Singapore Nightlife

Last night we went to the Esplanade, a mix of the Sydney Opera House, Harbourfront and Yorkville all in one. 'Cats' was playing in the Opera House section, upstairs two soloists were playing Chinese instruments in an intimate surrounding with about fifty people listening, reading the paper and looking at the display of lamps and otherwise relaxing. In another part of the building there was a smaller theatre like the Bluma Appel Centre which had a reed group playing ( I think bamboo poles or something like that). For the Yorkville part they had tons of restaurants and bars, but unlike Yorkville, it was right on the Singapore River overlooking the Lion, the symbol of Singapore and the lights of the downtown core. There were about twenty photographers with tripods set up taking pictures which I thought was quite an amazing coincidence until I realized they were all int he same photography class.

The thing that amazed me really was how such a small country could sustain such a powerful cultural venue. I am sure that the Esplanade was not the only location for the arts. How is it that this country puts so much emphasis on the arts? I don't really know the answer, but I do know that the majority of the population is Chinese if that has anything to do with it.

After we had dinner at a delicious Japanese restaurant, the teachers took me to Clark Quay, one of the spots the young people go to party. It was the spot that Sam Raffles originally landed at as he came up the river. There was an incredible array of entertainment from a woman doing belly dancing to the loud bars and so on with a location right on the river. In fact, since Singapore is an island ( sort of) everything is on the water. I had a Singapore Sling...finally and it was nothing to write home about. Not sweet enough for my taste.

What I saw is that we could be doing a much better job with our Harbourfront in terms of variety and aesthetics. I also like the fact that there is a taxi stand at every tourist area and people line up in an orderly fashion to wait, and yes, the trains do run on time!

As I drove home I got an incredible cabby who had all of the music from Peter Paul and Mary, Harry Belafonte and so on. He knew the history, background and everything else, it seemed, about each group. I took his number and promised him that the next time I am in Singapore I will let him drive me to Malaysia so I can spend the evening ( 45 minutes really) listening to the music. ( I suppose I could buy a CD). It might be cheaper.