A Bowl of Stupid

Yeah, I know I’m kinda rehashing my movie reference from yesterday’s post, but it’s for a good reason.

Yesterday evening, we went for a walk around Singapore — from Robertson and Boat Quays, the upscale residential and shopping area where I’m staying (very reminiscent to Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive – only better), to the downtown financial district, to the Bay, to the Indoor Stadium and Esplanade areas, and eventually … to Little India.

Per the requests of several people, I’m putting up some pictures. I’ve never been much of a camera person, so I’m not used to taking pictures of things, or even remembering to take the camera with me, for that matter. I feel like too much of a tourist. But I know that’s gotta change if I’m going to accurately document my travels.

I’m working on it.

These first pictures are from the Singapore River, along which we walked for most of the afternoon (to the Bay and Esplanade). Water taxis are in wide use, and are actually great ways to travel the several kilometers around the city’s main areas.

There are, of course, a number of bridges – both pedestrian and automotive – extending across the various quays. The main one into the financial district was still decorated for the recent Buddhist holiday of Vesak Day.

Walking through the financial district was a bit surreal. It’s much like the financial districts in New York & Chicago, but the architecture is absolutely marvelous, and is decorated with beautiful sculptures by the likes of Dali.

More importantly, there is a feel of “newness” about the whole place. Whereas the New York and Chicago districts are a “mish-mash” of newer and older buildings and infrastructures, downtown Sing is a realm of uber-modernism seemingly containing nothing more than 20 years old.

And also, whereas every single city in the States seems to be in a state of perpetual “repair and maintenance” — with whole streets torn up, traffic diversions, etc. — (I noticed this in particular, when driving across the country, where traffic always slowed to a halt whenever i got into a metro area, since the freeways are always under construction), there seems to be little, if any, of that here.

Everything works. Traffic is smooth.

Until Little India.

A vast number of service workers in the city are from India. And the only section of town I’ve seen so far that is not completely modern, sanitized and in a constant state of “perfection” is their neighborhood — Little India.

I don’t know its name, but at one point, we crossed a street and it was like we had walked into Northern India. The body odor was incredible. There was a mix of B.O., curry, incense and just … people.

Yeah, try and put that on the fucking Travel Channel.

All the Indian folks have off on Sunday, and after hitting the temple and such, all of them (the men, at least, as there were no women anywhere in sight) sit around all day in the sweltering heat of the Singapore streets talking, eating, shopping and just being.

There are thousands of these guys just hanging around all day – the entire place is just, fucking, packed. And despite the huge number of people just sitting around, I didn’t feel threatened or unsafe at any time.

Really, it’s hard to fully explain, or understand, without going there. Even the picture doesn’t do it justice. You can’t see just how many guys are sitting, standing, and walking around the streets at about 21:00 at night.

It was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to (but I’m kinda odd, so my idea of “cool” may be a lot different than others).

And the best part was that my friends I was with are like me — they had absolutely no trepidations about going into the back alleys where even my tanned skin was about 10 shades lighter than anyone else there.

There were 2 alleys, in particular, that were unforgettable.

The first was just a back alley – no lights, no windows, with food and clothes hanging in the back doorways, but it was as crowded as the main streets. And there were restaurants and bars, with guys sitting eating and drinking and playing dominoes (I think). Again, it was just. fucking. awesome.

At one point, I was walking up front and I was taking big deep breathes trying to simply immerse myself in the situation. It too is now hard to explain, but I didn’t feel any discomfort, fear or trepidations; I was simply experiencing. It was simply awesome.

I could tell the second alley-way was different when I saw some guy selling big plastic dildos in the reddish half-light. I still didn’t feel discomfort, but this shit was definitely starting to get kinda weird.

We then noticed groups of men staring into the reddened open doorways as we passed. When I looked in, there were just some Indian women — hookers, actually — sitting around on folding chairs waiting for one or more of the thousands of lingering Indians to come in (and more than a few of them looked like they were at least 60 years old – ewww). This continued for a couple blocks.

At one point, I saw one of these broads chopping up a chicken out in the alley, while a few doors down there was an old Chino-looking guy hanging out in the doorway smoking a cigarette in his boxers and t-shirt.

Absolutely awesome.

I was less concerned about the fact I’m Caucasian (from the waist up, at least – ha!), and more concerned about the fact that I was walking around nasty back alley brothels in Singapore’s Little India grinning ear to fucking ear. They probably thought I was retarded.

Hmm, I wonder if I could have turned that into a freebie with one of those 50-something grandmas. Oh well, maybe next week.