Today's Taxi Driver is...

Tu Hwa. A Chinese Singaporean. I think the Chinese drivers are the hardest to understand. I asked him how he was doing and he went into a long explanation about how the traffic is really bad today because a road is closed because of something in Little India. I think he thought I asked him "how's the traffic today."

When I asked him if he was Singaporean he told me he moved here in 1959 from China and that immigrants aren't allowed to drive taxis as a government rule. Apparently you have to have lived in Singapore for at least 10 years before you're allowed to drive one. I don't think there would be any taxi drivers in New York if that was a rule there...

Then I said "Ni hao" and he got really excited and started speaking Chinese. I said "Wo she megworun" and was out of Chinese phrases, and he asked me if I studied it or learned from my friends. I told him I just learned from my friends and he told me he was learning from his friend how to speak with a Beijing accent, so I said "Ni her" ("ni hao" with a Beijing accent) which he loved. So he decided to teach me some more chinese to impress my friends and to bargain:) He was laughing and teaching me how to say "duo shao chien" ("How much does it cost") - he said "you go to chinatown and say this to shopkeeper and they will go (insert surprised face)...oh! you speak chinese!" My thoughts exactly.

And so I said "xie xie" and hopped out. These chats are totally worth $5 a day.

Out my window

Me & Skye - shopping and eating - the top Singaporean passtimes

Today's Taxi Driver is...

Ahaswamy. A Tamil Singaporean. He was very, very similar to many of the South Indians I met in India. Here's how our conversation went:

Me: "Tamasek Tower Please"
Him: "Somerset Tower?"
Me: "No Tamasek Tower"
Him: (laughing and shaking his head wildly) "Tamasek Tower, not Somerset Tower! I thought you said Somerset Tower! There's no Somerset Tower just Tamasek Tower (laughter and head bobbing continues)... Somerset Tower isn't a tower...Tamasek Tower not Somerset Tower...Tamasek..."
Me: "Where are you from?"
Him: "Singapore. Where are you from?"
Me: "I'm from California, but I live in Singapore now."
Him: "Does America have a black president or a white president?"
Me: "We haven't had the election yet."
Him: "Do you want black president or white president?"
Me: "I would like Barack Obama to win."
Him: (laughing and bobbing his head): "Barack Obama. The muslims like him. They want him to win. If he wins more muslims will go to america. they will blow things up. I like george bush. muslims are afraid of him...he got sadaam hussein...hahaha"
Me: "hmm" (the non-committal "oh" of "hmm, I'm just going to let you keep talking because there's no point in arguing...").
Him: "Are there more black people or white people in america?"
Me: "There are more white people."
Him: "How can the president be black if he is a minority?"
Me: "People like his ideas enough that they don't care about his color."
Him: (pause, thinking...) "who were the first people in america, black people or white people?"
Me: "there were natives there first"
Him: "oh the red indians....who discovered america? Marco polo?"
Me: "No, Christopher Columbus."
Him: "Was he Spanish?"
Me: "He was Italian but he sailed for Spain."
Him: "Captain Cook discovered Australia. Australia is a big country."
Me: "Yes it is...Do you speak Tamil?"
Him: "Yes, Tamil."
Me: "Nandri."
Him: "Ooohhh. How you know Tamil?"
Me: "I lived in India for 6 months."
Him: "Oh. Not very long...where were you?"
Me: "Hyderabad...but I went to Chennai twice." (They speak Tamil in Chennai)
Him: "They don't speak Tamil in Hyderabad...it's Telugu..."
Me: "yeah. Baunava ("How are you" in Telugu)."
Him: (laughing) "Lots of languages in India. India small country lots of people. Australia big country little people."
Car pulls up. Me: "Nandri."

Yesterday's Taxi Driver was...

Muskatim. A native Singaporean whose parents immigrated from Indonesia in the 1950's when immigration between Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia was more open. He went to Indonesia in June for the first time and visited his family's traditional village at the bottom of a volcano. We drove through Chinatown, where he said mostly tourists go. The best thing to buy there is souvenirs, and you should bargain or you'll get fleeced. You can also buy guns there, if you can get the permit. Permits are issued to rich people who need them for hunting trips to Indonesia and Malaysia, but are apparently also to people involved in certain industries such as running casinos...

Singapore Sunrise

I just watched the sunrise on my second day in Singapore and realized - I live in Singapore now!

On my first night I went with a huge group from the office, including the entire Thai language team, to their favorite Thai restaurant in Singapore. I love how multi-cultural Singapore is - our table had people from Singapore, China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, Lebanon, Japan, and the US. I sat next to a girl from Thaliand named Mook and a guy from Chennai named Chandra. Chandra and I talked about India and we played a word game with Charif (another friend from the office - see Singapore blog entry from May) and his fiancee Tomoko (from Japan), where we would hold a conversation and each person had to answer their part in a different language. We went through about 10 languages including English, Hindi, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, French, Russian, Malay and Tamil.

I think all of Singapore has a college dorm/camp atmosphere where there are so many foreigners and visitors all the time that everyone is always out to meet new people - a great way to make lots of fun and interesting friends! Oh, and the Thai restaurant had a framed headshot of Keanu Reeves next to a picture of the Thai royal family. I love Singapore.

I bought my easypass for the MRT (subway) - I love how efficient Singapore is. You buy one card that you can keep in your wallet and just add money to whenever. You don't even have to put it in a machine, you just need to beep it. And lucky for me, my Kate Spade wallet that I bought in Hong Kong last year at Pacific Place has a little place for your public transport card because it was specially marketed for Hong Kong, which uses a similar public transport system (but they call theirs the much cooler "Octopus"). I think I'm officially Singaporean now that I have my permanent MRT pass :)

I chatted up the taxi driver again. I love talking to taxi drivers and started to make it a pattern in Sydney. They're always really interesting, and almost always immigrants from all over the world. I'm going to start a series in my blog wherein I talk to every taxi driver for the length of my journey and report back.

Last night's driver was caucasian but had a singlish accent! I asked him where he was from and he said "I get to ask you those questions" (!) So I played along and he told me how international Singapore is, and I told him that I moved to Singapore today. He told me he speaks Malay and Chinese, and I told him I speak English, French, Italian, Russian and Hindi. Then he told me I was very smart and we talked about how I studied music and how Singapore will be a great place to learn more languages. Then when we got to my place he wished me luck, said "god bless you" and handed me a pamphlet about Christianity called "good news..." I didn't catch his name which is too bad because it could have given me a clue as to his origin - is he one of the rare 'native' caucasian Singaporeans whose ancestors moved here 200 years ago as traders? Either way, the cartoon Christianity pamphlet, featuring an eskimo, a boy in a sumbraro, a boy in a fez, a boy in a chinese straw hat, a boy in ancient egyptian (?) clothes, and a girl in a german beer-garden outfit in English and Chinese was totally worth it.

I then enjoyed my first experience grocery shopping in Singapore at a Japanese grocery chain called 'Meidi-ya." Half the store was also occupied with freezer containers of non-descript packaged items with labeling in Japanese. Walking around I just thought "Wow, I'm finally in Asia!" The other half of the store was made up of a hodge-podge of imported items from around the world. My favorite items for sale were "silky tofu," "pickled leeks" and "gourmet Doritos." I wonder if gourmet Doritos come with gourmet bean dip? Perhaps I should host a party and offer my guests gourmet Doritos as an entree - they are, after all, imported...

Off to try to find my way to the MRT station for work now!

Dinner at 'First Thai'

Keanu fans of the world unite...

Christian pamphlet from "I ask you those questions" taxi driver

View from my apartment at night

View from my new desk at work

Ta, Cheers & More to My Aussie Mates

Royal National Park

Last yummy dessert at the Lindt chocolate cafe with Shaheen

Sea Bay Pizza with Emma and Ryan - sooooo many dumplings

Last day in Oz - Almost surfing at Manly with Victoria (ended up swimming instead ;)

Last dinner in Oz with Jenn, Carlos, and Gabriel in Newtown - last Aussie fish n' chips!

Yesterday I moved to Singapore. I don't know how many people can say that! It sounds quite exotic to me :)

In the Aussie (and 'Strine') spirit, as I was leaving Australia after 5 amazing weeks, I found myself thinking "Bloody Oath, are you taking the mickey outta me?" to so many things. Here are the Top 10:

1. Bloody Oath! I've been here 5 weeks! Does Australia time go faster? I feel like it's passed by in a blink!
2. Bloody Oath! Everyone so incredibly friendly, awesome and welcoming!
   
3. Bloody Oath! I only had 1 pavlova the entire time I was there- for shame!
4. Bloody Oath! Vegemite still tastes as bad as it did the first time I tried it (not a taste I'm acquiring...)
5. Bloody Oath! There was an entire fridge of beer in the office that lasted for 4 days without being emptied!
6. Bloody Oath! I won't get to watch the funny little train take tourists the 300 metres around Darling Harbour anymore!
7. Bloody Oath! After 5 weeks the only words I can say with a semi-convincing Australian accent are "G'Day" and "Pavlova."
8. Bloody Oath! What an amazing group of people here, I can't believe I'll no longer be able to see them every day!
9. Bloody Oath! I've met so many amazing mates!
   
10. Bloody Oath! I'm gonna miss it!
    

I also want to give a special shout out to Jenn, Kate, Shaheen, Tristan, and many more people who went out of their ways to help me make the most of my time in Australia. From monsoonal beach picnics, to watching footie with the mates, to haunted hotels and margaritas at Orbit, to an amazing evening on the water and so many other things- I had an amazing time in Oz.

If you enjoy my meagre attempts at Strine, you may also enjoy my Strine Story for Beddy-Byes that I wrote in Perth with the help of my best Aussie mates :)

But for now, I must close my Australian session, so that I can get onto the next great adventure - I moved to Singapore today!