Jason's Delhi: April 2006

Arrival in Singapore

I had heard the airport was very nice, and it lived up to expectations. Landscaped glassed-in gardens lined both sides of the terminal walkways, and the overhead lights shed a warm glow, illuminating the tastefully-decorated interior. As I walked through the airport, I was baffled to discover that my vision had improved. It took a few seconds for me to realize that it wasn’t my vision, but the lack of haze that I was perceiving. As we approached the inevitable hassle of customs, I was astonished to see that I had my choice of wide-open customs agents to choose from- several times as many available agents as other airports, and no one in line for most of them. And these customs agents were actually friendly- a rarity in any country. With an astonished “that’s it?” we made it through customs with less time than it had taken to exit the plane.

Outside the airport it was time to find a cab. After months of traveling in and out of Delhi, and dealing with the unscrupulous cab drivers who refuse to use their meters and demand ridiculous amounts to take you to your destination, I was skeptical of the cab driver who came up to us outside. I stood there gripping my suitcase with white knuckles wrapped around the handle of my suitcase, ready for a tug-of-war game with a herd of porters who never materialized. Once we were in the air-conditioned Toyota (about the size of a Lexus LS430 but with the no-frill interior of a cab), with an LCD screen taxi meter and a friendly old driver, I could finally drop my guard just a little.

As we left the airport I saw perfectly landscaped streets and trees, and was struck by the absence of people and animals walking, standing, laying everywhere. I kept expecting this to transition to something less… organized… as we left the airport area, but to my surprise it never did. I honestly wonder if the powers that be here contracted with the groundskeepers from Disney to maintain their entire country.

Chinatown

The entrance to Chinatown- all set for Chinese New Year

In Singapore- a city seemingly based on a combination of cultures melded from the surrounding countries, and somehow whitewashed of all of them with its modern skyline and clean-swept utopian streets - I found it hard to single out a unified cultural identity, until I went to Chinatown at the end of my first day. Large cartoon characters decorated the streets in anticipation of the following week’s Chinese New Year. I was almost disappointed that I was a week too early, until I walked through the hot Chinatown bazaar with stall upon stall of counterfeit merchandise. Here though I must give credit where it’s due- the items looked far more genuine than the “Nikey” (complete with a backwards “N”) jacket I saw on the back of a cyclist on the way to work one morning in Delhi. Odd though that they could all be sold so openly in a city where dropping a gum wrapper on the ground earns a hefty fine, vandalism as we all know from what happened to that guy in the 90’s gets people caned, and where an Australian was hung about three months ago for drug trafficking. Not that I’m advocating any of the above, but it is strange to me how a country can pick and choose what constitutes a major vice and what doesn’t so arbitrarily. Counterfeit items- ok. Jaywalking- big penalty. Prostitution- that was ok also, according to the cab driver who kept trying to convince a friend and me to visit some “girls he knew”. Still, the backpack I bought at the market was pretty cool. I guess the lesson is choose your vice and then travel accordingly.

Sentosa Island- Singapore

Cable cars to Sentosa Island

The sensation of being in a Disney park continued when we arrived at Sentosa Island. An unabashed tourist destination accessible by cable car from the mainland, this place is like Epcot without the big white ball. In its place you’ll find their gargantuan statue of the Merlion, the top half being a lion and the bottom half being a fish (yeah I wondered what the hell that’s about too). Our cab took us to a hilltop where we purchased a pass that included a ride on the cable cars and some of the attractions on the island. After stopping at the best koi pond I’ve ever seen we boarded the cars to the island. It was the first cable car system I had seen that didn’t exist to whisk White Trash across Six Flags Amusement Park, and in the true multi-national sprit of Singapore it included a box with buttons for several major languages. As the voice-coached lady spoke on the history of Sentosa Island, we soon became restless and fought over pushing the buttons next to the letters and symbols of the other languages.

The main tourist attraction was Underwater World- an underground aquarium with the main attraction being a circular underwater tunnel with a moving walkway, where you can stand or walk amidst the camera-happy tourists pointing their lenses straight up overhead. If it wasn’t for digital cameras, Kodak would be making a lot of money here.

Also on our trip was a 4D movie where we sat in big chairs and wore special glasses. We sat in the front row and watched a 15 minute pirate movie and as large sand crabs ran out of the screen towards us and down towards our legs, clicking their claws, something under our chairs whacked at the back of our legs, prompting everyone in the audience to jump and yank their knees up to their chins. Also in store for us was a swarm of bees that triggered the chairs to blow sharp puffs at the back of our necks, making us laugh and wince together. By the time the big spider was hanging down from the screen pinching its fangs at us, the two young Japanese children in the row behind us were completely terrified, while their parents tried to tell them it was only a movie. I have to admit screaming children in public get on my nerves, but before I could even give their parents a “take them AWAY from me!” kind of look, I was struck by how funny the situation was, and couldn’t stop laughing at what a perfect machine for horrifying children that the good folks at Sentosa Island had unwittingly designed. The parents grabbed them from their chairs and took them out, probably never to enter a movie theater again for another 5 years.

After returning to Delhi after our weekend trip to Singapore, and the cleanliness and organization and beauty, Soraya and I rode in our cab through a croweded dusty market street on the way home- one we recognized from our daily trips home from the office. We looked at each other, and we realized at the same time that we were both feeling something quite unexpected- a sense of relief at being home in Delhi again! As the boxy springy cab swerved around potholes and people and half-sleeping bulls, the Oz-like city of Singapore a 5 hour flight behind us, I felt like I was back in the real world again.