FarSideOfTheMoon

Monday, April 16, 2007

sterile nation

i spent 12 days in singapore in april for a job. they couldn't tell me the details of the job beforehand, just that it was a bmx event. so i figured it must be about some kiasu singaporens wannabes tryin to ride like the pros. and so i went. on the 1st day we reported to work, the line producer told us that since the park is not fully rigged up yet, we can take the day off. and so we went sight-seeing.


i have never been in singapore for more than 3 days before this trip, so i was eager to see what this neighbour has to offer.
clean. the same impression this neighbour always gives me everytime i step onto its land.

the event was at an empty park outside the lavendar station, and to save money, chong and i decided to stay at this motel along balestial road which also offers hourly booking. hmm. and because were going to stay there for more than a week, we were eligible for some discount. all in all, the room was priced at SGD51 per night. not bad. only thing was we need to get up like 2 hours earlier everyday to take either the bus or mrt to the park.

i was blown away when found out that the event was actually a competiton with the international bmx riders taking part. it was called 'metro bmx jam' and it was the first time it was held outside of canada. so it was really a competition with who's who of the bmx world. i must admit i'm not a bmx rider myself. nonetheless, bmx is perhaps the only x-games sport i would really sit down and watch. and that is partly because of this legend called dave mirra. when i learned that we were going to interview him, my knees went weak for a second. dave mirra. you mean we are going to interview my hero? you must be joking.

no they were not.

i tried to look cool when the man stepped in the room for the interview. i reached out my hand and went, 'hey dave, nice to meet you' and was returned with a firm hand shake. to the uninitiated, dave mirra is really the living legend of bmx riding. he has won everything there is and have recently came out with his own own bmx brand Mirraco. he is also the current gold medal record holder of the x-games. after the interview, i passed my camera to chong and went up to dave. 'can i have a photo with you?' 'sure, of course'.
one thing off my wish list :)

then chong also decided to be a fan last minute.

then the competition started, fast and furious. believe me, it is so true when they say watching a bmx event on tv is an understatement of the sport. you just can't believe your eyes how these big-size mat sallehs throw their bikes in the air and somehow manage to land perfectly on the two wheels. speechless.


to everyone's horror, dave mirra twisted his ankle during the warm-up, thus unable to take part at all. but the younger guys were so fearless trying to upstage each other that many were actually injured in certain stages of the competition.

after 'metro bmx jam', there was another competiton called 'P.I.G.' and it took place in sentosa island. i remembered going to sentosa island with my auntie when i was still a kid, but could not recall any images of the island. so this time round was entirely a new experience. to my amazement, there were a few man-made beaches where 'P.I.G.' took place. i couldn't help but to feel sorry to see these fake beaches before my eyes. but what was sadder was these singaporeans kids playing and getting sun bath along the 'beach'. i wonder if they ever saw a real beach before. about 1 km from these fake beaches were big-ass ships waiting to unload their goods at the nearby port, so i really donno how they can believe they were in a beach paradise! sigh..


now, more of my takes on singapore.

still very clean. perhaps too 'clean' at times i might say. the food generally was bad, especially those in shopping mall food courts. but they all looked so good! yes, everything was so glossy you wonder if they waxed their food. but i must say what really took me by surprise were these two hawker delicasies which chong introduced me to. kuey-chak and sui-kuo. i've never had them before and i really dun mind going back to this land to have them again.
kuey-chak: a bowl of kuey-toew like flat noodle with a plate of either vegetables, duck meat, egg, or pork meat or innards to go along with
sui-kuo: rice-made cakes with pork and mushroom mash-up

to my horror, the price of a pack of marlboro is SGD10.50 here!! that is like rm20+!! crazy! to add horror to my horror, they have really gross images of the effects of smoking on these ciggy boxes to remind you every time you pull a stick out of what you are doing to yourself. well i must say it's a noble idea but does it really work? the smokers here don't seem to think so. i'm just eager to see if the m'sian govt would emulate the strategy to curb the smoking habit over here.


on one of the days we managed to finish early, chong and i decided to watch movies. yes, watching films in singapore is really different. they have so much more foreign films compared to the only-blockbusters films here. and to our amazement, tsai mingliang's latest film was playing then!! shot in m'sia, the film was banned in m'sia cause it was so dirty. the images of m'sia in the film that is. it was mostly shot in the pudu area and it's about a foreign worker falling in love with a man he saved from the street. the man pulak is in love with a waitress of a restaurant run by one pearly chua. very tsai mingliang and i really enjoyed it. we also managed to watch '13 tzameti', a french film about the game of chance. 13 people stand in circle, pointing a gun to the head of the person in front of them. the gun is loaded with a bullet in the chamber, but they dun know where in the chamber!! on a countdown, they pull the trigger and see who dies. the rest will move on with the game, with fewer players obviously. cool.

in all, singapore is really a foreign land. i paid attention and realised almost 60-70% of products/brands/foods are of foreign origin. yes, tourist would love singapore cause it makes them feel at home. but why? ain't the reason to travel is to look at and understand other people's culture? and it's very obvious that most singaporeans respect the mat sallehs more than the yellow-skinned. so it's true when they say singsporeans are friendly, beacause they want to be seen as that.

so after 11 days in the land of our neighbour, i realised that i won't be looking forward to be working there permanently, or to settle down. it just feels cold, somehow. what i'm really afraid of is that with our govt's call to go global, we would somehow inevitably go down this road taken by our neighbour, the sterile nation.