City in the tropics
First I headed to the Singapore Botanical Gardens to see some of the tropics. This is an amazing public park with gently rolling hills, several small lakes, groomed flower gardens, and pleasant walkways with informational signs about what plants and animals can be seen nearby. Just strolling around is free, plus there are a few enclosed areas that you can pay to go into. On a Sunday morning, the park was filled with families on picnics, joggers, tour groups, and people doing martial arts like tai chi.
(Singapore is an early-morning and late-night culture. Why? It’s hot! I guess people sleep in between).
I saw the swan lake, several lotus ponds, the ginger garden (I had no idea what ginger plants looked like), and the National Orchid Preserve ($5 entry fee). I had thought I was leaving Japan behind yesterday, but in fact a piece of it came with me—Japanese tour groups! It was fun to listen in on the guide here and there. They seemed especially interested in the ginger plants, and why not, given the prominence of ginger in Japanese cooking.
The orchid preserve was amazing. It is hard to describe what a natural tropical setting looks like, with the exuberance of plant life, the thick vines and huge, heavy leaves. It looks pleasant and lush to our eyes, but this disguises the fact that life in the tropics is cutthroat competition for plants.
There are an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 varieties of orchid, and this preserve probably had at least 1,000. Not all were blooming, but many were, and the beauty of the flowers is just like the poems and stories say it is. They look like origami, so delicate and complex and colorful. Two special sections were called the “VIP Garden” and the “Celebrity Garden.” These, it turns out, were a brilliant diplomatic idea. Singapore has made it a tradition to name an orchid after certain famous people on the occasion of visiting the country. This is done to promote good will between their countries.
So, for example, there was a variety of orchid named for Princess Diana, and also one for the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, the wife of the Sultan of Brunei, the Japanese Empress, and about 15 others (all women). It called forth an image of a special ceremony where the flower is presented to the honored guest as a gesture of amity, and then cultivated in the VIP Garden as a public display of Singapore’s good will. In the Celebrity Garden, many of the flowers were named, intriguingly, for biologists. The main name I remember is David Baltimore, who was cited as having received the honor for “putting Singapore on the map” in the world of cell biology. Apparently biomedical research is quite well-developed here, which came about through collaboration with several famous scientists who now have varieties of orchids named after them. The other celebrities were mostly music stars.
I also learned something about orchid chemistry. The orchids that have a scent are tuned to release their fragrance at particular times of day. For instance, the ones that are moth-pollinated release scent at night when moths are active, while the bee-pollinated ones release scent in the morning when bees are active. The fragrances are complex, but are adapted to resemble other appealing flowers and natural oils of the tropics.
The part that made me laugh was the “Coolhouse.” No kidding! In American botanical gardens, there is often a special Hothouse with high temperature and humidity to resemble the tropics. Here, there was a Coolhouse with lower temperature to resemble the mountain regions of Southeast Asia. I was especially intrigued by the funnel plants, which have a fluid-filled funnel that is lethal to insects. They are attracted to the scent inside, but once there, they cannot escape because the sides of the funnel are coated with slippery wax, and the lip has inward-pointing teeth like a barbed wire fence. Eventually, the poor insect drowns in the water and is digested by the plant.
After a couple of hours of walking, I chilled out at a coffee shop with an outdoor patio. I looked up and noticed several little lizards crawling around the canvas overhang. I’ve heard these are very common in India—I guess they are just a normal tropical phenomenon.
Then I took the subway (MRT) to the city center. It’s a nice subway, very clean and efficient. You get a single mass transit card that you can use on buses, subways, etc all over town. How refreshing to have a public transportation system that is fully integrated and organized!
I was walking to the Singapore Art Museum when an older Singaporean fellow walked up beside me and said “Hello!” My American guard came up, and I wondered if it was OK to talk to him. But I went ahead and said hello. He asked where I was from, and when I said California, he said, “Oh! That is where HP Company started. Now they have a big plant here in Singapore. Just like so many of the major high-tech companies.”
It turned out he was a native Singaporean who had been here all of his 69 years. He approved very much of Lee Kuan Yew, and liked the fact that his son is now in charge. But one thing on his mind was the upcoming election, now just 14 days away. The People’s Action Party has been in power since the mid-50s, but now the Labor Party claims about 40% support. He explained that the problem is that Singapore is starting to become too nice. It has attracted lots of foreigners and has gotten very expensive (I can certainly vouch that only some of the shopping is really a good deal. Much of it is just like Tokyo, Hong Kong, or New York). For some of the regular-Joe Singaporeans, it is getting hard to make a decent living or to enjoy all that their homeland has to offer.
As we talked, it began to rain. And here, the rain is serious rain. You have to get your butt under cover pretty fast, so we dashed toward the last street to cross before the art museum. But he (even at age 69) was sprier than me and was willing to run in front of advancing traffic. I hung back to wait for the green crosswalk signal, by which time he had melted off into the crowd. It was an interesting encounter.
The art museum was quite small, but worth the $3. One exhibit featured eight contemporary Singaporean artists, all with quite unique styles. Most were painters, but one specialized in pottery, and another did both painting and performance art. The galleries were intimate, and showed a wide range of each artist’s work along with quite a detailed description of their life and philosophy about art.
Another exhibit moved out to other Southeast Asian artists, such as from Malaysia and Indonesia. These dealt with darker modern themes of the alienation people feel in cities, the encroachment of Western culture into traditional cultures, and the destruction of nature. One section was devoted to works by students at a local art college, and there was clearly some talent there (at least to my untrained eye!).
Overall, it is easy to sense the flux in Southeast Asia. But this is not just due to the current shift toward globalization and a more integrated and city-oriented culture. These countries passed through a long colonial stage that ended around WWII, after which they spent the rest of the 20th century struggling with nation-building. It is no wonder that their national identities are a bit shaky.
Anyway, there’s a lot more to see and understand here. I’m sure my first impressions are about as reliable as first impressions ever are, so I apologize if I have misrepresented anything.
Oh — one more thing. I couldn’t resist going into a shop called “Condom Time” (or something like that; the exact name escapes me right now). It had a full selection of goofy condoms with funny shapes for the “head” — examples include dogs, cats, famous cartoon characters, types of food, etc. In addition, there were sex toys like glow-in-the-dark handcuffs and edible underwear. And don’t forget to pick up a penis-shaped keychain, lollipop, or candle while you’re there!
This place is really not that repressive.
(Singapore is an early-morning and late-night culture. Why? It’s hot! I guess people sleep in between).
I saw the swan lake, several lotus ponds, the ginger garden (I had no idea what ginger plants looked like), and the National Orchid Preserve ($5 entry fee). I had thought I was leaving Japan behind yesterday, but in fact a piece of it came with me—Japanese tour groups! It was fun to listen in on the guide here and there. They seemed especially interested in the ginger plants, and why not, given the prominence of ginger in Japanese cooking.
The orchid preserve was amazing. It is hard to describe what a natural tropical setting looks like, with the exuberance of plant life, the thick vines and huge, heavy leaves. It looks pleasant and lush to our eyes, but this disguises the fact that life in the tropics is cutthroat competition for plants.
There are an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 varieties of orchid, and this preserve probably had at least 1,000. Not all were blooming, but many were, and the beauty of the flowers is just like the poems and stories say it is. They look like origami, so delicate and complex and colorful. Two special sections were called the “VIP Garden” and the “Celebrity Garden.” These, it turns out, were a brilliant diplomatic idea. Singapore has made it a tradition to name an orchid after certain famous people on the occasion of visiting the country. This is done to promote good will between their countries.
So, for example, there was a variety of orchid named for Princess Diana, and also one for the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, the wife of the Sultan of Brunei, the Japanese Empress, and about 15 others (all women). It called forth an image of a special ceremony where the flower is presented to the honored guest as a gesture of amity, and then cultivated in the VIP Garden as a public display of Singapore’s good will. In the Celebrity Garden, many of the flowers were named, intriguingly, for biologists. The main name I remember is David Baltimore, who was cited as having received the honor for “putting Singapore on the map” in the world of cell biology. Apparently biomedical research is quite well-developed here, which came about through collaboration with several famous scientists who now have varieties of orchids named after them. The other celebrities were mostly music stars.
I also learned something about orchid chemistry. The orchids that have a scent are tuned to release their fragrance at particular times of day. For instance, the ones that are moth-pollinated release scent at night when moths are active, while the bee-pollinated ones release scent in the morning when bees are active. The fragrances are complex, but are adapted to resemble other appealing flowers and natural oils of the tropics.
The part that made me laugh was the “Coolhouse.” No kidding! In American botanical gardens, there is often a special Hothouse with high temperature and humidity to resemble the tropics. Here, there was a Coolhouse with lower temperature to resemble the mountain regions of Southeast Asia. I was especially intrigued by the funnel plants, which have a fluid-filled funnel that is lethal to insects. They are attracted to the scent inside, but once there, they cannot escape because the sides of the funnel are coated with slippery wax, and the lip has inward-pointing teeth like a barbed wire fence. Eventually, the poor insect drowns in the water and is digested by the plant.
After a couple of hours of walking, I chilled out at a coffee shop with an outdoor patio. I looked up and noticed several little lizards crawling around the canvas overhang. I’ve heard these are very common in India—I guess they are just a normal tropical phenomenon.
Then I took the subway (MRT) to the city center. It’s a nice subway, very clean and efficient. You get a single mass transit card that you can use on buses, subways, etc all over town. How refreshing to have a public transportation system that is fully integrated and organized!
I was walking to the Singapore Art Museum when an older Singaporean fellow walked up beside me and said “Hello!” My American guard came up, and I wondered if it was OK to talk to him. But I went ahead and said hello. He asked where I was from, and when I said California, he said, “Oh! That is where HP Company started. Now they have a big plant here in Singapore. Just like so many of the major high-tech companies.”
It turned out he was a native Singaporean who had been here all of his 69 years. He approved very much of Lee Kuan Yew, and liked the fact that his son is now in charge. But one thing on his mind was the upcoming election, now just 14 days away. The People’s Action Party has been in power since the mid-50s, but now the Labor Party claims about 40% support. He explained that the problem is that Singapore is starting to become too nice. It has attracted lots of foreigners and has gotten very expensive (I can certainly vouch that only some of the shopping is really a good deal. Much of it is just like Tokyo, Hong Kong, or New York). For some of the regular-Joe Singaporeans, it is getting hard to make a decent living or to enjoy all that their homeland has to offer.
As we talked, it began to rain. And here, the rain is serious rain. You have to get your butt under cover pretty fast, so we dashed toward the last street to cross before the art museum. But he (even at age 69) was sprier than me and was willing to run in front of advancing traffic. I hung back to wait for the green crosswalk signal, by which time he had melted off into the crowd. It was an interesting encounter.
The art museum was quite small, but worth the $3. One exhibit featured eight contemporary Singaporean artists, all with quite unique styles. Most were painters, but one specialized in pottery, and another did both painting and performance art. The galleries were intimate, and showed a wide range of each artist’s work along with quite a detailed description of their life and philosophy about art.
Another exhibit moved out to other Southeast Asian artists, such as from Malaysia and Indonesia. These dealt with darker modern themes of the alienation people feel in cities, the encroachment of Western culture into traditional cultures, and the destruction of nature. One section was devoted to works by students at a local art college, and there was clearly some talent there (at least to my untrained eye!).
Overall, it is easy to sense the flux in Southeast Asia. But this is not just due to the current shift toward globalization and a more integrated and city-oriented culture. These countries passed through a long colonial stage that ended around WWII, after which they spent the rest of the 20th century struggling with nation-building. It is no wonder that their national identities are a bit shaky.
Anyway, there’s a lot more to see and understand here. I’m sure my first impressions are about as reliable as first impressions ever are, so I apologize if I have misrepresented anything.
Oh — one more thing. I couldn’t resist going into a shop called “Condom Time” (or something like that; the exact name escapes me right now). It had a full selection of goofy condoms with funny shapes for the “head” — examples include dogs, cats, famous cartoon characters, types of food, etc. In addition, there were sex toys like glow-in-the-dark handcuffs and edible underwear. And don’t forget to pick up a penis-shaped keychain, lollipop, or candle while you’re there!
This place is really not that repressive.
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home