Somehow I feel like I am writing a school essay. You know, one of those "How I spent my summer vacation" thingies. I remember I used to get lousy marks for these reports. [Ok, maybe I still am] Wish I can resubmit this report to get my grade changed. Life is more interesting now when you have control over your own life. Anyway, this was my second Valentine's Day in S'pore. Last year I sent a dozen roses to my friend's girl friend. Nothing exciting. This year I decided to do something for myself. Instead of hang out in place where it's easily accessible by the public [translation: lack of privacy], I was hoping to borrow a car. And I happened to have the very good fortune of knowing a married colleague that would not need the car for the night. [thanks miew]. As most of you probably know, a car in S'pore is not simply a "car" in the normal sense. It means freedom the S'pore way. The freedom to travel without a Translink card. The freedom to own part of the road [yes]. The freedom to scare the daylight out of those poor pedestrians [a big yes]. The freedom to go where no American-Chinese in S'pore has gone before. Enough said.
My first fear was getting lost in S'pore. You said if I can't get lost in New York, how can I get lost in S'pore? Well, the reason is there is no directions on the freeways [Well, this is changing. I guess I always liked the name Parkway and Tollways 8-(] of S'pore. You will not see North, South, East and West. Instead, you will see "City", "Ang Mo Kio", "Jurong", "Yishun", "Changi", etc. Now I understand why I get blank stares when I asked "Is Parkway Parade EAST of Orchard Road?" There is simply no sense of direction in S'pore! Also, instead of numbering the freeways, every one of them has an acronym. Ok, you said ECP, CTE, PIE all sound much better than simple numbers like 23, 80 and 46. But to the normal public, acronyms are much tougher to remember than simple numbers. Instead of saying "Get on Route 23 North for 5 minutes. At the K-mart, make a left turn at the jug handle" you will have to say "Get on the ECP toward Changi for 5 kliks. At the HDB flat, take the flyover [most cars come with rocket booster in S'pore 8-)] to the left." In any event, I got totally lost between ECP and CTE 8-(
Before you say "don't you have a probational license?", I am glad to say that I am no longer a probational driver that you drivers out there can abuse. I am proud to say that I am officially a kiasu S'pore driver 8-) Anyway, so I got to the place late and my date wasn't very happy. And to add salt to the wound, it was raining. My next immediate problem was parking. I never developed the knack for parking on the wrong side of the road. So I paid a little more to park at a hospital nearby. It's about 20 minutes from the dinner place. Kinda defeat the purpose of having a car. [I locked the wheel like you told me, miew] Had a quick dinner at a coffee shop [Ok, it's not because I am cheap. It's because I didn't want to wait in queue to have a fancy Valentine's dinner. So there.] After the dinner, on to the secluded spots of S'pore...
While you are waiting, I had a discussion with some young S'pore ladies regarding what's a good "romantic" place. The Botanical Garden is supposedly a no-no nowadays. First is because it's only for the "old timers." Second is because all the Peeping Tom [No offense, Tom] out there waiting to watch a good show. Third is because of those pesky S'pore mosquitos. Romantic nowadays means shopping in a air-con place, watching a show with clean non-sticky floor, reading the Straits Times over a cup of tea. Well, maybe not the last one but it seems the idea of romance has changed over the years, at least in S'pore.
My plan was to visit all the reservoirs in S'pore. My date agreed at first. First stop was the MacRitchie reservoir. Since we had a quick dinner [I told you it was planned], we were able to get there before the "peak" period. Because it coincided with the Chinese Valentine [Ok, I don't care about the debate which day is the official Chinese Valentine's Day. It could be the 7th of the 7th month. Or it could be the 15th of the 1st month. Or it could be the Mid-Autumn Festival for all I care. IMHO, the more the better. We need more romance in our lives 8-)], we had a nice moon [hey! I meant the real one] to look at. But since it rained before, we were looking for somewhere dry to sit. To our dismay, all the booth were occupied. I was wondering if we were to go sit next to a couple, would they simply walk away and leave us with the booth? Well, we were too nice to try it so we decided to move on to our next destination. Before we left MacRitchie, the entrance was jammed with cars. Good timing I thought.
Second stop was the Peirce Reservoir. Before we started on our trek, she agreed to be the navigator. Armed with a S'pore street directory and a flash light, she was my best hope in not getting lost in S'pore. It wasn't meant to be. We got lost looking for MacRitchie reservoir. We got even more lost when looking for Peirce Reservoir mainly because Peirce wasn't open at night 8-( But there were lots of cars parked on the road near Peirce. There were some with steaming windows [!]. The smarter ones parked with air-con on, taking the risk of the carbon monoxide poisoning. There were even some with windows all covered up with newspaper [I think it was the Straits Times. I knew it would come in handy someday]. We basically drove around and got confused a lot. In the end she got a headache from reading the road map and we decided to call it a night. So you wanted a happy ending? Well, maybe next year. Never made it to the Seletar reservoir 8-(
Here is a reward for all you patient MTS readers over the past year. Well, it's for the guys only. I will make it up to the ladies next time 8-) The secret is the Spice Express Cafe in the Changi airport terminal. This is where some of the S'pore girls [you know, those in the the S'pore Airline commercial?] hang out. Check it out when you drop by Changi Airport next time. Happy fishing!
27/03/95
