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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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"Bird. How are you?" booms Ma over the phone. "Er...Ma!" I say, hanging onto the damn mobile, carrying my bag and trying to run all at the same time. "Bird. How are you?" repeats Ma, deaf to the pleas of an emergency in my voice. "I'm okay, I..." am interrupted once more "Are you having your fruits and vegetables?". By now, Indika's screaming at me, dragging me along. "Yes, I..." am not left to finish. "Bird...". "MA!" I scream in desperation. "How Dare You Interrupt Me! Just you watch when you get home. I...". "I'm on my way to catch a train. This is not the time for a conversation" I breath out, nearly stumbling as I'm hauled along. "Just tell me where your going?" she asks to which I answer "Singapore". Indika, Shah, Nilanka, Lumindra, Lalinda, Daruni, Anuradhi, Niluki and Bird are rushing around like crazy (as usual), in the KL Sentral Terminal to get to the Express Senandung Malam, which leaves to Singapore, in five minutes. Finding it at last it's another Marathon to our berth which is at the other end of the Long Steel Caterpillar.
Seeing the Gang get up those stairs is rather hilarious. Being Bird, she slips up her one with ease. For the others however it is far from being an easy, comfortable ascend. Stepping onto the freezing plates of thin steel they jump out having iced their feet. Rushing up to the top, they are faced with the problem of getting from ladder to bed. Being unable to do so it's back to the bottom again. It is finally through swinging from one ladder to another like Tarzan that they manage to heave themselves onto their nests. Sleeping the night journey out, the next day we arrive at that most developed point of South East Asia-Singapore. There we are met by Dawn, Zack, Wahid and Jasmin from the Rotaract Club of Singapore West. Putting us into advertisement covered taxies, we're off to Zack's Apartment, our Perch of Residence in Singapore. Singapore's CLEAN. There's not a speck of garbage anywhere. Everything is built in symmetry. There's roads where there should be roads, trees where there should be trees, apartments where there should be apartments, schools where there should be schools and the few houses where there should be houses. According to Zack not many people live in houses as they are expensive. This explains why so little houses and so many rows and rows of apartment blocks, which too are of various classes, each located in different parts of the city. As there are hardly any private gardens, there are uniformed public garden spaces, located in calculated distances. There are three aspects which define the country. Cleanliness, Development and Uniformity. Stepping into Singapore is like entering a computerised world of perfectionism. Perhaps it's too much so. The Singaporian lifestyle appears to be pretty censored. All boys of 18 once finishing school have to join the forces for about three years before venturing to do a job of their own. Zack's in the Police Force. Wahid is contemplating joining the Army. Dawn's doing an External London University Degree. She says "In Singapore everyone is very busy, trying to earn more money. There's hardly any time to relax". Zack's Apartment Block is a cheerful creamy coloured one. Nearby is a Primary School from which shirt and short little boys and pinafored little girls rush out. Some play what appears to be Run and Catch (what we call "Catches" in Sri Lanka) while the rest make their way to the bus halt in the front. At the ground floor of the block is one of those shops which sell just about anything from groceries to toothpaste. It's run by an old man and his wife who are often behind the counter reading the newspaper, listening to the radio or sipping tea. A change of feathers and a quick bite at Zack's Place which is located on the 6th floor, we're off for our day out in Singapore which turns out to be a whole day shopping spree, much to the happiness of Niluki and Anura after there not too happy Genting's suicidal rides. Let me meanwhile tell you about Bird's form of transportation within the city. The super efficient SMRT-Singapore Mass Rapid Transit. Being given a 15 Sing Dollar SMRT travelling card to last her throughout her stay, she has to tap the card onto a slot when getting into a vehicle and tap it once more when getting out, which is the most important part as otherwise she will be charged the full fare of the journey. Travelling in Bus and Double Decker is spacious, clean and peaceful. There are no insane racing bus drivers. Horns are not blared to make you deaf, but simply piped when stopping at halts. There aren't people hanging out of the bus due to lack of space. More importantly there aren't any of those weirdos who act as if they've lost their heads when seeing a girl. And there's no smelly armpits. As for the Underground Train System. It's super-efficient, on the clock. Run on electricity, controlled by computer, the driverless caterpillar zooms from one station to another. One can see all the way through the train as there's nothing separating the compartments. A TV screen blinks with advertisements and as the train stops the mouth piece comes alive with a nasal voice saying "Welcome to...Station". The day's shopping done, at night Bird and Her Gang are off to the Singapore Night Safari. Bird is specially excited as she's hoping to see Indika and Shah's many distant relatives who have the honour of residing there. She'll be able to distinguish each of their relatives too, as the pale ones will be Shah's and the dark ones will be Indika's. And don't I meet a lot of them once there! Rhinos, water buffalos, bears, hippos and elephants. I also spotted a tall aunt of Niluki's, the giraffe, and a long forgotten cousin of Anura's, the hyena. Being a Bird I met some of my relatives too, the slender, pink and white flamingos. Travelling in an open aired tram, guided by a somewhat patronising instructor, who speaks of the animals as though we're brainless beings, we pass through created pieces of jungles of Asia and Africa, encountering the two's many wild inhabitants on our way. There's an Equatorial Africa, an Indian Subcontinent, Himalayan Foothills, Indo-Malayan Region, Nepalese River Valley, Burmese Hillside, Asian Riverine Forest and even a South American Pampas. Deciding to be more adventurous we next go on Leopard Trail, Forest Giants Trail and Fishing Cat Trail. There we see leopards, fishing cats who were not fishing, tarsiers and meet as in literally meet-BATS. FLYING BATS! Should have known a Bird couldn't just enter the domain of those blood sucking vampire look alikes without some disaster happening. Ignoring the "If you fear bats do not enter" sign I step into their forestry, which is actually a big Bat filled cage. At first all is peaceful, seeing a few of those nightly creatures in a distance. It is when Shah pulls me back saying "Bird, look below" the Bird-Bat Mayhem begins. "What? AARGH!" I shriek as I stumble ahead trying to get away from a baby bat, which taking a liking to my feet, was circling around them. "Eurgh...ARRGH!" I scream again having run almost face on to what must have been Baby Bat's Grandmother. Taking a step back I am faced with the blaring wings of another of those vampirish creatures. "ARRGH!". It is covering my ears with my hands, screaming, pushing the others out of the way, I make my exit. Tram Ride, Trails and Visit to the Bat Forestry done, Singapore Night Safari comes to an end. Sometimes the most beautiful parts in a trip are the unsaid. So "A Winged Bird" will conclude here, while Bird goes on her one last flight, to Slimline, Orchard Street and the Magical Island of Sentosa, before returning to the homely shores of Sri Lanka. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
The inside of our cabin feels like being bottled inside a fluorescent
lighted, white washed, empty medicine capsule. With white sheeted bunkers
and lime green curtains hanging in front, it very much resembles a
hospital surgery room. All that's missing are the Docs, Nurses and their
Sharp Cutting Equipment. Bird and Her Gang meanwhile due to Mr.Indika's
cleverness have all got top bunkers, which have to be reached, through
climbing an icy steel ladder.
