To be prepared for everything it might make sense to carry a handkerchief with you for your travels. Use it to rub some cool water down your neck, or as a way to protect your head from the sun, or to wipe the sweat off your brow or any other more standard needs. Make sure you have a hat, sunglasses, a wrist band, and sunscreen on you. Make sure your handkerchief is good quality cotton, not paper and not one of the scented ones. Ultimately the past couple sentences were in reference to the climate. Singapore is hot, humid and a little expensive. Obviously decisions are yours, since maybe instead of buying sunglasses you’ll stay an extra night at the hotel, or instead of a hat you’ll drink a couple more lemonades, or instead of a wrist band you’ll pick up a pretty magnet, or instead of sunscreen… Actually you’ll definitely need the sunscreen since you’re still going to have to get to Sentosa!
Singapore embraces the philosophies of its temples, each of which is more beautiful than the next. Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (Bright Hill) is Singapore’s biggest Buddhist temple and was established to teach the Dharma and spread its teachings and practices. Dharma is a word that doesn’t really have an equivalent in Western languages. Various sources define it as “the way of living in the order of the universe” and “the right way of living” and “cosmic life and order”. Followers of Dharma have a much more simple definition, to them it simply means “Live!” In the garden there is both a temple and a crematorium. There’s a lot of smoke and smell though I think it was only after learning what exactly the smoke and smells were of that I noticed my nose getting a bit more sensitive.
Singapore Zoo is a great place to travel with children, though I have to warn you first that I guarantee that the adults have a better time there than the kids! Regardless of whatever kind of holiday you like, you have to make absolutely sure that you see the see. I decided to follow a group of Japanese school children who’d broken off in pairs, each of them holding hands wearing white t-shirts and red shorts. Frankly they were as surprising a sight as anything else I saw all day! I felt like a character who’d gone to Pndapetzim in Umberto Eco’s novel Bauldino. I was as surprised as if I’d seen birds with noses and otters screaming out “give me food” when I saw the giant tortoises for the first time!
I also had one of the most unforgettable moments in my life right here. As I was looking around at the animals I came face-to-face with an orangutan. As much as I’d seen orangutans in pictures before, seeing one up close was a completely different experience. It was clearly an elderly animal who’d dealt with quite a bit in his life and carried the weight of it on his shoulders, and there he was resting on a bench eating a pear when our eyes met! In no way did I feel that I was looking at an animal, rather I felt that it was a human and I froze. Despite all this he quietly resumed eating his pear and all the possible conversation it might have led to I can only describe with the following sort of thing:
“My Monsieur Oran, you look so human!”
Whatever! Humans… you sure it’s not you that looks like an orangutan? Every day it’s the exact same, we have to deal with this nonsense every day…
If you’re going to Sentosa – and you’re definitely going – You should go via cable car and that way we don’t have to get into all the other ways of going. If you’re going by cable care then you should make the decision to “pay 3 cents more and look out of the glass everywhere!” (The other option doesn’t have a glass floor).
Once in the cable car you move slowly and quietly towards a dark tunnel ahead. Actually it feels more like “flying” because there’s no sound, like you would normally think there would be from mechanical instruments. A little ahead I started to see a white light. After approaching the light I saw the blue sky. After, a quick drop! I was honestly too scared to even make a joke about the rope breaking in case it actually had and I fell into the green water below, actually not even that but towards the cruise ship below. My life flashed before my eyes like a film… but then I started to go straight again… Is this a cable car? A scary tunnel? Or is it still the feeling of the city of Pndapetzim? My stomach tickled and it was actually quite a lovely feeling.
However wonderful a moment it was, it’s worth taking photos of the journey and seeing the world through your own lens, especially since my hands and knees were shaking so much for the next 15 minutes. At least I came to and I noticed that we were approaching an enormous lion statue with his mouth agape: this must be the city’s iconic Merlion!
Sentosa Island used to be a prison camp, a place of exile, used as a garden of executions. It’s seen so many different names of the like that in Malay this island is usually referred to as “the island of death from behind.” In 1972 at the request of the people the word in Malay of Sentosa was chosen, which means “peace and tranquility.” After this there were many investments made into the island and it became the touristic paradise that it is today.
There are beach buses that constantly rotate between three different routes on the island to different points on the island, and in this way Sentosa asks you, “my dear tourist, what’ll I give you this time?” Beach, golf courses, dolphin village, underwater world, these parks, Universal Studios, Skyride, Casinos, spas, light shows at night, musicals, and everything else under the sun… If you want you can get a ticket for all three routes and transfer at each stop, or just walk as much as you could ever ask for.
There’s a particularly beautiful open-air musical that plays the Songs of the Sea… If you happen to get there on a weekend you might not be able to find any room without a reservation. If you try to watch for free by standing far away rather than sitting up close, let me tell you from personal experience that it doesn’t work because the screens are too high.
You also need to make sure that you visit S.E.A Aquarium. And of course you have to eat the seafood…. hmmm… how should I explain it? I’m trying to talk about both how beautiful the fish in the underwater world are as well as how delicious the seafood is and trying to cover over the fact that those two things don’t go great together. Probably not totally possible to reconcile those two!
Have you ever heard of “Tiger balm” ointment? It’s similar to the steam menthol cream that we use in Türkiye a lot, only this is the Chinese version and I’ve no clue which one came first. If we look at ancient Chinese medicine then see the same thing in the West then it seems possible that it’s a Western copy. The brothers who developed this ointment have really gotten a lot out of their invention. After that they bought some land and prepared three dimensional stimulating images that taught people morality, ethics, motivation and were fairly imposing. Not surprisingly the name of this place is “Tiger Balm Gardens”, but those in the know call it “Haw Par Villa.” Imagine going to a theme park, before which you go through the as-sirāt (straight path) and after your book of deeds is read, you see all your sins and good deeds spread before your eyes, with a bit of humor in the representation. Then you pass into a scene that shows both the punishment and rewards you’ve earned. This time without any humor!
The streams of flowing honey are enough to look like jewels to make full houses out of them, with demons piled high all around and people boiling and burning all around, hell and heaven are included in the scenes. With colored fiberglass mannequins and light effects these 3-D tableaus bring Haw Par Villa Park to life. Of course it’s all themes in the Chinese tradition, with legends and folklore. I think before going you’d do well to research some of the images before going (and make sure not to laugh under your breath at some of the effects).
My next stop was the cemetery… you’re saying to yourself “I’ve worked hard all year, I’m tired and just when I’m trying to relax and go on holiday, right when I’m feeling good in my mind and body…. why am I going to a cemetery?” Possible answers:
- I went because when I was walking around in Munich I came across the most beautiful park landscape and after I saw the stone cemetery there I’ve gotten enormous pleasure out of wandering around cemeteries.
- I went because I’m interested in the stories surrounding World War II. Everything I learn makes me think, “Thank God Türkiye didn’t enter the war.” Each time I learn something new and think this way I also get embarrassed internally.
- I went because sometimes even on holiday it’s necessary to see some of the harder things of life.
- I went because it was free. I’ll always go somewhere free over somewhere expensive.
The Kranji War Cemetery and Museum: The Japanese invasion of Singapore led to many lives lost, with 850 identities never found, 4,458 bodies whose graves were never found and 24,000 names engraved on the cemetery monuments. Men and women from ten different countries, civilians and military, young and old… two sentences that I read at the museum caught my attention. The Japanese gave Singapore the following name during the invasion: “The light of the South.” I couldn’t understand why they looked to extinguish this same light that they recognized as the beauty of the country. This was said about the fall of Singapore by England: “The worst sickness in English history and the biggest capitulation!”
I couldn’t understand why they looked at and internalized their own history in such a financial manner. Or at least, I guess I could understand it a little… Maybe it resembles my own struggles that I had at underwater world where I both loved the sweet little fish swimming around and also couldn’t prevent myself from thinking about what I could possibly have for dinner!
I know, we need a last paragraph… We as people have the power (as taught by Dharma) to turn this world from heaven to hell or from hell to heaven. The lion eats the gazelle, human eats the fish (Singapore Zoo), but things seen in one life shouldn’t be seen in the other (Haw Par Villa). In this way perhaps the awareness that animals have of life is only different in that they have no votes in the affair (My monsieur Orangutan)…
Singapore is not a place that can be summarized in just one concluding paragraph. I must go a few times again, because there needs to be multiple concluding paragraphs to this city. You want to eat the food you love again, sing the songs you love again, and watch the films you love again…
