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| Sunday, 6 November 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Dream vs reality :
Travels in the Lion City by Aditha Dissanayake With a colourful map of the city in my hands, with the whole day stretched in front of me to do as I please, "Alone, alone all alone" as Coleridge's Ancient Mariner said, I could not have been happier, had I been in heaven. But to be exact, I am on the island of "Pu Luo Chun". Yes. Pu luo chun or Singa Pura or the Lion City, (Singapore in everyday jargon), blissfully on holiday, (this month last year).
Yes. Yes. Yes So, off to Farrer Park station, to press the button on the screen for Little India for a ticket and to make it to the train minutes before the charming feminine voice says "Doors Closing". I try not to notice when the other passengers (those who are not in semi slumber) openly stare at me. They have skin, the colour of tea with milk. I am the only chocolate-brown around. No wonder a kid toddles up to me and touches my arm in fascination. But before she can explore further, its time to get off. The voice announces "Next station Little India. Please mind the gap". I walk into the dazzling sunshine of Little India filled with great expectations. But the spice scented high street shops selling silverware, brassware, gold jewellery and bargain electronics fail to fascinate me because they look too familiar, too like the shops in Nugegoda. So, off to China Town, on a double decker, (the 166) and this time, thankfully not to be disappointed. Who would believe China Town with its clean walkways and brightly lit shops was once brimming with half-starving immigrants from China? Today the place overflows with shops advertising culinary delights of the Orient. There are signs inviting you to taste the famous dishes created by Mr. Lee Kee, or to dig into a Laksa at Uncle Hoe's Traditional Hakka Cuisine. The food is cheap. A laksa or a plate of Port Rib Noodles costs only S$ 3. What is daunting, though, is the task of carrying strands of noodles from the plate to your mouth with two maddeningly disobedient chopsticks. At the indoor market, there are frogs for sale. (3 frogs for S$ 10) and a durian cafe. The Teck Soon Medical Hall offers insights into traditional Chinese medicines with its baskets of dried sea horses and button mushrooms. Everyone around me thankfully speak English. But they are sparse with their words. When I ask for directions, they tell me "Go straight. First turn. No. Second Turn. Yes" When the bus comes to its last stop, the driver simply shouts "service off". A quick glimpse of Orchard road to be dazzled by the accessories at Heeren and the antiques at Tanglin Mall, and all too soon the day has almost come to an end. I make it in time to Sentosa Island to be charmed by Kiki the monkey in a "laser extravaganza" staged at the Musical Fountain, and to greet my companion who had agreed to meet me there. As dusk begins to gather around us, and as the lights are switched off for the Magical Sentosa show, I realize that there are times when real life can be happier than the wildest of day dreams. And, to think I had to come all the way to Sentosa island, the island of fantasy, to find this out. |
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Where to begin? Shopping at Mustafa? No. (Too boring) A trip to an award
winning zoo to see animals in cages? (Too agonizing) A visit to Sentosa
island for an "experience which would appeal to the inner child in you?".
Yes (Perhaps in the evening by cable car). But for the time being?
Discovering the real Singapore? How? With a trip on a double decker? A ride
on the train network called the MRT? 
