Blog Loglaw: New Zealand: Transpacific: Part 3

I'm guessing most people would not expect Chicago to Hong Kong nonstop to be a real flight. It's kind of surprising. I mean, not only does it cross the entire Pacific Ocean, but it also starts from the middle of the USA, which is not that small. Interestingly, it doesn't even crack the top 30 longest flights by distance currently commercially operated (note that the Sydney to Dallas I did is the second longest flight, so yeah).

Rest assured, it is a long flight - some fifteen and a half hours. Normally for a long flight (long here meaning over 5 hours), I would have some travel anxiety. Not about the travel or destination or being on time, but just knowing that I have to waste however many hours the flight takes finding things to do. Kind of a idiosyncratic, I know. Long haul flights are pretty good at distractions; somehow American Airlines and partners have all of the same new movies that HBO does, which makes for hours of entertainment. I've found that the really uncomfortable flights are the budget 3-5 hour flights around the US where they've scrimped on every amenity and seat comfort imaginable. Anyway, all of these points become moot when you take a sleeping pill shortly after dinner (and two glasses of wine), lean your seat back, and pass out for 8 hours in an awkward upright-ish position.

My destination was, after a layover at the modern and agreeable Hong Kong airport, Singapore.

Nothing like spicy pork noodles in Hong Kong at midnight after 15 hours of flying.

In Singapore for a work research conference, I luckily had a few days before it began to take stock of the city. Even more fortuitous (though totally planned), I would get to explore with Rhiannon, who had arrived fresh from 3 weeks of travel in Cambodia and Thailand.

I think a good word to describe Singapore is teem, because it really encapsulates the city with all of its varied definitions:

teem - be brimming with...life - The cultural milieu of a modern-day Singaporean brings them into contact with people from all places (namely India, Malaysia, and China, though strong European presence as well), speaking all different languages (English still reigns supreme, hooray colonialism?), expertly preparing surprisingly affordable associated cuisines (the hawker centres are the best way to experience various parts of the city like Little India and Chinatown). All of this happens under a mixture of colonial and very modern (sometimes futuristic) and strange architecture. More on this in a minute.

My favorite place to hang out in Singapore is known as the Arab Quarter, where my hotel was located. The mixture of all these cultures was most evident here, with (for instance) Swedish cafes, specialty ice cream / doughnut shops, Mexican restaurants, German beer bars, and hostels all overshadowed by a massive golden-domed mosque and calls to prayer.

Chili crab, one of Singapore's signature dishes.
Sometimes in a curry, here simply barbecued and served with chili paste. Yum.

teem - be crowded with...err...crowds - Singapore is a dense city (though density-wise not in the top 40 of world cities, the Phillipines is horrifyingly packed). Singapore's density is balanced with clever usages of space, namely in the vertical direction. I can confidently say that I have never spent so much time in or seen so much indoor walking space. Speaking of indoor space and globs of people, Singapore's underground metro system is world-class, affordable, always on time, and by far the easiest way to get around the city. I spent a lot of time riding it to and fro during my week there. Oh, and it's air-conditioned, which really comes in handy with our next definition...

teem - be swarming with / be thick with...heat/humidity - It's like right on the equator after all. This makes weather predictably unpredictable. With nearly constant 100% humidity, most forecasts look like this:

The classic "you're gonna get randomly dumped on eventually" forecast. I won't do the conversion for my Fahrenheit-disabled friends, but rest assured it's (nearly) inescapably hot.

I say nearly, because as I mentioned above, Singapore has a lot of air-conditioned spaces. So while just 5 minutes in the oppressive heat can clog breathing, glue shirts to backs, and burn the soles of shoes, a blast of recycled cool air is always just a few steps away.

teem - abound in...just some damn cool architecture - Now for some actual pictures:

At Gardens by the Bay - the Supertree Grove.
Tall and weird and light up at night and I want to climb them now.

Oh and there's a walkway.
A good place to get my last sunburn before the dark and dank New Zealand winter.

That dome in the background of the previous picture?
It's a Cloud Forest Conservatory with a 6 story indoor waterfall!

A lot of green as the seemingly omnipresent storms roll in over the Singapore Flyer (Ferris wheel).

The most iconic structure in Singapore has to be the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which has a boat (not a real boat) perched upon its three massive towers. It also has a big subterranean casino and an infinity pool on its roof and cost 6 billion (with a B) Singapore dollars to build.

No better way to survive the rising ocean levels than to start 55 floors above current sea level.

It's pretty easy to get to the top, even for non-hotel guests (though the pool is only for guests). The roof has splendid views of the city skyline, which glows marvelously in the night.

The hand-shaped structure is the ArtScience Museum, where one can ponder questions like, "do buildings have souls?"

And one more to show that, yes, the Supertrees are indeed luminescent.

and the last definition, for the week I was there,

teem - be thronged with...MRI nerds. There's really nothing stranger than watching (and being a part of) 6000+ MRI scientists/physicians all waiting in line to collect a "free" conference umbrella and then waiting even longer to get one free tepid beer with the drink ticket that's been hoarded and guarded for a whole week. The conference's closing ceremony was right on the water, which despite the heat and long lines, still made for a good setting.

The projectile-vomiting Merlion, Singapore's 'mascot and national personification.' Kind of strange to call it that when everything on the Wiki page for national personification is human related.

So Singapore is in fact pretty cool. It was a delight to catch up with a lot of former colleagues, learn some new research with 'my people,' and wear a button-up and tucked-in shirt for multiple days in a row.

Auckland is still a 9 hour direct flight back from Singapore, but that just meant I got to partake in Air New Zealand's excellent unlimited drink ordering process and wide array of movies. I also enjoyed some aerial views of Indonesia and the Aussie outback.

I'm getting drunk on a plane.

I was anxious to get back to Auckland: my bed, my routine, a more constant dose of soccer, and less jet-lag. A month of travel really isn't that long, and as I sit here typing about it now, so many of the certain conversations or events from it spring to mind with clarity: a steaming bowl of Ramen in Sydney's Chinatown, a hungover morning run along the Chicago River with Michael and Ben, sitting in a Madison coffee shop pretending to work with Dakota and Jordan, strolling down a street in Okemos with the whole family a few days before the wedding, watching the new bride and groom swill beers post-reception at the The Riv in East Lansing, playing some damn terrible golf with Dad in Portland, walking through the bat enclosure with Rhiannon at the Singapore night safari.

All of it stands out, but collectively has already begun to blur into a very happy month-long memory.

Cheers!

Bonus: more cool photos from Rhiannon in Singapore.