Singapore Sling
Dear friends, I write you from the moneyed island of Singapore. I decided on Singapore as an initial destination over Bangkok, worried that a month and a half of living passively in the Philippines with my family had left my wits slightly addled and atrophied. So Singapore seemed like a good compromise (My aunt had been advising me to go to Singapore instead of Bangkok, because it's clean and they speak English there). I finally got off my ass and bought a ticket to get here by Chinese New year, the new moon on February 18, having found out that it's the Year of the Pig, which is my cycle, a very fitting time for generous upheavel and new experiences. I flew the day after Valentine's Day--and honestly it would have not been so bad staying with my family for 2 months like I originally claimed (What the hell are you going to do for 2 months!). As much as I complain about my parents (I'll be posting the entries on what all happened in the Philippines later), I realized how much I missed them as soon as I said goodbye and boarded that plain out of Laoag and had to wait around the Manila airport for 2 hours not a familiar face in sight--oh lonely lonely world.
So I arrived in Singapore at dusk, flying in you could see all the rectilinear developments, buildings like the ones that that German guy photograps can't remember his name--the mute hysteria of the Grid. The airport runway was immaculate, the medians manicured like bowling greens. All the signage in the airport effortlessly corraled me through customs, the money exchange, and directly to the metro. The ez link cards, you just tap on the turnstyle regardless of orientation. The trains are all virgin New York subways, scentless and spotless. If it weren't so clean I could have easily imagined I was on my way to some far stop in Queens, the riders being mostly Indian and Chinese. I climbed out of Bugis station where there were a lot of budget hotels and guest houses, it was already dark. I had planned to try the New 7th Story Hotel, but didn't realize I was on the wrong street having got out of the wrong exit and misoriented my idea of Singapore by 90 degrees. I was blocks away when I finally realized and consulted my guide book. I crossed the street to head back to the station, passed an indian man who muttered something to me about american dollar. I quickened my pace, determined to reorient myself. There were sidewalk tents set up for vendors, and I think it was one of the tethering wires that I tripped over. efore I knew what was happening, the extra 9 kilos on my back made me hit the pavement with a loud crack (I'm guessing since my cheekbone wasn't fractured, it was the sound of my teeth slamming closed, my swollen lip proof), landing on my right cheekbone and biting my upper lip. I quickly got up and looked to see that no one had noticed, that side of the street being mostly empty. I continued my way to the station and then things got kind of fuzzy. I remember feeling my lip and cheek swell, but I dabbed a napkin and there didn't seem to be too much blood. As far as I can tell I never blacked out or got nauseous, but the details are like trying to remember a dream. I vaguely remember passing restaurants and offices and getting paranoid that I fucked up my head and thought I'm going to turn into a street person, this is how it happens. At some point I was trying to remember things and couldn't remember if my parents were still alive, couldn't remember that I had just left them in the Philippines. One of my last thoughts, shit I think I'm in trouble. Somehow though I managed to find my way to the Raffles Hospital, a huge private hospital a block from Bugis station--I can't remember though how I managed to steer my way there, must have been on auto pilot. The person at the front desk immediately asked me if I needed a policeman (I thought is my face that battered) but I suddenly recalled falling and told him there was no crime. As I waited in the examination room for a doctor my head slowly rebooted and remembered that I had been in the Philippines since January. So they did a CT scan and found no hemmorhaging, no sign of a concussion, and the cuts on my face just superficial abrasions (looks like I tried to scratch my eye out with a small-tined fork. So my first night in Singapore was in a 4-bed room in the Raffles Hospital (a venerable private hospital, I assume linked to the four-star Raffles Hotel. Civic safety and orderliness being job one in this country and leave it to me to find a way to fall and break my face barely an hour into my stay. Oh well, the service and food at the hospital were excellent and prices are high this weekend in most place anyway because of Chinese New Year. As I write this I still have a slight headache--on the wrong side of my head--I'm still swollen and earlier this morning had trouble reading a map and calculating my hotel fee, I had trouble convincing myself that 8 x 7 is indeed 56. Anyway I want to take this episode as pre-disastering measures, leaving the rest of my journeys as safe and calm as lavendar, and not as some lunar new year portent of more headaches. I'm sure and the good doctors are sure that I'm okay, but you'll tell me, won't you if you discern any change in my personality.
So I arrived in Singapore at dusk, flying in you could see all the rectilinear developments, buildings like the ones that that German guy photograps can't remember his name--the mute hysteria of the Grid. The airport runway was immaculate, the medians manicured like bowling greens. All the signage in the airport effortlessly corraled me through customs, the money exchange, and directly to the metro. The ez link cards, you just tap on the turnstyle regardless of orientation. The trains are all virgin New York subways, scentless and spotless. If it weren't so clean I could have easily imagined I was on my way to some far stop in Queens, the riders being mostly Indian and Chinese. I climbed out of Bugis station where there were a lot of budget hotels and guest houses, it was already dark. I had planned to try the New 7th Story Hotel, but didn't realize I was on the wrong street having got out of the wrong exit and misoriented my idea of Singapore by 90 degrees. I was blocks away when I finally realized and consulted my guide book. I crossed the street to head back to the station, passed an indian man who muttered something to me about american dollar. I quickened my pace, determined to reorient myself. There were sidewalk tents set up for vendors, and I think it was one of the tethering wires that I tripped over. efore I knew what was happening, the extra 9 kilos on my back made me hit the pavement with a loud crack (I'm guessing since my cheekbone wasn't fractured, it was the sound of my teeth slamming closed, my swollen lip proof), landing on my right cheekbone and biting my upper lip. I quickly got up and looked to see that no one had noticed, that side of the street being mostly empty. I continued my way to the station and then things got kind of fuzzy. I remember feeling my lip and cheek swell, but I dabbed a napkin and there didn't seem to be too much blood. As far as I can tell I never blacked out or got nauseous, but the details are like trying to remember a dream. I vaguely remember passing restaurants and offices and getting paranoid that I fucked up my head and thought I'm going to turn into a street person, this is how it happens. At some point I was trying to remember things and couldn't remember if my parents were still alive, couldn't remember that I had just left them in the Philippines. One of my last thoughts, shit I think I'm in trouble. Somehow though I managed to find my way to the Raffles Hospital, a huge private hospital a block from Bugis station--I can't remember though how I managed to steer my way there, must have been on auto pilot. The person at the front desk immediately asked me if I needed a policeman (I thought is my face that battered) but I suddenly recalled falling and told him there was no crime. As I waited in the examination room for a doctor my head slowly rebooted and remembered that I had been in the Philippines since January. So they did a CT scan and found no hemmorhaging, no sign of a concussion, and the cuts on my face just superficial abrasions (looks like I tried to scratch my eye out with a small-tined fork. So my first night in Singapore was in a 4-bed room in the Raffles Hospital (a venerable private hospital, I assume linked to the four-star Raffles Hotel. Civic safety and orderliness being job one in this country and leave it to me to find a way to fall and break my face barely an hour into my stay. Oh well, the service and food at the hospital were excellent and prices are high this weekend in most place anyway because of Chinese New Year. As I write this I still have a slight headache--on the wrong side of my head--I'm still swollen and earlier this morning had trouble reading a map and calculating my hotel fee, I had trouble convincing myself that 8 x 7 is indeed 56. Anyway I want to take this episode as pre-disastering measures, leaving the rest of my journeys as safe and calm as lavendar, and not as some lunar new year portent of more headaches. I'm sure and the good doctors are sure that I'm okay, but you'll tell me, won't you if you discern any change in my personality.
posted by JGLuzifer at 11:14 PM
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