Singapore Impressions and a 20 Minute Ferry to Indonesia

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Disclaimer: This post is supposed to be informative and has therefore been designed to give YOU, the reader, a LOT of information using FEW words. (May require an adaptation of your reading style; I suggest reading this to a friend out loud, if you are experiencing any problems.)

Onto Singapore!

Singapore City Center Police Station

Four weeks are over, time flies, and I’m still kicking. I have adapted to the Singapore lifestyle:

•         I live in an extremely small room
•          I eat rice for lunch and for dinner, Monday to Sunday.
•          I ride the MRT and stare at my Smartphone the whole way
•          I don’t eat food in train stations or in the trains (Fine $500)
•          I carry around an umbrella because I know it will rain every afternoon for the next two months
•          I have removed all dairy products from my life and have moved on to improved (and less expensive) soya products (Full sugar, half sugar, or no sugar, depending on my mood)
•          I have accepted the fact that the shoes I brough to Singapore, will have to last for my whole stay here (6 months), as the maximum size sold is 45.
•          I chew no gum, as fines exceed 500$
•          I now consider Potato’s to be a vegetable that is used sparingly

Singaporeans Waiting for the Release of Halo 4 (a computer game)

  However I am still working on a couple of points, including:

•          I do not play loud smartphone shooting games without headphones on the MRT.
•          I do not eat rice for Breakfast.
•          I just cannot stomach fish balls in my meals.
•          I turn off the air conditioning when it gets cold.
•          I go to work before 10:00, and leave before 20:00
•          I do not know all the rules and fines by heart (most likely requires years of work).
•          My smartphone is only half the size of the average Singaporean’s
•          I do not own bright red Beats headphones
•          I do not drink ice coffee out of a plastic bag.
•          I went to the national park wearing my hiking boot, expecting an exhausting day, only to find out that walking the longest trail possible takes less than 1.5 hours.
•          I find Singapore’s tallest mountain at 163 meters to be very small (but I may be wrong)
•          I consider 800$ rent for an apartment that I share with 5 other people terribly expensive.
•          I always thought that living on the 2^nd story in Germany was quite high, whereas the average Singapore Apartment Building has over 20 stories.

Good Singaporeans standing in Line at the University waiting for Food (1 person = 1 square)

My Multilevel University Building and the Department I work in.

Any questions?

Onto Indonesia!

Little girl practicing her strutting at a Local Beauty Show

However, as great as Singapore is, the city does seem to make you a bit claustrophobic. In order to counteract this feeling, Tobias and I spent the weekend on an Island 20 kilometers south of Singapore. The Island is called Batam, and belongs to the Riau Archipelago of Indonesia. It is a Free Trade Zone [an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities - Wikipedia] and has therefore experienced an extreme industrial and shipping boom, drawing workers from areas far far away.

Nearing the Port of Batam, Indonesia

Anyway, we came up with the trip idea on Friday, and took the ferry on Saturday morning at 8 o’clock, meaning we didn’t do any planning (very very un-german). Arriving on the island, we were greeted by a horde of Taxi and Motorcycle drivers all vying for the privilege to drive Tobi and me around. Unfortunately for them, we walked into the city…

After walking around long enough to get a sunburn, we found a hotel and paid 7 EUR per person (not bad for no planning, eh?). However, our grand plans for touring the island and finding hidden beaches were ruined when we found out that this town doesn’t ever get any tourists, so there are no motorcycle/bicycle rentals (only with drivers). Too bad. 

Oh by the way, we saw no other white people that weekend.

Being driven around by our new Friends

Nonetheless, I learned a very important lesson on this trip: how to relax like an Indonesian. To give you a taste, let me tell you about an Indonesian’s perfect weekend:

Fire Thrower at Kampung Bule

Karaoke Club

1. No work at all
2. Wake up at 15:00
3. Go to the mall and shop for fake Louis Vuitton bags and cheap flip flps
4. Go to the game center and spend hours playing various money-losing games such as “Shoot the Fish”, “Beat the dinosaur”, “Drop a coin”, [take a nap on the bench], and end strongly playing a shooter game with a life size machine gun.
   
5. Subsequently, while still at the same huge mall, watch the newly released movie “Breaking Dawn” or any other chick flick.
6. On the way out, buy a box of 12 doughnuts, buy 2 Liters of palm oil and 30 packs of “Mie” Noodle Soup
7. Just before the long ride home, get a foot reflexology massage just outside the Mall doors.
8. At home, meet with your friends at an outside diner.
9. Drink coffee and eat the "Mie" Noodle Soup
10. End the night by singing along at a Karaoke club where everyone has an average height of 1.50 meters.
11. Drink more coffee while waiting for the sun to rise.

Making Friends

Now I must admit, that Tobi and I, being the culturally adaptable people we are, tried to live the perfect Indonesian Weekend. We were successful in doing 10 out of the 11 points I listed above!!! I leave you to guess which one we skipped (feel free to send me an email with your guess).

Here are some of the pictures from our check list of being a perfect Indonesian: 

Game Place

Little People Playing Big Games