Singapore : Hello & Goodbye

Singapore

I went back home to Singapore for 3 months. For the uninitiated, Singapore is a republic in Southeast Asia, neighbour to Malaysia and Indonesia, and is not part of China.

Map of Singapore (in red)
Source: wikipedia.org

Location of Singapore
Source: Google map

With the rtw trip, I found myself learning more about Singapore in order to explain to others about the country, like how Singapore is located 1 degree north of the equator, so tiny that the distance between the eastern and western end is only 42km apart, its highest "mountain" is less than 180m in altitude and has almost no agriculture - all of which baffles people. I made a boo-boo, explaining to others the concept of Certificate of Entitlement which, at $40,000 apiece, is a piece of paper that allows one to go on to buy a car and in turn resulting in the the price of a car to be more than $100,000. Little did I realise that in my absence, the cost of a Certificate of Entitlement has risen to $90,000. (When will I ever own a car? Whine!!!!!!!!!)

Hello

I was having big meals pretty much non-stop in Singapore. First it was a round of "Welcome home" meals as I caught up with friends. Next, the Chinese New Year festive season meant a lot of celebratory lunches. 

I visited some new properties that have opened/would be opening.



In conjunction with the Chinese New Year festivities, the Esplanade has been hosting the annual Huayi Festival 华艺节, a series of paid and free theatre, dance and music performances in Chinese since 2003. I went to catch 2 plays (Awakening and Eighteen Springs) and a dance performance (Thunderstorm) with Keng. All 3 were based on famous Chinese novels (红楼梦、半生缘and雷雨respectively) which I have never read before (说来惭愧，我这方面的造诣还真的太浅).  The pleasant surprise was that there were many students and non-Chinese (both plays had English subtitles) among the audiences. Thunderstorm was the clear winner - I did not think I would like modern dance but it was short and easy to understand. The plays, on the other hand, were too long and I did not like the singing segments in both plays. The singing were good but I was not sure if it was really necessary and it just came across as very Glee.

Thunderstorm
Source: www.huayifestival.com

Over at the ArtScience Museum, Jenny recommended that I visit The Art of the Brick by New York-based artist Nathan Sawaya. Initially trained to be a lawyer, Sawaya became one of 13 LEGO Certified Professionals ("LCP") and the only person in the world who is both a LCP and a LEGO Master Model Builder (wow! I did not even know there are such professionals) [Source: www.lego.com]. He pursued his dream and now builds sculptures using LEGO bricks. The Art of the Brick is named one of the 12 must-see exhibitions by CNN in 2011 and can be appreciated by young and old alike.

Yellow

Doorway

Sing

Mask

Dinosaur Skeleton

Goodbye

What's goodbye without more food? I had another round of farewell lunches/dinners which added 2kg to my pouch. 

Before I knew it, it was time for me to pack and go.

Hoi An and Hué

Hoi An

How I got there

I had not intended to visit Hoi An but it was recommended by Chai Fong for its proximity to Hué and for the scenic route from Hoi An to Hué. From Ho Chi Minh City, I flew 1.5 hours northwards to Danang, made a detour and took a taxi to Hoi An (about 40 minutes away). On our way to Danang, we flew into some air currents and the plane lost altitude. While the adults screamed (and I cowered in my seat), a little girl sitting in front of me (who could not be older than 5 years of age) raised her arms and squealed, "Again! Again!". Ah, ignorance is bliss. (Unfortunately, the little girl did puke at the end of the flight. Poor thing.)

Town

Hoi An is a little town in the middle of Vietnam and is described by UNESCO as "an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century, with outstanding material manifestation of the fusion of cultures over time" (Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/948). 

The town is small and can be easily explored on foot or bicycle. It has very good representations of Chinese temples, assembly halls and rich merchants' houses. Most of these old buildings are of Chinese influences, with some having Japanese elements in the design. Most of these buildings require a ticket for entry and the tickets can be purchased at the tourist information booths in the town (5 tickets cost VND 120,000 or US$6). While there may not be English speaking staff on site, there are information boards in Vietnamese and English that explain the history of the buildings.

Canton assembly hall

I am mostly surprised by how strong the old Chinese influences were in this part of the world (or perhaps I should not have, given its proximity to China). 

Dragon sculpture in pond in the Canton assembly hall

There are 5 assembly halls in Hoi An, representing clans of Chinese dialect groups from Canton, Hokkien, Hainan, Chaozhou and a generic one for all Chinese. During the heydays when trading activities were flourishing, businessmen and seamen from the same Chinese dialect groups congregated in these halls to exchange news, pray to their gods and help fellow clansmen. Of all the assembly halls, I think the Hokkien one is easily the prettiest.

Hokkien assembly hall

Built over 200 years ago, the Phùng Hùng House, belonging to a rich merchant and his family for 8 generations, is the oldest house in Hoi An. It has Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese influences in design and is constructed on 80 columns of ironwood on marble pedestals. This is one of the few buildings with tour guides on site to explain the history of the building and family and also show tourists around. 

Phùng Hùng House

I was told by my guide that most parts of this building are in their original form. I like the very practical designs of the house, such as a section on the door which could be slid up to block out the lights or down to allow better lighting and ventilation into the house. There is also a trap door on the second floor that allows one to communicate with another on the lower floor and also allows furniture to moved between floors should there be a flood.

L: Section of door (circled in red) could be moved
R: Trap door on the second floor

I was fortunate to have arrived on the 14th day of the lunar calendar, during the full moon. I am not sure if this is done every night but during the nights with full moon, the streets on the old town are closed to vehicles, with most of the street lamps switched off and the lanterns were lit. The shopkeepers would set up tables in front of their shops with flowers, fruits, joss sticks and other offerings to the gods. On the streets, there were martial arts performances, poetry recitation and demonstrations of how traditional games were played. By nightfall, many of the assembly halls and temples which would have otherwise required tickets for entry were also opened to the public for free.

Hué

Hué, the first site in Vietnam to be listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, is famed for its citadel and 7 ancient imperial tombs. It was the imperial city and capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 - 1945) and even controlled Yunnan, China.

How I got there

From Hoi An, I took a 4 hour motorcycle ride via the Hai Van Pass to get to Hué. Chai Fong thought that this was the highlight of her Vietnam trip years ago and I could not agree more.

We first passed by the Marble Mountain (which looks like a sleeping Buddha - the area is famous for its marble and limestone formations), beautiful beaches of Danang (which, according to my guide, has a coastline of more than 40 km long and has many great diving sites), the scenic Hai Van Pass, American bunkers and fishing villages.

Marble Mountain 

Beach in Danang

Hai Van Pass through the hills

View from Hai Van pass

American bunkers

Bullet holes on the walls of the bunkers

With helmet head at Hai Van pass

For the uninitiated, the journey on a motorcycle could be a little scary, with trucks trying to overtake buses on the wrong lane, thus forcing my motorcycle into the road shoulders, where there were cyclists riding abreast and chatting away.

Citadel

The Hué Imperial City was built on the same principles as the Forbidden Palace in Beijing and it took 30,000 workmen and soldiers more than 25 years to complete. (Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/678)

The wall and moat surrounding the citadel

Ngo Mon, entrance to the imperial city

The citadel used to have 150 buildings covering an area of 0.4 sq km for administrative, religious, ceremonial, residential and recreational purposes. It has since been destroyed by natural disaster and wars in 1947 and 1968. (Source: Information board in the city) 

Bronze urn weighing 1500kg and an old canon

Musicians playing ancient instruments in the Thai Hoa Palace

UNESCO had began renovation and restoration works since 1994 but all 9 projects seemed to have been terminated. It was a tad disappointing to see the dilapidated structures. 

Interior and exterior restoration works

I asked myself what I had expected and what I would rather see - its current state of crumbled form or the restored, brightly coloured but artificial form? 

Worn out or restored?

The newly restored Royal Theatre

I guess I do not mind the citadel being restored to its former glory but whomever doing it should really pay attention to the details:

Restored gate

Surely the ceramics used to restore the walls of the gate need not have brand names?

Tombs

Outside the citadel, the emperors built palaces in choice locations as their final resting places. The tombs are more than just tombs - they consist of extensive grounds with ponds, pavilions and courtyards. Statues of mandarins, soldiers, horses and elephants lined the courtyard, symbolising "dynastic stability and majesty". Chinese words were carved on large slabs of stones to praise the emperors. 

I visited the tombs of emperors Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh. 

Gates to the tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh

Statues in courtyard

Emperor Khai Dinh ruled from 1916 - 1925 but the construction his tomb started in 1920 and took 11 years to complete. There were  photographs of the emperor in his palace and visiting France displayed in the Thien Dinh Palace, the building which housed his grave. The palace showed stylistic influences from Europe.

Thien Dinh Palace

Emperor Khai Dinh's throne

View of courtyard and Hien Duc Gate from the Stele House,
where his son wrote a 2500 word eulogy that praised the Emperor Minh Mang

"Tragic" is probably the most appropriate word used to describe Emperor Tu Duc. One of the travel guide books claimed that he had 104 wives but no sons. Therefore he had to write his own "autobiography" on a stele, the largest in Vietnam. Now, the structures on the grounds of Tu Duc's tomb were falling apart. 

Stele Pavilion of Tu Duc

Emperor Tu Duc's tomb

Back to HCM City

I took a 18-hour train ride back to Ho Chi Minh City. The good news was - the train was air-conditioned. The bad news was - nothing went according to plan. I had originally wanted a lower level bed in a 4-berth room on an overnight train. The lady at the train station informed me there were no available beds on the lower level and then without informing me, went on to issue a ticket for the middle level in a 6-berth room on a train that departed at 11am and arrive on 5am the next day. 

I boarded the train to discover that there was someone sleeping on my bed. She grumbled and moved to her bed above mine and that was when I discovered that there were no change in bedsheets and pillow cases every time passengers alight (which then made me wonder how often they change them). There were no seats in the room and the height between my bed and the bed above me was too short - which meant that I could not sit on my bed to look outside the windows.

Corridor outside rooms

I spent the first 2 hours of my trip standing on the narrow corridor outside my room, getting into the way of everyone going to the toilet and staff who were pushing food carts. Some fellow passengers must be seasoned travellers on the train - they brought stools to sit along the corridor. After lunch, I spent a few hours lying on my tummy in my bed (fortunately, from my bed, I was able to look outside the windows; the passenger on the highest level had no views from her bed), had dinner and slept some more.

Views from the train

I had chosen to take the train instead of the plane (the train ticket cost as much as a plane ticket) because it was touted to be one of the most scenic train ride in the world. Had I not went through the Hai Van pass on a motorcycle at my own pace, I would have agreed. Also, if I got a bed, I could not sit. If I got a seat on the train, I would not be able to lie down at night. The train ride did give me some glimpses to the locals' backyard but at night, there was also nothing to see from the windows. On the train, I also remembered why I have always been apprehensive taking a train - going to the public toilet on a moving train (need I elaborate?). Would I embark on another long-distance train ride in Vietnam again? I don't think so!

Ho Chi Minh City

How I got there

I have been to very few countries in Asia, thinking that I can visit the countries in my own backyard during short breaks. The problem is - I never liked to take short breaks and have always preferred to venture somewhere further outside Asia for a longer period or visit my family in Hong Kong. If only I had travelled more in Asia - maybe I would have saved a lot more money.

I decided to satisfy my wanderlust by choosing the cheapest air ticket (I excluded Malaysia) I could find online (sadly, I will have to wait for a few more years to go Korea). A return ticket from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City cost US$140 (flying in Europe was even not as cheap!), a good hotel in the city (with breakfast, cable tv and WIFI) was US$26 per night for 2 people and a half-day tour was US$6. How good is that?

City

Formerly known as Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City's favourable location in the Mekong Delta boosted its commercial importance and made it the most important city politically in the southern part of Vietnam. Its rule changed hands many times - from the Khmer to Vietnamese, French, Americans, back to the Vietnamese puppet regime and finally the communists. 

The city has many buildings built in the 1970s, greatly influenced by the French:

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the General Post Office 

City Hall

Historically, the most important building of the city is perhaps the Independence Palace (also known as the Reunification Hall). The French first built the residence for the governor at the site in 1868. It was later taken over by the Viet Congs (communist-led guerillas of South Vietnam) as Presidential Palace but was bombed by the Americans in 1962. In 1966, the current building by Roman Grand Prize winner, architect Ngo Viet Thu designed according to Chinese geomancy was completed. 9 years later, in 1975, the North Vietnamese Army crashed their tanks through the gates of the palace and overthrew the government that controlled the south of Vietnam. On the balcony, the victors waved their flags, signifying the reunification of the North and South of Vietnam.

Replica of tank that bulldozed the gates of the Independence Palace

Independence Palace

The Independence Palace is now used to host government meetings and banquets for foreign dignitaries. On other days, it is opened to the public and one can view the old commanding posts from the warring days and the current banquet rooms.

Water puppet theatre

The Vietnamese are famous for their water puppetry. A band that played traditional music instruments and do the voice-over sat on both sides of the stage while the poor puppeteers were submerged waist-deep in water behind the curtains. 

I attended a performance by the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre. The puppeteers gave an outstanding performance, through which one could guess what the band were singing in Vietnamese. It is amazing how 7 of them were squeezed behind the curtains and were able to manipulate the puppets fluidly around and above the stage without getting tangled up.

Video: water puppetry

The puppet show is very popular and it is advisable to buy the tickets in advance. Visit the free sculpture park next door while waiting for the show to start (the sculptures are interesting and on weekends, one can see students practising martial arts, plays, dance or playing badminton in the park).

Sculpture in park

 

Cu Chi Tunnels

From Ho Chi Minh City, I joined a half-day tour to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. First dug by the Viet Minhs in the jungle to fight the French, the tunnels were lated expanded the Viet Congs into 200km of sophisticated underground systems to fight against the American forces between the 1960s and 1970s. The tunnels incorporated communication rooms, hospitals, kitchens (where the smoke from cooking were cleverly deviated elsewhere to avoid detection by the enemies) and sleeping quarters. 

We had to duck-walk in the tunnels that have been made taller and wider for tourists

We saw how the Viet Congs camouflaged the entrances to the tunnels and set booby traps on the jungle foor and underground. If one managed to find the entrance and went into any of the narrow and claustrophobic tunnels, they would found themselves getting lost or die a slow and painful death in the traps.

Spikes used in booby traps

It is fascinating how the tunnels were constructed without concrete and kept ventilated, while giving access to water without flooding the whole system. I wonder how the Viet Congs remember their way around the complicated network without falling into their own traps. It would also have been very depressing for anyone to live in such cramped and dark conditions. 

Friends and food

I was able to meet up with a few of my colleagues based in our Ho Chi Minh City office and they treated me to deicious local food and coffee. Thanks mates!

Seated: Valentine
Standing from R: Hai Binh, Hong Son

People watching

You may want to sit near a traffic junction or a roundabout and watch the tourists trying to cross the road while having your meals. The roads in Ho Chi Minh City are congested with motorcycles which come from all sorts of directions different from the correct traffic flow. The tourists would wait and hesitate and the lights would change - it is most amusing to see how long it takes them to figure out they have the right of way (you can also learn a lesson or 2). 

Light traffic

Theoretically, to cross any road, one does not have to pay attention to the traffic lights nor the vehicles. Instead, just confidently but slowly step onto the road and walk slowly towards the other side of the road. Do not run and try not to walk into the path of a bus. The motorcycles would weave around you and you would be fine.

Technically, however, it is not all that easy to settle one's nerves, especially when the motorcycles move like a shoal of fish - you would find that there is not a chance for you to put a foot on the road without risking it being rolled over by 50 motorcycle wheels. Good luck!

Can you spot the couple trying to cross the round in a roundabout?