Donkey-Induced Anguish

What we learned early on yesterday was that batteries are a rare and expensive commodity in Singapore. The entirely helpful concierge team, who approach you unsolicited if you look the slightest bit confused, snickered slightly when I mention our battery search troubles. She made another suggestion we will follow through with today, but I was hesitant to purchase the only batteries I saw ($38 for 4) yesterday. Because of this, I’m still typing without a keyboard so I apologize for the many autocorrect and Beth-induced typos. 

Our hotel is located in a district called Marina Bay, a dense development of high rises. From the street, the district looks like a sparsely populated work community.

Lots of buildings and streetscapes like this:

We set out on foot in this office building jungle yesterday morning to buy batteries and replace our forgotten items. Perplexed at how to cross a street, as there were no crosswalks and jaywalking is highly illegal here, we discovered a tiny non-descript sign which said “shopping mall” and led us to a narrow tunnel staircase. I’ll admit we peeked in and backed out again to assess our odds of success. Despite the well-tended plant-lined interior and the lack of any scent of human filth, the absence of grandeur didn’t seem consistent with a shopping mall entrance. We were so wrong. 

The narrow unlit staircase ushered us into a massive interconnected human habitat of shopping, spanning multiple city blocks and every high rise, connecting over and below every road, running up and down several stories. A literal highway of commerce, we discovered that the army of workers commuting to and from jobs in the district do so internally to the buildings through massive malls, even before opening times. We wandered blocks through endless stories of stores, schools, entertainment and restaurants. Toast restaurants perfumed all of the spaces, serving meandering lines of business casual workers waiting for their breakfast.  (Yes, toast) The outdoor weather was lovely for us, in the 80s but humid.  Rain or shine, there was no need to break a sweat or get damp in this world.

When we did emerge into curated outdoor spaces between malls, the outdoors was as spotless and well-designed as the interiors. I have no photography skills to capture the ambiance, but I can describe the feeling of relaxed city dwelling with lush greenscapes indoors and out, blooming tropical flowers sheltered by canopies of either expensive architectural masterpieces or towering trees. There was little to no need to encounter cars or cross streets. We saw early morning city workers cleaning these spaces. Jane laughed at how all they could sweep up was the few leaves dropped by manicured trees. 

In this jungle of shopping there were no batteries, but the maze of businesses all felt hyper-modern and even American.  Scratch the surface and read the all-English signs, we found everything was slightly off, as if AI had attempted to recreate modern American culture. We spent our morning buying makeup and strolling through this wonderland of modern city design.

Some not so familiar but familiar seeming sights:

A plant vending machine!  Plants are a particular cultural highlight of Singapore, indoors and out.

We tried to sign up for this murder mystery cooking class but you need a minimum of 6 people!  This cooking school was in the mall. 

Mocha needs this!

Nope, not sure how you win the free soup base. 

Everywhere were Father’s Day advertisement with food experiences or gizmos. We liked this one. 

Nearly every block, indoors and out, are fresh squeezed orange juice machines. We saw the Jooz van driving around servicing them. 

Outdoor pedestrian zones connected buildings at times. They were lovely. 

We shopped in one of our favorite Japanese stories Doki (a nickname for Don Quixote). They looped their own pop song about Doki over and over again, and Jane and I sang it for the rest of the day until we were driving ourselves crazy. 

After grabbing the makeup and socks we needed, we decided to stop by Jane’s school. She has been unable to take the assessment exam on her app. The school is FANTASTIC, a well designed bustling hub of kids and young adults in multiple stories of language education (mostly English or Mandarin).  Sweet motherly ladies came out to make a fuss over our struggles and quickly mobilized to identify gaps in Jane’s paperwork. Singapore requires Jane to have a student Visa, for which she needs a Singapore phone number. We had been unable yo make her phone get a Singapore number because the phone company won’t accept her passport with a black and white photo. Its system says it’s a fake. The school helped us with a workaround, and we headed off to the phone company to get it straightened out. 

If I have to leave Jane in Singapore, I’m thrilled it’s with these capable ladies at this school.

They sent us off to the phone company customer service center. Despite about a hundred people waiting around in this shopping mall service center (they’re all malls), we had no waiting. There were a myriad of spaces people were consulting on problems with, that ranged from banking to new phones. We were assigned to a man in a small house in the area. He and the supervisor pitied us that we couldn’t make the sim work on Jane’s phone because of the black and white passport photo, the new standard for Jane’s next generation US passport. They helped us make a workaround, as they have lots of American students with this problem needing a Singapore number for their visa. They gave us a temporary physical SIM card and we were set free to now go find a cheap phone. 

In our service hut. 

Walk through to several more malls (all about the size of the Houston Galleria), we found the electronics store and bought Jane a new emerald green cheap cell phone. She’s up and running with a Singapore phone number now in addition to her US number. 

We rewarded our industriousness with fun tea beverages, careful to locate and properly dispose of every part of the straw wrapper because littering is highly illegal here. 

After our long hike through malls and park like pedestrian spaces, we headed back to the hotel for tea. We confirmed Jane’s enrollment in dance school, so we headed out to grab some hip hop dance clothes (additional items left behind).  As we stood I. The lobby searching our phones on where to find cheap clothes, a friendly concierge asked if she could help us and suggested we go to Bugis. 

Bugis. (Sounded like Boogies when she said it). Again we find ourselves in a maze of interconnected mall spaces with complex floor plans that made us rely on maps. We finally emerged into a district of cheap no label clothing lining tight hallways, with ladies bargaining for good prices. We found multiple pairs of pants and tshirts for about $7 to $10 each. Jane is wearing one out fit this morning.  After stopping for a quick dinner, we headed to the hotel and slept blissfully in our quiet 30th floor room. 

Jane in her Singaporean hip hop dance clothes:

We are off for another adventure now. More stories tomorrow.