The Weather
Before I describe the weather, I would like to say a few things about communication. Our Singaporean colleague made a phone call Wednesday night and told us that we would fly out on Friday evening. He was wrong. We fly out to Medan tomorrow morning. Had we not noticed that the date on the ticket was the 15th of July we would not have a hotel and be spending some tense and confused hours later in the airport. It's a spectacular airport, but I don't want to spend the night there. One good tip is to make every phone call yourself if possible. Another is to have people with strong accents write out information that is important. For example, our hotel's address is 428 Changi Road, which when spoken by some locals sounds a lot like 48 Changi Road. Our cabbie last night was very confused until we discovered our mistake by stopping at another hotel in the same chain to ask for directions. This can easily be solved by asking for the business card of every hotel in which one stays--my strategy from now on. Fortunately, the driver refused to charge us the meter price.
The weather is humid but in the low to mid 80s and not nearly as oppressive as it may be later in the year or as it can be in Minnesota for stretches in the summer. It's not so uncomfortale as I would have imagined, and locals seem to complain about the weather more than is merited. Perhaps I just prepared myself for the worst. Locals are also surprised to hear that Minneapolis can be hotter and as, if not more, humid.
I sat in an outdoor cafe (or luncheon, as they say here) and watched Asia News with a large crowd of Singaprean men. Our hotel is located two doors down from Mosque (Masjid) so Muslims comprised a noteworthy percentage of the population. Asia News is in english and seems to be modeled more on the BBC than CNN, which is to say that the stories feature quality reporting on world events. My waiter was Nepalese and insisited on giving me his phone number saying that when I return, he would like to show me around the city. I am going to return to the luncheon tonight to see if he has email because I think he might be able to show me a bit more than the malls and commercial life of this extremely globalized city. It's an odd place in that there seems to be almost no evidence of a pre Westernized culture. This month Singaporeans are celebrating their 41st year of independence and those who eat at Burger King stand the chance of winning digital cameras, MacBooks, and other electronics.
None of this is to say that this isn't a lovely place to visit, it truly is.
For those of you interested in some excellent non fiction summer reading, I have picked up a very well written book entitled, "A History of Modern Indonesia" by Adrian Vickers (published 2005). To find it, one may have to go to Amazon.com or the public library and have it ordered. The introduction, itself, is illuminating and it can give a very clear take on the past 70-100 years of Indonesian history. Other histories of Indonesia can go back to the 12th century are daunting and difficult reads. This is a better book to give you an idea of where I live.
The weather is humid but in the low to mid 80s and not nearly as oppressive as it may be later in the year or as it can be in Minnesota for stretches in the summer. It's not so uncomfortale as I would have imagined, and locals seem to complain about the weather more than is merited. Perhaps I just prepared myself for the worst. Locals are also surprised to hear that Minneapolis can be hotter and as, if not more, humid.
I sat in an outdoor cafe (or luncheon, as they say here) and watched Asia News with a large crowd of Singaprean men. Our hotel is located two doors down from Mosque (Masjid) so Muslims comprised a noteworthy percentage of the population. Asia News is in english and seems to be modeled more on the BBC than CNN, which is to say that the stories feature quality reporting on world events. My waiter was Nepalese and insisited on giving me his phone number saying that when I return, he would like to show me around the city. I am going to return to the luncheon tonight to see if he has email because I think he might be able to show me a bit more than the malls and commercial life of this extremely globalized city. It's an odd place in that there seems to be almost no evidence of a pre Westernized culture. This month Singaporeans are celebrating their 41st year of independence and those who eat at Burger King stand the chance of winning digital cameras, MacBooks, and other electronics.
None of this is to say that this isn't a lovely place to visit, it truly is.
For those of you interested in some excellent non fiction summer reading, I have picked up a very well written book entitled, "A History of Modern Indonesia" by Adrian Vickers (published 2005). To find it, one may have to go to Amazon.com or the public library and have it ordered. The introduction, itself, is illuminating and it can give a very clear take on the past 70-100 years of Indonesian history. Other histories of Indonesia can go back to the 12th century are daunting and difficult reads. This is a better book to give you an idea of where I live.
posted by athensinternational at 10:46 PM
3 Comments:
I'm not at all minimizing the extent to which life must be very, very different for you there and the time it will take to really adjust. But it is funny that you spent a lot of time trying to prepare yourself for monumental culture shock and in a few ways you would actually be much more out of place and out of sorts in, say , Biloxi.
laughing at Jamison's comment very true. So your'e in Singapore until Saturday am? Am listening to the CD you made for me, like it alot, thanks. It is maybe muggier there in our winter, their wet season.. glad to hear you are learning about the details of travel, and ways to handle it.
This site is one of the best I have ever seen, wish I had one like this.
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