Minecraft by Swarovski

 Welcome to Part 2 of our Singapore story! I’ll be writing this portion as I meet up with Jane for the end of her program. We then head to Osaka to visit Mio, our exchange student from last summer.

For me, the first step was from our new home in Traverse City, MI. Beth and I are thrilled with our new digs, and have greatly enjoyed watching it take shape as we unpack and arrange everything. I can’t wait to return in a few weeks to see how much it will have shaped up under Beth’s direction.

The Traverse City airport (Cherry Capital Airport) is tiny. For example, the United counter had three automated check-in kiosks, and two were out of service. But there were still only three people in front of me checking in, so the wait was negligible. Similarly, at Security, the longest part of the process was waiting for the conveyor belt to carry my bag from the bag scanner to the place where I could pick it up. And with the National Cherry Festival wrapping up the weekend prior, this is a busy time of year for TC. But though it feels like a LEGO airport, it’s deceptively useful. American, Delta, and United all use it; you can fly direct as far south as Houston or as far west as Denver, and there are several flights a day to Chicago so in less than an hour you can get a connection to almost anywhere.

The security area of TVC

Pretty much all options for Singapore on United depart from San Francisco, so I had connections through Denver and there. My connections in Denver always seem like either one gate over, or several terminals away. This time was the second; I had just enough time to walk off the first plane, all the way to the second gate, and onto the SFO place with the last boarding group. In the seat next to me was someone else from the TC flight, a father with two small children who had been some rows behind me. Somehow they had gotten to the gate very quickly. How did they do it? It reminded me of something Beth and I witnessed many years ago.

*FLASHBACK*

Our home airport was DFW for awhile, which means that instead of getting a connection there, we actually parked there, went through security there, etc. One night we arrived there on a late flight, got our bags, and walked to the parking shuttle.

A man outside with a mustache and an authoritative bearing (seemed like some sort of airport operations upper management) calmly directed us toward an empty shuttle. “Good evening, folks, where are you headed tonight?”

We told him where we had parked and got on board. “Great, Robert here will take you right there. Robert, can you please take these folks to Terminal C parking?”

Robert the driver said to him, “Hey, you know, I’ve got a headache. Do you have anything I could take?”

The mustached boss replied, “Sure, need some aspirin? Tell you what, I’ll get some and meet you there with it.”

On the way, we talked to Robert about how long he’d have to wait for the aspirin. “No, I think he’ll be there when we get there,” he said. “He knows all the secret roads.”

Sure enough, when we stopped at C parking, the mustached boss emerged from the darkness, opening a bottle of aspirin. “See, there he is.” We’ve talked about that ever since.

*END FLASHBACK*

My layover in SFO was three hours. Three terminals over was a lounge I had access to, The Club SFO, which had a line of about 15 people waiting to get past the velvet rope. I figured I had time, so got in line.

It actually moved pretty fast. Within ten minutes, they checked me in and I went upstairs to the food. It was busy, but not crowded; there were plenty of open tables and places to sit. They were serving kale salad, quinoa salad, and stir-fried chicken with broccoli. All were really good. The Timeshifter app told me to avoid caffeine by this point to prevent jet lag, so I got a decaf espresso from the machine, which was also good.

I stayed there a while to charge up my devices for the 16-hour flight, and left in plenty of time to stroll back to the gate and to buy batteries on the way (Beth warned me about the cost of batteries in Singapore).

At the gate, they announced pre-boarding, but then suddenly stopped all boarding once the first pre-boarder got to the podium. How come? People were puzzled. Eventually, the gate agent got on the PA and said that Singapore Changi Airport does not allow flights to arrive more than 15 minutes early. Therefore they had to hold up departure to make sure we didn’t get there too early. There’s a lot to unpack there - did they just now figure this out? Why haven’t they adjusted their departure and arrival time for this? Were they just sandbagging their arrival times to maximize “on-time” performance? - but it was also interesting as to why an airport would have such a rule in place.  So we waited about 20 minutes before it restarted. Then the captain told us the same thing after everyone boarded, to explain why we weren’t yet pushing back from the gate.

Since the flight arrived at 6am, the Timeshifter jet-lag strategy was to stay awake as long as possible (until 5 or 6am back home), and then sleep for the last 8-10 hours of the flight. That strategy made it a reasonable flight. I watched a couple of movies and then tried to sleep until maybe the last hour or so.

The entire process of deplaning at Changi at 6am was super smooth. While a robot swept the long carpet way, the moving walkways (“travellators”) took us to the immigration kiosks which were fully automated, with zero human input. After scanning one’s passport at the first kiosk, a gate opens to the next kiosk. Then after getting your photo taken, the second kiosk welcomes you to Singapore and opens the second gate into the country. Immigration police stood by to intervene with anyone who ended up detained between the two gates, but otherwise didn’t interact with arrivals.

End of Travellator and sweeping robot

Baggage claim was massive and nearly empty

Baggage claim was similarly very fast. Getting a taxi took no time at all. The stand agent entered the number of riders into a touchscreen, and the garage outside dispensed a taxi of the correct size into one of six available spaces. I got in and rode to the hotel, and was there by 7am, just as the sun rose.

It was way too early to check in, so I dropped off my bags and walked to Chinatown where Jane and I planned to meet. The city was still starting up, traffic was light, and the sun was still rising. I had read about was the subtropical humidity in Singapore, but it was still a surprise a block later when I found myself completely saturated. It didn’t help that I still had on my jeans from the plane - rookie mistake - and all my other clothes were being stored. Plenty of other people around the city were wearing jeans too so I thought I could hold out, but they were clearly much better at it than I was. so I started running through my options over the next 40 minutes or so of the walk.

There was plenty to see along the way. I got to Chinatown and on the way down an alley, a totally unfamiliar odor emerged, somewhere on the decay/public utility continuum. I figured it was some sort of urban alley infrastructure behind some restaurants or other businesses, but there was something different about it. That’s when I tuned a corner and saw a stall selling durians (the fruit that’s banned from subways by name due to its smell). It turns out that durians are for sale widely in Chinatown. Their unusual nature and high bar of access for those unfamiliar with it makes them a point of pride. Multiple varieties can be found, and are available whole or pre-sliced in packages. The stalls would end up getting very busy later in the day with both earnest buyers and curious onlookers.

By 9, the stalls in a nearby hawker center started opening up. All sorts of interesting wares were on display; clothing, carved jade, records, bags, collectible coins, etc. Only about a third of the stalls had opened but it was a lot to see. I looked for a cheap backpack and some shorts to replace my jeans; a stall owner directed me to a store around the corner where I got a pair of shorts for S$20 (about $15 US). Score!

About that time Jane let me know she was on the way! I headed to the subway station to meet her. I was super excited to see her - it had been since the end of May when she left to come here with Beth!

After meeting up, we headed out to Chinatown to find a place to eat. Every street and every corner had interesting things to try and great-looking offerings. It’s an understatement to say that Singapore is a food destination - it might be the singular food destination. We decided on Hawker Chan’s, a famous noodle house.

Some background: Hawker Chan’s was the first food stall to be awarded a Michelin star, back in 2016. This led to long lines and worldwide fame, including popup restaurants in places like London. Since then, it apparently lost its Michelin star; there’s no official explanation why, but some think it had grown too much too fast and had trouble maintaining quality. Nevertheless, when we went we thought it was stellar.

Over lunch, we talked about the care package we had sent to her from Texas. The host family address EF had given us was incomplete, so when we sent it, it couldn’t be delivered; the last report we got was that the extremely efficient Singapore Post had sent it back to the USPS to be returned. Jane however was undaunted at hearing this; she took on the task of tracking it down. After multiple in person visits to post offices across town, unsuccessful phone calls, and emails to customer service, she managed to find the right person who was able to locate the package and route it back to her at the right address! It was delivered today. This was a major coup and an awesome outcome that she was able to achieve!

After lunch, we did so more walking through Chinatown, looking for a USB-A charging brick for Jane. I was convinced we’d find one among the stalls, and while there were plenty of phone cases and cords, there were no bricks to be found.

However, we came upon an aquarium store! It was fully stocked with all types of goldfish, plus discuses, gouramis, all kinds of tropical fish, frogs, not to mention crabs, several kinds of shrimp, and even lobsters! We debated whether keeping a lobster was practical - while cute, we were afraid they might outgrow their tank. But they were fun to look at.

We then headed to Clarke Quay, close to Jane’s class. There we visited Don Don Donki, a Japanese grocery store that Jane often visits during her short lunch breaks. She reports that the sashimi there is outstanding. While there we looked at the fruit selection. A tiny box of cherries, flown in from the USA, was $6. This led to a discussion of the price of fruit in East Asia, particularly Japan. Japan is renowned for the craftsmanship exercised in growing fruit, resulting in examples like cantaloupes costing over $100. We decided that fruit is very regional - Southeast Asia has a lot of amazing native fruits, but not all fruits necessarily do well here, and in season fruit from HEB (watermelon for example) tastes better than the same fruits available here, typically.

Cherries flown in from the USA

It was time for Jane to head to class, so we walked in that direction and bid goodbye so she could be on time. I decided to head to the hotel to get my room keys. I mapped the route, and it was only about five minutes longer to walk than to take the subway, so I decided to walk. I crossed a street at a crosswalk that dropped me right in front of the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth. I wanted to turn left, but a man at the entrance gestured for me to turn right instead. Not wanting to run afoul of the rules, I turned right, and this messed up my route. The recalculated route had me now going up and over Fort Canning, an old fort and now park on the most prominent hill in downtown Singapore. Climbing the hill led to amazing views of the cityscape, and left me even more drenched.

You can barely see the top of the Marina Bay Sands in this photo!

Coming down the other side, I passed through the Fort Canning Tree Tunnel. A long line of people had lined up to take photos inside the tunnel; it was a major attraction. But it was also a convenient street crossing on my way to the hotel. 

I got my keys, went to the room, and enjoyed the view. The densely built skyline stretched out pretty far. In the hazy distance, I could even see the skyline of Johor Bahru, the Malaysian city just over the border. I looked into taking a day trip there, but the border controls and steps required to get across the causeway and back would have easily taken a full day on their own.

Those hazy buildings in the distance are Johor Bahru, about 13 miles away.

Jane and I met up again after her class ended. I joined her at Clarke Quay and we went back toward Orchard Road and the giant malls there for dinner. Each one has an extensive food court on the basement level; the one we went to, Paragon, had a dim sum restaurant that we were excited to try. We got in line, got checked in by the hostess, and a robot led us to our table.

Jane ordered a pretty intense Singaporean beverage, and we tried several types of dumplings. All were fantastic. They had a limited time offer of truffle dumplings; Jane ordered a single one, which was dutifully brought out in its own steam basket, and which Jane reports was very good.

After dinner we looked for some ice cream. In the same basement was a Venchi outlet. They had a variety of chocolates for sale, but also some gelato flavors. In addition to some typical flavors, they had two limited edition offerings: Olive Oil, and Parmigiano Reggiano. We tried the olive oil version and both thought it was really good! We each chose it as one of our flavors.

The Parmigiano was a different story. It was apparent from the freezer case that a lot of samples had been taken, but only one scoop had been sold that day. It was a layer of whitish gelato covered with shredded Parmesan cheese. Jane tried a sample first, and nearly gagged - later describing it as “the aftertaste of vomit”. It was clearly a flavor to sample, but not to purchase.

This brings us back to the topic of durian. Despite its intense smell, the taste is said to be very pleasant. Jane was offered some by her host family, and did eat a couple of bites. While custardy and better tasting than the smell would indicate, she said it’s still an acquired taste. 

Throughout the basement, we found these freestanding doorways near the escalators. It was tempting to walk through them, but neither of us was willing to risk it due to the Matrix vibe they gave off.

From there we went to Takashimaya, an outlet of the Japanese department store chain. Here we found the fruit stand selling the aforementioned high priced luxury fruit. A box of perfect tomatoes was available for $98; if that is too rich, overripe mangoes were also available on markdown for only $49 each.

Nearby was another outlet for disposable income, the Swarovski counter. They’ve expanded their range to offer series for successful and nostalgic Gen X-ers looking for things to do with their money, such as Star Wars and Marvel characters out of crystal. (Marvel comes in two flavors: a bedazzled limited edition set of 5 figures for $60,000, or the more economical cut crystal ones for around $500 each.) the one we couldn’t quite figure out, though, was the Minecraft collection. You can get Steve or Alix for $590, or a pig for around $300. We figured the earliest Minecraft fans are now around college age… so isn’t it a bit early for the superfan collectible market to emerge?

It was time for Jane to head back to her host family, and me back to the hotel. She headed to the subway station, and I headed to my room, after we made plans to meet up again tomorrow!