Singapore Revisited

Day two in Singapore. In the morning we took a walk in the Pasir Ris park. It was breezy and the weather was conducive, with an overshadowed sun, for a walk. The park is big. I understand that people from other parts of Singapore come to the park as well and it can get pretty crowded over the weekends. There are bicycle tracks with bicycles for rent and various park facilities. It is a properly designed park. There is a long boardwalk meandering over a mangrove swamp within the park. The park is also by the sea, part of which overlooks the Straits of Johore and the Southeast part of the state.

We took the boardwalk. It was nice. The boardwalk itself is designed with benches and overhead roofs at various locations for people to sit and rest. The tide was low, hence we could see various little creatures and crustaceans in mud holes or crawling in the mud, mudskippers dominating. The sounds of birds, insects, crickets and others dominate the quiet morning air and surroundings. I spied a pair of yellow bird with streaks of white and black under their belly perched on a tree not too far away from me but flew away as I approached. I also spied rubbish strewn all over the swamp, paper wrappers, plastic bottles, plastic sheets and bags, fizzy drink cans and a myriad of other staff. I pointed these to Ram and she just shrugged her shoulders, with that ‘Ahh … what’s new’ look on her face. We spent close to two hours walking in the park and it was quite invigorating.

Later in the morning we took the MRT and went to Orchard Road, the main shopping street, and browse around in the shopping outlets. All the outlets were on sale and the throng of people in all the outlets was just overwhelming. Its crowds everywhere. Most of the payment counters have queues of people waiting to pay for their purchases. Ram only bought one or two items she fancied. There was no need for us to buy anything because firstly, we do not need anything new and secondly the discounted prices of most of the items, after currency exchange are still more expensive than back home. So we joined the fun of shopping without buying, but for me it was really people watching, behaviours and antics of some, shoppers as well as salespersons!!

I spied a young couple, well dressed, the man carrying the shopping bags, two or three in each hand, while the young woman picked up a blouse, placed it on her chest, looked at him and then put it back. She picked another, did the same and put it back. Then she moved on to another section of the shop, picked a dress, placed it in front of herself, looked at him and put it back. All the time he has a blank look on his face!! I would put the couple as one who have been married for about two years, still childless, having all the time in the world and the money to shop while having no inkling of what to buy.

I spied a lady, in jeans and blouse, big bag slung on one shoulder, browsing in the children section, picking and selecting children t-shirts and gowns. I thought to myself she cannot be alone. I looked around and yes, I saw an elderly couple nearby with the man pushing a stroller. Ah ha…… you got it. Much like Sita, Ram and me when we went shopping on Christmas day!! The new mum wants to have a free hand at shopping while grandma and grandpa tag along with the baby in tow, only difference was that her baby was still stroller bound, while Najla drives the stroller instead of riding it!! I cannot find anyone else in this family, so I guess the woman’s husband must have found a good excuse for not going shopping with her. Give another two years and the young couple I mentioned earlier will be like this one!!

I spied another couple, the lady well endowed and rounded!! The man follows her around, helped her even, while she does the picking and browsing. Then two young girls came by, not teenaged yet I guess, with one showing a pair of jeans to the man. He appears to give approval and the girls tagged along behind them. I envisage that this is a middle class family, husband the homely type, wife a full time homemaker and children do reasonably well in school.

Then came three ladies of various ages, very well dressed and decked with the so-called ‘generics’ talking in a language distinctly foreign. I cocked my ear to catch what language and deduced that it is Tagalong. They looked Phillipino too. Between them they were carrying a few shopping bags. I put my guess that these ladies are not foreign workers but wives of businessmen whose husband are either at work or playing golf somewhere with their Singapore counterparts.

Ram? She was browsing all the time. There was this section of leather bags in one of the outlets. Bins and bins and racks upon racks of leather bags of all shapes, colours and sizes were laid out for people to choose from. There were perhaps a few thousand leather items. They dedicated two payment counters for this section alone. Ram checked out every bin and browsed all the handbags on racks. I guess there were just too many choices because she ended up walking out of the outlet not buying any!! Or perhaps these leather items were not even ‘generic’. It could have been different if they were real ‘branded’.

I also visited the restroom, not to check it but out of necessity. I spied a reasonably clean restroom and modern facilities but there was a bowl not flushed in spite of auto flush system, tissues and stuff missing the rubbish bins when the bins were not even full. I thought it is because the place is frequented by many shoppers and people of all sorts of nationalities, not just Singaporeans. But then the rubbish bins at the Pasir Ris mall, a suburb, also appeared the same!! One set of recycling bin there also appeared to overflow or was it again stuff missing their targeted bins, I wonder……

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya