky to see some very choice examples.

Our first of the season was in Heidelberg, the charming tourist town every American visits.  We had visitors from the US that weekend, and we wanted to show them one of these markets.  Heidelberg’s was among the few to open before November 28 (when the vast majority opened).  The open squares strung along Heidelberg’s main street were filled with a small but satisfying selection of food and gift stalls, in the charming setting which Heidelberg does so uniquely well.  We heard lots of American voices during the afternoon but as evening came on, more and more locals came out to enjoy the Gluhwein and sausage together.

We happened to be visiting Saarbrucken a few days later and took the opportunity to see what its Christmas Market was like.  Saarbrucken has long been desirable to both France and Germany for its former coal and steel industries, but it’s not much of a tourist town.  The weather was terrible—rainy and chilly—and it was a weekday afternoon so the crowds were thin.  However, there were plenty of nice holiday stalls (we bought some “handmade” French sausages) as well as the most attractive rubbish bins I’ve ever seen.

On purpose to enjoy the Weihnachtsmarkt, we went to Nuremburg for the opening night.  So did all of Nuremburg, and probably every other American in Germany that day.  The place was mobbed.  The market was much larger than any we’d seen, and very beautiful in its Hauptmarkt (and other squares) setting.  For the opening ceremony, all the lights of the stalls were turned off, and children’s choirs sang familiar German carols.  A lovely young woman appeared dressed as the Christmas Angel (we of course couldn’t see her) and read a long poem about inviting Jesus and his mother Mary to come enjoy the Nuremburg Advent Market.  As soon as the last carol ended, the lights came back on and the crowds mobbed all the food and drink stalls.  In Nuremburg, we spent more than a day trying to see everything in the  amazingly extensive collection of the German National Museum, which showcases the history of the Germanic peoples of the area from 5,000 BC to the 20^th Century.  While I loved eating the pork Shashlik in the Christkindlmarkt, I could have done without the crowds.

We also spent a day in Augsburg, an extremely old town south of Nuremburg and about 45 minutes west of Munich in Bavaria.  One of Germany’s oldest Christmasmarkts, documented back to over 500 years ago, Augsburg sets firm standards for the ratio of food and drink stalls to gift stalls (high) and the  percentage of goods handmade in Germany (also high, and high quality).   We timed our arrival so that we could view Augsburg’s Angel performance on a weekend evening at 6 o’clock.  Twenty-four girls with grace, beauty, and musical ability are chosen to wear angel costumes and blond wigs, and to appear at the windows in Augsburg’s fine Renaissance City Hall.  They mime playing musical instruments to the sacred music of (in this case) Bach, and the whole thing lasts about 10 minutes.  It was unique!  Plenty of locals came out to enjoy the performance and one another’s company over a mug of Gluhwein or Christmas Punch.  And the gifts for sale were so nice we bought quite a few to bring home with us.

We felt obligated to visit Karlsruhe’s Christkindlmarkt since we have enjoyed living there so much this year.  Our building managers were touchingly excited about the display of lights and the charm of the market stalls, and their excitement proved to be well-founded.  We went there on a weekend night, and it seemed the whole city was out there, hanging out in the Gluhwein areas, shopping, or ice-skating.  It reminded us of Munich’s Oktoberfest:  attractive to visitors, but really a city-wide outdoor party.  We found some unique gift items, as well as more reasons to love this livable city.

Near Karlsruhe is Durlach, a town whose founding predates that of Karlsruhe’s.  It’s full of half-timbered buildings, and retains fragments of the old town walls and gates.  Durlach’s Weihnachtsmarkt specializes in harking back to the Middle Ages and had a unique interest and charm of its own.  The stalls are mostly old-fashioned canvas tents, and the amusements are simpler and less glitzy than at “modern” Christmas Markets.  The gluhwein tent had skins on the benches for our greater warmth and comfort.  Stall holders all wore “period” outfits.  It all gave us an idea of what those early Advent markets 500 years ago were like.

Our final Christmas market was in Frankfurt.  Among Germany’s largest, it has a stunning setting in its old city center, and featured a huge, live, and fully illuminated Christmas Tree.  We visited on a Tuesday night, expecting a thin crowd.  Not so!  Although we heard a few American voices around us, mostly this was a German crowd, meeting friends after work and celebrating the season together.

By our seventh Weihnachtsmarkts, some truths had come home to me.  Germans do love to meet outdoors and party together in any season, and hot mulled wine makes this possible in cold temperatures.  Certain traditional celebrations have hundreds of years of history behind them, and Germans love repeating what was fun in the past.  But I think there’s something more meaningful behind their celebration of Advent, the season when Christians await and anticipate the birth of Christ. Germans have known more recent, and more prolonged, periods of privation than we Americans.  They’ve learned to find joy in just the anticipation of better times to come.  They work hard, save, and conserve, and take the time to build and deepen friendships.  We could all use more of that wisdom in our lives.

Lyon "Plug"

I don’t think I’d ever have gone to Lyon on purpose, but my Dear Husband was drawn there by a shared research interest in a fine point in Materials Science with some physicists there, and so I went too.  It’s a trip I will never regret.  After months of dusting off my German, I had to dig deep for my inadequate French.   The kindly people of Lyon patiently heard me out, and then replied in charmingly accented English.  We got along just fine.

Lyon is either the second or the third largest city in France, depending on whom you ask.  Clearly, however, it is a sister city to Paris, and has been so for a very long time.  The pre-Christian Celts, according to archeological finds, settled at the useful conjunction of two strong rivers, the Saone and the Rhone, long before the Common Era.  Then the Roman empire came upon this site, and founded the city of Lugdunum in the first century B.C.  It soon became the principal city of Gaul (which students of Latin will remember was divided in three parts), and the Emperor Claudius promoted the distinction of full Roman citizenship for its wealthy male inhabitants.  As everywhere else, the Romans succeeded in holding this location for centuries because they brought civic organization and infrastructure in the form of roads that still survive, and aquaducts that brought water into the city.

But nothing lasts forever, and the Roman Empire fell apart.  Lugdunum forgot its Roman past, and built on top of the ruins of the amphitheater, residences, and civic buildings.  By the late Middle Ages, the inhabitants of what was now called Lyon were still occupying this great location and had achieved status with the Christian church of Rome.  Lyon was located on the road north from Italy’s silk producing towns that brought this rich textile industry to Lyon.  Banking, which developed in Europe during the Renaissance, also became a principal industry in Lyon, which during this period became the banking center of France, and had France’s first Stock Exchange.

These high points in the history of Lyon can still be enjoyed.  The Roman settlement was largely on the hillside above the Saone, just before it joins the Rhone.  Lyon’s Gallo-Roman Museum is filled with artifacts illustrating the life of that period in Lugdunum.  It’s located next door to the excavated amphitheater, which has been partially rebuilt so that it can be used for performances today.   (It was also poorly marked and very difficult to find!)  We took a funicular train up the incredibly steep hill to view the city and visit the 19^th-century Notre Dame de Fourvieres.  From there we walked downhill to the museum and the amphitheater.  At the bottom of the hill is the old quarter where many Renaissance buildings have been saved and restored.

In Vieux Lyon, where the silk trade thrived in the 15^th century, covered passageways called “traboules” allowed the delicate fabrics to be carried around town with minimal damage from bad weather.  These traboules are open to the public during daylight, and evoke the past powerfully.  Some are painted in soft, warm pastels; others are white.  Some pass through courtyards from which you can look up and see the arched porches of the houses above.  It was easy to imagine the silk workers and the inhabitants of the past bustling through here on their daily chores.

The traboules also proved useful during World War II.  Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon”, ran a ruthless and barbaric Nazi administration, and the daring French Resistance members centered in Lyon used the traboules to evade capture whenever possible.  Unfortunately for me, the Museum of the Resistance in Lyon was closed for renovation during my visit.  However, I’ve watched Casablanca enough times to imagine the danger and the exploits of the Resistance for myself.

Lyon has continued its economic strength long past the Renaissance.  During the 19^th century, the Lumiere family’s factory was the largest producer of photographic glass plates.  The sons of the founder pioneered the first moving picture which could be projected for viewing by more than one person (Edison’s kinetoscope could only be used by one person at a time), but more to record their family life than with any understanding of the artistic or business potential of this technology.  The family still made so much money that they built themselves large and beautiful homes around France, one of which is now the Lumiere Museum in Lyon.

But even if none of this very interesting history were there, the food alone is worth a visit to Lyon.  In the old quarter, the restaurants known as bouchons (“plugs”) are a great place to stuff your face, especially with hearty, savory meat dishes.  The “whole animal” notion of eating every part of an animal can be explored here, where I tasted a salad called “Head to Tail” involving braised, chopped and dressed pig parts with a few salad greens.  There are also plenty of more ordinary menus to choose from!

The French themselves consider Lyon as its gastronomic capital, perhaps because it is located near the wine regions of Beaujolais and Cote du Rhone.  The location may have drawn a number of France’s premier chefs, such as Paul Bocuse.  He has four brassieries in Lyon, and we dined almost by accident in one on our last night in Lyon.  L’Est is situated in an elegant former train station that influenced the train-travel décor.  We chose it partially because the prices were no more exorbitant than other restaurants in the area.  But the food!  Simple, delectable, and perfect.

Paul Bocuse’s Apple Tart

1 ¾ cups flour

1 stick softened butter, broken into pieces

1 pinch salt

3 tablespoons water

Butter and flour for the pan

1 ¾ pounds apples, peeled, cored, halved, and sliced

¼ cup granulated sugar

Black currant jelly, or raspberry or apricot jam (optional)

Make the dough by placing the flour, butter and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Pinch the mixture with your fingers until a crumbly texture forms.  Add water and knead lightly to make a smooth dough.  Form it into a ball, wrap in a clean, lightly floured towel and leave for one hour before baking.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Roll out the dough onto a thing sheet on a lightly floured table.  Butter and flour a 10-inch pie pan, then line it with the dough.  Or, you can roll out the dough and place it on a buttered and floured baking sheet, crimping edges a bit with your fingers to make a slight border.  Prick the bottom in several places with a fork.  Lay in the slices of apples so that they slightly overlap each other, perhaps in concentric circles to make a flower pattern.  Sprinkle apples with sugar and back 35-40 minutes.  Spread jelly over apples when the tart is done, if you like.

Adapted from Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking, 1987.