Singapore according to talljoanne

Since I have been getting quite a number of requests for talljoanne tips on Singapore, I thought I'll complie and organize a sticky post from the emails I've been sending. Should be perfect for those of you visiting Singapore for the first or second time! [Updated: Oct 2009]

Directory service for all restaurants mentioned here: http://www.hungrygowhere.com
Fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to get to places by public transport: http://gothere.sg

Walking, Seeing and Doing

»Night Safari. A great, nice out-of-the-city tropical experience. A must-do in my opinion.

Old shophouses of Chinatown / Tanjong Pagar. For the architecture. (Must lunch or dine at Blue Ginger restaurant - see below.)

Little India. Smell the spices and take in the colours.

»National Orchid Garden (the one inside the Botanic Gardens). Gaze at the amazing variety of orchids in this top-class garden. Don't miss the Misthouse. (Note: There is another one called the Mandai Orchid Garden, which is MUCH further but is supposed to be quite nice too.)

Singapore River. (See below section on Clarke Quay and the walk from Raffles Hotel.)

Drinking (combined with some exploring)

Clarke Quay in the evening:

• Dinner by the river... Tapas Tree, Hot Stones or Jumbo Seafood are good choices;
• Or a coffee... Sit outdoors at the »TCC cafe, log into our free public Wifi (»virtually everywhere in Singapore now), take a photo of yourself and post it on your blog.
• Or a drink outdoors... Cafe Iguana, or the bars at »The Cannery;

Singapore sling in Raffles Hotel. Walk towards the Esplanade - our durian-shape performing arts center by the bay. Then go through the underpass walk towards Victoria Memorial Hall. Salute our founder Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Cross the bridge to Fullerton Hotel and have another drink at the Post Bar inside. Think about how wonderful my little country is. If on a Friday, cross the bridge again back to Indochine restaurant by the river and have another drink while listening to live jazz sung open-air.

»Dempsey Road. Old army barracks just off Orchard Road now converted into bars, restaurants and antique furniture shops. Dine under the moon and canopy of huge tropical trees.

Feasting - The Best Part!

»Blue Ginger. Must try. Distinctive Peranakan cuisine (very Singapore / Malaysian, cannot find anywhere else). Go to the restaurant called Blue Ginger on Tanjong Pagar Road. I grew up in that area - in the middle of the city but still charmingly local. Ask the waiter to recommend the top dishes.

Kaya Toast. Kaya is a local jam made from coconut and eggs. Very Singaporean / Malaysia. Ask the hotel concierge to tell you where the nearest »Ya Kun Kaya Toast is.

Chilli crabs and BBQ sambal stingray. Try the »No-Signboard Seafood Restaurant near the Esplanade. You can stroll by the bay after dinner.

Roti prata and street food in general. An Indian slightly fluffy pancake, a delight to watch when it is being flipped in the air! Can be found at foodcourts or open-air food centres. Lau Pa Sat (subway station: Raffles Place) is an easy-to-find place for street food, especially satay. Acceptable quality, but DO NOT eat your chilli crabs here. Stick to Jumbo or No Signboard.

Shopping

Orchard Road is foolproof but I also like I.M. Pei-designed Raffles City (subway station: City Hall) for more interesting selection of shops and a great skylight. the great When you are in the Raffles City area, wander into Chijmes. An old convent converted to a pub/restaurant district.

For more local buys, Little India and Haji Lane are interesting.

In fact, our Singapore airport is also great for shopping after you go through the immigration! Don't arrive at the airport too late.

Dr X apologizes he does not have a ppt

This was the subject line I put down a few minutes ago in an email to a conference organizer.

I LOVE it. That singular, lone protest against how we are beaten to death 10 times over by powerpoints.

Dr X is my ex-boss and we are inviting him to speak a conference. He is quirky, maverick, and a bit mafia-like. (To be this when you are in your 50s and in a place like Singapore is nothing short of a miracle.)

But he is also super-smart, very unassuming and is probably the most sincere person (not to mention boss) that I have met.

Often, I wonder how an idealist like him navigates a world like this every day. And sometimes, I even wonder if it will one day kill him.

It seems to me that idealists need someone to help them transcribe between the two worlds. If so, I should like to apply to a classified ad like this:

NAVIGATORS Required
Helping idealists find space for thinking while wading through the day-to-day

• Believes in the merits of the Socratic method of inquiry
• Able to straddle between the ideal and mundane
• Can convert circuitous conversations into actionable points and powerpoint slides
• Experience preferred but not required

Bartering ruffled feathers for lilies

I love love love the smell of lilies.

The worrywart gene is a recessive one

An email to a German* friend I haven't spoken to recently boomeranged with this:

Dear friends,

I'd be away on live firing on:

Tuesday, 14th August 07

So i'd be uncontactable via email. Please sms or call me at +65 - xxxxxxxx if you need to get hold of me.

First thought of a worrywart: 14 August was a long time ago.

Counter-thought of an economist one split second later: Nay, the probability of him forgetting to turn off his out-of-office is higher.

The worrywart patted herself on the back for having come this far over the years. It's now official - the worrywart gene is a recessive one. Hallelujah!

Life is about living the probabilities.




*Alright, not really a German, but a Singaporean who went to Germany for 6 years. German enough!

The answer must lie in the attempt

On the theoretical impossibility of understanding someone:

If there's any kind of God, he wouldn't be in any one of us - not you, not me, but just in the space in between. If there's some magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone else, sharing something. Even if it's almost impossible to succeed, but who cares, the answer must be in the attempt.

On new art movements:

I value the ones who initiated the China contemporary art movement. Starting a break in style is always the most difficult and best part in art. And this style has become such a distinctive style now that it's what comes to mind when I think of china contemporary art. HK has none and yet some feel that they can look down on china.

Yes, categorical disdain can be quite annoying. I personally don't necessarily like that many of the art pieces at Moganshan Lu, but I always like going to see because I believe that the answer must lie in the attempt, and having the environment to cradle such an attempt.

On straying from the anointed path:

After all these years, I just tell myself I want to try doing photography and see what happens. If it doesn't work out then it doesn't work out and I go back to consulting.

Save Shanghai Heritage

To borrow the words of Twain -

We ought to be careful... for, once China is civilized, it can never be uncivilized again.

Further reading:
»094 Slaughterhouse Blues
»Artist colony scrapped in favor of luxury goods market

Days like these, you remember why you were in love

Shanghai has been impossibly beautiful for the past 10 days. Super blue and clear skies in the day, which turns an alluring prussian blue by twilight.

Days like these, you remember why you were in love.

This year, HRL seems a bit more loved...

(Last year, the 2-week-old lioness in Shanghai spent it hot and sweaty in Zhongshan Park Carrefour fighting alone with the crowd and cashier… The bar was set quite low...)

By the well-prepared

Happy birthday, you lions! (Provider of the picture below)

Hey Ms Lim,
Here's wishing you a happy birthday albeit somewhat in advance! Hope you have a great year ahead and enjoy your time in Shanghai!
Figured i'd drop a note in advance as I'm gonna be on the road most of next week and internet is expensive and patchy at best in Russia.
Enjoy your birthday! Hope you get great gorgeous gifts and get stupendously drunk at the wonderful birthday bash which i'm sure you're having :P

Dear Lioness,
The Aries and the Bull will be more than happy to join you in the savannah for your bday party!
And what a fantastic occasion to see a Lion ride a pink bike!!!

Your royal lioness ... would you like me to escort you to the palace tomorrow night after work??

btw I saw on ASW that ur b-day is today! So a big kiss today and a biger one tomorrow! A domani! (I think the clock on ASW is somehow jetlagged… It is tomorrow!)

By the midnight-oil burners

Happy birthday to you! Cheering with you for getting another year older and wiser. Wishing I am the No. 1 for the bthdy greeting

(Unfortunately, this beat the one above) Happy birthday… :)

Of course sleeping too, you are a young lion. Happy birthday super Joanne.

Happy birthday and many happy returns for the year!

By the just-in-time delivery folks

Happy Birthday!
I thought about you while i was sleeping .... i knew that your birthday was coming. What a sign, no?
So i hope that you will be granted what you wish for ....
But as some people wrote ... Be aware of what you wish for! :P
Diamonds cannot hurt for sure ... :)

Her Royal Lioness,
I wish you all the best in your Royal Bday... today, tomorrow and until your kingdom last...... translation: until winter (mosquitos will die... all of them!). But look it in the positive way, each year you will renew your army, and one of those they will learn not to bite you ....jejejeje. See you in the evening!.. (Context: See Frequently Asked Questions)

»Read more...

Thanks Royal Jo,
For whatever reason, the e-mail of yesterday did not arrive. But see you tonight!
Prince Charming

Dear Joanne,
my best wishes for your birthday!
Before I congratulate you personally tonight, I have two short questions…

Dearest HH aka HRL,
Happy 27th Birthday! Your plans tonight sounds fantabulous.. too bad I can't join in, Your Royal Lioness!
But, whenever HRL returns to her hometown of Lion City, her humble subject would love to take her out to the jungles (ok, maybe night safari...)
Have fun, miss yah lots and again, Happy Birthday!!!!

Good morning Madam
Happy Birthday to you!! Have a great day, at work and later pampering! See you tonight. Shengri Kuai Le!
(I took half a day off, read the Straits Times while eating bak kut teh, had a short siesta, cycled my spanking pink bike to the party venue, had a hair treatment... life's pleasures can be so simple - just with half a day off...)

By the Facebookers

• Yo, Jo. Happy Birthday!!!
• Happy Birthday!!!
• Happy birthday again… happy bday joanny!!
• Happy Birthday Jo =)
• Karen Yu is waiting to wish Joanne Happy Birthday :)
• Happy Birthday Joanne! How is life! Hope you're well!
• Thanks to facebook I learnt it’s your birthday. Happy birthday!

By the Better-Late-Than-Never

Happy belated Birthday Joanne!! or Happy Birthday! if it has not passed yet. P mentioned that you guys were celebrating your birthday last night - hope you guys had a wonderful time!

小猫咪，茉莉祝你生日快乐，昨天的晚餐吃得愉快吧

Dear Jo, I think my sms lag… Happy belated birthday… Got a present for ya… :)

Happy belated birthday and happy national day! How's dinner party?

FAQs about Her Royal Lioness

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT HER ROYAL LIONESS

My dear Inter-Continental Logistics Pricing Analyst,

Please find below some answers to your questions in italics.

----- Original Message ----
From: The Inter-Continental Logistics Pricing Analyst,
To: Her Royal Lioness
Sent: Monday, 30 July 2007 1:54:33
Subject: Re: Her Royal Lioness Celebrates!

Her Royal Lioness???.. please provide a brief answer on following questions:

1) Who is the Royal Lioness?
Please note that the correct title to be used is "Her Royal Lioness", not "the Royal Lioness". Your mere impertinence with this should already have exiled you from the party but Her Royal Lioness is thankfully a benevolent ruler. As for her identity, it is a noble mystery only to be revealed on the day of celebration.

2) Why Royal? is she Princess Crown? or, the Queen? or, the Mother Queen?
She is Princess Crown to Palace No. 1401 of Jing An International Plaza, where she commands over a few annoying mosquitoes which often refuse to do her bidding not to bite.

4) Is HRH related to the British Royal family? or, the Swedish Royal Family? or, the Spanish / Danish / etc, etc?
Note again that it is HRL, not HRH. (Again, the benevolence of HRL prevails over your impertinence…) She is therefore not related to any of those stuffy and passe European lineages. But according to her great-great-grandmother, she may have some savage Mayan blood in her tracing back to Mesoamerica, so do not ever, ever doubt her royalty. (Or doubt it at your own peril...)

5) Bday is on the same day as celebration party?
Of course! HRL cannot find any reason to do it on any other day. Can you?

Her Royal Lioness Celebrates

Dear 25++ guests of Her Royal Lioness,

Her Royal Lioness is pleased to confirm your attendance for the dinner party,
beginning with some nice aperitifs at 7.30 pm at the even nicer:

Urban Tribe
133 Fuxing Lu near Yongfu Lu

Mark your calendar and see you there,
HRL

Aperitifs happily sponsored by HRL; contributions of 100 RMB for the Moroccan dinner appreciated if possible.
Vegetarians or those with dietary restrictions, please let the palace know immediately.

Big thanks to those who bought HRL a spanking new pink Chinese bicycle
and kudos to Ms P for organizing the effort!
(It will be proudly ridden to the party venue and displayed.)

=======================================================

Ruffled feathers

A gorgeous long weekend in Guilin

A gorgeous long weekend in the Hotel of Modern Art in Guilin, courtesy of Ms P's and her family's incredible generosity. Most unforgettable was The Dinner - just our private table of five in an open field of 900 acres, with hills surrounding us in the horizon.

A 900-acre private dining room... C'est magnifique!

To my good-looking father: Happy Fathers' Day

My father's first time in Shanghai and both our first times on the river cruise. (He was very excited to see the Pearl Tower.)

I really think he ages very well, both appearance-wise and mentality-wise. He is exactly how I aspire to age - simply and graciously...

Happy Fathers' Day.

So what's been up?

Nudged by Ms T's laments about the uncared-for state of my blog, I finally decided that some re-planting and pruning of my blog was in order to usher the coming of real spring. (Shanghai has been *struggling* to get warm for the entire past month. My poor tropical mama was frozen stiff when she was here.) Half-drafted entries were finished and new ones were started to form the retrospective posts you see below.

It is not for lack of interest that the blog has been neglected. But as I have mentioned obliquely in a previous post before, when time is a highly limited commodity after the fulfillment of work, familial and biological (sleep) responsibilities, it is a constant battle choosing between absorption (experience) and reflection. Just when you think you will dedicate a particular night to writing up something for the blog, you have all sorts of distracting things coming up such as:

• A marathon cough which refuses to let you sleep properly for days on end. You try all sorts of cough mixtures and remedies, including moving to sleep on the living room cough so that you can be closer to a glass of warm water when the cough fit starts again in the middle of the night. (In the end, a poached pear folk remedy was the one that did it.)

OR

• The internet suddenly dying on you at 1 am when you are trying to finish the last of your emails. You check all the plugs and connections - nothing wrong. Then you pick up the phone and found no dial tone. The immediate reaction wld be to call up the phone company and scold them but of course, the phone is deader than dead. And no, China Telecoms - who owns THE cellphone line as well as THE landline - is soooo not going to profit putting me on hold on the cellphone when they messed up my other line...

OR

• You have been hearing about this concept of a private social network called A Small World where you can only join upon invitation from an existing member and worse, only a small percentage of the members have invitation rights. An invitation suddenly falls into your lap and you stay up late to explore the discussion threads in the site because there are some very interesting and cerebral things being said (e.g. the idea of hearing a painting.)

So there, I accept full responsibility that I have not managed to resist / have chosen to prioritize these distractions above my gardening duties. But I believe some of these distractions will one day flower into something for the blog, so stay very tuned...

Mama and Papa in Shanghai

An Italian birthday I shall have to match

2007 being his year of the golden pig, Mr M decided to throw a birthday celebration for all to remember.

After a dinner party at his very nice home (food was catered from an Italian restaurant, complete with a waiter on hand to serve wine) , the 20+ of us guests hopped into the 2 stretch limousines that the unbelievably generous Mr M had chartered to take us to our favourite Glamour Bar on the bund. Sipping champagne the entire way, it was a leisurely and rowdy ride in style through the busiest street of town...


This, we decided amidst boisterous chatter, was celebrity.

At Glamour, champagne (yes, more) and cake were waiting and the whole night was peppered with The Three Tenors (his goods friends) bursting into birthday songs spontaneously at least 20 times. And of course such a night could not just end at one location. A little past midnight, we left Glamour in style again in the limos for more inebriated dancing at Attica further down the bund...

This, I decided with absolute clarity at 1.30 am on a Thursday night (after 7 glasses at that), is a birthday I shall have to match. Preferably before but certainly no later than 36 years young!

落花有意

Postscript: A slightly eyebrow-raising Ms L asked me if the next line of 落花有意 is 流水无情。 Indeed it is, but thankfully for my heart, that was not the underlying intention - it was simply a small meditation on the petals of Moganshan :) But very nice to know that I can convey such subtle nuances in the future...

Considering a career change as a tour organizer

Dear Moganshan folks,

Continue to be good boys and girls by praying, but as of now, there is likely to be thunderstorms on Moganshan on Saturday PM, and the weather will turn quite cold indeed getting into Sunday.

2007年03月31日 24℃ /15℃

2007年04月01日 18℃ /7℃

(P.S. It is not just the mountain - everywhere, including Shanghai, is cold on Sunday and the cold will continue into next week.)

As such, please remember to bring an umbrella / raincoat, a warm jacket and a book. We may all be cuddling together reading over hot coffee or a glass of wine, looking over the misty mountain.... All very poetic! Card games and good story-telling skills welcome too.

To bring some good cheer to us on a rainy Saturday evening, I have taken the liberty to make a dinner reservation for us at the Moganshan Lodge. The dinner will be:

Boeuf Bourguignonne
Classic French beef stew, heavy on the red wine and garlic, and laced with thyme
Accompanied by newish potatoes, salad or greens

There is not really a choice of dishes, as the Lodge's philosophy is:

Produce is locally sourced or homemade (the bacon is cured by us from the excellent local pork), and we try to avoid waste so dinners for example are cooked to order. The idea is that you drop by during your stay, glance over the simple dinner menu and order in advance – preferably 24 hours(alternatively email “ahead” to info@moganshanlodge.com and we’ll send you the menu). We then buy in the ingredients from the local market and you all eat the same meal.

But if anyone of you does not take beef, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can inform the chef.

I would suggest that we make of the good morning weather to walk around Moganshan and then retreat back tot he Lodge when the weather threatens. Sleep in on Sunday morning, have breakfast served in bed if you wish, appreciate the smell of rain again and perhaps the weather will let up a bit for another stroll before we head back to Shanghai at around 5 pm...

Your friendly tour organizer,
Joanne

This is what we call the butterfly effect

Read on my favourite Spiegel Online today:

CHINA PREPARES FOR OLYMPICS
Drop in Executions Leads to Organ Shortage

With the Olympics in Beijing just 500 days away, China has begun cleaning up organ trafficking practices. Not only have exports been banned, but with fewer prisoner executions, a major source of organs has dried up. The result has been a kidney shortage -

In South Korea.

One more reason to love Glamour Bar

Glamour Bar is without a doubt my favourite bar in Shanghai - in part due to its gorgeous Bund location but mostly because of its never-dying atmosphere. (You know how some bars or clubs start going downhill after 12.30 am? At Glamour, it only keeps climbing up.) Oh, then there is that stylish M logo and irresistible postcards...

(Incidentally, I had met the designer of the M logo once through an acquaintance and we chatted over a few martinis (at Glamour of course). A young, humble and cool Chinese dude - what a great combination.)

I have now found one more reason to love Glamour - the »Shanghai Literary Festival.

Spanning two weeks and hosting three dozen authors from all over the world, the event was a welcome reprieve from the usual activities of checking out new bars / restaurants / exhibitions. Nursing a glass of wine on a Sunday afternoon, sitting back and listening to the Irish-accented readings by the authors, eyes occasionally darting to look out to the Bund, the event could not have been better done. I really liked observing how Glamour transforms from a glitzy late-night dancer into a subdued and refined lady of the afternoons / evenings...

Even better was the fact that Ms P and I got the tickets to the Amy Tan session at the last minute. She is a true storyteller - absolutely captivating and well-worth the 90-minute stand. From the moment she started her talk reading from the »CliffsNotes of Joy Luck Club ("I thought CliffsNotes were only for dead authors! So imagine my horror when I found myself appearing alongside with Shakespeare in the bookstore... I just had to buy it to see what it said about me."), all were smitten by her outstanding storytelling skills. Perhaps, it is only through weaving her signature humour with the formal (in the sense of structural) art of storytelling that she is able to publicly relate the chaotic childhood she has had.

My only lament was that I could not attend the session with Dai Sijie (author of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) - it was in French :(


Postscript: Perhaps inspired by the Literary Festival, I went into a reading frenzy the weeks after and finished 3 books in 3 weekends. Tim Winton's »Minimum of Two, Marquez's »Of Love and Other Demons and Marina Lewycka's »A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. I highly recommend the last. It is so funny (Toshiba apples!) and irreverent ("You no-tit woman! what you doing here?") at the same time as it is so observant and poignant. Comedy and tragedy are often only a fine line apart, but very few authors have the finesse to straddle it well.