When: June 17th
Where: Singapore
What: Cliff-notes of Singapore
Running in Singapore Rush-Hour
I got a fairly respectable run in through Singapore traffic during rush-hour. Singapore drivers actually speed up when they see you about to run across the cross-walk. They don't want to kill you, but they are actually racing to get to the cross-walk before you start to cross. This mix of competitiveness and intimidation is highly effective. As a result, no one jay-walks and there is always a pause before cross-walkers are told by the green-man that they can safely cross the street. So anyway, back to my run...
Singapore restaurants done locally are just an expansion on the whole hawker-stall setup through-out the city. (Note: Hawker-stalls are a disorganized & dirtier version of a Simon Mall Food Court, but they do make some amazing, fresh, and cheap food. ) The local restaurants just start out as a kitchen with a couple of plastic chairs and tables, but as the restaurant grows in popularity, the tables start to make their way out into the side-walk. The restaurant sprawl out onto the side-walk is way more pushy than the tasteful Bistro layout that you see in the Domain or Santana Row. However, I have to hand it to the local Singaporeans. This restaurant expansion plan is a smart way to grab extra real-estate without having to pay more for it. And in concentrated restaurant areas, there is really no end to the restaurants. A long line of restaurants out on the sidewalk. Okay really, now that there is all the background, to the run..
This sidewalk-turned-restaurant created a weird situation for me. In the morning, it was never a problem because they are closed. But during evening rush-hour, 6 miles into the run, on a humid Singapore evening, when I've already stripped down to my sports bra and 'peeing sweat' (as Mike McNeal would say), I felt very under-dressed as I ran THROUGH the restaurants, dodging hostesses, waiters, patrons. It was a Singapore steeple-chase. And the only alternative would be to run in the road, which as I mentioned, has its own unique problems.
Geylang (I can never remember how to spell it) - Red Light District
As a result, the rest of the week was very bad for running. Wednesday evening, I headed over to Glen and Anja's place in Geylang - which is the Red Light District of Singapore. I love it. Geylang has the coolest Georgetown style homes with the second story shutters and front doors that open onto the street. You see these homes all over old parts of KL, Penang, Singapore-Chinatown. When the windows are open, from inside the houses, you can sit and listen to the restaurant chatter around the corner. At night around midnight, Anja tells me that for entertainment, her and Glen will watch the regulars strolling on the street, picking up their 'customers' for the evening. Anja cracks me up - she is a German that just says things so directly.
We walked down the street to their local eatery, called the Happy Kitchen, which is an unassuming restaurant, again, sprawled out onto the side-walk. Happy Kitchen has cheap beer, plastic chairs, plastic table-cloths, kick-ass dumplings, fried squid, stewed mushrooms for less then 45 Sing dollars. Cheap This place is authentic Singapore style eating, which is a long way from the buffet style food that they serve in all the chrome-steel-and-modern-glass downtown hotels stuffed with expats.
Anja (who is a vegetarian) made me try a Singaporean delight, called a Century Egg. The name is fitting. Glen describes a century egg as a hard-boiled egg which has been buried under-ground and forgotten about for two weeks. And then you dig it up and douse it with horse-piss. (Or at least, that is what it tastes like).
I agree with him. It tasted like I had put uncooked skunk tail in my mouth. At this point in my four weeks in Asia, I started craving cheese-burgers.
Where: Singapore
What: Cliff-notes of Singapore
Running in Singapore Rush-Hour
I got a fairly respectable run in through Singapore traffic during rush-hour. Singapore drivers actually speed up when they see you about to run across the cross-walk. They don't want to kill you, but they are actually racing to get to the cross-walk before you start to cross. This mix of competitiveness and intimidation is highly effective. As a result, no one jay-walks and there is always a pause before cross-walkers are told by the green-man that they can safely cross the street. So anyway, back to my run...
Singapore restaurants done locally are just an expansion on the whole hawker-stall setup through-out the city. (Note: Hawker-stalls are a disorganized & dirtier version of a Simon Mall Food Court, but they do make some amazing, fresh, and cheap food. ) The local restaurants just start out as a kitchen with a couple of plastic chairs and tables, but as the restaurant grows in popularity, the tables start to make their way out into the side-walk. The restaurant sprawl out onto the side-walk is way more pushy than the tasteful Bistro layout that you see in the Domain or Santana Row. However, I have to hand it to the local Singaporeans. This restaurant expansion plan is a smart way to grab extra real-estate without having to pay more for it. And in concentrated restaurant areas, there is really no end to the restaurants. A long line of restaurants out on the sidewalk. Okay really, now that there is all the background, to the run..
This sidewalk-turned-restaurant created a weird situation for me. In the morning, it was never a problem because they are closed. But during evening rush-hour, 6 miles into the run, on a humid Singapore evening, when I've already stripped down to my sports bra and 'peeing sweat' (as Mike McNeal would say), I felt very under-dressed as I ran THROUGH the restaurants, dodging hostesses, waiters, patrons. It was a Singapore steeple-chase. And the only alternative would be to run in the road, which as I mentioned, has its own unique problems.
Geylang (I can never remember how to spell it) - Red Light District
As a result, the rest of the week was very bad for running. Wednesday evening, I headed over to Glen and Anja's place in Geylang - which is the Red Light District of Singapore. I love it. Geylang has the coolest Georgetown style homes with the second story shutters and front doors that open onto the street. You see these homes all over old parts of KL, Penang, Singapore-Chinatown. When the windows are open, from inside the houses, you can sit and listen to the restaurant chatter around the corner. At night around midnight, Anja tells me that for entertainment, her and Glen will watch the regulars strolling on the street, picking up their 'customers' for the evening. Anja cracks me up - she is a German that just says things so directly.
We walked down the street to their local eatery, called the Happy Kitchen, which is an unassuming restaurant, again, sprawled out onto the side-walk. Happy Kitchen has cheap beer, plastic chairs, plastic table-cloths, kick-ass dumplings, fried squid, stewed mushrooms for less then 45 Sing dollars. Cheap This place is authentic Singapore style eating, which is a long way from the buffet style food that they serve in all the chrome-steel-and-modern-glass downtown hotels stuffed with expats.
Anja (who is a vegetarian) made me try a Singaporean delight, called a Century Egg. The name is fitting. Glen describes a century egg as a hard-boiled egg which has been buried under-ground and forgotten about for two weeks. And then you dig it up and douse it with horse-piss. (Or at least, that is what it tastes like).
I agree with him. It tasted like I had put uncooked skunk tail in my mouth. At this point in my four weeks in Asia, I started craving cheese-burgers.
