I awoke after a rotten night’s sleep – turns out that three
hour nap yesterday afternoon was not such a good idea. The rest of the gang slept okay and by 8:30
we were out of the hotel and in an open air restaurant on the main street
enjoying a breakfast of fresh watermelon, strong coffee, buttery toast and
fried eggs. We found a place that was
showing the Portugal/US world cup match so pulled up a piece of sidewalk and
watched it until the US pulled ahead by one goal then, fearing the worst,
decided we just couldn’t watch any longer and head to the subway station to
catch a train to the Singapore Zoo. The
Singapore public transport system (called the MRT) is fast, clean, cheap and
easy to use. As the zoo is on the north
side of the island it took well over an hour to get there and by the time we
arrived it was already blazing hot outside.
The zoo was pretty good, especially all the lush forest and
open air animal enclosures, but after paying a hundred bucks for the four of us
to get in we realized that we have already been to some pretty amazing zoos
over the years, and seeing the animals driving themselves crazy pacing around a
small enclosure is never that satisfying.
It was especially disappointing to see a polar bear collapsed on a
concrete apron in the 35 degree heat.
After the zoo we took the MRT back to the city centre and met
my friend Hassaan for coffee in the super modern mall beneath the Chevron
Centre. It was so great to see him again
– he was looking fit, happy and was still the positive, funny, optimistic guy I
remember from Pakistan. He gave us the
whole rundown on Singapore and suggested a few places for us to explore for the
rest of the afternoon. After coffee the
girls browsed through some of the nearby shops while Magnus and I sat on the
grass and watched all the busy work people bustling around, probably on their
way to another boring meeting. I can
tell you, there is nothing better than sitting in your shorts and t-shirt in
the middle of a busy work day in a financial district of a big city, watching
all the work people scurrying around.
The reason this is so gratifying is because 98% of the time, you are
that sad sack wearing the nice clothes, hurriedly doing your business things,
with no time to appreciate the sights around you. And one of the sights around me was the J. Lo
World Cup video playing on a gigantic screen hanging off the side of one of the
office towers. The only thing missing
from this scene was a cold beer in my hand, but besides that it was perfect.
We ended up passing on further sightseeing and instead
returned to our hotel to have a shower and clean up in advance of our dinner
date as were becoming just too sweaty and smelly and didn’t want to horrify our
hosts.
The dinner with Hassaan, his wife Wajiha and their three boys and Hassaan’s parents
was the highlight of my time in Singapore.
We had a wonderful meal and a great visit and did our best to catch up
on the many years which had passed since our last meeting. The kids disappeared as soon as we arrived
and their young hosts kept them very entertained. They served an outstanding meal which
included Chicken Biryani, one of my favourite Pakistani dishes, and some
amazing yoghurt. In the book I wrote
this year The Found Vagabond, this is one of the things I mention several times
– being invited to a local’s house in a country you are traveling through is
probably the most important experience you can while traveling. You will learn more about the people in that
country in one evening than by visiting a dozen museums.
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