day one: crash by eight pm

after seeing streets filled with stores such as seven-eleven, chilis, applebees, and starbucks literally halfway around the world, one can really understand how much of an influence america has on the rest of the world. it's almost like being at home... well, until i get on the bus and i'm the minority that is being stared at.

you can all feel very cocky right now and be completely justified.

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it rains almost every day in singapore.

crazy rain, right?

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alex and i began our day with the botanical gardens. we set out pretty early and i hadn't napped after the flight, so i knew our day would probably end up getting cut short. we grabbed our bags, cameras, hopped on the bus, and got ready for tons of pictures.

[ps, let's look at the irony in this: here we are, two american girls in the ultimate hub of an asian city with our huge slr cameras around our necks taking touristy pictures, pointing, and speaking a non-native language... something seems a little backwards here.]

we then ate some lunch and made our way to the peranakan museum. well rachel, what's peranakan, and why is there a museum about it? very good question, everyone!

peranakan: chinese (man, mostly) + malaysian (woman, mostly) = peranakan!

singapore is mostly "chinese" (according to my english-speaking chinese kid on the airplane) because of a war from god knows how long ago (i didn't catch that part, i was trying to sleep while he educated me). i guess they're not exactly chinese here, but peranakan instead. the museum is dedicated to educating people about and preserving their heritage and customs. it's relatively new, only about two years old, and set in a beautiful building.

on our way there, alex and i got a taste of why exactly we're cutting kuala lumpur out of our trip. news flash if you didn't know: we're ditching our plane tickets and going right from singapore to kuala terengganu down to taman negara (the rainforest for hiking and sightseeing). it's because malaysia is primarily muslim (hence the museum... peranakan = chinese + muslim). we had to walk through little india, which is no big deal, but we were in the process of getting lost.


[sidenote: apparently, in singapore, it's not necessary to, or it doesn't make sense to... or it's amusing to the cartographers... to not put every street on the map. so we'd get out of the subway looking for somewhere, try to locate the streets on the map, but they're definitely not drawn right because orchard lane is actually four streets down, not right beside the subway like the map says ("did we get off on the wrong stop againnn?!")

also, one street can have numerous names and change names at any given place.]

a few workers were enjoying watching us be confused, plus they didn't speak much english, but they eventually pointed us in the right direction: right down muslim lane. it was so awkward because singapore is a very western city, so she and i were wearing skirts (though past our knees, not to the ground) and tank tops. we were dressed much more appropriately than we had to be, but the muslim men we passed were either taken aback by our presence or fascinated with our immensely different looks. they did not try to talk to us or approach us, but it was extremely uncomfortable. maybe, julia, the equivalent of walking through queens or chinatown in nyc with sundresses on. we're so smart.

we took our time in the museum.

a few things we learned about their culture:
1. their marriage celebration lasts 12 days (way too long).
2. women are nothing but babymakers (ew, called nonyas.... nonyabusiness, jface! but no seriously, called nonyas).
3. they have really pretty dishes. see below.

exhibit a.

pretty dishes [the chinese would have nice china]

everything is sooooo ornate. this dragon is one example of a carving on furniture. it was bad lighting so i couldn't show you much else, but it was crazy.

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singapore = one city. plus sixty-three tiny islands


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Y rae. racho. d.