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From a Pacific island
June 26, 2007 | 29 Comments
comes today’s postcard.
Our Postcards Series is about extending a handshake across cyberspace. Read about it here.
Please accord a warm welcome to our guest contributors. They will try to respond to comments and questions.
The more we learn about this multi-facted gal, the more amazed we are. Shilpa of Flog and Rosbif is ethnically Chinese, grew up in Singapore, married a Frenchman, “lekin mann hai bilkool hindustani”. She claims to be Indian at heart, and has been besotted by Indian music, films and culture for as long as she remembers.
Shilpa (not her real name) is fluent in several Asian and European languages, including Chinese, French and English, and can read and write Tamil and Hindi. She works as a translator and lives in Lille, France with her husband and four-year old son. As she explains, “I go by the name of Shilpa on my blog, because I balance an Indian persona alongside a Singaporean, Chinese and French one!”
In this postcard, she focuses on Singapore’s architecture, especially its endangered low-rise structures.
Mention Singapore and notions of censorship, harsh corporal and pecuniary punishments and all manner of restriction irresistibly roll off a few cynical tongues. Those tongues are not necessarily off the mark, but there is much more to Singapore than its inhibitions and surely a nation that has managed to pull off the harmony hat trick in the face of its cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity must be getting something right somewhere… besides, look at the average Singaporean and you realise that he leads a pretty normal unencumbered existence – he wines, dines, and oh, does he dine!
I expect most of you reading this to be food bloggers like Jai, Bee and me, and possibly waiting with notepads ready to jot down a recipe, but I’ll come clean now that I don’t intend to include any! You have to understand, food is the topic of some very heated debates in Singapore and factions are known to form over what the national dishes are supposed to be (how can there be just one?), so I don’t intend to incur any flaming for saying the wrong thing! Also, with chilli crab , laksa and chicken rice often being tossed up as specimens of Singaporean cuisine, I’m not sure how appealing it is to the many vegetarians I know who come here, and yet, I have difficulty coming up with signature Singaporean dishes that do not involve bloodshed.
Instead, I’ll dedicate this postcard to an endangered species in Singapore – the low-rise building. They didn’t mean much to me until they started disappearing in my childhood, and when I gradually saw less and less sunlight over the years despite being so close to the Equator, it dawned on me that in the same way our buildings were growing in height, our population was pullulating in numbers.
Thankfully, short buildings of historical value were spared the bulldozer and in most cases, given extensive makeovers. Take for instance, what we now call One Fullerton, a luxury hotel.
As late as the 80s, I still remember accompanying an aunt there to pay bills when it was still the General Post Office!
Would you believe rickshaws once ruled these streets? Originally known as the Jinrikisha Station when it was built at the beginning of the previous century, you guessed it, this building used to be a terminus of sorts for rickshaw pullers. Having gone through the inescapable rite of passage as a restaurant that almost all pre-war buildings in Singapore undergo, it now houses a karaoke nightclub for warblers night and day.
Rickshaws may be a thing of the past, but if you look in the right places, you will still be able to find the odd trishaw.
Boat Quay – once a loading bay for coolies and a cradle of dysentery – is the perfect example of the rite of passage I mentioned above. It happens to be one of my favourite places to go to unwind not least for its eclectic architecture and wide choice of eating nooks but also for the general feeling of inclusiveness it gives out.
No write-up about Singapore is complete without delving into its cultural diversity. The majority of its population being ethnic Chinese does not exclude the need for a Chinatown, one of the districts with the highest concentration of these vestiges of the good old days – shophouses.
While this is not exactly a scene from the Malay enclave, it is an important symbol for most Singaporean Malays, most of whom are Muslims. This is the Masjid Sultan, which has been gazetted as a national monument.
I apologise for not having images of buildings here, but there is also a Little India in Singapore , where I took this photo of assorted mithai.
I’ll sign off this postcard with the kind of picture I don’t see enough of on physical postcards – the juxtaposition of old and new, something I have a weakness for. I’m not sure how long it will be before the government decides that these shophouses are a liability, but I’m hoping that day never comes.
(Unless otherwise indicated, all pictures have been taken by Shilpa of Flog and Rosbif with the help of Victor.)
History of Singapore
Singapore Cuisine
Singapore Festivals
This is the concluding postcard in our regular Wednesday series. We will post more postcards as and when we receive them.
Filed Under: architecture, lifestyle, low-rise, MUSINGS, Postcards, Singapore, TRAVEL
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29 Comments
Great picture with nice writing…..Lots of things you share…….I think visit once at Singapore…..:)
Wow!
Brought back all memories of our visit to Singapore in 2000.. Didn’t have a digital camera then..but I do have some good old fashioned photos.
Good info with nice pictures. Viji
If we try hard enough, we can find ways to preserve things we value…hopefully, we value our history and all its layers.
A beautiful concluding postcard – thanks, Shilpa, Bee, and Jai.
Oh just wonderful. A wonderful postcard and thanks to Shilpa!
aw… pretty postcard and very nice write up… thank u shilpa, bee and jai
That’s me, that’s meeeee!!
Thanks everyone, and Jai & Bee, your photos are really something else! I’d never have guessed they were taken in my beloved concrete jungle! Two thumbs up!
hey, shilpa, that last ‘old and new pic’ should be blown up and sold online for a big price tag. it is awesome. i loved your focus on architecture. – b.
I am so sorry if some of the photos contributed by us showed the skies of Singapore as overcast and even rainy. I would like to assure your readers that Singapore’s weather is actually sunny most of the year. And yes, it is a fun place to live in as well as to visit. Do make a stopover when you are in this part of the world.
the pics are fantastic. it’s an island after all – the weather turns before the traffic camera can blink
–Jai
Woot! Yeah!!! That’s Singapore! Nice photos and write-up, shilpa!
Awesome job, Shilpa! Great writing, great pictures, and a really deft summary of a nation — something which I think is so difficult to do. To describe a country you know so well in so few words, and yet capture the essential spirit of it — wow! Keep up the good work, girl!
Hey Shilpa, that brought back mmories of my trip there last year! Beautiful place I say!!
Wow! Great work Shilpa!
Jai,Bee, Shilpa’s really an interesting person ya!
Bee! this post card series is a gem. Shilpa that was a wonderful writeup. You brought Clean and Beautiful too! Singapore before our eyes. Lovely.
Hello Bee & Jai,
Been a regular visitor to your site for quite some time now and thought I should express my appreciation of your brilliant blog. Its a wonderful jugalbandi you’ve got here and this postcard series in particular is a creative idea. Now when I get my hands onto some cooking too.. will let you know. Thks for sharing.
Thank you Angela. That means a lot.
Yesterday we were talking about visiting Singapore!!We will one day.Beautiful picture.It’s sounds almost like mini India!:))
I am still on vacation,however I posted some photos for you to guess where I am! Can you guess it?!Hmm..!!!;D
you’re in nashville. i read it in your comments section.
have fun. – b.
Hi!
Pics are very nice!!! Vinayagar temple is very good!
Shilpa, did you take those pics ? They arre awesome….as Himesh would have said “Mind Blowing”
beautiful pictures
What a beautiful postcard! I have always been fascinated by Singapore….and I do love its name. Thanks Shilpa, Jai and Bee!
I hope to see more postcards..this is a fantastic series.
trupti
Thanks bee for your comment on my blog and adding me to your blogroll….Yeah I recently started blogging and its been a lot of fun so far! I am just amazed at the creative and resourceful blogs out there….on that note, I am adding you guys to my blogroll!
Beautiful Pix!!!
Lovely post – makes me want to visit S’pore double quick. Esp love the old and new photo and the rainy look.
Those are lovely photos!!! I was in singapore a couple of yrs back and was thinking of those good old days when reading ur post.
such beautiful pictures, esp. of the temple. I got to know so much about Shilpa. Thanks to Bee and Jai for such a wonderful postcard series.
You guys are just fantastic bee and J, Lov u guys. This postcard series is just soo great – There I had to say this or I will burst and die. I tried my level best to control myself!
where have you been? please start posting some good stuff, now. – b.
Fantastic!
Oh, Dont you worry. All this first time blog fancy shmancy will die off in an year hehehe and you will end up like me
. Too Lazy, that is! 
Bee, I’ll pass on the tip to Victor, haha.. I’ll be honest about the extent of his help. Knowing I had only one month in Singapore and knowing I intended to take good pictures to nurse my homesickness, he offered to help me take them so that I could do other stuff during my holiday (isn’t that sweet???), so I specified shophouses and places of worship, and he went around the island taking these awesome shots and burned 2 CDs for me without accepting any form of repayment! I can’t take credit for them and I’m particularly touched at how a fellow blogger would go out of his way like that for a relative stranger. Awww… there is still hope for the human race.
Everyone else, thanks for all your kind comments, mujhe bahut garv ho raha hai!
I’m glad I brought back pleasant memories to those of you who have been to Singapore. And let me assure you all that Singapore is a much better place when it rains, otherwise it gets hot and muggy, heh heh..
Cheers!
Shilpa, you’re heaping too much undue credit on me. Let you in on a little secret – most of the photos were taken even before we knew each other. Actually, it is your very well-written article that makes the photos seem better than they really are.