More Singapore - Birds, beasties and food!

[Sorry, these ain't gettin' any shorter! Enjoy!]

It seems brighter today, maybe sunscreen is a good plan!
I slept extremely well once I finally got off last night, which took a while as my brain was thinking ‘So… Why are we in bed at 4pm again??’
Anyway, breakfast was good today – I asked to have no strange spam-like creature this morning and was recompensed with two scalding hot hash browns instead, as well as my two fried eggs… Very nice – didn’t last long! Om nom nom…
It is interesting watching the world go by; people and traffic. The Fragrance Hotel Selegie looks out over a huge red and white tenement block, with short clothes lines fluttering in the light breeze. Buses go by advertising ‘Learn English, tell her how you feel’, ‘LG, best in air conditioning’, ‘Ibis Hotels’. People trot about, an uneven mix of local workers, some in the back of Nissan trucks in giggling crowds, some on bicycles, on foot; foreign white tourists and tanned backpackers. I wonder which am I? Not yet tanned but not quite a tourist I think…

Having finally washed and got myself out into the city (donning shades as the sun is VERY bright and hot today), I head for Little India (resisting the urge to buy a $2 embroidered, embellished scarf – maybe later) to go to Harbourfront to go to Sentosa.
I exit Harbourfront (having still been amazed at the breatheability of the air and the breadth of space down there) and follow signs to the cable car – shame to go by train when cable car is available! I pass through what feels like a city workers’ district, behind Merill Lynch and enter another shopping centre. Everything interesting seems to have a shopping centre glued to it like some kind of symbiotic capitalist fungus. The shopping centre boasts various places to eat and buy nice clothes, including a shop rather like New Look, called ‘Wanko’… I enter the cable car ticket office in the base of one of these towers and buy myself a cable car return plus tickets to the Tiger Sky Tower and Butterfly World; which were the reasons I wanted to go.
The cable car begins on the 15th floor of this building and all the mechanics are visible when you exit the lift, which is interesting. I toddle onto a rickety cable car, a little rounded edged, square pod with rattly doors and wooden seats. I hang on as the car wobbles faster and faster to the edge of the building and swoops, breath-stealingly, over the edge and hangs from its cable, soaring over the industrial back end of southern Singapore. I arrive at Mount Faber, in the opposite direction, but the cable car only goes one way, so I have had a free 15 minute sky journey before the real fun begins. Down I swoop again, hanging tantalisingly over a small patch of rainforest, loud with twitters and whoops that one wouldn’t have expected so close to town, and off again to Sentosa – over the pellucid, turquoise ocean, glittering milky opal colours in the sun, with little boats here and there and the isle in the near distance. The fresh smell of the sea and rainforest sneak in through the window jambs and the slats of the car and I am intoxicated, like a bee in a flower, grinning from ear to ear as the island approaches at the end of my string, like a spider reeling in a fly. I can smell pollen and sea salt and fresh, green air.
Sentosa appears, at first, rather tourist-spoiled, but once you exit the enforced gift shop, you realise that it is, rather than an island overtaken, it a symbiotic growth which has merely enabled visitors like myself to enjoy it, and what it represents of Singapore, to the full. Sentosa is lovely, a little jewel in the ocean (South China Sea I believe?).

My first stop (free of charge!) is the flower garden. A scintillating display of flowers, of every bright colour and hue, grace every step and exotically line the paths. Even the juxtaposition of yellow, orange and purple seem to blend well in the bright light under the rich blue sky. I sit, briefly, in some shade and two tiny rock doves peck elegantly a few feet away; a dragonfly skims past once or twice, wondering what I am and why I am here and a small brown and orange butterfly sweeps past flatly near the yellow flowers.
There is a whole garden of jewelled plants to explore before I even start on the other things! See you later!

In the distance I spot the famous ‘merlion’, which is surrounded by a hybrid of Western mythology and its own unique past, involving Alexander the Great and his discovery of the island that was to become Singapore. An imposing beast, half-lion, half-fish, it guards Singapore and symbolises respect and the sea from which so much of Singapore’s culture comes. Below him, in the garden, is a rainbow of pretty flowers, planted into an arc – rather like an English well-dressing, but alive instead of pressed into clay. It is bright yet somehow manages not to be tacky. Not so the Valentine’s garden, boasting a heart-shaped plantery, and two loved up oxen – very sweet and so entertaining that the tackiness is forgotten. It is the year of the Ox after all!
A nice little asian lady offers to take my photograph; I decline, but after a few moments think better of it, after all, why not?

At the base of the Merlion, are four floral water birds and two enormous cascades of water which flow enticingly downwards – I follow and am rewarded by the sight of the Merlion in his entirety, swirled tail pointing upwards, mane flowing around his head, mouth snarling at the sea. Yet another cascade of flowers and water features pour down the steppes beyond him and a very oriental-style cartoon ox family pose below his tail. A reluctant Chinese child is photographed by her mum, and won’t face the right way – after all, a floral water feature is far more exciting than Mum’s lens!
I have been lucky to catch this display – today was the last day of the Sentosa Flowers 2009. And it is quite spectacular… Another lady from the same tour group as before offers to take another photograph of me; this time I accept, and pose whitely by the floral wall. I meander gently back up the steppes in the heat, drinking my water and wondering where to go next. The colourful signposts all seem to point somewhere I would like to go…
As I stand in indecision, a well-built young Indian man in a smart purple shirt approaches me and asks if I am alone. I guardedly reply that I have a friend in Singapore but he isn’t here today…
My guarded reply is far too untrusting and I soon learn that his sole reason for asking is that he too is alone, having been left here to find his way around for the day by his brother, and is looking for a photo buddy. After an initial moment of, ‘well, I dot around a lot and might be annoying and…’ I turn back to him and offer to take his picture below the Merlion. I learn that his name is Tajik and he is studying and researching to be an orthopaedic doctor. We spend the rest of the day being photo buddies, which is rather fun and certainly productive! We walk through a mist-filled pathway full of spotted orchids and purple blooms; his shirt matches nicely! Up the hill then to the Tiger Sky Tower, for which we both have tickets. It is essentially a big doughnut on a stick, which twirls up and down to give the best view over Singapore and out to Malaysia and Indonesia. I have to say, the distant view is quite spectacular in the bright sun and it was well worth a look, especially as today was relatively clear. The boats out in the ocean are all industrial barges, though, with a little imagination, you could imagine junks and sails out there in the glittering waters, sailing off into the hazy blue distance in between the scatter of tiny islands… One little island has a bridge on stilts with little roofs all along it, leading out to sea, another has a rope bridge to it – this one is the southernmost point of Asia… Soon we begin our twirling descent and emerge from the air-conditioned doughnut into the baking sun once again. Butterfly house next!
It is interesting – not only butterflies, but insects of all kinds too, and before you enter the actual house, you are taken through a display of fossil creatures (looking rather as if someone slammed a book shut on them and forgot about it all), delicate dragonflies, tiny beetles, dainty moths, a squashed frog…
Then cases of specimens from around the world, including scintillating beetles, glistening, glowing butterflies, and huge moths from everywhere. I find it somehow ironic that these cases of beautiful butterflies are kept mothballed…! ;)
There are winged, legged things of every size, shape, colour, and hirsuteness pinned to boards in the hallways, giving one ample time to absorb the intellectual side of the house as well as the living one.
Soon, living creatures begin to emerge, a green whip snake peeps at us from behind his leaves, pointing his nose at us in an enquiring way as if he could scent us through his glass. Pig-nosed terrapins wiffle at us in a friendly sort of way as we pass. We enter the curtains into the actual butterfly area and are greeted at first by the sight of many parrots in a cluster around a table. We are accosted in a friendly way by a local chap with a pocketful of seed… It seems that there are some lovely little local lorikeets which have learnt, in the house anyway, to come for food. One sits on my upturned hand and flits away when it finds nothing there. The Singaporean shows me what to do and pours a small handful of seed into my cupped hands. Instantly, I have a handful of colourful, squeaking lorikeets. Three are there first; they fit comfortably. A fourth, aware that he is missing out on something, flits down from the roof and lands, splat and flapping on his friends’ backs, before ducking his little yellow head into my hands for a seed. He peers and me quizzically, mumbling his seed, and wipes his beak fastidiously with a foot. One slips, and tightens needle-sharp claws onto my skin, but not quite breaking through. Two fly away and a fifth plops down in their place – this one is clearly bullied as he is nearly bald, but ducks his head into my cupped hands greedily and cheerfully all the same. The Singaporean shows me how to close my hands (which I do carefully to avoid squashing Baldy’s head) and they mostly get the hint and fly away, but the last one is convinced there is still seed left and refuses to let go until the very last minute when he nearly falls off my finger but flies away to join his mates on the roof in the sun. We walk away into the green tropic feel of the enclosure. Taj, to my delight, manages to pick up a dozing butterfly on one finger – some breeds seem tamer than others. They are far sturdier than our own delicate specimens, which flutter daintily through the fields. These are strong-winged, bright, gaudy, sturdy-legged creatures with impressive antennae and probosces. I wander amiably and happily through the enclosure, taking many pictures as I go, some with butterflies in, some containing merely the picture of where a butterfly has just been… Finally, just at the exit, I manage to entice one to land on me and I am lucky that my photo buddy has my camera in hand and switched on at the time – got it!
We exit through another hall filled with amphibians, a nice example of Ranus Ranus I think, or something similar, and some long-necked turtles, which are rather funny – like a snake in a terrapin’s shell. There are further examples of the bright and the beautiful further along, including an intriguing display detailing Gynandromorphism, which is where an insect develops a male half and a female half and this is evident, to startling effect. I peer with interest at the beetles of Australia and gasp in awe at the transparent rainforest ‘crystal’ butterflies and the jewelled elytra of golden beetles and turquoise weevils.
We are following signs to the exit and look at some cages containing real live critters, including a Malaysian scorpion. A slim Singaporean caretaker has opened a case in the corner of the room and Taj comments that he hopes the enormous butterfly in the case doesn’t fly away. Apparently she and her mate have been put indoors because she is ready to lay, heavy with eggs, and cannot be allowed to lay outside in this clear weather and heat. To my astonishment, he picks her up in one hand, fingers closed delicately over her wings and gives us a brief and impromptu lecture on her habits. She flutters once or twice, then submits to his delicate touch. Apparently she is extremely docile and to illustrate this he plonks her firmly on Taj’s ear, then has a flash of inspiration. The butterfly is clearly gripping Taj’s ear quite strongly (I can see where she is pulling heavily on the surface) with her little feet). While Taj is occupied with the tugging butterfly and giving me his camera, the caretaker pulls another creature out of a case and drops it carefully at Taj’s neck so it lands in the V of his collar on his tee-shirt saying ‘Now this one is an arachnid…’. I gulp daintily and take the photo as quickly as possible. Taj hasn’t yet realised that the ‘arachnid’ placed so carelessly upon his chest like an ancient necklace of power is actually an eight-inch Malaysian scorpion…
When the caretaker retrieves it, he double takes and looks horrified but delighted. I can’t say no when the caretaker retrieves the dangling butterfly in the other hand and offers them to me. I sit, scorpion on right hand, butterfly flapping frantically to stay in place on my left and grin crazily. I’m not to worry about the scorpion, says the caretaker, they’re organic… Well, so am I! So’s their poison! That’s what worries me!
I think maybe he meant something along the lines of inert… He taps the scorpion’s back as it sits on my hand and the scorpion merely looks a bit bored and doesn’t even shift his (impressive) grip.
Mrs. Butterfly on the other hand, has decided that my hair looks like the comfy option, and has migrated form hand to hair, scrambling up with much fluttering (her wingspan’s about as big as most of my face…). She pulls my hair in front of my eye and decides to abseil down and have a bit of a swing instead – I hold my hand underneath her in case her gravid belly pulls her to the ground, but she seems quite content dangling there, so I leave her be until the caretaker pulls her free, disentangles her and pops her back in the case, after showing us how long her proboscis is (it’s impressive).

Next stop, Taj has a larger day ticket than I do, so I decide to supplement mine with a trip up the Merlion. It’s a rather interesting little display of European sea mythology and leviathan-type beasts, followed by a show on how the merlion came to be, then a trip up in the lift to the top. We exit the lift and I suppress a giggle as Taj asks, ‘Do you want to do the head or the mouth first?’. We take a look in the lion’s mouth first, to look out over the view from between his enormous teeth, then go up to look out over Singapore from on top of his head. Photos are taken and we head downwards. The sun is going in a little, though it is still very humid.
Down through a long tiled water garden, almost Moroccan in style and colour, with playing jets of water, leads us towards the beach. We take the free tram to a beach whose name begins with P… I’ll remember it later… Hopefully. We get off and are near the little island with the hanging bridge, which we meander onto after crunching across a section of man-made beach. Well, the whole little island is man made, but the beach on the real shore is too. The bridge is just like the ones in the movies – Taj and I accidentally walk in time and it oscillates in time too – I alter my pace! Then pause to photograph a coconut which has just gone under the bridge – I wait for it like poohsticks. I hope Taj doesn’t ask what I’m doing; ‘I’m waiting for a coconut’ is almost as dire as Baby’s ‘I carried a watermelon’… ;) Fortunately he sees, and my coconut is captured…
So, across the bridge and we have reached ‘The Southernmost Point of Asia’! It is pretty for a manmade island and we stand under palm trees staring at the opal-blue ocean; I sit on one (palm tree, not sea) and we then make our way back to the main island after climbing up the look out tower to see the view again. We pause on our way back to the tram to take pictures in another little flower garden and head back to the tram stop. Just as we approach the tram, we hear noises. Animal noises – it turns out that we are just in time to catch most of the last animal show of the day – we see a sea eagle, a large parrot, a funny Labrador and last but not least, after some pantomime searching by the Labrador, an albino python called Lucy. She is beautiful, and the hapless audience member who was chosen to help the handler hold her, is a small Korean lady called Maria. Taj and I pat the docile and friendly python afterwards and head back to the tram. We hop on the free bus to get us each back to where we want to be, and I head back to the cable cars, Taj to visit the aquarium. We swap email addresses and hopefully later on photos…
I go back across the cable car, tired by happy, having seen so many beautiful things, and dive into the cool of the MRT to head back to Little India and the Fragrance Selegie to get changed for Raffles. I JUST have time… But have to get a taxi to Raffles…
I shall tell you more about that my Raffles adventure tomorrow as I’m longing for bed and I wrote most of that down at the time! Suffice to say the food was FABULOUS (blinking should have been after I saw the bill!) and the Singapore Sling(s) afterwards bought for me by two crazy naval Aussies on their way home were good fun too!