Finally, About Singapore

OK, I guess I've slacked off enough and should write a bit about my trip to Singapore before I completely forget what happened. All the photos are posted here: Singapore - October 2006

I arrived at a few minutes before 11:00 p.m. on Monday, October 2. I think about 50 other planes must have landed at the same time, because the immigration lines were packed! The whole room was filled with people of all sorts, and none of the lines seemed to be moving quickly. It took about 40 minutes from landing time to actually getting out the door, where David and Tona had been patiently waiting for me. I felt so bad about making them wait so long and told them to just drop me at the hotel and go home, but they wanted to eat first, so off we went. We stopped at a hawker center that was rather famous in Singapore, but David and Tona hadn't tried it. We munched down some good food and then headed for my hotel.

I'd chosen a place I found on the Internet, the Astro Hotel . The description made it sound quite charming, and I'd asked Lee Ying about the area of town, and she said it was OK. Well.....it wasn't quite as charming as the website made it out to be, and I rode up in the elevator with a guy and his Vietnamese hooker, listening to him giving her instructions on just what she could do for him. Oh swell. However, it was cheap and it was quiet, so what the hell. During my short stay I killed a total of six cockroaches, but they were all little bitty things, not the monsters we have here in Taiwan, so I wasn't too upset. At a cost of $38US per night, I wasn't about to complain.

By the time I actually was in bed, it was after 1:00 a.m., and I was able to sleep in a bit on Tuesday. David and Tona were supposed to meet me for brunch around 10:30, but because there was a heavy rainstorm, David called to say they'd probably be a little late. My room had no window, so I was clueless about the weather. By the time I emerged to do some preliminary exploring, there was no rain, just wet pavement, and the heat was just awful. Singapore has only three seasons, you know: summer, hot summer, and so-hot-you-think-your-hair-will-melt summer. I believe I experienced hot summer this time.

I wandered around the Gelang Serai area a bit. It's the Malay part of town, and since it was the Malay Hari Raya Light-up Celebration, there was quite a bit of activity going on very close to the hotel. Most of it was at night, but there were some things open during the day. I picked a good time to visit Singapore, because it was also the Indian Deepavali (Festival of Lights) and the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival, and every part of town seemed to be lit up with beautiful lights in the evenings.

When David and Tona arrived, we went off to the pork rib soup place they'd taken me to in September. Damn, that stuff is so good! The do-it-yourself seasoning I'd bought was nearly as good. After we had our fill they dropped me off at the shopping center that has books, books, books. I was on a search for some books I'd seen on the last trip. I spent some time there, searching with no luck, then I walked down to Arab Street. It was fun wandering around there, looking at all the beautiful materials and the carpets, but I didn't buy anything. On the way back to the MRT station, I walked through a wholesale market area, where I bought a cheap coffee cup and a spoon, since the hotel had none. Then I stopped for some kaya toast and coffee to give my feet a rest. Um, I love kaya toast!

Walking from the MRT station to my hotel took me through the Malay bazaar, which had all sorts of stuff. It's a bit like the night markets in Taiwan, but not quite. Again, I didn't buy anything. I spent a little time at the hotel before heading off to meet Lilian in Chinatown for dinner. I got there early and walked all over the place looking for a bathroom, because the bathrooms in the Singapore MRT stations are not as easily found as those in Taiwan, and I'd assumed they, like Hong Kong, didn't have them. By the time Lilian showed up, I was pooped!

She took me to a hawker center that specialized in barbecued seafood, and I had stingray for the first time in my life. Oh my. It was so delicious, so tasty, such a shame it's not available here in Taiwan. We also had some clams and squid, and I had a Tiger Draft, which was twice as good because I was so hot and tired. After dinner we drove to Chinatown proper to look at all the lanterns. Sadly, I was too tired to have much enthusiasm, but we did walk around for quite awhile, chatting, and then Lilian kindly drove me back to the hotel, taking a detour through Little India so I could see all the lights (which weren't nearly as pretty during the day, when I went back).

On Wednesday I went alone to the Chinese Gardens in the morning. My friend Li Yan had told me they would be much prettier at night when the lanterns were lit, but I didn't really have any evenings free, so daytime would have to do. I didn't eat any breakfast, because I figured there'd be a place to eat there. Ha, wrong. The teashop was closed, only open at night. So, by the time I finished my two hours of walking, I was famished! I had some pineapple cakes that I was going to give Li Yan, but she never got them - I ate them. But I didn't eat the Kahlua cake I'd made for her, so I'm not such a bad person, right?

Li Yan and I met at 1:00 and she took me to her university for lunch. We ate with some of her friends, including a guy from Shanghai. The food was very inexpensive (I must say here that I actually didn't pay for any of the food I'd eaten so far, because everyone kept insisting on treating me) and there was far too much of it (I got ma po tofu). After lunch we went to the library so I could check my e-mail, then browsed the campus bookstore for awhile. Then Li Yan suggested we go to Haw Par Villa, built by the same guy who had built Hong Kong's Tiger Balm Gardens. She said that although it wasn't as popular as it had been in the past, it was still an interesting place to see and wouldn't be crowded. Sounded fine to me! So, we took a bus (believe it or not, Singapore actually has some non air-conditioned buses, so strange in such a hot climate) and spent about an hour walking around the Villa.

After that Li Yan took me to SunTec City Mall, because there was a used bookstore there. It's a very interesting store. You can choose to just rent the books or to buy them. Each book has two prices listed, and the older books are cheaper than the newer ones. For example, you might pay $15S for the book, but if you bring it back to the shop, they will give you back $12.50S. They had tons of stuff, and I bought quite a few of the books on my list. We walked around the mall a little bit, but my feet were starting to complain, so we didn't stay long.

I had plans to meet up with Angela and Taka for dinner, and Li Yan was going with her family. The two of us went back to my hotel so I could pick up the stuff I'd brought for A & T, and Li Yan's father picked us up and drove me to the place I was meeting my friends. Traffic was bad, so I was about a half hour later than I'd planned on being. Taka and Angela were waiting for me, and we just went to the food court at the mall for dinner. I decided on the chicken rice, since it's soooo good. After dinner we just wandered around in the mall, talking. Neither of them had the time to go with me to Little India, and I was pretty tired from all the walking I'd done anyway, so I just went back to the hotel, arriving around 10:00 or so. I watched a little TV, because there were a couple of interesting Chinese TV series on, then went to sleep.

I spent most of Thursday riding the MRT all over creation, searching out the used book exhibitions in the hope of finding the rest of the books I wanted. No luck, sad to say, although I did find a couple others that were cheap, so it wasn't a wasted day. Lee Ying had hoped to get a half day off to spend with me, but she was unable to, so we made plans to meet for dinner. However, Li Yan wanted to hang out again, so she and I made the trip to Little India. It wasn't quite as exciting as I'd hoped it would be, but I think the heat and my tiredness probably had something to do with my lack of enjoyment.

We met up with Lee Ying at 7:00, and Vynson also joined us. After a discussion about what to eat, we decided on pizza and proceeded to the restaurant. As luck would have it, they had a special on, two pizzas for the price of one - cool! We had a lovely dinner, laughing and talking, mostly about Wu Bai, of course. Vynson told the story of how he came to be the "Singapore Wu Bai" and had us all laughing. After dinner, Lee Ying, Li Yan, and I took a cab back to my hotel so I could get the cake and books I'd brought for Lee Ying, and I spend another evening watching Chinese TV series before falling asleep.

Friday it was up early to pack and then a short cab ride to the airport. I had another chicken rice meal there and then wandered around the shops, stopping at one of the free Internet stations to check my mail.

My flight was on time, but I had the misfortune of being seated next to a couple and their little girl, maybe two or three years old. That kid was incredibly annoying. I was in the aisle seat, and it was the very first row, so there was a lot of leg room. This meant said child could walk back and forth, which she did, frequently, grabbing onto my legs, stepping on my feet, keeping me from napping. The flight attendant didn't help, because she was just encouraging her to keep walking over to her. And then some little boy from the other side of the plane kept coming over to check out the little girl, so I had both of them annoying me. Grrrrrr. After the umpteenth time of being awakened, I guess the mother finally noticed my exasperated sigh and offered to change her window seat for my aisle seat. That was a bit better - until we started our descent. Then the kid began screaming at the top of her lungs, because she didn't want to wear the seatbelt. She kept it up, non-stop, until we were on the ground. I hate kids.

Uneventful bus ride/MRT trip back home, and as I walked from the station to my house, I was treated to the wonderful smells of everyone outside barbecuing, because it was Mid Autumn Festival, and that's what one does in Taiwan on Mid Autumn Festival. It smelled so good, but all I had to eat when I got home was a bagel I'd purchased in Singapore. Wah! Poor me, no BBQ this year.

Many thanks to my Singapore friends for making my visit so nice! I hope you'll be visiting me in Taiwan soon so I can return the favor :)

I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Taking off this afternoon for Singapore, back on Friday evening. Looking forward to Saturday evening and a fine performance from ABS. Also looking forward to the upcoming Wu Bai & China Blue pub shows on October 27 and 28, although not looking forward to queueing in line for three days, mostly alone since the others in the group have to work during the day :(

The new CD comes out this month, and I hope that means an autograph session. I have so many autographed CDs and other things, but not one them I actually got done myself. I think it's about time I stood in front of the guys on my own, huh?

Apologies to everyone I owe e-mail to. I'll eventually get around to it. I hope.

Singapore Rocks to Wu Bai & China Blue

Let me begin by saying that I understand why a discount airline is called a discount airline. I flew Jetstar Asia to Singapore because the price was right. That price did not include a meal. Oh no, if I wanted food, I had to pay for my meal (and beverage), and no food not purchased on the plane was allowed to be consumed.

Fine, then, I'll buy it. I hadn't eaten since around 1:00 p.m. on Friday, and it was now coming up on 8:00 p.m., and I was starved. The food cart starts down the aisle, not far from me, because I'm in row 8. I can smell it, and I'm getting hungrier by the minute. There were three choices on the menu: Egg Noodle with Seaweed Roll and Mixed Vegetables, Fried Rice with Chicken Teriyaki and Sauteed Vegetables, and Nasi Rampai with Sambal Fish and Sayur Lodeh. The last item was completely incomprehensible to me, and the seaweed roll put me off the first, so chicken teriyaki it would be. The cart reached the row in front of me. Suddenly, the plane began bucking as it hit turbulence, and the captain ordered the crew to return to their seats. The cart was whisked away. Nooooo!!!! I'm so hungry!!!! Finally, after 10 or 15 minutes, the cart returns, and it's my turn. "I'll have the chicken teriyaki." The pretty, perky flight attendant made a little moue. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry, but we're out of that." Huh? How is this possible? I'm in row 8 for crying out loud! "Uh, fine, then I guess I'll have the fish thing." Again with the moue. "Oh dearie me, so sorry, I've just given the last one to my colleague. We have egg noodle with seaweed roll." "Well, what exactly is that?" "It's egg noodle with seaweed roll." "Never mind, can I just buy some nuts and some water?" I'm not gonna pay $5.00 US for something that sounds yucky. If they served it free, I'd try it, but I'm NOT paying for it.

The nuts didn't go far, and about an hour and a half before landing, the cart came around again. "Would you like to purchase a beverage?" a different perky, pretty girl asked. "Food?" I said hopefully, hoping to score some cookies. "Oh, gosh, gee, I'm so sorry, there is none." And then, as the cart returned to the front, at a speed only slightly slower than the speed of light, I heard the guy who was pushing it saying under his breath, "Drinks? Snacks? Drinks? Snacks?" but before my brain had a chance to say, "Hey...wait a minute, snacks is food!" the cart was gone. WTF? Stupid perky flight attendant doesn't know that nuts, candy bars, and cookies are in the FOOD group?

So, I landed in Singapore ready to chew on the arm of the person in front of me at immigration. Luckily they're quite speedy there, and I was into the baggage check area in no time, grabbing my bag and going out into the mob of waiting people, wondering how the hell I'd find Tona and Lee Ying. I only had to look around for a couple of minutes, though, before spotting them, and the first words out of my mouth were "FEED ME NOW!" We jumped into the car, where David had been waiting for us, and off we went for my first taste of Singapore food. That food was prata with chicken curry, and it was sheer heaven. The restaurant was Muslim Indian, I believe, and was quite crowded even at midnight. I managed not to faint away while we waited for the food. After the meal we drove to Tona and David's place (check out the nice view from their living room window), dropping Lee Ying at her stop on the way, and then hit the sack.

Saturday Tona and David took me for breakfast to a place that serves pork rib soup, known in Singapore at Bak Kut Teh. This is a marvelous broth with lots of roasted garlic and strips of lean pork, along with some sort of green veggie. They told me this is one of Wu Bai's favorite things to eat in Singapore (and this is a photo of his favorite shop), and I see why. I ended up buying some of the do-it-yourself seasoning packets at the grocery store to use here at home. After breakfast we drove around, with Tona pointing out various sites to me. We stopped briefly in Chinatown and walked around, but it was pretty hot, and Tona is five months pregnant and tires easily, so we didn't push it. We went to a shopping mall to meet Angela and Takasan for just a little while, and we went around to some used bookstores but didn't find anything good. Then later in the afternoon we collected Lee Ying and went to dinner for another Singapore specialty, Hai Nan Chicken Rice (along with some fried tofu and veggies and beer for me). The chicken is cooked in a seasoned broth and then allowed to cool, and the rice is cooked in the broth, the special seasoning giving the rice a great flavor. A light soy sauce is poured on the chicken, which is on a bed of cucumbers when it's served. Very yummy, and I bought the fixings for that, too.

After dinner it was off to the concert venue, picking up Lee Yang on the way, where we met up with Angela, Lilian, and the other Singapore fans, most of whom I didn't know (and my memory sucks, so I don't even remember everyone's names). We didn't have to wait outside long before they let us in, and we found our seats pretty close to the front. The front four rows had not even been available to the public for purchase, all reserved for special folks. Too bad, because those folks didn't even bother to stand up during the show. Lame arseholes. Why don't they let the real fans have the good seats?

The first part of the concert was Zhang Zhen Yue and Free Night, along with guest MC Hotdog. I don't mind their music, especially "Wo Ai Tai Mei" and the "oh Mama, wo yao qian" song, but ZZY was a bit down that evening. Not surprising since a couple weeks before his girlfriend (or close friend, depending on the source) committed suicide. It's a wonder he was performing at all. The crowd was rather subdued, and it was obvious that most of us were there for Wu Bai & China Blue.

And then the real fun began, with Da Mao hitting the stage and sitting at his keyboards, and then Wu Bai coming on for the opening number, Summer Night Wind. The rest of the concert was typical Wu Bai & China Blue, great performances, Wu Bai forgetting song lyrics (he blew White Dove soooo badly!), and Dino cutting up in the back while DJ eTurn was spinning his records - Dino was pretending to spin his cymbals. The crowd was mostly standing (and that's a no-no in Singapore), at least where we were (except for those fuddy-duddies in the front rows), and we were all singing at the top of our lungs and waving our light sticks. This concert was like a combination of the Love Power tour of 2004 and the Li Hai concert of last year, a good mix, a lot of favorite songs that I can sing along with. Doesn't matter how many times I hear the same songs in concert, I still love 'em.

The show was too short, of course, and the finale was Wu Bai & China Blue together with ZZY's band and MC Hotdog, a fun song, one I'm not familiar with. Then it was over, and we left. We hung around in front for awhile, then walked over toward the car. We noticed some fans waiting at the back, so we drifted over that way, saw some of ZZY's band come out, then Dino, Da Mao, and Xiao Zhu walked out the back door. I yelled Dino's name, he looked around and saw me, then came over to the barricade, shaking hands with fans and signing autographs. Finally Wu Bai and wife, along with other staff members, came out and boarded the little bus that would take them back to the hotel. We waved as they went by, but I'm not sure if anyone waved back, because I was just noticing that Miss Chen wouldn't even look our way and acknowledge our presence. Hmph.

Sunday the guys flew home, and Lilian and Angela went to the airport to see them off. They got to get their photos with Wu Bai and say a few words. I just can't make myself chase after the guy, you know? I mean, going to the show is one thing, but showing up at airports or hotels just feels wrong for me. If it had just been Dino, Da Mao, and Xiao Zhu, I would have gone, though, because they're just down-to-earth cool guys.

Sunday I went off with Lee Ying to meet Angela, Lilian, Eileen, and Li Yan for lunch, which we had at a shopping mall. I've been online buddies with Li Yan for about six years, and this was the first time I'd gotten to meet her face to face. We all hung around chatting a bit, then Lilian, Li Yan, and I headed off on our own. All we did was go to Carrefour at that mall and hit a couple of DVD shops. Then Lilian drove me to the airport so I could meet up with Tona, who was dropping David off for his flight (he works for Singapore Airlines). Tona and I went for dinner, choosing satay, both chicken and beef. Another yummy food! Then we went to a grocery store and ended up finding a book exhibition that had some great deals on used books (I bought four). We were pretty tired, so we just went back to Tona's and kicked back, watching a bit of TV (did you know there's a restaurant in Australia that's a Clydesdale-drawn carriage? check it out http://www.clydesdalesrestaurant.com.au/), and talking.

Monday morning I was up bright and early, packing all my stuff, and Tona dropped me off at the airport around 11:00. We wanted more pork rib soup for breakfast, but the place was closed, so we decided to wait for next time. I grabbed some sushi at the airport. I was seated in row 2 this time, and I was able to actually get the chicken teriyaki. Too bad, because it was simply awful, half cold and really tasteless. Next month when I go back I'll definitely stuff myself at the airport before boarding the plane!

Landed at almost 6:00 p.m., got on the bus back to Taipei at 6:25, finally hit home a little after 8:00, tired but happy. Now I'm just waiting for the new CD to be released and more concerts!

I'm Just a Wu Bai & China Blue Junkie....

It's been my position that Wu Bai's wife deliberately arranges their concert schedule to make sure I won't be able to attend. Sure enough, as soon as I made the decision to enroll at Shi Da University's Mandarin Language Center, classes beginning September 1, the announcement comes that Wu Bai & China Blue will be performing in Singapore on September 2. Do you know for how long my Singapore friends have been asking me to come visit them? And what better excuse than a concert, right? But here's the catch: If I enter Shi Da, then I am applying for a student visa in order to get another ARC. This means I must be in Taiwan for four months straight, studying, unable to leave.

So what does any sane, level-headed woman do when faced with this dilemma? She probably decides that she needs to forgo the trip to Singapore and procede with her plan to enter university. I am obviously neither sane nor level-headed, because I'M GOING TO SINGAPORE TO SEE WU BAI & CHINA BLUE! Ha, take that, Pei Jie. Your sinister plan to keep me away from the greatest band in the world has come to naught. Classes can wait until the Winter Quarter, which begins December 1. Life is for living, and why did I come all the way over to this side of the planet? Why, to be more easily able to attend Wu Bai and China Blue concerts, that's why :) And you know what? If you still have never experienced Wu Bai & China Blue live, you should get your butt in gear and buy the "Li Hai" concert DVD, because it's great, with the added bonus of a nice closeup of yours truly chanting "Wu Bai! Wu Bai!" toward the end of the show. How can you pass that up, huh?

http://us.yesasia.com/assocred.asp?SF3E35D7+http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/