Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!

Saturday the 24th of October was a good day for us! Francesca had previously found a brochure for supposedly one of the city's finest, but definitely one of its most unique Indian restaurants. Lagnaa is a barefoot dining restaurant, which basically means it has been stripped of any chairs, so you're eating whilst sitting on your behind. Makes it look cool and saves the owners a bit of money, whilst they can advertise a unique dining experience. Smart!

When we got to Lagnaa, we took our flip-flops off, and headed upstairs. The owner's wife followed us and we got our menus. Francesca, true to her butter chicken indeed opted for butter chicken. I tend to be a little bit more adventurous and chose to try some dish the chef recommended. In addition to this we got to pick our spice level. The spice levels go from 1 to 10, with 1 being very mild and 10 being a nuclear attack on your mouth. Francesca wanted level 1; I went with level 2. Our side dish, as usual was naan: one garlic naan and one cheese and chili naan, recommended to us by the wife's owner. As for our drinks, we went for a lime and a strawberry yogurt drink. Francesca wasn't too excited about this, but once she tried the drink she was sold.



The food was absolutely fantastic! Francesca loved her butter chicken, and my dish was great too. I found it a little spicy, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. The naan was a different story altogether. The cheese and chili naan had been divided into 3 parts, one looking green, one green and red and the last one fully red. Neither of us had noticed this, and I happily ate one of the 3, which happened to be the green one. It was a little bit spicy, but it went down fine. Francesca then took a bite of a different piece, and felt a sudden pang in her ear. I didn't think it could be that bad, so started chewing some of that strip down. In fact, I ate more than half before I felt a sudden heat in my mouth. And then... I spent 30 minutes drinking as much water as I could to take away the burn. OMG! SO HOT! We asked the wife afterward, and she admitted that that piece of naan had spice level 6. No wonder...

Anyway, we also found a sign on the wall that invited us to come to the Chili Challenge on the 2nd of November. Apparently, some nut had already made it to spice level 9 and was maybe coming back to become the sultan of spices, by eating a level 10 dish. Francesca and I also signed up for free food-tasting, which we would be notified of via e-mail. Cool!

After Lagnaa we headed for Farrer Park MRT-station to go to City Hall and some of its surrounding museums. We found some neat houses whilst finding a shortcut to the station. It's bizarre to see how some houses look so rundown, whilst others have still managed to retain their authentic and colorful looks.



Francesca had really wanted to see Peranakan Museum the other day, and so we returned to fulfill her wish. Walking towards said museum we found a cool exhibition in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry on the “Nanqiao Jigong: The Extraordinary Story of Nanyang Drivers and Mechanics Who Returned to China During the Sino-Japanese War.” How does that sound? Basically, they had one auditorium set up with pictures and explanations which we could walk through. It explained in detail how some Singaporean Chinese voluntarily went back to China to help the cause, and how many of them never returned. The whole exhibit was well put together, and we both read all the stories, leaving quite impressed with a bundle of new information.



Across the street from the Chamber of Commerce we found, once again, the Armenian Church. This time we actually entered and took a look around inside. To be honest, not too impressive, but being the oldest church in Singapore, kind of a must-see. We paid our respects and continued onwards to the Peranakan Museum.





I know you are wondering who or what Peranakans are? "Peranakan" means 'child of' or 'born of' in Malay. This term is used to refer to a person of mixed ethnic origins. My Francesca is a Peranakan! Peranakans can be found all over South-East Asia, but this particular museums focused on the Straits Chinese Peranakans, mostly born of Chinese traders/seamen that stayed in Singapore after their job, marrying local women and taking their traditions and culture with them.

The museum had 7 different galleries, with each showcasing different aspects of Peranakan life: Origins, Wedding, Nonya, Religion, Public Life, Food & Feasting and Conversations. Silly us, we skipped the first floor which had the Origins exhibit and went straight up to the top floor... which ensured we did not find out who the Peranakans were until the very end. Go us!

The exhibits were really interesting though. Peranakan weddings and funerals were particularly interesting to explore, because the mix of both cultures' traditions make for very interesting procedures. Weddings last 12 days, with the final day being the most important. Here is some more information about the process:

"In Chinese custom, adulthood and marriage were closely linked; one is not truly an adult unless married. Chiu Thau was therefore a coming-of-age ceremony in which the bride and the bridegroom were initiated into adulthood and told of their duties and responsibilities to their deities, ancestors, parents and future children. This important step into adulthood was taken in front of the guardian deity of the house -- Ting Kong, the ancestors, parents and elders of the family. This ceremony was especially significant for the bride as she had to be virginal. As such she could only experience the chiu thau once in her life. A man, on the other hand, can go through this ceremony again as he could marry more than once. Timing was important for the chiu thau ceremony; it took place on the first day of the 12 day wedding, at a carefully chosen auspicious hour, sometime between midnight and sun-rise."



The food, too, evolved in a unique way: it is mainly Chinese cuisine that has been modified with local and European influences. Many Peranakan women of the past were very skillful cooks, and they modified their traditional recipes to suit the tastes of their family. Nowadays, more and more Peranakan restaurants are popping up, because of their unique dishes and recipes.



After spending a few hours in the Museum we headed for our next stop: a walking tour on the general history of Singapore, which would start at 6:30PM outside the Asian Civilizations Museum. It took us a good 20 minutes to walk down to the Singapore River, which also happened to be the original landing spot of Sir Stamford Raffles. On our way down we also walked past the Singapore Freemasonry Headquarters and the Parliament of Singapore. Old school architecture with skyscrapers in the background made for an interesting composition.



We were a little early, so Francesca and I decided to sit down for a drink. A Sprite later Francesca was ready to rumble once again, and thus we headed for the entrance of the Asian Civilizations Museum. Only to find... no tour guides, again! I asked inside to see if they knew what was going on. One of the kind ladies behind the counter passed me a brochure and after inspecting it for a while I realized their website had been outdated and the tour had been replaced. At least we had an up-to-date list of their tours now!

Francesca and I sat around for a while and looked at one of the oldest bridges in Singapore, which was called the "Cavenagh Bridge." On the other side of the river we found an awesome piece of art. Apparently, kids used to play here by jumping in the water. Francesca pretended to be pushing one of the kids in, which made for a great picture! It was getting dark outside, so we decided to head back to our hostel and grab some food. When we got back to Lavender MRT-station we found a little place that sold mini-pancakes with many different flavors. We picked up 7 of them: 2 cheese, 1 blueberry, 1 chocolate, 1 peanut butter, 1 kaya, and 1 pineapple cookie for me! Francesca describes them as thick, inflatable pancakes with the flavor centered. They proved to be a very good snack whilst watching some Gossip Girl and we fell asleep soon after.



On Sunday we woke up refreshed. Again, we planned to check out a museum today. Last time we were in Kampong Glam we had wanted to see the Malay Heritage Center, so Francesca and I walked through little India on our way to Kampong Glam. We were halted on the way there by a strange blue bag, which someone said had been left there. Guess what was inside? A whole stack of frogs! Poor creatures...



The rest of our walk there was smooth, and soon we were walking around in the Malay Heritage Center, a museum dedicated to the Malay people and their history. The building wasn’t huge, but it contained plenty information. We saw paintings of Malay warships of the Bugis people fighting the Dutch V.O.C. (East Indies Company). We learned how the Malay people got spread out over South-East Asia and how much the rise of Singapore in the Asian trade world influenced and propelled their culture.





Francesca and I then learned about the Malay film industry, which we knew absolutely nothing about. Apparently, the Malay films were huge in the 1950s and 1960s. We saw some examples and felt the world hasn’t missed out.

Much more interesting was a lesson on making a “Malay house in 10 easy steps.” The houses are raised, due to the large amounts of rain. Neat! If anyone needs one of them, I can help out for sure! We also got to walk through a Malay house, which Francesca in particular found very interesting. She tried some of the outfits hanging around, and suddenly looked very local.







Once outside, we walked around the large garden in front of the center for a while. A garden of scent called us over and had us indulge in its amazing aromas. Francesca insisted I smell the curry leaf – which indeed, smelled just like the strong scent of curry spice. We also found a life-size Bugis ship stranded next to a miniature of a West Sumatran palace. Yes, all right next to each other.





Next stop: Bugis MRT station. We had read that Bugis Junction was famous for its large amount of shops in a small area, with good deals to be had. Indeed, the place was huge and had a lot to offer. I almost lost Francesca at the entrance to the “Everlast Calendar Competition,” with Asian boys wrestling arms and showing off Everlast-gear. Eventually I managed to drag her off! Inside the Junction we found quite a few stores that were to our liking. Francesca almost got to try the new purple iPod for free, but had to be a Singapore citizen to try it for free for a few hours. We found a really cool purple dress, but weren’t wholly sure whether we should buy it, so we left it for now and decided to think it over first.



We also ate at Bugis because Francesca found mini Hamburgers. She even got American flags in them! I wasn’t feeling that hungry and grabbed a smoothie from across the restaurant instead. We headed back to the hostel after this, being pretty tired and with big plans for the following day.

Indeed, because we had decided to go to Singapore’s resort island Sentosa on Monday. We knew getting there was really cheap, and we could pay for any attractions separately. Late in the morning we jumped on the MRT to the Harbor front and then walked around the giant mall we found here. We knew we were going to spend the whole day at Sentosa, so I suggested we’d read up on our Indonesia-knowledge and make some plans in a bookstore, with Lonely Planets in hand.

After taking some pictures of the Lonely Planet (naughty us!) Francesca and I bought our tickets for Sentosa and the “Songs of the Sea” show, a water and light spectacle that Francesca did not want to miss. The first sight we came across was the “Merlion,” a creature half fish and half lion that symbolizes Singapore’s (Lion City) connection with the sea. The giant statue obviously wanted to have its picture taken, and when a photographer offered to put us in the photo whilst using our camera, we did not say no.



We walked up the hill next to the Merlion for a nice view of Singapore and its skyscrapers. The top of the hill was also the home of the ‘Images of Singapore’ Museum. We bought our tickets, but wanted to eat something first. Subway it was! With a snack in our stomachs we felt ready for our next informative walk and entered. We found ourselves in a waiting room for a short introductory movie and played around with some of the props. Five minutes later the show started and the video gave us an impression of what was to come, touching on the history of Singapore and the current state of the country.



The building was absolutely enormous, and completely covered in displays of scenes of life in Singapore from the earliest recorded times. The first half of the museum solely focused on telling the history of Singapore, whilst the second half had the different cultures in Singapore as its focal point. Francesca and I read pretty much every single information sign along the way and learned a lot more about the history of the city and its people.

We learnt how the dense jungles of Singapore, then called Temasek, had become a trading hub in the 14th century. We read how the city grew in the centuries to come, and attracted more and more Asians and eventually Europeans. We saw how unschooled, unskilled Chinese youngsters tried to make a living for themselves in the Promised Land at the end of the 19th century, but failed and became known as coolies, pullers of rickshaws, the carts that functioned as the public transport of that day. They lived horrible lives, working long hours for little pay and succumbing to opium.



Reaching the harbor, we both tried our hands on lifting heavy crates and succeeded due to our healthy diet, relentless training and sheer willpower. Francesca also climbed on a rickshaw, and pretended to be a wealthy Singaporean (just imagine a coolie there). Another interesting group we came across was the Indonesians. We saw how the puppetry that is so famous in Indonesia also found its way to Singapore, where it was known as ‘Wayang.’









Back on the history track we found ourselves surrounded by gunshots and artillery fire; we had walked into an exhibit on Singapore during the occupation. Singapore was taken by the Japanese and many Singaporeans had to work for them. Francesca and I learnt that the war wasn’t all bad for the Singaporeans: in the years after the war the call for independence became stronger and stronger, and eventually led to independence in the 1950s.



As I mentioned before, the fact that Singapore became a home for so many different people from all over the globe and all walks of life, led to a unique mix of cultures. We learnt more about the Peranakans, Hokkien, Indians and Malay that live in Singapore, and saw what festivals they celebrate, which gods and goddesses they honor, which traditions they continued and modified, all the while stepping into the scenes and taking pictures of each other.























After four hours spent inside Francesca and I decided it was time to soak up a little sun outside. We knew there was a free walk through the surrounding jungle and so we explored the boardwalks of Sentosa, stopped at a waterfall along the way and ended up on the beach. Apparently, Sentosa is a retreat for locals and foreigners alike as we saw locals playing beach volleyball and foreigners bathing in the dirty sea. We strolled along the beach and some of the smaller islands just off the coast, looking at the traffic out on the sea and a slowly setting sun.









Along the way we sat down for a while near a ‘Flowrider;’ a non-stop artificial wave, ideal for learning how to surf. We saw some guys doing cool stunts and others stumbling and falling. Quite amusing! The sun was about to set fully, so we knew it was almost time for “Songs of the Sea” and therefore we made our way to the amphitheater. We saw a large queue in front of us and feared we’d have to stand in line forever, but then I spotted a deserted side entrance and comfortably walked in there. Whilst Francesca guarded our awesome seats right at the front I walked back and got Francesca her hotdogs and nachos: dinner and a show!





As the performance got started, Francesca and I looked at each other: what the hell! There were about seven kids running around on the sand in front of us, obviously lip-synching some horrible songs. Apparently, a beautiful girl had been taken away by some evil forces and only one kid named ‘Lee’ had the power the save her, with his voice. We were not impressed at all. Luckily enough for us, it was all about to change: enormous rays of water shot up from the little houses in the distance and images were projected on them.





As the story progressed the show got more and more spectacular: there were explosions on the beach and the projections really seemed to come alive. Whilst Lee battled evil with his songs lasers shot through the water and just when all hope seemed lost Lee saved the day. The finale of the show was brilliant: fireworks and explosions on the beach and in the distance; water shooting over 50 meters into the air and a really neat lightshow. A great end to a great day!