My buddy Tambourine Man has this to say on the Singapore Sling series:
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I left Singapore because I wanted a change of scenery; but I hate it (and that's a carefully chosen word) when people say Singapore does not have much beyond its plastic-shopping-mall-clean-street-good-cops-and-no-robbers front... It's like saying Delhi is full of snobs and Delhiites dont make good friends... Just to throw a few examples, Singapore has a holiday resort for pets (not a very common thing,and a really exciting place to visit)... I once visited a turtle collector in Singapore who has the world's largest collection of turtles (which makes more sense once you dig into the Chinese fascination for turtles and the good luck they bring) and so on and so forth... Even Sentosa has a history far beyond the plastic face they sell to tourists... Its original name was Pulau Belakang Mati, which means "Island of Death from Behind" (read more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentosa which gives some vague explanations... More interesting stories about Sentosa can be found in the book "Final Notes from a Great Island" by Neil Humphreys)... I used to believe all the usual cliches about Singapore for a long time... But now I think Singapore is an exciting city if you dig a bit deep and start understanding the local people in the remote corners of the island (trust me, they are different from the orchard road shoppers)... so next time, go to a coffee shop in some non-touristy part... and start talking to people there (they will talk if u say you are a writer from BBC)... it's great fun..
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Interesting stuff!!
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1 comment:
1) I was wondering why you did not reply to my email... And I'm still wondering what your response is :P (A Brtish friend once told me that words like 'Interesting' and 'Impressive' mean different things in different continents)
2) I did not watch Lake House, coz a lot people told me it was a chick flick. And now I read your post and felt like shit (pardon my French, but I guess 'felt like shit' expresses my emotion better than the Queen's version - 'felt miserable')... Man, I have huge respect for people who can watch movies and cry, and accept it. You should watch 'Little Miss Sunshine'. Am sure SQ would have it.
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