Manhole-cover Gamelan

Last night I visited a new road in Singapore and found this entire pavement of drain covers. As usual, when you walk over one drain cover, it makes a 'tonk!' sound. But walking down a whole street of them started to resemble a kind of weird, post-industrial Gamelan. Which was quite appropriate for SE Asia, I suppose!

What is Gamelan?
Gamelan is a collection of 'gongs' and xylophones of varying size and tone, which together form an orchestra of soothing 'plinky plonky' music. (It's rather hard to describe, so listen below!) Each person has a 'gong' and you have to learn to play in sequence / time with each other. Apparently it's quite difficult! There are usually other instruments in the Gamelan too - flutes, drum things, string things.. It's a nice sound. 

Gamelan is native to Indonesia, and has an important place in Indonesian culture. But variations can be found in Malaysia and other parts of SE and South Asia.

(Thanks to Aurel Hollo for the video)

Squares

When I first arrived in Singapore, nearly two years ago, I had a (as it turns out horrendous!) job interview at Parkview Square. And got horribly lost. The reason is this:

In the UK (and other parts of Europe) when an address is in a Square it is.. well, an address in a Square. That is, a building situated in one of the many square open spaces which are bounded on four sides by buildings. The address you are looking for will be one of these perimeter buildings. (In the centre you might have a communal garden if it's private / residential, or a little park if it is public. In the summer, people all try to loll out in the sunshine with sandwiches for lunch in Central London squares.) Squares are old design features in Europe's urban fabric.

Golden Square, London

Pembridge Square, London

Trafalgar Square

In Singapore, however, a Square usually means a 'mall'. It is not an open space with perimeter buildings, but a building itself. The address you are looking for will be a unit inside the mall. I don't know if these buildings were erected on what was originally a square open space (but let's face it, a lot of architectural footprints are square!) or if they are just trendy-sounding brand names. Some condominiums are also christened 'square' simply as a branding exercise. So I suspect the latter.

Either way, I spent a great deal of time on my interview day, trying to find something which resembled a square open space; when in actual fact I was standing right under the banner for Parkview Square (a particularly ugly faux art-deco mall/office/hotel skyscraper!)

Parkview Square, Singapore

The giant mall that is Marina Square

You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

Additional photo credits: Hudson Property, Rightmove, Turismo Culturamix, SalesinSingapore.

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Word of the Day: だんご虫 (dangomushi)

That's this little guy:

In Japanese, he is '虫' mushi = bug, with だんご dango, which is a small rice ball/cake (often eaten on a stick). Because basically, if you disturb him, he curls up to into a little ball. Such a cute name!

Dangomushi

Dango!

In British English he's called a 'woodlouse' (plural 'woodlice'). Louse = a kind of bug, and he likes to live in old wood such as tree stumps or logs stored for the fire. He looks kinda prehistoric, but he's harmless and only about 1cm long. :)

Bug photos courtesy Greenlegs7 and Matt Cole Photography

Spleen: Blog on Bogs - The Surge of the Auto-loo

One thing that is fashionable in Singapore and other new parts of Asia: the automated flushing toilet.

The upside of this is that you do have cleaner-looking public toilets. But there are downsides, and after two years in SG I am starting to really loathe these insta-flush contraptions! (If you're eating right now, maybe you should stop reading.)

The main issue is that in nearly all cases the auto-detectors don't work properly. And 90% of the time this means they are way too sensitive. So you bolt the toilet door: they flush. You sit down: they flush. You breathe in: they flush. You breath out: they flush. It goes on.

There are two particularly unpleasant user aspects to this:
1. If you are sitting down (and breathing) you will get the entire contents of the toilet thrown up onto your innocent posterior. Perhaps multiple times. Now this is NOT hygienic. Some toilets will flush with so much H20 that it soaks your clothes too! And God help any tourist here who has 'jelly belly' (I don't need to go into detail). That is surely a serious health-hazard?
2. If you're lucky, in most outlets, you will get around 10 seconds to 'finish your business' before the toilet soaks your backside. This is kinda stressful. If they are trying to get you to you leave the cubicle ASAP, they could at last allow you a decent 30 seconds before drenching you.

The irony of all this is that when you HAVE actually finished, and get up the leave the cubicle, the toilet won't flush! And you then spend ages waving your hand in front of the detector to get it to do so. I guess it just flushes when the next unsuspecting user turns around to bolt the door, or starts breathing?

Two of SG's worst offenders:
1. The Icon village at Tanjong Pagar. These overzealous toilets are clothes-soakers. Grim! I had to throw my outfit into an extra-hot wash that night at home. But I still had to work for an afternoon wearing it first! And you'll get just 4 seconds before these latrines immerse you.
2. Paragon mall on Orchard Road. These look lovely and posh. But you'll only get 7 seconds before they soak you. (Yes, I have got so exasperated with this whole scenario I started counting for this bog blog!)

What is the solution to this? Obviously the technology needs reworking. But perhaps as users we need to carry Post-it notes and see if covering the sensor allows us to sit in peace, with non-sewage-drenched backsides and clothing?? Or simply stop using public toilets?

The Eco Issue
How many litres of fresh water are wasted in this endless, pointless flush-nothing scenario? Apart from the water over-expenditure during normal use, some people do use toilet cubicles for other legal activities like changing clothes. In the absence of changing-rooms, I used to use a toilet cubicle to change into my Gi for an after-work martial arts class. I put the toilet seat down. I never sat on the toilet, even with the seat down. And during my standing, quick-change, the toilet managed to flush itself 17 times. SEVENTEEN! That's around 102 litres of water for an average appliance! And to think all of our club used these cubicles for quick-changing, four times a week.... In a properly working (or even traditional, old fashioned) system, these cubicles would not have been flushed once.

And in Singapore, a country famed for not even having its own fresh water sources, the use of this 'crap' technology seems ludicrously wasteful. (It would be anywhere).

A real case of superficial appeal over functionality or hygiene. :(




Photo courtesy Freeexistence.org

Nosh of the Day: mobile Tiong Bahru satay

My first place of residence in Singapore was the now deeply trendy Tiong Bahru district. And one of my favourite SE Asian foods of all time is the Satay. So it was with some interest that I once or twice during my stay caught glimpses of a Satay-man, wheeling his mobile BBQ cart around Tiong Bahru. But I'd never seen him serving food; let alone managed to find him to buy any. The mobile roadside vendor is the old way of eating Satay. And often you'll get the tastiest food there. But this type of vendor is becoming increasingly rare.

For those who have not already tried it, Satay is the term used to describe skewers of marinated meat (usually chicken or beef) and a little fat, deliciously grilled over a flame, and served with a unique sweet/spicy peanut sauce. It can also come with chunks of cucumber and/or onion and, in Malaysia at least, cubes of compressed rice known as 'ketupat'. You basically dip everything in the sauce and it's really, really yum. However, while you'll probably find Satay on many menus in SE Asia, it is incredibly rare to find the real thing. Hotels even in Kuala Lumpur will offer up strange 'healthy' Western style chunks of meat alongside an insipid paste posing as spicy peanut sauce, and probably try to charge you $1 per stick (outrageous!). Popular Hawker Centres might offer something a step up, but still charge stupid prices. The best vendors are nearly always the little guys - whether they are mobile or not. They'll have delicious secret recipes, charge a good price and you'll need a trusted local to find you one.

Satay is originally Indonesian. But you can find damn good ones in Malaysia too. Despite searching, I'd yet to find anything decent in Singapore.

Searching the (empty) back-streets...

So this weekend a friend and I decided to go on a hunt for the Tiong Bahru Satay-man. And after a wander about the likely back-streets of the area - we found him!! I could hardly believe it! It had taken nearly two years to locate this elusive Satay-man!

Spotted!!!

Of course, there was already a queue there, so we had to wait a while for our order. These Satays were different, however. They were pork Satay (Malaysia / Indonesia are predominantly Muslim so pork is never used; but this vendor was Chinese) and this sauce was a mix of a peanut sauce and pureed pineapple (normal for pork Satay I'm told). There were no ketupat on the side, only cucumber chunks.

The verdict: they were really, really good. Different from the Malay version I know and love, but just as tasty in a different way. There was quite a generous portion of chargrilled meat on each stick, and the sauce for this style was more fruity-sweet than spicy. But that worked with the pork. All in all, a very successful Sunday outing!

 







PS If you want to try to find Satay-man, today he was by one of the walkways, right between Tiong Bahru market and the main bus-stop heading West/towards Delta. We started looking at 5pm and found him at maybe 5.45pm (ie early for dinner). Good luck!