The Singapore I Miss

I miss the “kopi pua sio” and the aunty from one of the stalls at Marine Parade Central, which I used to frequent during my time at Gymboree. I miss the girls at Gymboree, Sue, Nadia and Joyce, and the kids like Yan Zhen, Yi An and Khrisha… I even miss doing the darn Gymbo dance and "The Wheels on the Bus" ride, jumping about and having as much if not more fun than the kids.


I miss being able to call Shorbs and Raena for no reason at all or just to ask or say weird things like “I’m lost in Raffles Place and all the buildings look the same” or “I just saw another ad with Andrew Poh’s face plastered on a SBS Bus” or “Ben wants to wear a mustard yellow suit for the wedding!”


I miss knowing that home is just a five-hour bus ride away, where family and friends are always just round the corner.


I miss reefwalking. I miss public reefwalks and camping out on Kusu Island, chatting and laughing with Pam and Ming after a walk, getting nagged at by Doreen, teased by Freddy, Daniel and Darius, and treated like a big sister by Lotus. I miss Wildfilming on any patch of sand or mud we can find in Singapore, or just exploring the shore at Changi on my own in the wee hours of the morning. I miss preparing for these trips out… Ziploc-king everything, the sound of silence at 3 in the morning… I even miss the morning afters. Like trying to stay awake at work after exploring a shore from 4 – 6 am, and knowing I’m gonna be waking up at 3am again the next day. I miss how it’s dark all around you except for the beam from your torchlight and you don’t really know what to expect or what’s in store, and the thrill of not knowing if you’re just gonna stumble on rocks or on something amazing like an octopus or the ever-lovable sea slug, even if it means getting bitten alive by sandflies or sinking knee deep in mud.

I miss Singapore’s libraries! All the books! And my membership which lets me hoard 8 books at a time! Even if my arm aches after carrying 8 hard cover reference books on the MRT from Bugis to Pasir Ris.


I miss just sitting at 136 with Ben and Peng or his other buddies, or just with Ben alone, having breakfast or lunch or dinner or supper, watching a game or just talking nonsense. I miss going for Sunday evening Mass with Ben at OLPS and the super-power choir and trying hard not to laugh when someone sings out of tune or says something wrong. And going for dinner at 85 after that… Barbecued stingray, chicken wings, mixed grill…

This I can’t believe I miss. I miss HDB life! Yeah, like I know I’m all alone here when Ben’s at work, but I’ve been all alone in Singapore many times too and just as happy alone as I was when I wasn’t. Make sense? Ok, here, when I step out onto the balcony, all I hear are crickets and an ocassional car or truck passing by. All I see is the ocassional car or truck passing by, and now and then people from the other blocks coming and going. Angmohs, Indians, Filipinos… Back home, you look out the window and you see life! Just regular, everyday life going on… People walking to and from the nearby market and central area… Kids going to or coming home from school… Makciks and aunties putting the laundry out to dry at the corridor, or taking their “galah”s in before sunset… People walking around with umbrellas, rain or shine… People waiting at the bus stop, and the buses going by every few minutes… Kids playing football at the open space below… Old Mr Lim watering his plants outside his flat… Minimart aunty scolding kids for opening the fridge for more than 10 seconds… Karanguni man making his rounds… Realising that you’re just like everyone else yet unique in your own way, not superior nor inferior, not out of place but feeling like you just belong.

This is what you see on quite a few websites if you're trying to access it in the UAE. BLOCKED. It says "We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates. "

I'm pretty pissed off but understand that they've gone and blocked Flickr again, cos I guess a few idiots think it's fun to upload nude or obscene photos on their online albums. But what about the other 90% Flickr users who don't?

Other sites that have been blocked are Tagged.com and Typepad.com, among others. I've never seen these sites before, but they seem to be popular right now, so whenever I do an online search for something, it's pretty annoying that half of my search results can't be accessed because they're banned.

The most controversial would be the blocking of Skype, since there's definitely nothing about free phonecalls that's "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates". Dubai is probably the most multinational city in the world, where 90% of its residents come from all over the world. So it's a pretty big thing that they've deliberately banned Skype. There are so many blogs criticising this move, and every few days you get the same complaint about it in the Reader's Letters section in local newspapers. Thick-skinned and adamant, the people at Etisalat definitely show the world what "buat bodoh" really means.

Afternoons with Malek

After signing up for driving lessons in August, the driving school finally started Ben on his lessons in October. 3 times a week. After each lesson, Ben would come home with funny stories about his instructor, Malek, and how his lesson went. The first lesson, the instructor asks Ben if he’s driven before, and when Ben says not at all, the guy decides to start him on the basics…

“Ok, Mister Ben-JA-min, this is the car key… This is the steering wheel, s-t-e-e-r-i-n-g, steering… This is the hand brake, h-a-n-d-b-r-E-A-K, hand BREAK…”


Second lesson, they drive around a carpark on first gear. After the fourth lesson, Ben calls me and exclaims, “Today I went on 2nd gear!”. Woohoo… This is how the instructor conducted the lesson. With the car parked outside Burj Al Arab, the instructor posed with one leg propped up, elbow leaning on raised knee and chin resting on knuckles (like a Bollywood version of Rodin’s ‘thinker’). As Ben approached, he straightens from his pose, places his hands on his waist and in his Pakistani accent says,

Malek: So Mister Lim, today I am ready for suicide. Today you sit in the driver’s seat and drive from here.

Ben: Drive on the main road?

Malek: Yes! Today you are like a bird. You must fly. But when you fly, you will fall.

So they drive along Jumeirah Road, and after a while, the instructor gets Ben to switch to 2nd gear much to his excitement. Upon reaching a traffic light that just switched from green to amber, Ben asks “How?” and our friend says, “Go faster!”

They also have funny abbreviations to learn. When switching lanes, Malek says, “Ok Mr Lim, what must we do now?”
Ben: M.S.M.
Malek: Yes very good! What is MSM?
Ben: Mirror. Signal. Manoeuvre.
Malek: Mirror. Signal. Manoeu-wer. Very good! And what is manoeu-wer?
Ben: P.L.S. Position. Look. Speed.
Malek: Very good!

After a couple more lessons, Malek advances Ben to third gear.

Malek: Ok, now switch to third gear… Yes… I like how you switch to third gear. Go back to second gear --- now switch to third gear --- yes, very nice, very smooth --- Now go faster --- faster! Do it! Do it, Baba, do it!”

Baba (like Bubba) is something like “brother” or “ah neh” I think. So I guess Ali Baba was just Abang Ali lah.

Another time when an impatient driver behind them kept honking, Malek shouted out (not that the driver could hear cos the windows were up), “Give the learner a chance, Baba. Just give them a chance, please, Baba! Give the learner a chance!”

The first time it rained in November, Malek was busy answering phonecalls from his wife. “My wife says the weather is very good. She’s calling me all day to ask me to bring her somewhere nice to enjoy the weather.”

Ben & Malek

Another day, he had some packed lunch in the car and Ben said it smelled really good. “My wife asked me to go and buy this fried fish. Must buy from this shop at Jumeirah. Best fish. Big! Eat with chapatti.” And he places one palm on top of the other like making a fish sandwich with his “chapatti” palms.

Ben has completed his 35 lessons. He’s passed his parking test and signal test (road sign test), and just needs to get through the road test. Now this is crazy. Here, they make you take two road tests - one tested by someone from the driving school, and the other by the traffic police. Now the school insists that as long as you don't pass your final test with the TP, you have to continue taking lessons till your next scheduled road test. So after completing the compulsory 35 lessons, Ben had to pay another 450 dirhams for 10 additional lessons. Then during the road test, the bugger failed him on purpose!

The "tester" was this Pakistani imbecile, and there were two Pakistani guys there taking the test with Ben. Ben said they could hardly drive, and the car kept stalling, but after driving a short distance, they were passed. Then the dude tested Ben, made him drive all over the place, made him make last minute turns, etc, then failed him. Ben was so damn pissed.

And so, he had to pay another 450 dirhams for another 10 lessons, plus another 50 to re-take the test! I told him if they were gonna fail him again I'd write in to Gulf News and threaten the school with a whole load of other stuff. At his 2nd attempt, the instructor was a different guy and did not fail Ben, but he needed Ben to re-take the test AGAIN, just to be sure, but he didn't need to pay again. This was because a week before that, the police were tipped off that one of the school's instructors was passing Pakistani drivers even though they couldn't drive. So the other instructors all kan-cheong a bit.

So now Ben has to wait again till they can officially pass him, continue paying for more unnecessary lessons, and then take the actual traffic police road test. Like everything else here in Dubai, Ben n I just want to get it over n done with... the sooner the better.

City of Gold

After my solo adventure into Bur Dubai n Deira, Ben decided to follow in my ‘footsteps’ the next week on his day off. So we started out on the same route, but briskly walked through the Bastakiya area and Old Souk cos there weren’t many interesting things to see. And instead of taking the long route on foot all the way to Shindaga, we skipped the Heritage & Diving Village and hopped over to Deira on an abra.

This guy whizzes up and down the creek in his speedboat. The traditional costume that he’s wearing is called a dishdash, so Ben calls these guys “dishdash brudders”. Most of the time you’d see them speeding through the streets of Dubai in a PRE-release car (they upgrade their cars like how Ah Bengs upgrade handphones, so the latest models are always sent to Dubai first), and like this guy here, they’d be chatting on the phone. Either that or you just see a luxury car or Hummer with fully-tinted windows speeding by, or hear a really fast car, see a blur of colour, and go “Whoa… Lamborghini? Maserati?”


It was mid noon so almost all the shops in and around the souks were closed. It was like walking through zombie town. Only one shop was open in the Spice Souk, and a few other shops selling household items and children’s toys (the made in China type).

The Gold Souk was partially open, with shop after shop displaying all their ‘bling’ in mighty splendour.


Huge-ass diamonds, jewels, gold, gold, gold… more than all the Poh Kongs put together!


The streets however were paved with sleepy shopkeepers having their afternoon siesta.

The Perfume Souk is not exactly a traditional souk but rows of shops selling perfumes, incense, etc. Further away from the Gold Souk and close to the Al Sabkha Bus Station, we entered a shop selling spices, nuts, sweets, etc. Most of the shops here sell the same stuff, either spices, nuts & sweets, or household items & toys, plus a couple of haberdasheries.


Ben n I walked back to the creekside and sat at the Creek Park to watch the sunset, then took an abra back to Bur Dubai cos we were too bored and tired to wait for other shops to open.


The souks in Bur Dubai and Deira are places you’d go see once, just to say you’ve seen it. After all, it’s not like one shops for gold, frankincense and Superman suits on a regular basis, if ever.

Tour of Old Dubai

One rather hot day in October, I decided to venture into the old town to tour the Bastakiya and old souks. So I took the 10.05am shuttle from Ewan to JBH (35min-ride), and waited for the 11.10am JBH-Lamcy shuttle (another 35min-ride). From Lamcy, a reluctant cab driver brought me to Al Musalla Post Office for 12 dirhams. Here’s a map of how far I walked in the hot afternoon sun:

Don’t ask me the distance the ‘red feet’ walked, but altogether I took about 4 hours, including stops to take pictures, have a coffee n snack, and visit some of the tourist-targetted places.


The Bastakiya area is one of the oldest heritage sites in Dubai, dating back to the early 1900s.


Most of the old buildings here have been restored and converted into art galleries, shops and restaurants/cafés.


The area is made up of traditional windtower houses built around courtyards and winding alleyways.


From the Bastakiya, I travelled along the creek towards the Old Souk.


Across the creek is Deira, with older buildings to the left and the newer Deira Twin Towers and hotels like Intercontinental, Hilton and Sheraton to the right.


The Old Souk is mainly a textile souk, selling all sorts of fabrics, sarees and clothes, as well as a couple of shops selling the usual ‘touristy’ stuff like the Ali-Baba-type of slippers, souvenirs, beads, etc.


Souks and shops in these older parts of Dubai work split shifts, and are open in the morning and evenings/nights. So in the afternoon, most of the small stalls and shops are closed, although you’re likely to see the shopkeepers lazing around nearby, snoozing on a bench, crate or a “parked” wheelbarrow.


The main abra station is located after the textile souk. Abras from here take you across the creek to the abra station near the Spice Souk in Deira.


You pay just 50 fils (about S$0.22) and each abra carries around 15 passengers. You can also hire an abra all to yourself for about 50 dirhams, and the abra guy will take you up and down the creek depending on how nice he is.


The bigger vessels are dhows, which transport all sorts of goods across the creek, from electrical items to fresh produce, rubber tyres, and even cars.


I stopped at a café called Blue Barjeel (‘barjeel’ is the Arabic word for four-sided windtower) for a break - Turkish coffee and local “mixed pastries”. Yeuckk!!


Of the five pastries, one was filled with spinach and tasted ok, two were filled with (I presume) goat’s cheese which was ok at first bite but got a bit gross after the second. And the last two pastries were filled with some sort of meat. The taste was so foul it probably had to be something like minced goat’s armpit and camel’s liver. When I described this to Ben later, he said he’d tasted this stuff before too and almost threw up. So, stay away from middle-eastern savoury pastries!


Refuelled, I made my way to the Heritage & Diving Village. The Heritage & Diving Village gives visitors a glimpse of Dubai’s maritime history, pearl diving traditions and architecture.


I didn’t visit the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House (Museum of Historical Photographs and Documents of Dubai Emirate) this time around as there was nobody around to take my 2 dirhams entrance fee.


Entrance into the Heritage Village is free of charge. I gave it a quick look-around just to know if it’s some place I should bring people to visit if ever we have visitors. Nope. Like the Bastakiya, it’s just another place with man-made re-creations of the simple life in Dubai in the old days, with Bedouin camp sites, huts and homes made of straw or stone, etc.


I gave the Diving Village a miss since I was running out of time, and cos I guess it’ll exhibit the same kinda stuff – re-created images of old fishing villages, pearl trade, etc.


What’s interesting though is that the walls of these old buildings, made of coral covered with lime and sand-coloured plaster, are still intact.


I walked further down, towards Shindaga, the mouth of the creek.

The underground (underwater) pedestrian tunnel is not for the faint hearted. It goes on FOREVER! First, winding zigzag tunnels all the way down…


Then the same, UPHILL! By this time, I pancit already lah.


When I finally reached the Deira side of the creek, it was already past 4pm so I didn’t tour the gold, perfume and spice souks but decided to take a stroll along the Corniche Deira..... Finally...... the ocean!


This view of the open sea won’t be around for much longer as they’ve already started reclamation n construction works of the Palm Deira, which will soon appear on the right hand side of the horizon here.